In the garden of his villa he at times amused himself with digging,
and a very few turns of the spade sufficed to throw out some relic
of antiquity. Certain Americans, he said, obtained permission not
long ago from the proprietor of the ground on which the temple stood
to make serious excavations, but as soon as the Italians heard of
it, they claimed the site as a national monument; the work was
forbidden, and the soil had to be returned to its former state. Hard
by the ancient sanctuary is a chapel, consecrated to the Madonna del
Capo; thither the people of Cotrone make pilgrimages, and hold upon
the Cape a rude festival, which often ends in orgiastic riot.
All the surface of the promontory is bare; not a tree, not a bush,
save for a little wooded hollow called Fossa del Lupo--the wolf's
den. There, says legend, armed folk of Cotrone used to lie in wait
to attack the corsairs who occasionally landed for water.
When I led him to talk of Cotrone and its people, the Doctor could
but confirm my observations. He contrasted the present with the
past; this fever-stricken and waterless village with the great city
which was called the healthiest in the world.
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