“The Casentines were no favorites with Dante, who confounds the men with their hogs. Yet, following the

divine poet

down the Arno, we came to a race still more forbidding. The Aretine peasants seem to inherit the coarse, surly visages of their ancestors, whom he styles

Bottoli

. Meeting one girl, who appeared more cheerful than her neighbors, we asked her how far it was from Arezzo, and received for answer, ‘