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Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino by Samuel Butler
page 22 of 249 (08%)
One English word has become universally adopted by the Ticinesi
themselves. They say "waitee" just as we should say "wait," to
stop some one from going away. It is abhorrent to them to end a
word with a consonant, so they have added "ee," but there can be no
doubt about the origin of the word. {5}

When we bear in mind the tendency of any language, if it once
attains a certain predominance, to supplant all others, and when we
look at the map of the world and see the extent now in the hands of
the two English-speaking nations, I think it may be prophesied that
the language in which this book is written will one day be almost
as familiar to the greater number of Ticinesi as their own.

I may mention one other expression which, though not derived from
English, has a curious analogy to an English usage. When the
beautiful children with names like Handel's operas come round one
while one is sketching, some one of them will assuredly before long
be heard to whisper the words "Tira giu," or as children say when
they come round one in England, "He is drawing it down." The
fundamental idea is, of course, that the draughtsman drags the
object which he is drawing away from its position, and "transfers"
it, as we say by the same metaphor, to his paper, as St. Cecilia
"drew an angel down" in "Alexander's Feast."

A good walk from Dalpe is to the Alpe di Campolungo and Fusio, but
it is better taken from Fusio. A very favourite path with me is
the one leading conjointly from Cornone and Dalpe to Prato. The
view up the valley of the St. Gothard looking down on Prato is
fine; I give a sketch of it taken five years ago before the railway
had been begun.
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