"Here sit the daughters of Zion on these heaps and sew all that is capable of being sewn. Great is their boasted skill in all work of mending, darning, and fine-drawing, and it is said that even the most formidable rent in any old drapery or garment whatsoever, becomes invisible under the hands of these Arachnes. It is chiefly in the Fiumara, the street lying lowest and nearest to the river, and in the street corners (one of which is called Argumille, _i.e._ of unleavened bread), that this business is carried on. I have often seen with a feeling of pain the pale, stooping, starving figures, laboriously plying the needle,--men as well as women, girls, and children. Misery stares forth from the tangled hair, and complains silently in the yellow-brown faces, and no beauty of feature recalls the countenance of Rachel, Leah, or Miriam,--only sometimes a glance from a deep-sunk, piercing black eye, that looks up from its needle and rags, and seems to say--'From the daughter of Zion, all her beauty is departed--she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity, because of affliction, and because of great servitude; she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest; all her persecutors overtook her between the straits. How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger!"--_Gregorovius, Wanderjahre._ The narrow street which is a continuation of the Pescheria, emerges upon the small square called _Piazza della Giudecca_. In the houses on the left may be seen some columns and part of an architrave, being the only visible remains of the _Theatre of Balbus_, erected by C. Cornelius Balbus, a general who triumphed in the time of Augustus, with the spoils taken from the Garamantes, a people of Africa. It was opened in the same year as the Theatre of Marcellus, and though very much smaller, was capable of containing as many as 11,600 spectators. To the right, still partly on the site of the ancient theatre, and extending along one side of the Piazza delle Scuole, is the vast _Palazzo Cenci_, the ancient residence of the famous Cenci family (now represented by Count Cenci-Bolognetti), and the scene of many of the terrible crimes and tragedies which stain its annals.