Chapter IX: Part I: Lutetia

_Borg._ Whence comest thou, most delightful Scintilla?

_Scin._ From Lutetia.

_Borg._ What Lutetia is that?

_Scin._ Do you ask which Lutetia, as if there were many!

_Borg._ If there is only one, I don’t know what it is, or
where it is situated.

_Scin._ It is the Parisian Lutetia (_Lutetia Parisiorum_).

_Borg._ I have often heard the Parisians spoken of, but
never Lutetia. It is, then, that Lutetia which we call
Paris? This is the reason then why, for so long, no one
has seen thee at Valencia, and especially hast thou been
missed at the tennis court (_sphaeristerium_) of the
nobles.

_Scin._ I have seen at Lutetia other tennis courts,
other gymnasia, other games, far more useful and more
attractive than yours at Valencia.

_Borg._ What are those, pray?

_Scin._ There are thirty gymnasia, more or less, in that
university (_academia_), which provides for every kind of
erudition, knowledge, and wisdom; learned teachers, and
most studious youths, who are thoroughly well-bred.

_Borg._ Forsooth, a crowd of people!

_Scin._ What do you call a crowd?

_Borg._ The dregs of the people, sons of shoemakers,
weavers, barbers, fullers, and every kind of operative
artificers.

_Scin._ I see that you people here measure the whole
world by your city, and think that all Europe has the
same customs which you have here. I can tell you, that
the youth there very largely consists of princes, leaders
of men, nobles, and the wealthiest persons, not only from
France, but also from Germany, Italy, Great Britain,
Spain, Belgium, marvellously devoted to the study of
letters, obeying the precepts and instructions of their
teachers. Their conduct is not formed through simple
admonition merely, but by sharp reproof and, when it is
necessary, even by punishment, by blows and lashes. All
which they receive and bear with modest mind and the most
collected countenance.

_Valencia_

_Caban._ I have often heard stories told of the
university, when I was acting as ambassador (_legatus_)
of King Ferdinand. But please now leave this topic, or
defer it for another time. You see that we have now
entered the Miracle Playground (_in ludo Miraculi_),
which lies next to the Carrossi Square. Come, now, let
our conversation turn to the pleasurable topic of the
playing-ball (_pila_).

_Scin._ I should like it as long as we don’t sit down,
but go on talking, as we walk about. Then it would be
very agreeable. Where shall we go? Shall we take this
way, which leads to St. Stephen’s Church, or that way to
the Royal Gate, where we then can visit the palace of
Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria?

_Caban._ Don’t let us by any chance interrupt the studies
in wisdom of that best of princes.

_Walk through the City of Valencia_

_Borg._ It would be better if we were to get mules so
that we might ride and talk.

_Caban._ Don’t let us, I beg, lose the use of the feet
and the legs; the weather is clear and bright, and the
air cool; it will be more satisfactory to go on foot than
on horseback.

_Borg._ Then let us go this way by St. John’s Hospital to
the Marine Quarter.

_Caban._ Let us observe, by the way, the beautiful
objects we pass by.

_Borg._ What, on foot! This will be a disgrace.

_Scin._ In my opinion, it is a greater disgrace if men
hang upon the judgments of inexperienced and stupid girls.

_Caban._ Would you like to go straight along Fig Street
and St. Thecla Street?

_Scin._ No, but through the quarter of the Cock Tavern
(_tabernae gallinaceae_). For in that quarter I should
like to see the house in which my Vives was born. It is
situated, as I have heard, to the left as we descend,
quite at the end of the quarter. I will take the
opportunity to call upon his sister.

_Borg._ Let us put aside calling on women, but if you
wish to speak with a woman, let us go rather to Angela
Zabata, with whom we could have a chat on questions of
learning.

_Caban._ If you wish to do so, would that we met the
Marchioness Zeneti!

_Scin._ If those reports, which I heard of her when I
was in France, were true, then we might have a greater
subject of discussion than could easily be treated
especially by those busied about anything else.

_Borg._ Let us go up to St. Martin’s or down through the
Vallesian Quarter to the Villa Rasa Street.

_Caban._ From that place to the tennis court
(_sphaeristerium_) of Barzius, or, if you prefer, to that
of the Masconi.

_Games—Ball_

_Borg._ Have you also in France, public grounds for games
like ours?

_Scin._ As to other French cities, I cannot answer you.
I know that there is none in Paris, but there are many
private grounds, for example, in the suburbs of St.
James, St. Marcellus, and St. Germanus.

_Caban._ And in the city itself the most famous, which is
called Braccha.

_Borg._ Is the game played in the same way as here?

_Scin._ Exactly so, except that the teacher there
furnishes playing shoes and caps.

_Borg._ What sort are they?

