Beggars swarm about Pompeii, and greatly annoy



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NOTES OP EUROPEAN TRAVEL. X91

visiters. While we were at our lunch they crowded
around us, and begged us for every morsel we put in
our mouths. We distributed bread and other provisions *
among them. Among other things, we had a large dish
of maccaroni. This we gave to some little girls and
an old woman. They greedily raked it into their aprons,
and grabbing up whole handfuls, they crammed it into
their mouths, with the avidity of hungry dogs. One
who has witnessed the manufacture of maccaroni, and
seen a beggar eat it from her dirty apron, by the hand-
ful, will not be likely to relish the dish again for a
season.
Mount Vesuvius is restless, and an eruption is ex-
pected soon. The great spiral and convolving columns
of heated smoke arise from its summit in ever-ascend-
ing masses, and catching the sunlight, present a sublime
and imposing spectacle to the eye. Vesuvius is always
an object of never-tiring interest. Its form is peculiar.
It rises from a beautiful and fertile plain, its base is
skirted with vineyards and citron groves, and it stands
alone in its majesty and grandeur, one of the most sub-
lime and imposing spectacles on the globe.
