JOTTINGS FROM TRAVELLERS’ JOURNAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1081, 23 October 1883, Page 4

JOTTINGS FROM TRAVELLERS’ JOURNAL.

(gMOIALLY WRITTEN FOR " THE ASHBURTON GUARDIAN. ”] CHAPTER XIX.-(Concluded.) Tab Faenksb Bull A Magnifoent Mosaic—Multifarious Objects of Beauty and Interest—Papyric BeCarbonised Articles of Diet A Grotesque Picture. The large corridor, m ith corresponding rooms, contains a fine collection of marble sculptures. The celebrated Farnese Bull stands conspicuous. It is a group of apSalling characters. . I borrow the descripibn from Professor Kekuli : “ An occur’•’rehco full of horror is presented to our view. Two.powerful youths are engaged in binding on the back of a furious bull ‘the helpless form of a , woman. The *imghty beast is plunging violently, and in ‘Mnbthdr moment will be away, hurrying the burden he is made to bear to the ter-

rible doom of a martyr. ’’ . . . What impels the youths to the deed 1 The answer is to be found outside the work Itself. Antiepe, expelled by her father, his given birth to Amphion and Zetbus and abandoned them. The sons grow up -'Cinder ' the care of an old shepherd. 'Antiope has ye* other sufferings to endure at the hands of her relation Dirce, who maltreated her. Dirce wandering on Mount Cytharon in bacchanalian revel would slay the victim of her persecutions. She bids two young shepherds bind Antiope to a bull that she may be dragged to her dea*h. The youths recognise their mother before it is too late ; they consign Dirce to the doom prepared for Antiope.” Amongst the mosaics, I must not pass over Alexander’s battle of Issus. It is a magnificent piece of work, composed of smallpieces of marble of different colors. There are twenty-six combatants in the group and sixteen horses. Alexander, on without his helmet, which hasfallen from his head, is transfixing with his lance the Persian general. Darius ia his chariot is frantically endeavoring to rally his men and urge them in the conflict, while a courtier,’ holding a horse in

readiness, is persuadingthe king to escape This admirable 'mosaic was found in the house of the Fawn at Pompeii. time and space alike would fail me if I attempted, to describe the multifarious

tjeetß of interest and beauty to be seen the museum at Naples. There is the rridor of Portrait Statues and Busts ; the iCbrriddr ‘of the 1 Roman Emperors ; the collection of bronzes, and of Renais-

sance works ; the collection of ancient terra cottas ; the Library of Papyri; the picture gallery, comprising many rooms ; Ihencollection of gold and silver ornaments

and gems ; the collection of coins ; the Miisere Saniangelo; the collection of vases-, the Racolta Pornogtafica, which females are not permitted to enter. It contains paintings, frescoes, and other relics found at Pompeii, sadly illustrative of the morals of the people of those times. .. Referring to the- Papyri, I may mention that I.saw several men at the delicate and difficult work of unrolling and decyphering this precious record. Three thousand rolls were originally discovered in a villa near Herculaneum, but not more than ‘ hundred would be preserved. ' They were encrusted with carbonaceous matter, and the unrolling of them long remained an unsolved difficulty. But the ingenious Padre Piazzi at last accomplished the desired end by means of a machine he invented Some six hundred of these papyrio have now bijen, unrolled and decyphered. Their cohtbnta are mostly treatises on nature, rhetoric and music, and besides these are documentsTelating to monetary transactions, receipts for advances made by, a/Pompeian banker, St Csecilius Incundua by name. . , . I muft riot omit the interesting collection of carbonised' article's of food and objects of common domestic use. There are aotuallyaaveral loaves of bread, found at Pompeii, in a charcoal state, but which still bear in legible characters the baker’s name. -Arid notwithstanding their vast age'arid'theoffects of the lava, different kinds of fruits and grain—-figs, almonds, pears, etc., together with beabs, barley,* lentils, rice, and eggs—may fafl-oasUydistiuguished. -Thero wera caricaturists in those days as well as ours. Amongst the pictures is -one grotesquely • representing a little chariot, drawn by a parrot, and driven by a grasshopper.; Archeologists say that this ffas a contemporary lampoon on the performances of the Emperor Nero, who made his debut as a singer and charioteer in the amphitheatre at Naples. / : * ' - Yiatok.