¦<•

' YAIUE «'¥]MII¥EI^SlIir¥«'

Given in Memory of
His Father
Franklin H. Hart
by
Horace S. Hart '87
1923

o
g2amJ
HHo

PICTURESQUE SICILY

BY

WILLIAM AGNEW PATON
author of
'down the islands: a voyage to the caribbees" etc.

" Multa mihi videntur esse de Sicilise
dignitate, vetustate, utilitate dicenda." Cicero
" Italy without Sicily leaves no image
in the soul — Sicily is the key to all.''
Goethe

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
1898

Copyright, 1897, by Harper & Brothers.
All rights reser-ved.

TO
A. W. P.
THE COMPANION OF MY SICILIAN JOURNEY
W. A. P.

PREFACE

Sicily is little known to the world of to-day; few
travellers visit the island ; of American books on
modern Sicily there are none, of English books there is
a plentiful lack ; and, even in these days of magazines
and newspapers, but little information concerning the
mysterious country finds its way into the public
prints of Europe or the United States. Neverthe
less, Sicily presents to historians and archaeologists a
field the more tempting that it has been so little till
ed, and a new world to travellers who delight in the
romantic and the picturesque. The discovery in all
parts of the island of a great number of Greek tem
ples, theatres, and other edifices must excite the inter
est of antiquarians, while the mere sight of these grand
ruins challenges the admiration of all beholders. To
me these relics of classic times were revelations of a
forgotten — indeed an almost unknown — era in the his
tory of a highly civilized and art-loving people. With
great surprise, I learned that there are more ruins of
Greek temples in the island of Sicily than are to be
found in the Peloponnesus, or in all Greece besides.
Not only in examples of Greek architecture, but
also in the more or less perfect architectural relics of

VI PREFACE
other nations that at one time or another have held
dominion in the island, is Sicily surprisingly rich.
Nowhere else in Europe (within the limits of so
small a territory) are there to be seen so many well-
preserved specimens of the work of the master build
ers of ancient and mediaeval times. It has been well
said that " Sicily is the Archaeological Museum of Eu
rope "; for in Sicily are to be seen the caves of the
cliff-dwellers; fragments of cyclopean structures
reared by prehistoric builders ; foundations of walls
laid by Phoenicians and Carthaginians ; temples, the
atres, and fortresses of Greek construction ; bridges,
aqueducts, and amphitheatres erected by Roman en
gineers ; remains of edifices built by Byzantine archi
tects ; mosques and towers of Saracenic origin ; while
of Norman churches, castles, palaces, who can tell the
number or describe their magnificence?
When the Mediterranean was the only ocean whose
expanse had been explored by civilized people, the
lands washed by its waves composed the whole of
the known world of antiquity, and Trinacria was the
very centre of ancient civilization. The nations that
have dwelt around the Mediterranean waged almost
incessant war for the possession of the island, and
these wars were of paramount importance to man
kind. For more than fifteen hundred years it was
the battlefield upon which men of European blood
contended with men of Asiatic blood for the domin
ion of the world. In Sicily, no less than in old
Greece, was waged the war of civilization against
barbarism, of philosophy against mysticism, of science
against astrology; and it is no exaggeration to say
that upon the result of battles fought in Sicily, or on

PREFACE VU
the sea near her coast, oftentimes have hung the fate
and future history of Europe.
Sicily has been the battle-ground not only of race
against race and nation against nation, but of creed
against creed. On Sicilian soil innumerable battles
were fought between Shemitic men who bowed down
to Baal, Ashtoreth, and Moloch, and Aryans who wor
shipped Jove and all his starry host — Phoenicians
against Greeks, Carthaginians against Romans. Then
came the Moslems, followers of Mohammed, to fight
against Greeks who called themselves " the servants
of the Nazarene "; and, later, Saracens warred against
Normans. In all these wars Europeans battled with Asiatics, or
Africans of Asiatic ancestry ; the " men of the West "
against the " men of the East" ; and oftentimes these
Sicilian campaigns, carried on in and for the possession
of Sicily, determined the course of history far beyond
the limits of the island battle-ground. As, for in
stance, on the day commonly said to be the Day of
Salamis, when the men of old Greece saved their
country from the invading Persians, the Greeks of
Sicily won the battle of Himera, and so not only de
livered their native land from the yoke of the Cartha
ginians, but turned back a tide of conquest that
threatened to orientalize Europe.
In Sicily were fought many of the battles of the
Punic Wars. Pyrrhus of Epirus, and after him Beli-
sarius, played their short but brilliant parts on Sicilian
soil. In Sicily the Moslems temporarily established
the dominion of the Khalifs of Africa. In Sicily the
Normans won for themselves a kingdom, and estab
lished a government which, for a time, was the most

