THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Y U S E F; OR THE JOURNEY OF THE FBANGI. J. ROSS BROWNE, LUT1IOR 01 ''ETCHINGS OF A WHALING-CRUISE," HEPOKT OF THE DEBATE I TUB CONVKNTION OF CALIFORNIA," AND "CRUSOE LIFE: A *AER, TIVE OF ADVENTURES IN JUAN FERNANDE7. " Eltustratfons. NEW YORK: l. * R P E R & BROTHERS, P U n L I S II E II S, SI9& 331 PEARL T R K E T. FBANKLIif RQUARB. 1872. BY J. ROSS BROWNE. AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN GERMANY. Illustrated by the Author. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. THE LAND OF THOR. Illustrated by the Author. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. CRUSOE'S ISLAND : A Ramble in the Footsteps of Alexander Selkirk. With Sketches of Adventure in California and Washoe. Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. YUSEF ; or, The Journey of the Frangi. A Crusade in the East. With Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. Eutered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, by HAKPEB & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. College Library 45 TO THE HON. ROBERT J. WALKER, AS A TOKEN OF ADMIRATION FOE HIS GENIUS AS A STATESM**. ESTEEM FOR HIS VIRTUES IN PRIVATE LIFE, AND GRAT- ITUDE FOR HIS MANY ACTS OF KINDNESS TO THE AUTHOR, THIS VOLUME Snsrrikii. PREFACE. AN essayist in the Reflector tells us that " Colum- bus can not be more famous than a man who describes the Temple of Jerusalem." Now, although I have a great desire to be as famous as Columbus, it is due to the reader to state at the outset that he will find very little about temples in this volume. The only ground upon which I can aspire to such a distinction is, in having avoided, as far as practicable, every thing that has given fame to those who have preceded me. If there be any important fact, therefore, in scriptural or classical history, that the reader is disappointed in not finding in these pages, I beg that he will adopt the suggestion of my friend and fellow-traveler, Dr. Men- doza, and " remain tranquil for the present." There is no telling what the 'future may bring forth, or to what extremes of research a man may be driven by the force of circumstances. Part of this narrative was originally written in the form of letters to the " National Intelligencer," chiefly for the amusement of my friends in Washington. The style was rather more familiar than the usual contri- butions to that journal, and certainly more so than I would have chosen to adopt, had I thought seriously at .v PREFACE. the time of publishing the letters in book form. That T considered it probable I might make use of the ma- terial at some future period, I frankly admit ; but in looking over my notes and the mass of sketches thus brought together, the task of re- writing, and making any thing of them in the way of a serious work on Palestine, seemed too formidable to be undertaken by one who has scarcely yet commenced his travels. Such as the sketches are, I have chosen to put them together in the form of a connected narrative ; and they arc now presented to the public, with such illus- trations from my own portfolio, drawn on wood by competent artists, as I thought would give them any additional value. , It will be seen that I have not felt it to be my duty to make a desponding pilgrimage through the Holy Land ; for upon a careful perusal of the Scriptures, I can find nothing said against a cheerful frame of mind. If there be any person, however, who may think that a traveler has no right to be lively in that part of the world, I beg that he will suspend his judgment till I visit Jerusalem again ; in which event he may depend upon it I shall use every exertion to be depressed in spirits, and produce something uncommonly heavy and substantial. In regard to the apparent egotism of writing so much about one's self, I can not do better than quote the words of Thomas de Quincey : " It is not offered as deriving any part of what interest it may have from myself as the person concerned in it. If the partic- ular experience selected is really interesting, in virtue af its own circumstances, then it matters not to whom it happened. Let him [the reader] read the sketch aa PREFACE. v belonging to one who wishes to be profoundly anony- mous." In this view, should there be any thing that strikes the reader as very good in the volume, he can not do better than to look at the title-page, and give credit accordingly ; but where it appears to him that there is any thing very bad in it, he will greatly oblige me by regarding it as the production of the gentleman who figures in the conversations with Yusef. Written without any other purpose than that of de- scribing faithfully what fell under my own observation, it may be that the design is not sufficiently apparent ; yet if, on the whole, from the general tenor, a more liberal feeling should be encouraged respecting the customs and prejudices of the uncivilized world, and a clearer sense of our own weaknesses, the book will not have been written in vain. There may be a moral also in the circumstances under which the journey was performed. Ten years ago, after having rambled all over the United States six hundred miles of the distance on foot, and sixteen hundred in a flat-boat I set out from Washington with fifteen dollars, to make a tour of the East. I got as far east as New York, where the last dollar and the prospect of reaching Jerusalem came to a conclusion at the same time. Sooner than return home, after having made so good a beginning, I shipped before the mast in a whaler, and did some service, during a voyage to the Indian Ocean, in the way of scrubbing decks and catching whales. A mutiny occurred at the island of Zanzibar, where I sold myself out of the vessel for thirty dollars and a chest of old clothes ; and spent three months very pleasantly at the consular residence, in the vicinity of vi PREFACE. his Highness the Imaum of Muscat. OD my return to Washington, I labored hard for four ye?,rs on Bank statistics and Treasury reports, by which time, in order to take the new administration by the fore-lock, I de- termined to start for the East again. The only chance I had of getting there was, to accept of an appointment as third lieutenant in the^ Revenue service, and go to California, and thence to Oregon, where I was to re- port for duty. On the voyage to Rio, ft difficulty occurred between the captain and the passengers of the vessel, and we were detained there nearly a month. I took part with the rebels, because I believed them to be right. The captain was deposed by the American consul, and the command of the vessel was offered to me ; but having taken an active part against the late captain, I could not with propriety accept the offer. A whaling captain, who had lost his vessel near Buenos Ayres, was placed in the command, and we proceeded on our voyage round Cape Horn. After a long and dreary passage we made the island of Juan Fernandez. In company with ten of the passengers, I left the ship seventy miles out at sea, and went ashore in a small boat, for the purpose of gathering up some tidings in regard to my old friend Robinson Crusoe. What befell us on that memorable expedition is fully set forth in a narrative recently published in "Harper's Magazine." Subsequently we spent some time in Lima, u the City of the Kings." It was my fortune to arrive penniless in California, and to find, by way of consola- tion, that a reduction had been made by Congress in the number of revenue vessels, and that my services in that branch