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But some weeks ago, among the pile of the Countess's letters to Sienese friends preserved by Cavaliere Guiseppe Porri at Siena, I had the good fortune to discover what are virtually five love-letters of hers, obviously intended for Alfieri although addressed to his friend Francesco Gori.
A slave boy assigned to that duty read aloud the names of the souvenirs: "Silver s ham," a ham was brought in with some silver vinegar cruets on top of it; "cervical" something soft for the neck a piece of the cervix neck of a sheep was brought in; "serisapia" after wit "and contumelia" insult we were given must wafers and an apple-melon and a phallus contus ; "porri" leeks "and persica," he picked up a whip and a knife; "passeres" sparrows" and a fly trap," the answer was raisins uva passa and Attic honey; "cenatoria" a dinner toga "and forensia" business dress he handed out a piece of meat suggestive of dinner and a note-book suggestive of business ; "canale" chased by a dog "and pedale" pertaining to the foot , a hare and a slipper were brought out; "lamphrey" murena "and a letter," he held up a mouse mus and a frog rana tied together, and a bundle of beet beta the Greek letter beta . We laughed long and loud, there were a thousand of these jokes, more or less, which have now escaped my memory.
Other floral denizens of the plain are the great rank porri, or wild leeks, conspicuous with their bright green curling leaves issuing from globe-like roots above the ground, and of course, the asphodel, the plant of Death. For the asphodel is pre-eminently the flower of Southern Italy and of Sicily, since it presents a fit emblem of a departed grandeur that is still impressive in its decay.
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