viii PREFACE
liberal, the most powerful, the richest and most mag
nificent of the governments of Europe.
The glory of the Normans soon departed, and Sici
ly became the football of popes, emperors, and kings.
Suabians, Angevins, Aragonese, Catalans, Castilians,
Savoyards, Spaniards, Austrians — all these, in turn,
holding dominion in the island — ruled despotically, un
wisely, unjustly. At last — blackest of all the curses
that have fallen upon ill-fated Sicily — the Bourbons
set up their despotism, which Gladstone described as
" the negation of God erected into the form of a gov
ernment," the government of the three F's (as King
Ferdinand called it), " Feste, Farine, Furche," that is
to say, government by feast-days, free distribution of
grain, and the gallows for all who complained too
loudly in their misery and hopelessness.
Not until i860 did Garibaldi break the yoke of
their bondage, and then, for the first time in many
centuries, the Sicilians were free to work out their
social and political salvation.
Thus for ages the possession of Sicily was disputed
by the leading political powers of the world, because
its central position made it a strategic point of first
importance, and its possessors held the key to " The
Midland Ocean."
Constantly in danger of foreign invasion, Sicily was
" armed to the water's edge," and when threatened
from without, the Siceliots united for the time being
to repulse the fleets and armies of their would-be con
querors. But having defeated the common enemy,
they fell to fighting among themselves, so that the
island was seldom at peace for long. Most disastrous
of all their civil conflicts was that into which the

PREFACE IX
Siceliots were drawn when the scene of the wars be
tween Athens and Sparta was transferred from old to
new Greece, for in Sicily, not in Hellas, was waged
the decisive battle of the Peloponnesian wars. Un
der the walls of Syracuse, not in Attica, nor yet in
Lacedaemon, the momentous conflict between Dorian
and Ionian Greeks, which had lasted for centuries,
was fought out to the end. The great harbor of
Syracuse was the scene of that tremendous naval
combat so marvellously described by Thucydides in
the grandest of all the passages in his prose epic.
When in 415 B.C., the combined fleets of Sparta and
her Siceliot allies prevented the escape to the open sea
of the Athenian fleet commanded by Nicias, Athens
paid the merited penalty for her unreflecting rashness
in deserting the democratical principles of Pericles.
The Athenians had chosen to follow Alcibiades, who
had infected them with aristocratical ideas, " land
hunger," and an unholy lust for foreign conquest, and
judgment fell upon the city which Pericles had en
franchised and raised to the supreme height of her
power and magnificence. The foundations of the At
tic commonwealth were shaken, the glory departed
from Athens ; she never recovered her former great
ness, and Sparta, Thebes, Macedon, in turn, dominated
the Greek world.
The authentic, as distinguished from the legendary
and fabulous, history of Sicily opens with an account
of the founding, by Ionian Greeks, of Naxos, at the
foot of ^tna, in 736 B.C. ; but the dawn of Sicilian
civilization preceded the arrival of the invading Hel
lenes. Nevertheless, the Sicilians owed their more
perfect enlightenment to the new masters of the isl-

