■ C 533 I
mer, it becomes dry again. Near the middle o f the ifland there-
is a. permanent lake called Panigbe,
Dobrigne is a village at fome diflance from' the fea near the centre
of the ifland, and famous . in that country for the beauty and
compliance of the women. Thé Cbunts Frangipani had- a villa-
there, which now a days an ordinary tradefman Would hardly
deign to inhahit. There is a prodigious- number of priefts at;
Dobrigne, as is generally theçafe over all the ifland ; and hence,
they are ragged, lmfer.ible, and reduced to 'exercife the lowed'
trades, fuchcas fhoemakers, coopers,, ik’c. But their indecent and:
immoral way of life is much worfe than their poverty, and
there is no appearance o f amendment, while the power of the.
biihop is fo reftrafned in. cor’fedtlng vice, or eftabliihing difcipline.;
and gpod order.;
The drefs of thé peafants over all; the iiland is of" a coarfë kind"
o f cloth of a black colour, and- confifts- cheifly in a-caffôckV and a
pair of long and wide breeches,, which reach down to the middlé-
of tbe leg j a number o f people affembled together in this mourning
kind o f hahit, forms a melancholy- fpcci.ic!e. Verbenico is alio -a-
village, though commonly oalled a Town-; and lies-at eight-miles
diflance from the City’ o f Veglia, on the other fide,of the iiland,’towards
the channel o f the mountain Morlacca, with a fmall, and
bad harbour, oppofite to that o f Novi on-the Auftrian ihore. Ver-
bcnico ftarids'On a rock, above a fmall and not unfertile plain, watered
by feverâl brook's. '"T h e name of the place is derived from
the willows that grow in plenty on the fides of thé brooks,'and
are called in Illyric Verb- There are a great many cattle'on this
part o f the iiland, and particularly horfes’o f that fmall, ftrong and
/prightly breed well known in Italy, and much ufed by Ladies
and
[ 539 |
and young gentleihen for riding horfes. This part o f the country,
notwithftanding the quantity o f water, is healthy enough ;
being well ventilated by the Borea. ■
- I found a prieft at Verbenico, who underflands, much better than
his brethen in thofe parts, the ancient Sclavonic facred or Glagolitic
language ; he ihewed me a manuicript wrote in that cha-
rafler, but it had little merit. Now a days the Glagolitic books
muft lie as a Ample objeit -of curiofity in the libraries, there being
hardly any body who can read them diftiniHy, even in the |L
places where the fervice is performed in that language ; and i f
there happens to be one who can read the charaiter, there is
abfolutely none who underftand the meaning.
The priefts of Verbenico who- have the charge o f collefting the
tithes, and o f guarding the church, are obliged to fleep under a
lodge open on all fides, and contiguous to the fteeple, from St.
George’s day to Michaelmas; that they may be ready at any hour
to drive away the florms o f h a il, by ringing the bells ; and i f the
ftorm continues, it is their duty to go out into the open air bare
headed, to conjure it. Perhaps nowhere are the bells more frequently
rung than here ; and no fteeple is more frequently {truck
with lightening.
Befca is a large place fituated on the eaftern fhore o f the ifland,
at the lower end o f a fine fertile valley, watered by a perennial
ftream, and flanked, on the right and left, by very high and fleep
marble mountains. The valley o f Befca is feven miles long; it
rifes, by little and little, towards the mountains, on the weft,
and forms a beautiful profpeit, when beheld either from the
Z z z 2 heights,