10

NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.

remarkable remains of Cyclopean and Pelasgic architec-
ture in the Neapolitan territory, while existing ruins show
the magnificence of the ancient temples erected here,
while mural painting and mosaic and bronze work reached
a rare perfection under Byzantine influence, while during
the centuries immediately preceding and following the
beginning of the Christian era many famous authors were
born in the cities of this peninsula, yet, since those days,
but a slight impression has been made on the art and
literature of the world by native Southern Italians, while
in more northern Italy art has reached the most glorious
heights it has attained since the time of Pericles, and lit-
erature has been enriched and ennobled by famous scholars
and immortal poets.
Having thus traced the merest outline of the origin of
the Neapolitans and of the first steps in the evolution
of their nation and language, we turn to the more prosaic
time when their history is no longer veiled by myths and
traditions, — a time when sirens, sibyls, and fairy folk of
all degrees found this paradise of land and sky and sea
no longer to their taste, and fled, we know not whither,
leaving the country of Parthenope to a far less fascinating
and more tangible people.