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1 The story that, when the obelisk was being raised the silence was broken by a sailor named Bresca, from San Remo, who shouted "acqua alle funi," appears in a new form in Rawlinson's Diary, vol. i. 7 Dec. 1720 (Bodleian MS. Rawl. D. 1180, p. 163), 'the great obelisk of which is told this story, that when it was raising, the ropes fell too short, and so great was the fear of failing that silence was commanded on pain of death, but an English sailor present bid them wet the ropes, which then lengthened and the work was finished, but instead of a reward, the sailor had only his life given him, forfeited by his transgression of the command.' (Ficoroni, Roma Moderna, 19; cf. Hilsen in Byz. Neugr. Jahrb. ii. 453-460; and Roma i. (1923), pp. 412-418, who points out that the story really belongs to the obelisk at Constantinople and is taken from the relief on its base.)