of public business were no longer re- quired. While thinking seriously of taking in washing PREFACE. vii at six dollars a dozen, or devoting the remainder of my days to mule-driving as a profession, I was unexpect- edly elevated to the position of post-office agent ; and went about the country for the purpose of making post- masters. I only made one the post-master of Sari Jose. After that, the Convention called by Greneral Riley met at Monterey, and I was appointed to report the debates on the formation of the State Constitution. For this I received a sum that enabled me to return to Washington, and start for the East again. There was luck in the third attempt, for, as may be seen, I got there at last, having thus visited the four continents, and traveled by sea and land a distance of a hundred thousand miles, or more than four times round the world, on the scanty earnings of my own head and hands. If there be any moral in the book, therefore, it is this : that there is no great difficulty in traveling all over the world, when one sets about it with a deter- mination to do it, and keeps trying till he succeeds ; that there is no position in life disreputable or degrad- ing while self-respect remains ; and nothing impossible that has ever been done by man. Let him who thirsts for knowledge go out upon the broad face of the earth, and he will find that it is not out of books alone that he can get it ; let him make use of the eyes that G-od has given him, and he will see more in the world's unwritten revelations than the mind of man hath con. ceived. " Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win By fearing to attempt." J. R. B. "WASHINGTON, B.C., February, 1853. CONTENTS. A GIRA THROUGH SICILY. PAOX CHAPTER I. PALERMO 13 CHAPTER II. CATACOMBS OF PALERMO 20 CHAPTER III. JOURNEY TO CATANIA 28 CHAPTER IV. ASCENT OF MOUNT ETNA 35 CHAPTER V. THE CRATER 41 CHAPTER VI. A QUARREL WITH THE ANCIENTS 53 CHAPTER VII. ON THE ROAD TO SYRACUSE 58 CHAPTER VIII. SYRACUSE 66 CHAPTER IX. TAORMINA 73 A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. CHAPTER X. THE BREACH 80 CHAPTER XL ATHENS 85 CHAPTER XIL SYRA 101 CHAPTER XIIL SMYRNA 107 CHAPTER XIV. CONSTANTINOPLE., 114 CHAPTER XV. A VISIT TO THE BAZAARS 129 CHAPTER XVL TURKISH BEAUTIES 141 CHAPTER XVII. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 149 CHAPTER XVIU. BABEL REVIVED 164 CHAPTER XIX. THE ENGLISH TOURIST 1 C7 CHAPTER XX. THE SYRIAN DRAGOMAN 174 CHAPTER XXL MY HOESE SALADIN 182 CHAPTER XXII. THE ARAB STORY TELLER 192 CHAPTER XXIII. THE CEDARS OF LEBANON 197 A* x C3NTENTS. CHAPTER XXIV. BAALBEK 20fl CHAPTER XXV. YUSEF DANCES THE RAAS 218 CHAPTER XXVL A SOCIAL CHAT WITH YUSEF 227 CHAPTER XXVII. THE GREEK BISHOP 232 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE ARAB MULETEER 240 CHAPTER XXIX. FROM BAALBEK TO DAMASCUS 244 CHAPTER XXX. DAMASCUS 254 CHAPTER XXXI. BATHS OF DAMASCUS 265 CHAPTER XXXII. THE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES 272 CHAPTER XXXIII. THE BATTLE OF THE MULETEERS 276 CHAPTER XXXIV. GRAND SECRET OF HUMAN HAPPINESS.. 285 CHAPTER XXXV. THE MILL OF MALAHA 296 CHAPTER XXXVI. THE REBEL SHEIK 306 CHAPTER XXXVII. THE SYRIAN HORSES 310 CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE SEA OF GALILEE 319 CHAPTER XXXIX JOURNEY TO NAZARETH .'.' 326 CHAPTER XL. NAZARETH '. 330 CHAPTER XLL A GAZELLE HUNT 335 CHAPTER XLIL DJENIN 343 CHAPTER XLIII. ADVENTURE WITH THE SAMARITANS 348 CHAPTER XLIV. NABLOUS . . . . 352 CHAPTER XLV. A STRIKING SCENE 354 CHAPTER XLVI. JERUSALEM 359 CHAPTER XL VII. ARAB GUARD TO THE DEAD SEA ....... 366 CHAPTER XL VIII. THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN 371 CHAPTER XLIX. THRILLING ALARM IN JERICHO 378 CHAPTER L. CHRISTMAS NIGHT IN BETHLEHEM 387 CHAPTER LI. CROSSING THE RIVERS 391 CHAPTER LIL THE DESOLATE CITY 394 CHAPTER LIIL A SERIOUS CHARGE 398 CHAPTER LIV. AN EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIR 404 CHAPTER LV. RISE, DECLINE, AND FALL OF YUSEF BADRA 410 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. [FROM SKETCHES BY THE AUTHOR.] EASTERN RUINS. Frontispiece. PAa - THE MUMMJES 21 CATACOMBS OF PALERMO 24 SICILIAN MONK 33 CASA DEGL' INGLESA 44 DESCENT OF MOUNT ETNA 51 SICILIAN POSTILLION 62 SICILIAN GENDARMES 64 SICILIAN BEGGARS 68 COUNSEL FOR THE ACCUSED 75 AMPHITHEATRE OF TAORMINA . . 78 CONVENT NEAR ATHENS . 97 SMYRNA FROM THE ANCHORAGE 107 PILGRIMS ON SHIPBOARD 116 A BUSINESS TRANSACTION 127 THE HAMIL 131 SHOPKEEPERS 138 TURKISH BEAUTY 143 GENERAL VIEW OF CONSTANTINOPLE 152 THE DANCING DERVISHES 155 THE HOWLING DERVISHES 158 ENGLISH TRAVELER RECOGNIZING A VEKUS AND HERCULES... 168 TOWN OF RHODES 171 VIEW IN LARNICA 172 VUSEF 178 SALADIN 185 SALADIN IN ACTION 188 BEN-HOZAIN 192 CASTLE OF DJBEL 201 COLUMN IN THE DESERT 210 YUSEF DANCING THE RA AS fc . 223 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE THE ARAB MULETEER 240 A GENTLEMAN OF ELEGANT LEISURE 243 ANCIENT ARCH IN DAMASCUS 260 IBRAHIM 261 BATHS OP DAMASCUS 268 TAKING IT EAST - 285 THE MILL OF MALAHA 303 TOKINA 318 BATHS OF TIBERIAS 325 JERUSALEM 359 MOHAMMEDAN SEPULCHRE 363 PILGRIMS TO JERUSALEM " 367 THE ARAB GUARD 370 CROSSING A RIVER 391 GREEK BISHOP 39 VILLAGE OF EL MUKHALID 394 KAISARIYEH 397 RUINS NEAR TANTURA 403 THK END or YUSEF 421 Y U S E F. A GIRA THROUGH SICILY, CHAPTER I. PALERMO. IT was rather early in the season to start for the East September was not yet over. I had thoroughly explored Naples and the neighborhood ; and the only question was. how to dispose of the fine weather. Lounging about the quay one afternoon it occurred to me that a trip to Palermo would be just the thing. There were signs pasted up every where of an immense steamer, of wonderful horse-power, bound for that very port. I walked into the first Bureau (in Naples, every office is a Bureau) : the same large steamer was over the door under full way, with a heavy head of steam, for Palermo. The name of the steamer was printed on the paddle-box in big golden letters ; it was the Ercolano. When I told the gentleman, who was waxing the points of his mustache behind the counter, that I wanted a passage in the Ercolano, he shook his head despondingly, and applied some more wax to one of the points. This induced me to go out again and look at the sign. There certainly was no mis- take about the name, and I endeavored to make him under- stand that it was a ticket I wanted for a passage in the steamer represented upon that sign. He applied some addi- tional wax to the other point of his mustache, shook his head despondingly again, and, as well ,as I could understand him, said he was very sorry ; that he didn't know any thing about 14 A GIRA THROUGH SICILY such a steamer ; perhaps it was at number seventy-one, twa doors ahove. I went into number seventy-one, two doors above, and was told by a small but very imposing gentleman, with a brass band on his cap, that seventy-one was the bu- reau of the French steamer; it didn't go to Palermo ; it went to Marseilles, and he would be very happy to have me land- ed there ; perhaps the Bureau of the Neapolitan steamer was number seventy-six, which I would find somewhere on the same street, about eight or ten doors above or below. I walked up and down a long time, till I was fortunate enough to find number seventy-six. The gentleman in that Bureau was smoking a cigar, which he continued to smoke in silence for two minutes ; at the expiration of which time he calmly removed it, and said in reply to my question concerning the Ercolano, that there was such a steamer ; it was called the