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Show Little Village Remains Intact Throughout Terrible Struggle. Washington, D. C, Sept. 30 When Europe, at peace once more, invites the American traveler to its shores, one of the few spots whose ruins will not suggest the sanguinary struggle which has brought sorrow and desolation desola-tion to practically all that war-ridden continent is little-known Sardinia, the subject of a communication from Helen Dunstan Wright to the National Geographic society. A part of the writer's descriptive article has been issued by the society as a geography bulletin, which says: "Those who have taken the Mediterranean Medi-terranean route have at least had a glimpse of Sardinia from their steamier steam-ier a day out of Naples. The island is in sight for some hours, and, if the steamer passes sufficiently close, a bold, rocky coast can be seen on which Roman outlook towers remain similar to those scattered along the south shores of Spain. The tourist seldom includes a trip to Sardinia in his travels, trav-els, as neither of his advisers, Thomas Cook nor Baedeker, recommends it to ' him. It, however, is one of the few foreign fields that has not been overrun over-run and overfed by the tourist, and in momr nf tVin vtllflfrPR n trnvflr Is still I regarded as a guest and not as a prey to bo pounced upon. "Some day, when tourists are tired of taking the tours laid out for them by the guide-books, perhaps they will break away from the continent and set sail for Sardinia, especially if they are not traveling just to enjoy hotel comforts. One can rent a good automobile auto-mobile at Cagliari, and a week spent touring around the island would probably prob-ably leave the pleasantest of recollections recollec-tions and an experience long to be remembered. re-membered. "Sardinia can be reached by an eight hours' night voyage from Civitavecchia, Civi-tavecchia, the port of Rome, to the north end of the island. The crossing is quite comfortable. The beauty of the sunrise over the sheer cliffs and the craggy isolated rocks of Golfo degli Aranci compensates for getting up at five in the morning. "As soon as one lands, a refreshing fragrance in the air is noticed a perfume per-fume characteristic of Sardinia not duo, certainly, to orange trees, as suggested by the name of the port, there being none in this district, but to the many wild herbs and shrubs all over the island. "Except for the eucalyptus and pine planted near the stations, there is a noticeable lack of trees along the railway rail-way routes. Among the mountains, however, which occupy the eastern half of the island and occur to some extent along the western coast, there are important forests of oak, ilex, cork and wild olive. In the mountainous mountain-ous areas of the island are many fertile fer-tile alleys. "The town of Macomer is the center cen-ter of a region where many fine horses hor-ses are bread for the Italian army, as are also the small ponies used iu Naples. Cagliari, at the southern end of the island, is the principal seaport of Sardinia, and is often visited for a few hours by tourists taking the weekly week-ly steamer from Geneva and Livorno to Tunis. The bay of Cagliari is most impressive. On the right and left as you enter are hills, with mountains in the distance, while rising up from the lowlands directly opposite the en-trnnce en-trnnce is the city, on a rocky hill 400 feet high. The top of this hill is encircled en-circled by a massive wall, built by the Plsans in the 13th century. At two of the angels rise the towers of the Hon and the elephant, but of the tower of the Eagle, which completed the . triQngleonljj. thp . base remains. ..... ,'.....: I In the center of these fortifications Is the old town. On the slopes of the liill outside the walls Is built the modern mod-ern city of 53,000 inhabitants, the largest in Sardinia. The entire population popu-lation of the Island is estimated at 79G.O00, a density of population of 85 per square mile; thai is a much lower figure than in any other part of Italy. "Among the objects historically interesting in-teresting In Cagliari are the rock-cut rock-cut tombs on the hillside below the Castello. These are probably of the same period as the nuraghi, the fa-( mous prc-hisloric truncated cones 30 feet in diameter at the base and built by the men of the Bronze age. "The 'nuraghi' were undoubtedly fortified habitations. They are usually usual-ly situated In commanding positions at the entrance to tablelands, near the fords of rivers, or on almost Inaccessible In-accessible mountain peaks and within signaling distance of one another. Traces of at least 5000 of these remains re-mains have been found. "The ancient tombs of the inhabitants inhabi-tants of the 'nuraghi' are usually found near them. These arc called the 'tombs of the giants' and are 8 1-2 feet wide and from 30 to 40 feet long, with a roof of flat slabs or rocks and with the sides made of the slabs or of rough walling. The bodies were probably prob-ably arranged in a sitting position. In front of the tombs are circles about in fnot 1 Jt.ml.n rnf rniinrlod Viv- fatones; these were, no doubt, used for sacrifices and burial rites. "To gel. an insight into the life of the inhabitants of this Isolated island, one should visit its villages. It is In the entire eastern half, with its mountainous moun-tainous valleys and villages, where the real Sards now live. Here one will find them good loking and in good health, generous, hospitable, honorable honor-able and quite poor. Politeness is carried car-ried almost to an extreme. Often as one rides through the small villages the women, children and the old men sitting at the doorsteps rise and wish you a 'buon viaggio'; or if it happens to be neon, some may wish you a 'buon appetlto.' Even the young boys are taught to take their hats off when strangers pass by; and if one is in an automobile and happens to stop to get out his kodak, a crowd of youngsters young-sters seems to spring up around the car, all anxious to be in the picture. To lefuse a cup of coffee or a liqueur when visiting the house of an inhabitant inhabi-tant of ;t village is an act of great discourtesy, dis-courtesy, and even the poorest have some beverage to offer. "Generally speaking, the peasants seem to be somewhat downtrodden r-nd do not realize their just rights. The lnuolc of the Sards is characteristic; character-istic; not all quick and vivacious like that of the Sicilians or other southern Italians but monotonous and slow, resembling re-sembling very much the music of northern Africa. The Sards' costumes are one of their greatest attractions. They are of rich, harmonious, though brilliant colors, each village having its own distinctive type." oo |