“FOSSERO PIGNOLI.”

05

the empty recipients. Ladders sufficiently long for thepurpose would not be manageable, but barefooted peasants,who use their toes almost as well as their fingers, are pro-vided with two ash poles like a pike shaft, twelve to eighteenfeet long. At the end of each pole is a sharp iron hook.To begin, one of the hooks is fixed in the highest hole in thebark that can be reached, the climber then hauls himselfup, with his feet on the tree, to about half the length of thepole. He then contrives to get up the other pole, andfixes its hook into another little hollow, twelve or fourteenfeet above the first. This second pole has then become hismain support; the other is in turn, applied still higher,until the region of branches is gained. One pole is thenleft hanging in its last position, while the other serves toknock down the cones. The descent is then effected in asimilar manner, and truly dextrous and dangerous is theachievement of both operations ; the descent being far theworst of the two. The cones are then placed over a fire,which softens and causes the cells to open. A heavywooden mallet, completes the separation. The empty conesform a brilliant article of fuel; but when the turpentine isto be extracted, it is done in the usual way of setting fire toa mass of them at the top; as they are attacked by the fire,the rosin descends towards the bottom.

The culinary application of Pignoli is to many sweatmeats,and to many sorts of stews, especially to those called agrodolce, of wild boar, deer, or hare. The dish (coppiette) so cele-brated in the verses of Pulci, being balls of meat, and some-thing analogous to our “minced meat,” well browned, containpignoli . But enough on such a subject, which I fear myreaders will regard as far beneath their notice. I don’tquite know whether I ought to venture on the repetition of alittle story concerning pignoli, which on that very occasion,Vol. i.

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