Ercolano ; it was a Neapolitan steamer ; it was bound for Palermo ; the proper place to apply for passage was at the Neapolitan Bureau. He was not exactly certain where the Neapolitan Bureau was, but thought it was number sixty- nine ;' that was his impression sixty-nine. I told him that I had already applied at sixty-nine ; to which he responded by a shrug of the shoulders, a pinch of snuff, and some strange contortions of the face, as if he had accidentally swallowed the snuff-box. It may have been that my manner of speak- ing the Italian was not clear, or that my understanding of the Neapolitan was less so ; at all events I could make no- thing of these signs, so I returned to Bureau sixty-nine. There were some other officers in sixty-nine this time ; and, after some consultation, they arrived at the conclusion that it was the Bureau of the Neapolitan steamer for Palermo. I offered money for my passage ; but they refused to take it, or to give me a ticket without it ; they said something else was neces- sary, my passport and certain vises and cartes. Next morn- ing I got my passport and the vises and cartes, and they still refused to give me a ticket. Certain other vises and cartes from the Polizia were necessary. I went to the Polizia and got certain other vises and Cartes, and they still refused to let me have a ticket ; a certain word was omitted in one of the PALERMO. 15 vises. I went all over the city of Naples in search of all the authorities that were concerned in the insertion of that word, and eventually got it written down in black and white, with all the additional stamps that were necessary to give it val- idity. This time they reluctantly conceded that the passport was vised in due form ; that all the documents were correct ; that I could get a ticket hy waiting a while until the officers were served. The Bureau was quite filled with Neapolitan officers, who were all very much covered up with red cloth epaulets, tin buttons, brass sword-cases, and general em- broidery. I waited at least an hour, and then, by the sheer force of perseverance, prevailed upon the gentleman who was engaged in making porcupine quills of his mustache, to cease his labors one moment, and give me a ticket. All the harm I wish that man is, that these quills may be broken off before his personal beauty produces such an effect as to cause any un- fortunate lady to marry him ; for I am certain if ever he gets a wife, they will run her through the eyes in less than a week. On the 30th day of September, 1851, in virtue of all these proceedings, I left Naples, in the Neapolitan steamer, foi Palermo. The Ercolano was a good specimen of the Italian steam service. It had nothing like the amount of horse- power that I expected from the bills ; nor was it in any re- spect a good steamer ; but it afforded an excellent example of what a nation already distinguished in ancient art, may attain in the way of modern art by intercourse with less classical countries. Without any exception it was the small- est, and dirtiest, and worst-contrived craft, to be moved by steam and paddles, that it was ever my fortune to behold. There were on board two hundred and fifty Neapolitan sol- diers and officers, 'on their way to Sicily, for the better pro- tection of that remote portion of the Neapolitan kingdom. After we got well out to sea, there came on a gale, and every one of these soldiers, and every officer who commanded them, fell dreadfully sea-sick ; and thus two hundred and fifty fight- ing characters, armed to the teeth, were in the brief space of a few hours cast down and mixed together upon the decks, at the mercy of any bftdy who chose to attack them. I itt A G1RA THROUGH SICILY. verily believe that had I been a person of blood-thirsty dis- position I could have slain them all with a bodkin. Such ; however, was not my nature. The poor little fellows looked so forlorn, so small and dirty, so sorry they were going to an unknown country, twenty hours distant from their native land ; so unlike men who would ever kill any body, that I was exceedingly moved, and took occasion, when the cap- tain of the boat was not looking, to give one of them a pinch of snuff. My natural impulse was to give them snuff all round, but they were so piled up over the decks, the heads, and heels, and mustaches, and arms, and legs in such a state of confusion that it was utterly impossible to move without stumbling over a misplaced limb, and falling upon a faick man. Thank heaven, the hills of Bagheria at last hove in sight. T was glad enough to see land, as well on my own account as that of the soldiers, who certainly could not have survived the horrors of the sea another night. The voyage from Na- ples to Palermo is usually performed in twenty hours. Owing to the rough weather, and the want of additional horse-power, it took us twenty-four. We were six hours more getting ashore, which made it thirty. The reason of this delay was. that the soldiers had to be landed first. Then the captain had to go ashore and have a talk with the officers of the port ; then he had to corne on board again and walk up and down the deck and smoke his cigar ; then the passengers had to get certain cartes, and some of them, who were going beyond Palermo, their passports under certain restrictions ; then the officer of the customs had to come on board and have a talk with the captain ; then he had to go on shore again, and the health officer had to come on board ; then, after all the officers were done going on shore and coming on board, the baggage had to be properly distributed ; and, after the baggage was distributed, and every thing appar- ently all right, there was an additional delay of two hours for the purpose of showing the passengers that they were in the hands of persons high in authority, who would permit them to land, as a, matter of favor, whenever it became ap- PALERMO. 17 paicnt that the public interests would allow such a course to be pursued. Next to Naples, the harbor of Palermo is perhaps the most beautiful in the Mediterranean. Indeed, many con- sider it quite equal in picturesque effect to Naples ; for, although it has not Mount Vesuvius, or the breadth and ex- tent of shore line, yet the eye comprehends more at a glance, and a nearer approach is permitted without destroying the scenic beauty of the mountains and villas. At a sufficient distance to embrace a complete view of Naples and its en- virons, the city is almost lost ; but the finest view of Paler- mo is just opposite the town, within a mile or two. The harbor forms a beautiful crescent, surrounded by hills covered with verdure throughout the greater part of the year ; villas and orange groves adorn every prominent point ; rich gar- dens lie along the shores ; vessels of many nations float sleep- ily on the smooth waters of the bay ; fishing-boats, crowded with sunburnt crews, ply merrily through the flashing brine ; and along the wharves groups of swarthy sailors, quite like the piratical-looking fellows you see in the French prints, are constantly lounging, smoking, chatting in strange tongues, and casting sly glances at the Sicilian belles, who look like operatic chorus-singers ; and then there are pale Italians without number, and occasional Greeks; with a sprinkling of American and fresh-looking English captains, to give va- riety and animation to the scene. There is an aspect of business activity about the streets and shops of Palermo, not a little cheering after one has been mouldering for some time among old ruins and cities of by-gone