Part 22 (1/2)

With which he complied; but when the priest asked him to tell what sins he had committed, the cavalier answered, ”There is no need of it, Padre; you have heard them all from my wife many a time and oft, and with them a hundred times as many which I never dreamed of committing-including those of all Florence.”

It was in the first Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which stood on the site of the present, that San Zen.o.bio in the fourth century had walled into the high altar an inestimable gift which he had received from the Pope. This was ”the two bodies of the glorious martyrs Abdon and Sennen, who had been thrown unto wild beasts, which would not touch them, whereupon they were put to death by swords in the hands of viler human beasts.” I may remark by the way, adds the observant Flaxius, that relics have of late somewhat lost their value in Florence. I saw not long ago for sale a very large silver casket, stuffed full of the remains of the holiest saints, and the certificates of their authenticity, and I was offered the whole for the value of the silver in the casket-the relics being generously thrown in! And truly the ma.s.s of old bones, clay, splinters, nails, rags with blood, bits of wood, dried-up eyes, _et cetera_, was precisely like the Voodoo-box or conjuring bag of an old darkey in the United States. But then the latter was heathen! ”That is a _very_ different matter.”

BIANCONE, THE GIANT STATUE IN THE SIGNORIA

”_Fons Florentinus_.-In foro lympidas aquas fons effundit marmoreis figuris Neptuni et Faunorum ab Amanate confectis.”-_Templum Naturae Historic.u.m_. HENRICI KORNMANNI, A.D. 1614.

The most striking object in the most remarkable part of Florence is the colossal marble Neptune in the Fountain of the Signoria, by Ammanati, dating from 1575. He stands in a kind of car or box, drawn by horses which Murray declares ”are exceedingly spirited.” They are indeed more so than he imagined, for according to popular belief, when the spirit seizes them and their driver, and the bronze statues round them, they all go careering off like mad beings over the congenial Arno, and even on to the Mediterranean! That is to say, that they did so on a time, till they were all petrified with their driver in the instant when they were bounding like the billows, which are typified by white horses.

Neptune has, however, lost his name for the mult.i.tude, who simply call him the Biancone, or Great White Man; and this is the legend (given to me in writing by a witch), by which he is popularly known:

BIANCONE, THE G.o.d OF THE ARNO.

”Biancone was a great and potent man, held in great respect for his grandeur and manly presence, a being of tremendous strength, and the true type of a magician, {152} he being a wizard indeed. In those days there was much water in the Arno, {153} and Biancone pa.s.sed over it in his car.

”There was then in the Arno a witch, a beautiful girl, the _vera dea_ or true G.o.ddess of the river, in the form of an eel. And Biancone finding this fish every day as he drove forth in his chariot, spurned it away _con cattivo garbo_-with an ill grace. And one day when he had done this more contemptuously than usual, the eel in a rage declared she would be revenged, and sent to him a smaller eel. But Biancone crushed its head (_le stiaccio il chapo_).

”Then the eel appeared with a little branch of olive with berries, and said:

”'Entro in questa carozza, Dove si trove l'uomo, L'uomo il piu potente, Che da tutti e temuto; Ed e un uomo grande, E grande, e ben vero; Ma il gran dio del Arno, Il potente Biancone, Non sara il solo potente; Vi sara una piccola pesce, Una piccola anguilla; Benche piccola la sia; Fara vedere la sua potenza Tu Biancone, a mi, Le magie, e siei mezzo stregone Io una piccola anguillina, Sono una vera fata, E sono la Fata dell Arno, Tu credevi d'essere Il solo dio d'Arno, Ma ci, no, io che sono La regina, e la vera, Vera dea qui del Arno.'

”'Lo, I enter in this chariot!

Where I find the man of power, Who is feared by all before him, And he is a mighty being, Great he is, there's no denying; But the great G.o.d of the Arno, The so powerful Biancone, Is not all alone in power; There's a little fish or eel, who, Though but little, has the power, Mighty man, to make thee tremble!

Biancone, thou art only Unto me as half a wizard; I, a little eel of the Arno, Am the fairy of the river; Thou didst deem thyself its ruler; I deny it-for I only Am the queen and the true G.o.ddess- The true G.o.ddess of the Arno.'

”Having said this, she touched with the twig of olive the little eel whom Biancone had killed, and repeated while touching it:

”'Anguillina che dal Grande Siei stata stiacciata, Io con questo ramoscello Ti faccio in vita tornare, E al Grande, io, del Arno Tutto il mio pensiero, Tutto posso raccontare.'

”'I, little eel, who by the mighty Man hast been to death delivered, Do call thee back unto the living!

Wake thee with this twig of olive!

Now unto this Biancone, Thou who art too of the Arno, Shalt speak out thy mind and freely.'

”Then the little eel, resuscitated and influenced by the G.o.ddess of the Arno, said:

”'Biancone, tu che siei Il potente dio dell' Arno, L'anguilla discacciata, Che tu ai discacciata, E di te inamorata, E di te piu potente, E se tu la discaccerai, Ti giura la vendetta, E si vendichera. . . .'

”'Biancone, Biancone!

Thou great spirit of the Arno, Lo, the eel by thee despised Turns again with love unto thee: She surpa.s.ses thee in power; If she is by thee rejected, She will vow revenge upon thee, And will be avenged truly.'

”Biancone replied:

”'Io non voglio amar donne, Sia pure d'una bellezza Da fare a cecare, Ma per me non mi fa niente, Non voglio amare donne, Sara per bellezza una Gran persona, ma non vero, Per potenza, per che piu, Piu potente di me non Vi e alcun . . . '

”'I seek not the love of women.

Thou art of a dazzling beauty; Unto that I am indifferent; I seek not the love of ladies.