Sometimes, perhaps, it has a home-sickness for its ancient land,
when the populace of modem Rome crowd around it to see the
girandola fling up into the sky its burning sheaf of fire, for then the
odour of garlic and onion ascends, and it may remember the days
when the Egyptians offered these savoury vegetables as first-fruits
upon the altars of their gods. Sometimes, too, when the sharp,
explosive tones of the Romans, playing at morraf strike against its
red granite, it may have reminiscences of the glorious days of the
Osirtasins, when, two thousand years before the Christian era,
the same game was played beneath it by its builders. The " pro-
cessions of the shrines " must give it a pang, too, sometimes, if any
heart still beat within it.
But, whatever the obelisk used to see in Egypt, it now looks down
in summer evenings on the game of ^^gatta cieca*^* which the
modem Romans play in its august presence.
This game, as it is ordinarily played, consists in bandaging the
eyes of one of the players, who, after being turned round two or
three times, endeavours to go blindfold to an appointed goal, on
which a prize is placed, and touch it with a stick given him to aid
him in his progress and to enable him to avoid obstacles. The three
whirls generally so confuse the notions of the blindfolded person as
to his position, that he often makes the most amusing blunders as
he goes groping along in a false direction, and exhibiting at times a
self-confidence when he is wrong, and a timidity of purpose when
he is right, that is exceedingly absurd.
The Italians, who in many respects are children in a good sense,
♦ Blind cat.