X PREFACE
and, the world-compelling, civilizing men of Hellas.
While the Greek colonists — the Siceliots — cherished
an intellectual connection with their kin beyond the
sea, they gave birth to independent native tendencies,
discovered improved forms of art, employed new meth
ods of thought, fostered new ideas, and contributed more
than all the other colonies of Hellas to the inestimable
store of Panhellenic learning. First and greatest of all
Sicilian poets, Stesichorus of Himera, the contempor
ary of Arion, reviving popular interest in the Homeric
hymns, charmed the Greek world with lyric song, de
veloped choral poetry, adapting it for public represen
tations accompanied by the cither and dances. Iby-
cus, born at Rhegium, fired the hearts of youths and
maidens with the passion and realism of his love
songs ; Aristoxenus of Selinus invented iambic verse
and wrote " The Megarean Comedies," which, after
many representations in Syracuse, won the applause
of Athenian audiences. Sophron of Syracuse por
trayed in his mimes the life and character of the
Sicilians, and by the originality of his compositions
greatly influenced the poets of Athens, and, later, of
Rome. The names of many other Sicilian singers
might here be mentioned, but it must suffice to recall
the fact that when in old Greece the Muses became
silent, as if affrighted by the approaching catastrophe —
the subjugation of ancient Hellas by the young giant,
Rome — in new Greece, Theocritus, the master of all
pastoral poets, sang clearly and sweetly by the pleas
ant waters of the Anapus, awakening strains that en
tranced the spirit of Virgil, and even after the lapse
of twenty-two centuries found an echo in the songs of
Robert Burns.

PREFACE xi
While the Siceliots were quick to recognize and re
ward the genius of native singers, they welcomed
poets, and especially dramatists, from foreign land.s.
Cinsthus of Chios, the countryman of Homer, ren
dered the Homeric epos familiar to Syracusan schol
ars ; Arion, the Lesbian, lived at ease at the court of
Gelon ; Epicharmus of Cos made his home at the pal
ace of Hieron, who also invited Pindar, .^schylus, Si
monides, and Bacchylides to visit him in Syracuse.
Corax, " the founder of Sicilian oratory, the first
Greek who applied the principles of science to the
art of speech," * was the cherished friend of this same
Hieron, who gathered around him the most eminent
sages, poets, and artists of his time. Under Corax,
Tisias studied oratory, and he in turn instructed Gor
gias in the art of public speaking, an art which was
cultivated at Acragas, by Empedocles, whom Aristotle
called " the founder of rhetoric." Antiochus of Syra
cuse, Timaeus of Tauromenion, Diodorus Siculus of
Agira, wrote histories that entitled them to honors
only less distinguished than those paid to Herodotus
and Thucydides. In philosophy, practical statesman
ship, law, no less than in poetry, oratory, and history,
Sicilian scholars won high renown. In Sicily, the plas
tic and tectonic arts flourished from an early age;
Sicilian architects reared the superb temples of Acra
gas, Selinus, and Syracuse, and the magnificence of
those cities at least rivalled, if it did not eclipse, the
glory of all other Greek cities, with the exception of
Athens, and possibly of Corinth. Greek literature was
enriched by the contributions of Siceliot men of let-
* Ernst Curtius. History of Greece.

Xll PREFACE
ters, and in later days Roman poets and dramatists
drew inspiration from the works of Sicilian masters.
Virgil — to mention him only — the greatest of all Latin
poets, frankly admits his indebtedness to the Sicilian
muse : " Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere versu,
Nostra, nee erubuit silvas habitare, Thalia."
All the races and nations that have dwelt in Sicily
have left relics and monuments of their occupancy ;
but of all nations, two — ^the Greeks and the Normans —
have most distinctly and most enduringly commemo
rated their conquests of the island. Without an inti
mate and correct knowledge of the history of the
Siceliots, no historian can hope to understand the
history of Greece and Rome, and he who ignores the
chronicles of the Normans of Sicily can never com
prehend, in its full significance, the wonderful story
of the " Making of Modern Europe."
The Norman conquest of Sicily has not found its
historian — a magnificent era awaits its Motley, its
Prescott, its Macaulay. And yet the day of modern
Italian literature dawned in Sicily at the court of its
Norman kings, who, discarding Greek, Latin, and
Arabic, and in time disusing the speech of their ances
tors, as well as the Proven9al, made " La Lingua Ci-
ciliana" (the vernacular of Sicily) popular and fashion
able. Long before a word of Tuscan speech became
familiar to Sicilian tongues and earS the scholars
who graced the court of Frederick II. had established
their claim "to be looked upon as the founders of
that Italian language which first assumed distinct-