prosperity. Yet Paler- mo is not what it might be under a judicious system of gov- ernment. I hold myself in readiness to apologize for the re- mark, when called upon, to his Majesty the King of the two Sicilies, and to declare, if required, that the Neapolitan States are well governed ; that the people are well governed; that I never saw so many soldiers and so much governing in all my life. Every man seems to be individually governed, and so careful is his Majesty of the faithful administration of the laws and the persona.1 security of his subjects, that the 18 A GIRA THROUGH SICILY. ramifications of government extend into every family circle, and wind every body up as in a cobweb. The stranger who lands at Palermo, and succeeds in getting through the Polizia, will respect good government all the rest of his life. I have a very pleasing impression of the officer in attendance there. He opened my knapsack when he heard me speak English, because he knew I must be an Englishman to address him in that language ; he opened my letters one by one and care- fully read them, commencing at the signatures and ending at the dates; and when he saw that I was not Mr. Glad- stone, and had no printed documents for prmite circulation among the people of Sicily, he gave me a kindly nod and let me pass.- Now, I depend upon that officer, as a man of honor, never to divulge the contents of my letters especially one that was written in German and some private memoranda in shorthand. The streets of Palermo are wider than those of the princi- pal cities in Italy, and at night the shops present a very cheerful appearance. Cafes abound in all the public places, but there are none equal to the cafes in Florence. I visited during my stay the magnificent villa of the Marquis Fourche, which is embellished in the style of a Pompeiian palace, with fountains and interior decorations designed strictly according to the antique models found in the ruins of Pompeii. The mosaic marble saloons, frescoes, and general arrangement of the chambers, as also the style of the furniture, afford a very good idea of Pompeii in its days of splendor. It was a festa day in Palermo, so I went to all the churches worth seeing, and heard some good music at the Santa Catherina. Coming from Italy, I was surfeited with sight-seeing of this^ kind, but I still found much to interest me in Palermo, where something of a different architectural order may be seen. "With respect to the fine arts in Palermo, of which the Marquis of Artala, in his Guide to Sicily, speaks in enthusi- astic terms, I must confess I saw nothing of a high order of excellence. He dwells with particular admiration on the magnificent statuary which he says adorns the public prom- enades. I believe I thoroughly explored Palermo and its PALERMO ID environs, but I saw no magnificent statuary ; and was at length obliged to come to the conclusion that great allowance must be made for the florid imagination of gentlemen who write guide-books. Often have I walked for miles through the dusty streets of an Italian city, baking myself into an Egyptian mummy under a burning sun, to see some exquisite gem of art, and when I reached the place found a stick or a stone, or an old daub of a painting, that I am free to confess I would never have recognized as the work of a master-hand had I not been told so. The statuary in the churches of Palermo is generally exceedingly bad ; the paintings arc of very little merit, most of them being disgusting illustrations of scenes that never existed -in the Scriptures or any where else, badly drawn, badly painted, and in the worst possible taste. In one of the churches I was introduced with great solemnity to a picture of the Madonna, which was carefully covered to preserve it from the vulgar gaze. I paid two carlini for the privilege of seeing it. Judge of my astonish- ment when the grave old sexton drew back the curtain and revealed to my wondering eyes the dingy features of an old black woman, with a silver crown on her forehead, that made her skin look a good deal like darkness visible. The pupils of her eyes were gilt with gold, and her eyebrows were radiant with precious stones. Her dress was of tawdry lace, glowing with little patchwork of silver paper ; and altogether she was the most extraordinary object I ever saw ; yet the old sexton bowed to her reverentially and sa d she was a great work of art. CHAPTER II. CATACOMBS OF PALERMO. UHIEF among the wonders of Palermo are the Catacombs of the Capuchin Convent, near the Porta d'Ossuna. It is said to be a place of great antiquity ; many of the bodies have been preserved in it for centuries, and still retain much of their original freshness. Entering the ancient and ruinous court of the convent, distant about a mile from the city, I was conducted by a ghostly-looking monk through some dark pas- sages -to the subterranean apartments of the dead. It was not my first visit to a place of this kind, but I must confess the sight was rather startling. It was like a revel of the dead a horrible, grinning, ghastly exhibition of skeleton forms, sightless eyes, and shining teeth, jaws distended, and bony hands outstretched ; heads without bodies, and bodies without heads the young, the old, the brave, the once beau- tiful and gay, all mingled in the ghastly throng. I walked through long subterranean passages, lined with the dead on both sides ; with a stealthy and measured tread I stepped, for they seemed to stare at the intrusion, and their skeleton fingers vibrated as if yearning to grasp the living in their em- brace. Long rows of upright niches are cut into the walls on each side ; in every niche a skeleton form stands erect as in life, habited in a robe of black ; the face, hands, and feet naked, withered, and of an ashy hue ; the grizzled beards still hanging in tufts from the jaws, and in the recent cases the hair still clinging to the skull, but matted and dry. To each corpse is attached a label upon which is written the name and the date of decease, and a cross or the image of the Savioxir. Soon recovering from the shock of the first impression, I CATACOMBS OF PALERMO. was struck with the wonderful variety and marked expression of character in the faces and forms around me. There were progressive dates of death, extending from remote centuries up to the present period, the niches being so arranged as to admit of a regular order of deposit. Many of the bodies stood erect, as if just lifted from the death-bed ; the faces colorless, and the horrible agonies of dissolution stamped upon the features ; the lower jaws hanging upon the breast ; the teeth grinning and glistening between the parched lips, and" the black hue of sickness about the mouth and around the sunken sockets of the eyes ; and in some the sightless orbs were open and staring with a wild glare of affright, as if peering into the awful mysteries of the future ; while others wore a grotesque laugh of derision still more appalling, with the muscles of the mouth drawn up, the eyebrows lifted, the head tilted knowingly on one side, the hair matted in homy tufts, the bare spots on the skulls, like the piebald wig of a harlequin ; the skeleton arms outstretched, and the bony fin- gers spread as if to clutch the relentless destroyer, and wrestle 22 A GIRA THROUGH SICILY. .with him to the last. These I fancied were lively fellows, who were carried off suddenly after a midnight carouse. 