29 JULY 1911, Page 17

[TO THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTkTOR."1

SIR,—The letter of your correspondent, Mr. A. D. Godley, on the use of No. twenty-two to indicate a large number sug- gests to me the parallel use of No. four (quattro) in the Sicilian dialect (and, I think, also in the Italian language) to express a small number.

In the dialect this use of " quattro " frequently has a some- what depreciatory meaning as well.

I have often heard it used in this way by Sicilian peasants.