PREFACE xiii
ive shape" at the Sicilian court of the grandson of
Roger the Norman and Frederick Barbarossa. While
the Tuscans were still writing in Proven9al, Sicilian
poets were singing in the " vulgari eloquio," as Dante
calls the speech of the common people, and proclaim
ing the advent of a new and glorious era of Italian
letters. Long before Dante was born in Florence, in
the year 1265, the first composition in " La Nuova Lin
gua Italiana " was written, and "II Contrasto d' Amore,"
attributed to Ciullo d' Alcamo, was imitated by a host
of his disciples, Enzio, Manfredi, Guido delle Colonne,
Pier delle Vigne, among others^ the last named the
favorite minister, secretary, and counsellor of the great
emperor Frederick II.
These Sicilian canzone — lyric songs — were the earli
est syllables of a literature whose glory culminated in
the " Divine Comedy " of Dante. It is true the Sicilian
dialect was superseded by the nobler Tuscan speech,
but the fact remains that at Palermo, not at Florence,
Italian literature had its beginning. Dante admits this,
and Petrarch writes, " The Sicilians were before us."
As in the days of Virgil Roman poets had sought in
struction from Sicilian masters, so again, in the days
of Dante, Italian singers turned once more for inspir
ation to the Sicilian muse.
Although in this volume I have in the main con
fined myself to a description of the picturesque island
as it is to-day, I have striven to impress my readers,
as I myself was impressed at all stages of our Sicilian
journey, with the historical interest which heightens
the effect of every Sicilian landscape and adds a
charm to the aspect of every city, town, and hamlet in
the island.

XIV PREFACE
" To know Europe, one must know Italy." To
know Italy, one must be well versed in Sicilian his
tory, archaeology, art, and literature ; for, as Goethe
declares, " Italy without Sicily leaves no image in the
soul ; Sicily is the key to all."
William Agnew Paton.

CONTENTS

I
SICILY AT LAST
From Naples to Palermo— Capri to Pellegrino— A Storm from
the .^neid — The ^olian Islands— Post Nubila Phcebus—
Snow Peaks and Orange Groves — " II Conco d' Oro " —
"Palermo the Superb" — "The Land of Brigands, Earth
quakes, and Social Disorders ' . . . ... Page I
II
THE CAPITAL OF SICILY
'• Knowest Thou the Land .'" — " The Pearl of the Mediter
ranean ' — A Transformed Palace— A Picturesque Wreck
— " The Bells, Bells, Bells "—Street Cries— The Wonderful
Palermo Carts — A Picture-gallery on Wheels — A Land of
a " Strange, Eventful History " .  9
III
MONTE PELLEGRINO
Italian Cavalry — The Soldiers of Harailcar Barca — " La Strada
di Montagna " — Satyrs and Pan-pipes — May-flowers in De
cember — An Ancient Monastery^The Shrine of Santa
Rosalia — A Saintly Daughter of Kings — The Vision of
Girolama — View from the Summit of Pellegrino . . 19

xvi CONTENTS IV
THE HEART OF PALERMO
"I Quattro Canti" — "II Corso" — Via Macqueda— Ancient
City Gates — The Four Quarters of the City — Baroque
Architecture — Saracenic-Norman Churches — San Cataldo
— La Martorana  Page 28
V
LA CAPPELLA PALATINA
La Porta Nuova— The Royal Palace— King Roger's Chapel
— Jewelled Walls — La Stanza di Ruggiero — Tapestries
in Stone  39
VI
MONREALE
King William the Good — The Cathedral of Santa Maria Nuova
— The Basilica on Mount Royal — The Benedictine Clois
ters — Treasures of Architecture — Norman Splendor . 48
VII
IL DUOMO DI PALERMO
Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta — "Walter of the Mill" —
Tombs of Norman Kings — King Roger II. — Emperor
Henry VI. — Constance, "The Last of the d'HauteviUes"
— Emperor Frederick II., " The Wonder of the World ". 59
VIII
TWO HISTORIC CHURCHES
San Giovanni degli Fremiti — La Chiesa dei Vespri — Campo di
Santo Spirito — The War of the Sicilian Vespers in Panto
mime—Giovanni di Procida  ... 67