1 sat down on a box containing a dead child, and looked up at a row of bodies opposite that attracted my notice in a par- ticular degree. In the middle stood a rolicking fellow, about two years dead, whose sunken eyes appeared still to burn with the fire of life and humor. His hands were lifted in a deprecating manner over a congregation of corpses sitting on a shelf below. Some appeared to be listening ; some grinning at his humorous harangue ; others, with their heads together, seemed to question the propriety of his anecdotes ; old gentle- men, with knitted brows and lantern jaws ; ranges of bodies stood on each side of him as if laughing, talking, praying, dying, suffering, listening, rejoicing, and feasting at the ban- quet of death. One little man, in a dingy suit of black, sat in a corner ; the end of his nose was eaten off by the worms ; his mouth was compressed, and had a pinched expression; his hands grasped eagerly at something. I thought that little man was a miser, whose death was caused by starvation. Another figure, a large portly body, stood in a conspicuous part of the vault ; it was the corpse of a fat old bishop, whose jaws were still rotund and smooth with good living, and his sleek hair was patted down to his head as with the oil of bygone roast beefs and macaroni soups, and his jolly cast of countenance betokened a system liberally supplied with the ^juices of life, and a conscience rendered easy by attention to the creature comforts. That man lived an easy life, and died of good feeding. He was carefully labeled, and carried on his wrists a jeweled cross. There stood in another part of the vault a fiery orator, with open mouth and distended arms. The head was thrown back, the breast partially bare, a few tufts of black hair fell from his piebald skull ; his round star- ing eyes were stretched wide open, and his brows arched high on his wrinkled forehead ; he looked toward heaven for inspiration. I fancied I could hear the flaming torrent, as it blazed and crackled and scintillated from his thin ashy lips. It was the glowing eloquence of an ardent soul that left its parting impress upon the clay ; the form yet spoke, but the CATACOMBS OF PALERMO. iI3 sound was not there. Passing on from vault to vault, I saw here and there a dead baby thrown upon a shelf its inno- cent little face sleeping calmly among the mouldering skulls ; a leg, or an arm, or an old skull, from which the lower jaw had fallen ; now a lively corpse, jumping with a startling throe from its niche, or a grim skeleton in its dark corner chuckling at the ravages of the destroyer. Who was the prince here ? Who was the great man, or the proud man, or the rich man ? The musty, grinning, ghastly skeleton in the corner seemed to chuckle at the thought, and say to himself, ." Was it you, there on the right, you ugly, noseless, sightless, disgusting thing? Was it you that rode in your fine carriage, about a year ago, and thought yourself so great when you ordered your coachman to drive over the beggar ? Don't you see he is as handsome as you are now, and as great a man ; you can't cut him down now, my fine fellow ! And you, there on the left. What a nice figure you are, with your fleshless shanks and your worm-eaten lips ! It was you that betrayed youth and beauty and innocence, and brought yourself here at last to keep company with such wretches as I am. Why, there is not a living thing now, save the maggots, that wouldn't turn away in disgust from you. And you, sir, on the opposite side, how proud you were when I last saw you ; an officer of state, a great man in power, who could crush all below you, and make the happy wife a widowed mourner, and bring her little babes to starvation ; it was you that had innocent men seized and cast into prison. What can you do now ? The meanest wretch that mocks you in this vault of death is as good as you, as strong, as great, as tall, as brcfad, as pretty a piece of mortality, and a great deal nearer to heaven. Oh, you are a nice set of fellows, all mixing to- gether without ceremony ! Where are your rules of etiquette now ; your fashionable ranks, and. your plebeian ranks ; your thousands of admiring friends, your throngs of jeweled visit ors? Why, the lowliest of us has as many visitors here, and as many honest tears shed as you. Ha ! ha ! . This is a jolly place, after all ; we are all a jolly set of republicans, and old DEATH is our President !" 24 A GIRA THROUGH SICILY. Turning away from this strange exhibition of death's doings, I followed the old monk into the vaults allotted to the women. Here the spectacle was still more shocking and im- pressive The bodies were not placed in an upright position like those of the men, but were laid out at full length in glass cases ; the walls on both sides were covered. The young, the gay, the beautiful, were all here, laid lowly in the "relentless embrace of death ; decked out in silken dresses, laces, and jewelry, as in mockery of the past. Each corpse had its sad history. I saw a young bride who was stricken down in a few brief months after her marriage. She was dressed in her bridal costume ; the bonnet and vail still on, the white gloves drawn over her skeleton fingers ; a few withered flowers laid upon her breast by the mourning one she had left behind. Through the thin vail could be seen a blanched, grinning, bony face; the sunken sockets of the eyes marked around with the dark lines of decay ; the long hair drawn in luxuriant masses over her withered bosorn. Another THE CATACOMBS OF PALERMO. 25 held in her arms a skeleton babe. Some were habited in walking dresses ; others in all the finery of ball-room costume, with gay silks, slippers, silk stockings, and tawdry lace. It was a ghastly sight to look under the bonnets, and gaze upon the sunken ashy features, decked around with artificial flowers ; to trace in those withered lineaments no lingering line of beauty, no flickering ray of the immortal spirit, but a dreary history of mortal agony, decay, and corruption. Yet here the husband comes to hold communion with the beloved soul that once dwelt in that mouldering corpse ; to look upon those blanched features, that were once animate with life and affec- tion ; to kiss the cold lips, and feel no returning warmth. And here, too, the father, brother, sister, and wife come to gaze upon the dead ; and here the mother comes to weep over the withered corpse of her babe. Once a year, as I learnt from the old monk, the relatives of the deceased come to pray for the salvation of their souls, and deck the bodies with flowers. Many a night had that old monk spent down in these dark vaults, among the deaof; not as a penance for evil-doing, though he confessed that he was weak and sinful, but to pray for the soul of some brother, who had been his companion in years past. It was not gloomy to him, he said; it made him hopeful if not happy ; for he felt, when surrounded by these mortal remains, that he was nearer to God. There were friends here, whom he had loved in youth and manhood ; whose hands he had grasped in fellowship, whose eyes had beamed kindly upon him when his heart was sad : now grim and motionless in the dark recesses around him. He liked to gaze upon them, and think of a re-union with the immortal spirits that had left them tenantless. Surely that old man was sincere. What more was the world to him than to the dead with whom he mingled What pleasures could life have to one whose capacity for earthly happiness had long since been destroyed by continued self-denial, by the tearing out from his heart of every unbid- den hope, by fasting and penance, and by all the sacrifices of light and sunshine that