_Scin._ The shoes are made of felt.

_Borg._ But they would not be of any use here.

_Caban._ That is, on a stony road. In France indeed, and
in Belgium, they play on a pavement, covered over with
tiles, level and smooth.

_Scin._ The caps worn are lighter in summer, but in
winter, thick and deep, with a band under the chin, so
that as the player moves about, the cap shall not fall
off the head or fall down over the eyes.

_Borg._ We don’t here use a band, except when there is a
pretty strong wind. But what kind of balls do they use?

_Scin._ Not such light wind-balls as here, but smaller
balls than yours, and much harder, made of white leather.
The stuffing of the balls is not, as it is in yours, wool
torn from rags, but chiefly dogs’ hair. For this reason
the game is rarely played with the palm of the hand.

_Borg._ In what way, then, do they strike the ball? with
the fist, as we do the leather ball?

_Scin._ No, but with a net.

_Borg._ Woven from thread?

_Scin._ From somewhat thicker strings, such as are found
for the most part on the six-stringed lyre. They have a
stretched rope, and, as to the rest, the game is played
as in the houses here. To send the ball under the rope is
a fault, or loss of a point. There are two signs or, if
you prefer, limits. The counting goes fifteen, thirty,
forty-five or (advantage), equality of numbers and
victory, which is twofold, as when it is said: “We have
won a game” or “We have won a set.” The ball, indeed,
is either sent back whilst in its flight or thrown back
after the first bound. For on the second bound, the
stroke is invalid, and a mark is made where the ball was
struck.

_Borg._ Are there no other games there except tennis?

_Scin._ In the city as many or more than here, but
amongst scholars, no other is permitted by the masters.
But sometimes, secretly, they play at cards and dice, the
little boys with the knuckle-bones (_tali_), the worse
sort of boys with dice (_taxilli_). We have a teacher
Anneus who used to allow card-playing at festival times
(_obscoeno die_). For that and for games in general, he
composed six laws written on a tablet which he hung in
his bed-chamber.

_Borg._ If it is not burdensome, may I ask you to tell
them to us, in the same way as you have told us of other
matters.

_Scin._ But let us continue our walk, for I am possessed
by an inconceivably keen desire to behold my country
which I have not seen for so long a period.

_Borg._ Let us mount mules, so that we may move along
pleasantly, as well as with more dignity.

_Scin._ I would not give a snap of the fingers for this
dignity!

_Borg._ And I, if I may confess the truth, would not move
my hand for it. Nor do I know why riding on mules seems
to be more becoming for us.

_Caban._ This is rightly said; we are three, and in the
narrow streets or concourse of men we should get parted
from one another, whence our talk would necessarily be
interrupted, or many remarks made by some one of us would
not be thoroughly heard or understood by the others.

_Borg._ So let it be; let us proceed on foot. Enter
through this narrow lane on to the Pegnarogii Street.

_The Market_

_Scin._ Nothing could be better. Thence by the keysmith’s
into the Sweetmeats Quarter (_vicum dulciarium_), then
into the fruit market.

_Borg._ Nay, rather the vegetable market.

_Scin._ The market is both. Those who prefer to eat
vegetables call it the vegetable market; those who prefer
fruit call it the fruit market. What a spaciousness
there is of the market, what a multitude of sellers and
of things exposed for sale! What a smell of fruit, what
variety, cleanliness, and brightness! Gardens could
hardly be thought to contain fruit equal to the supply
of what is in this market. What skill and diligence
our inspector (_aedilis_) of public property and his
ministers show so that no buyer shall be taken in by
fraud. Is not he who is riding about so much, Honoratus
Joannius?

_Caban._ I think not, for one of my boys, who met him
just now, left him retiring to his library. If he knew
that we were here together then he would undoubtedly join
us in our conversation and would postpone his serious
studies to our play.

_Borg._ Now at last describe the laws of play!

_Scin._ We will withdraw from this crowd by the Street of
the Holy Virgin the Redeemer, to the Smoky street and to
St. Augustine’s, where there are fewer people.

_Caban._ Let us not go down so far away from the main
body of the city. Let us rather ascend through the
street of Money-Purses to the Hill, then to the Soldiers’
Quarter and the house of your family, Scintilla, whose
walls yet seem to me to mourn over that hero, Count
Olivanus!

_Borg._ Nay, they have now laid aside their grief, and
now rejoice in all seriousness that such a youth has
stepped into the place of so great an old man.

_Scin._ Oh, how delightful it is to look into the Senate
House (_curia_) and the fourfold court of the governor
of the city (_praefectus urbis_), which by now seems
almost to have become the heritage of your family,
Cabanillius—one part of the building for a civil, another
for a criminal, court, and this part for the three
hundred solidi. What buildings! what a glory of the city!