CONTENTS xvii
IX
SARACENIC QUARTERS Of" PALERMO
Rione CasteUamare — Rione Palazzo Reale — The Slums of
Palermo — "Rag Fair ' — Albergheria — A Victim of the
Triple Alliance  Page 76
X
IN PALERMO
The Genius of Palermo — La Piazza della Rivoluzione— La
Chiesa della Gangia— Volfango Goethe — La Villa Giulia—
L' Orto Botanico — La Via Borgo — Le Belle Donne — Inter
esting Sights—" The Sailors' Rest " — La Cala— II Foro
Italico  85
XI
SUNNY WINTER DAYS
La Villa Belmonte— La Favorita— Mondello — La Villa Scalea
— San Martino — A Noble Charity — Ancient Trees . . 96
XII
AT THE OPERA
A Study of Sicilian Character — The Rival Claques — Initiating
a New Opera Troupe — " Carmen " — " Toreador Attento " —
A Musical " Sicilian Vespers " — Moral  105
XIII
A MOUNTAIN EXCURSION
The Alpine Club — Boccadifalco — The Summit of Cuccio — A
Vision of iEtna — San Martino — Monreale  115
XIV
SOLUNTO
Winter Scenes — Blossoms and Snowflakes — Bagheria — An
cient Solous — A Carthaginian Town — Men in Sheepskins
— A Shipwreck  125

xviii CONTENTS XV
PIANA DEI GRECI
A Mysterious Hill Town — Spectral Trees — Pareo — " La Scala
Santa ' — A Dreary Ride through a Lone Land — An Al
banian Colony — Greek Churches — Picturesque Costumes —
Curious Customs — Weddings " to Order " . . . Page 134
XVI
ALONG THE NORTH SHORE
The Coast-line — The Madonian Mountains — La Mafia — Ter
mini — Himera — The Sacrifice of Hamilcar — " The Happy
Fields " — Cefalu  143
XVII
CEFALU
An Ancient Sicel Town — Roger II. — His Escape from Ship
wreck — Cefalu Cathedral — The Norman Bishop's Church
— Its Rich Adornments — "The Finest Mosaics in the
World"  151
XVIII
RAMBLES ABOUT CEFALU
La Porta Garibaldi — La Via Liberta — Cloisters of Cefalu — A
Cefalu "Trattoria" — Along the Water-front — Diana and
Actseon — " II Trovatore "  157
XIX
THROUGH FRA DIAVOLO'S COUNTRY
To Corleone — " Village of the Emirs "—Roccabianca, " Castle
of Diana "—Baths of Gefala— Chiarastillo Mountains — Fra
Diavolo, "The Prince of Brigands"— His Betrayal and
Death  166

CONTENTS xix
XX
CORLEONE
Mezzojuso— An Albanian Town— Rocca Busambra— II Bosco
di Ficuzza — Corleone — A Sicilian Locanda — "The King
of Mexico "—" The Annals of the Poor '¦ . . . Page 173
XXI
JOURNEY TO SEGESTA
An Early Start — Starlight — Sunrise — Birthplace of Lais-
Cyclops, Giants, and Chimeras Dire— Acres of Wild Flow
ers — Ancient Rivers — Saracen Strongholds— Calatafimi
— Hosts of Beggars  183
XXII
SEGESTA
A Distant View of a Doric Temple — The Valley of the
Gaggera— " The Rolling Scamander " — Fording the Tor
rent — "A Wild and Lonely Land" — Ancient Segesta —
Its Glorious Temple — A Greek Theatre — Wonderful
Landscapes  . . 190
XXIII
SELINUS
The Quarrel of Selinus and Segesta — Salemi — Castelvetrano
— The Ruined Temples of Selinus — A Scene of Deso
lation  199
XXIV
A MYSTERIOUS EXCURSION
" Sleepless Activities " — Trapani at Dawn — An Uncanny
Guide — Monte San Giuliano — The Field of Hercu
les — " Gobbo Brings us Luck " — "A Guide-book in
Breeches "  209

CONTENTS

XXV

A CITY IN CLOUD-LAND
Three Gates of Eryx — Astarte, Aphrodite, Venus, Madon
na — Cyclopean Masonry — "A Street in Bagdad" — The
Castle of Eryx — Shrine of Venus- Erycina— Return to
Earth   Page 218