could turn inward the tide of thought ? B 26 A GIRA THROUGH SICILY. What save the contemplation of the future ? Yet it seemed as if in his midnight watches he must sometimes feel unde- fined terrors check the flow of his blood ; that the rustling of the night air among the folds of the shrouds, and the drop- ping asunder of skeleton forms ; the sudden grating of the doors, when moaning gusts of wind swung them open upon their hinges ; the dry rattling of fleshless jaws, the gnawing of bones by the vermin, the sepulchral gloom, must some- times startle him from his reveries like a coming solution of the dread mystery. Who can tell not even himself of all the strange thoughts that flit through his brain in the dreary watches of the night ; what weird visions he sees of life brought back again into those ghastly corpses ; what faint moans rise from out the darkness moans for lives misspent, and never more to return upon earth ; wild bursts of anguish for errors that can never be retrieved, prayers for one drop of mercy before the day of eternal doom ! In these dread, dark hours, I thought how the cold sweat must gather upon hia brow, and the strength forsake him, and the clammy grasp of the unseen hand the skeleton hand that never relents for youth or beauty, for fame or virtue draw tight around his throat, and make his breath come thick and short, and his eyes stare affrighted, like the sightless orbs of the dead along the walls. From the conversation of the monk, I learnt that these catacombs are supported by contributions from the relatives of the deceased, who pay annually a certain sum for the pre- servation of the bodies. Each new-comer is placed in a tem- porary niche, and afterward removed to a permanent place, where he is permitted to remain as long as the contributions continue ; but when the customary fees are not forthcoming the corpses are thrown aside on a shelf, where they lie till the relatives think proper to have them set up again. Whole shelves are filled with skulls and bodies of the dead, put out of the way to -make room for others of a more profitable Character. It might be supposed that the air of the catacombs is in some degree affected by the fresh bodies ; but this is not the THE CATACOMBS OF PALERMO. 27 case. There is no offensive odor, and the visitor would scarcely know, if he did not see them, that he was surrounded by the dead. I could perceive no difference in the atmosphere of these vaults from that of any other subterranean places, except a slight smell of mould, not altogether disagreeable. The fresh air is admitted from the top, and it is to its ex- treme dryness that the preservation of the hodies may be attributed. CHAPTER III. JOURNEY TO CATANIA. AMONG the many curiosities of the city is an establishment for foundlings. The institution is designed to prevent infanti- cide. It is a large gloomy old building, in an obscure part of the town, and must be approached with circumspection lest the inhabitants of the neighborhood should indulge in erro- neous suspicions. I threw all the responsibility on my guide, however, and went to see it in open daylight. There is a hole in the wall large enough to admit a good-sized bundle, inside of which is ^revolving machine, such as they use in post-offices for the delivery of letters, with four compartments, each large enough to hold a bambino. The unfortunate mother, who is either unable or unwilling to support her offspring, rolls it up in a small package, which she carries to the pigeon-hole at night, thrusts it in, gives the revolving baby-holder a turn, and departs with all possible speed. A bell is so connected with the machine as to arouse the nurses on the floor above. By pulling a string the whole establish- ment is whirled up aloft, and the piccolo, bambino, tumbled out of the package into the arms of the matron, who duly in- spects it, labels it Angelo, or Francisco, or Antonio, as her taste may dictate, records the date of its admission in a register, its sex, &c. ; and so commences the foundling life of the debutante. The mother is permitted to take it away whenever she chooses, but it is seldom the little unfortunate is called for. What the moral effect of this institution is, it is not for an inexperienced person like myself to determine. During my sojourn in Palermo I visited Morreale, a village eituated on a hill, about three miles distant The chief object JOURNEY TO CATANIA. 29 of attraction here is a very ancient church, in which may be seen some of the finest mosaic in Sicily, and a court contain- ing two hundred double columns, each different from the other. Among the pictures in mosaic is a representation of St. Paul in the act of pulling the devil out of somebody's mouth ; to which one of the reverend padres pointed with a grim smile of triumph. I believe he suspected that I had something of the kind in me that could be extracted by hard pulling ; but I gave him a couple of carlini, which seemed to aflbrd him as much satisfaction as if he had extracted an en- tire nest of devils. After a stay of four days, I took my post in a rumbling old diligence for Catania, on the southeastern side of the island. The distance is a hundred and seventy Sicilian miles from Palermo. It was late at night when we started ; for you must know that diligences in Sicily always make it a point to start at the most unseasonable hours. The pleasure of the trip was in no degree enhanced by the information, confidentially con- veyed to us by the conductor, when we asked him why we had a guard, that on the trip from Catania, just three days before, the diligence had been robbed ; that the mountains were infested with banditti, and we might consider ourselves fortunate if we reached Catania without broken heads. 1 had heard so much of the robbers in Italy, who were always somewhere else, that I had no great faith in those of Sicily ; but, inasmuch as all parties united in terrible stories of the bad character of the Sicilians, I thought there might be suffi- cient truth in it to be a little cautious ; so, having a very slim purse, I put it in my boots, and slept comfortably for the night as much so at least as a person can when he has to hang on outside on the driver's seat, for want of one in the interior. It was a bright moonlight night, and we jogged on pleasantly enough, up hill and down hill, and over rugged roads, and through dark, low, dirty-looking villages, till day- light broke, and the sun rose over the barren mountains with a refreshing warmth. That sun was welcomed most heartily by the whole company, for the mountain air had chilled us throughout ; and I am not sure but it would have found us 30 A GIRA THROUGH SICILY. frozen stiff, had it not been that at each post we were roused into a fit of honest indignation -at the inordinate demands of the postillions, hostlers, and guards. The postillions charged us half a carlin for driving us ; the hostlers charged half a carlin for putting the horses in ; the guards robbed us of half a carlin for preventing us frorrf being robbed ; and the beggars begged the loose change from us, because they were in want of money, and thought they had a legitimate right to be paid for wanting it. Little boys begged as a matter of amuse- ment and education ; old women and old men begged, whether they were in need of funds or riot, as a matter of example to the rising generation ; and after one party of beggars had chased us from the bottom of a hill up to the top, and done their very best in the way of hopping on crutches (which they only made