Sometimes, in passing through the streets, one may see a crowd collected about a man mounted upon a chair or stool. Fixed to a stand at his side or on the back of his chair is a glass bottle, in which are two or three hollow manikins of glass, so arranged as to rise and sink by pressure of the confined air. The neck of the bottle is cased in a tin box which surmounts it and has a movable cover. This personage is a charlatan, with an apparatus for divining lucky numbers for the lottery. The "soft bastard Latin" runs off his tongue in an uninterrupted stream of talk, while he offers on a waiter to the bystanders a number of little folded papers containing a _pianeta_, or augury, on which are printed a fortune and a _terno_. "Who will buy a _pianeta_," he cries, "with the numbers sure to bring him a prize? He shall have his fortune told him who buys. Who does not need counsel must surely be wise. Here's Master Tommetto, who never tells lies. And here is his brother, still smaller in size. And Madama Medea Plutonia to advise. They'll write you a fortune and bring you a prize for a single _baiocco_. No creature so wise as not to need counsel. A fool I despise, who keeps his _baiocco_ and loses his prize. Who knows what a fortune he'll get till he tries? Time's going, Signori,--who buys? who buys?" And so on by the yard. Meantime the crowd about him gape, stare, wonder, and finally put their hands to their pockets, out with their _baiocchi_, and buy their papers. Each then makes a mark on his paper to verify it, and returns it to the charlatan. After several are thus collected, he opens the cover of the tin box, deposits them therein with a certain ceremony, and commences an exhortatory discourse to the manikins in the bottle,--two of whom, Maestro Tommetto and his brother, are made to resemble little black imps, while Madama Medea Plutonia is dressed _alla Francese_. "_Fa una reverenza, Maestro Tommetto!_" "Make a bow, Master Tommetto!" he now begins. The puppet bows. "_Ancora!_" "Again!" Again he bows. "_Lesto, Signore, un piccolo giretto!_" "Quick, Sir, a little turn!" And round whirls the puppet. "Now, up, up, to make a registry on the ticket! and do it conscientiously, Master Tommetto!" And up the imp goes, and disappears through the neck of the bottle. Then comes a burst of admiration at his cleverness from the charlatan. Then, turning to the brother imp, he goes through the same _role_ with him. "And now, Madama Medea, make a reverence, and follow your husband! Quick, quick, a little _giretto_!" And up she goes. A moment after, down they all come again at his call; he lifts the cover of the box; cries, "_Quanto sei caro, Tommetto!_" and triumphantly exhibits the papers, each with a little freshly written inscription, and distributes them to the purchasers. Now and then he takes from his pocket a little bottle containing a mixture of the color of wine, and a paper filled with some sort of powder, and, exclaiming, "_Ah! tu hai fame e sete.