XXVI
GIRGENTI
The Land of the Greeks — Acragas — Agrigentum — Mons
Camic'us — Ruined Temples — "Fairest of Mortal Cities"
— La Rupe Atenea   227
XXVII
THE HEART OF SICILY
Girgenti to Caltanisetta — Sulphur District — Veritable Infernal
Regions — Kal-at-al-Nisa (" Fortress of the Women ") — A
Strange Ride — An Ancient Albergo — " Un Ballo in Ma-
schera " — " Sermons and ' Gazzoza '"  237
XXVIII
"THE LAND OF DEMETER"
Enna — Castrum EnncB — Castrogiovanni — Worship of Ceres —
Pagan Rites — Christian Ceremonies — Lake Pergusa —
" Flowers of Persephone "  . 246
XXIX
THE PLAIN OF CATANIA
" L' Usurajo " — A Sicilian Shylock — The Rival Cities — Valley
of the Chrysas — Distant Hill Cities—" Faithless Sperlinga "
—Hercules — St. Philip of Agira — ^tna — Catania . . 255

CONTENTS XXI
XXX
CATANIA
" Under ^tna" — La Via Lincoln — " II Duomo " — Tomb of
Bellini — Elephant of Heliodorus — Feast of Sant' Agata
— "The World that is Never" at Rest " .... Page 262
XXXI
^TNA
Homer, Virgil, Dante — Ascent to Nicolosi — Monti Rossi —
Eruption of 1886 — " I Santarelli " — Veil of Sant' Agata 272
XXXII
S YRACUSE
" Fields of the Lsestrygones " — I^ago di Lentini — Leontinoi —
Augusta — " The Town of Honey "Tf7Promontory of Thapsus
— First Impressions of Syracuse .-'  283
XXXIII " '^"
O RT YGI A
Fountain of Arethusa — Temple of Minerva — Temple of Diana
— Castello Maniace — Great Harbor — Athenian Expedition
— Its Destruction by Gylippus — Death of Nicias . . 291
XXXIV
ACRADINA
Names of Streets — "The City of Wild Pear Trees" — Santa
Lucia — The Apostle Paul — La Latomia dei Cappuccini,
" The Gethsemane of a Nation "  301
XXXV
NEAPOLIS
New Syracuse — Roman Amphitheatre — Grand Altar of Hieron
— La Latomia del Paradise — The Ear of Dionysius — The
Bath of Venus — Greek Theatre — Timoleon .... 311

xxii CONTENTS XXXVI
EPIPOLiE AND THE ANAPO
Castle of Euryalos— Athenian Siege of Syracuse— Capture of
the City by Marcellus — Up the Anapo — Papyrus— Foun
tain of Cyane — Modern Naiads  Page 320
XXXVII
THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS
Portus Ulyssis — Polyphemus the Cyclops — "The Columbus
of Sicily" — New Naxos — Tauromenion — A Portentous
Sunset   330
XXXVIII
T AOR M I N A
Snow-flakes and Almond Blossoras — Mola — Teatro Greco —
Isola Bella — Castello Alessio — ^tna— Garibaldi Modelled
in Snow .... ...  339
XXXIX
FAREWELL TO SICILY
Spellbound — Messina — Scylla and Charybdis — In the Grasp
of Charybdis — Messina to Naples — The Rocks of the
Sirens . .   349

APPENDIX
A — La Mafia  359
B — Brigandage  370
C — The Sicilian Question  378

ILLUSTRATIONS

"IL FORO ITALICO.'' PALERMO
A PALERMO CARRETTA
SANCTUARY OF SANTA ROSALIA
"LA CALA." PALERMO. (THE OLD HARBOR).
PULPIT. CAPPELLA PALATINA, PALERMO.
MONREALE CATHEDRAL. (INTERIOR) .
CLOISTERS. MONREALE
CARVED CAPITALS. CLOISTERS OF MONREALE.
PALERMO CATHEDRAL . . . . .
SICILIAN (SARACEN TYPE) . .
" STREET ARABS" . .
S. GIOVANNI DEGLI FREMITI. PALERMO
A FORTUNE-TELLER
A SICILIAN "MADONNA" . .
SICILIANA .
NORMAN WINDOW. PALERMO . . .
SARACENIC-NORMAN WINDOW. SYRACUSE
INTERIOR OF CEFALtT CATHEDRAL. . .
AN ANCIENT WELL . . .
SICILIAN PEASANTS . . 
A MILKMAID . . ...
SICILIAN (ARAB TYPE) .
SICILIAN (GREEK TYPE)
SICILIAN MOUNTAINEER
NORMAN AND SARACEN TYPES
TEMPLE OF SEGESTA . .
TEMPLES OF MINERVA AND APOLLO,