use of for the occasion), there was another party ready to begin the moment we stopped, without the slightest reference to the labors of the first party, and when they were done we were chased to the bottom of the hill by a third party, and so on to the end of our journey. But the real beggars are tame and reasonable in their de- mands compared with the soldiers, postillions, and conductors who have charge of the diligence. With them it is a matter of right to fleece every unfortunate gentleman who places himself in their power. They live on him. He is meat and drink to them. His pockets are their pockets. He is a sort of gold mine into which they are continually digging. They explore him ; they find out how many precious veins he has ; and they insert their picks and shovels wherever the dust glimmers, and root it out with surprising perseverance. By the time he reaches the end of his journey he is dug clean out, and they turn their attention, to other mines. Let me warn the traveler who thinks of making the tour of Sicily, not to delude himserf with the idea that when he pays for a seat in the diligence, or a seat outside of it, that he is done paying that the owners thereof consider themselves under the slightest obligation to take him to his place of des- tination. You simply pay for the use of a foot or a foot and a half of cushion (according to your breadth of beam), and the JOURNEY TO CATANIA. 31 contract is concluded. You may be left, as I was on the road to Syracuse, in the middle of the public highway, without horses or driver, an object of mingled wonder and derision to the inhabitants of a populous village stared at as the man who wouldn't pay ; ridiculed as the man who couldn't go without horses ; abused in an unknown and abominable tongue, for refusing to be legitimately swindled ; and com- pelled, in the end, to give an additional buono mano for cre- ating the difficulty and losing temper. Good humor and small change are the only locomotive powers by which you can get on in Sicily. The one keeps you in a state of self- satisfaction ; the other greases the wheels, makes the whip crack, and the horses go. Depend upon it, you will never gain an inch by a rebellious spirit against customs which you can not change. Of the character of the country in the interior of Sicily, I can only speak as it appeared to me in the month of October, after the parching heats of summer. The brilliancy of the skies and the salubrity of the climate at this season of the year can not be surpassed in any part of the world : but I am not sure that it is the best season to enjoy the scenery. Cer- tainly the parched and barren aspect of the whole country gave me a very unfavorable opinion of the fertility of the soil, or the beauties of Sicilian scenery. Nearly the entire tract of a hundred and fifty miles lying between Palermo and Cata- nia is a perfect desert of rocky mountains and barren valleys, without water or trees, and nothing to indicate any means by which the inhabitants subsist, save here and there a miser- able-looking spot of terraced ground, scratched over, and dotted with the stumps of grape-vines. Yet they do live, and apparently without labor ; for, during my whole journey to Catania, I do not think I saw a dozen men at work. An in tclligent Italian, however, informed me that the land, though apparently so sterile, yields abundant crops when cultivated, and requires very little plowing. The villages throughout the interior are the dirtiest and most wretched-looking places imaginable ; filled with beggars and ragged idlers, and dilap- idated to the last habitable degree. Syria, or the Holy Land. 32 A GIRA THROUGH SICILY. can scarcely furnish a more deplorable example of the decay of civilization in the old world than one meets with at every turn of the road throughout the interior of Sicily. It is almost impossible for the American traveler, accustomed as he is to progress and enterprise, and all their concomitant results, to comprehend the barbarous condition in which these poor people live. Passing through the villages at night, I saw many of them asleep on the road-side, without covering or shelter ; and the squalor and destitution of those who lived in houses surpass belief. "Whole families are huddled to- gether in one wretched apartment, without beds or furniture, living in common with mules, goats, and swine, and about as cultivated as the brutes around them. Few that I con- versed with had ever heard of America, and even those who knew there was such a country, had no idea whether it was in China or in England. That such a state of things should exist in the nineteenth century, in a country once so highly civilized, and still boasting antiquities that excite the admira- tion of the world, is almost incredible. The implements of agriculture, the rude and half-savage appearance of the people, the entire absence of the comforts of civilization, all bore evidence of the depressing effects of military rule. " What object is there in these poor wretches endeavoring to benefit their condition ?" said my friend, the Italian, to me. " What good will it do them to increase their crops, or build better houses, or educate their children ? The more they have, the heavier they are taxed ; they naturally think they might as well remain idle as labor for the support of a horde of brutal soldiers to keep them in a state .of slavery ; and there is no incitement to education, for it only makes them the more sensible of their degraded condition. Yet it is not to be contended that they are fit for self-government ; all they need is a judicious and humane system of laws, which will afford them adequate protection against the errors and follies of despotic rulers. They are not deficient in capacity or industry, where they have any object in making use of their natural gifts. You see them now in a state of hopeless degradation and bondage." JOURNEY TO CATANIA. 3S While the Italian was talking, a Capuchin friar came to the door of the diligence to beg for the church. I thought my friend might have added some reflections on this branch of the subject, that would have shown more* clearly the root of the evils under which the Sicilians labor; but being a good Catholic he was silent I contented myself by giving the poor friar a baiocco, and making a sketch of his face as he stood waiting for the Italian to give him another. There was plenty of time to get a good likeness. I said we started from Palermo at night. It is a journey of thirty-six hours to Catania, making just two nights and one day on the road. One would naturally suppose it would be quite as well to set out in the morning, and make two days and one night of it ; but these are among the unaccountable peculiarities of Sicilian travel. Catania is a large town, containing a population of fifty thousand, many fine buildings, many soldiers, many churches and some of the finest convents in Sicily. The monastery of San Benedetto is the most extensive establishment of the kind I have yet seen. Here the monks, who are chiefly of noble families, live in royal style. If I had money enough, nothing would please me better than to adopt the cowl and sack, and become a brother in the monastery of San Benedetto. The building is a magnificent palace, ornamented with courts and fountains, gardens, pleasure-grounds, bowers for devotional exercises, splendid marble halls in the interior, suites of ele- gant apartments, pictures of all the saints, organs that fill the spacious chapels with a flood of solemn music ; statuary, mosaic, and voluptuous frescoes all that can charm the senses and make glad the heart of monks. The wines are the choicest selections of the Marsala and San Nicoloso brands ; the macaroni is the purest and richest ; the fish are the best B* 34 A GIRA THROUGH SICILY. that can be fished out of the bay of Catania ; the chickene and capons, the salmis, the salads, the roast-beef and mutton are unexceptionable. They have their separate apartments; their servants, their private wines, their but it won't do to be too particular. You know the brotherhood- do not use these things they are for the use of visitors. Perhaps with all their failings they are as good as most men ; and it must be admitted that no traveler can visit the convent of Monte Sanario or Val Ombrosa, in Tuscany, or indeed any of the convents throughout Italy or Sicily, without a grateful sense of their genuine good-nature and hospitality. They are not soured by an- ascetic mode of life, or misanthropic from theii seclusion ; the world is open to them, and they enjoy it in a quiet way. Close by the convent of San Benedetto is a female convent. I was not permitted to enter, having no friends there. Six miles from Catania, on the road along the coast to Messina, is the group of rocks where it is said the Cyclope? were born. They are called the Cyclopean Isles. I went up one forenoon to make a sketch of them. The weather was unpropitious ; and, after a glance at the rocks and a thorough drenching, I was compelled to return without the usual boat excursion to the grotto. CHAPTER IV. ASCENT OF MOUNT ETNA. IT is a gcod forenoon's work to prepare for the ascent of Mount Etna. There are horses to be hired, bargains to be made, warm clothing to be put in readiness, provisions to be laid in, brandy and cigars to be stowed away for the night ; and sundry other little matters to be attended to, if the ad- venturer designs spending the night on the mountain. My companion on the occasion was a young Englishman attached to the army at Malta, a very pleasant and gentlemanly traveling acquaintance ; he was anxious to see the sun rise from the summit of the mountain. To this arrangement I was opposed for several reasons : first, I had often seen the sun rise from the top of a mountain ; secondly, the season was late, and it is no pleasant journey over the beds of lava to the crater of Mount Etna in the middle of the night. But, inas- much as my friend had no recollection of ever having seen the sun rise from a mountain, I gave up, and agreed to be victimized. The distance from Catania to the crater of Mount Etna its twenty-three miles ; the area of the base covers an extent of more than a hundred miles ; and the height, according to the most authentic French measurement, is eleven thousand four hundred feet above the level of the sea.. It is generally covered with snow from October to June ; but, owing to an unusually fine autumn, we were fortunate in finding it entirely free from snow on the 10th of October, and we after- ward learned that it remained so until the beginning of November. On the road from Palermo we made repeated inquiries as to the practicabil ty of the ascent at this season ; A GIRA THROUGH SICILY.. but it Vas not till we came in sight of it at a distance of forty miles that we could ascertain any thing satisfactory. In fact, n0body that we asked knew any thing about Mount Etna, or ad ever heard of such a mountain at least under that name. Some thought it must be in Italy, and others declared there was no such mountain. Our conductor knew it when he saw it, but he could not tell us two hours before when we would see it. At two o'clock we sallied forth, duly mounted and capar- isoned. The animal upon which I rode was intended for a horse, I believe, but it bore very little resemblance to that noble animal. Had any body offered to bet me ten dollars that it wouldn't drop before I got half way to San Nicolosi, I would have taken him up. Rosinante was nothing to com- pare with the bony, shaggy, sway-backed old charger that bore me out of the gates of Catania. Immediately after leaving the suburbs of the town, the ascent commences, and it continues, more or less, the entire distance of twenty-three miles to the summit of the mountain. The road as far as San Nicolosi is tolerably good the first part of it, to the fountain, being a public highway to the principal villages back of Catania. The devastating effects of the volcanic eruptions are visible every where on the road- side, and even below Catania the face of the country is black- ened with masses of the lava. The foundations of the villages along the sea shore for miles, the walls around the fields, the lanes and terraced grounds, are all formed of volcanic depos- its, and give a dreary aspect to the whole country ; hundreds of villages lie buried beneath the desolating streams that have poured from the crater in times past ; vineyards and olive groves, castles, villas, works of art, thousands of men, women, and children, lie mouldering under those fierce floods of ashes and lava. Other towns and villages have sprung up on the ruins ; thousands of living beings dwell in the same places, and look up every day with careless indifference at the smoking crater ; vineyards and olive groves are nour- ished from the bones of the dead. What matters it ? No- body believes there will be another eruption in his lifetime ; ASCENT OF MOUNT ETNA. 37 and, if it comes, then it will be time enough to think of escape. So they live on in a happy sense of security ; and, if the climate permitted, no doubt the crater itself would be inhabited. Does any body refrain from traveling by railway because cars have run off the track ? Do the people of the West go in keel-boats because steamboats blow up ? Does a man abstain from going to the mines of California because his brother or friend has " shuffled off the mortal coil" in a gold pit ? Vineyards thrive in the lava of Mount Etna. The whole district of San Nicolosi, which has been covered a dozen times, and which will most likely be covered again the very first time old Etna rouses from his long siesta, and belches forth his fiery floods, is thickly inhabited, and doubtless would, if practicable, go on increasing and extending up toward the summit till it got into the regions of fire and brimstone. The village of San Nicolosi is about two hours from Ca- tania. We reached the locanda, or inn, an hour or so before sunset ; and having nothing there to interest us, we cast about us for some means of passing the rest of the afternoon. The padrona, a good-natured, talkative fellow, informed us that there lived not far off one Senor Gemmellaro, who was' a sort of conspicuous character in the neighborhood, and who spoke good English, and was always glad to see Englishmen and Americans in short, that he could tell us a goo^jl deal about Mount Etna that would be of use to us. Encouraged by this piece of information, we set out, under the padrona's guidance, to pay a visit to Senor Gemmellaro, who was at his villa outside the village. A pleasant walk of half a mile through the narrow lanes that separate the vineyards of Nicolosi brought us to the gate of Senor Gemmellaro's villa. Here we found collected forty or fifty merry damsels, with baskets on their heads filled with the grapes of the vineyard. It did our hearts good to see the merry sunburnt faces of these damsels, and hear their jovial voices as they sang their songs of gleesome labor. A happier looking set of beings I never saw, in their ragged dresses and br