MONTE PELLEGRINO . Frontispiece
Facing page 8
" l6
•' 24
" 32
'¦ 40

' 56
' 64
' 72
'¦' 80
" 88
" 96
" 102
" 112
" 120
" 128
" 136
" 144
" 152
" 160
" 168
" 176
" 184
" ig2
" 200
" 206

SELINUS

XXIV

ILLUSTRATIONS

SELINUS. TEMPLE OF HERCULES (ACROPOLIS)
MONTE SAN GIULIANO (erYX). TRAPANI .
GIRGENTI. FROM TEMPLE OF JOVE
TEMPLE OF CONCORDIA. GIRGENTI
TEMPLE OF CASTOR AND POLLUX. GIRGENTI
JETNA, FROM HARBOR OF CATANIA
"the ROCKS OF THE CYCLOPS" . . .
"A PASSION flower"
FOUNTAIN OF ARETHUSA. SYRACUSE .
VENUS LANDOLINA. SYRACUSE.
"EAR OF DIONYSIUS." SYRACUSE.
GREEK THEATRE. SYRACUSE
LATOMIA DEI CAPPUCCINI. SYRACUSE . .
RIVER ANAPO (WITif PAPYRUS) . . .
VIEW OF yETNA, FRO.VI SYRACUSE
GREEK THEATRE. TAORMINA
BADIA VECCHIA. TAORMINA . .
CASTELLO S. ALESSIO . . . .
MESSINA CATHEDRAL . . ...
CARVED PORTAL. MESSINA CATHEDRAL. .
STRAIT OF MESSINA (AT MESSINA). . . .

Facing page 2l6
" 224
" 232
" 240
" 248
" 256
" 264
" 272
" 280
"¦ 288
" 296
" 304
" 3IZ
" 320
" 328
" 336
" 344
" 352
" 360
" 368
" 376

PICTURESQUE SICILY

PICTURESQUE SICILY

SICILY AT LAST!
From Naples to Palermo— Capri to Pellegrino — A Storm from
the .(Eneid— The ^olian Islands — Post Nubila Phoebus—
Snow Peaks and Orange Groves — "II Conco d' Oro ' —
"Palermo the Superb" — "The Land of Brigands, Earth
quakes, and Social Disorders."
December 6. — The course of The Malta from Na
ples to Palermo, a distance of about one hundred and
seventy-five nautical miles, lay south-by-east across
that part of the Mediterranean known as " Mare Tir-
reno " — -the Tyrrhenian Sea. All night long, from
Capri onward, the steamer battled with head -winds
and opposing waves, and her unhappy passengers had
many reasons to remember that, through the black
ness of the starless winter watches, they were passing
close by the ^olian Islands — the ancient home of all
the winds. Little control did King ^olus exert over
his subjects that December night. The struggling gales
and sounding tempests, escaping from their prison-
house, danced aloft in air and hissed along the sea.
It was a night of trying experiences and long vigils —

2 PICTURESQUE SICILY
the hours lingered remorselessly, the minutes loitered,
while darkness brooded over the face of the deep.
Almost at the end of human endurance day dawned,
the sun arose, the winds abated, and, as we ran in
under the lee of Sicily, the waves decreased in violence.
Quick-tempered and lightly stirred to wrath is the
Mediterranean, and violent in its rage ; but its pas
sionate outbreaks — terrible while they last — are soon
calmed. When the wicked tempests cease from troub
ling and the weary winds are at rest, placid waters
succeed angry seas as suddenly as the billows arose
when the storm broke in its first fury. Order succeeds
anarchy — as Mr. Dryden puts it :
" The waves unruffle and the sea subsides."
After a night of hideous blackness and shrieking
storm, such as affrighted ^neas and his Trojans ages
ago, what time they were driven back from the Tus
can Sea to be thrown in shipwreck upon the Cartha
ginian coast, there dawned a morning of sunshine
and gentle land-breezes. When we came on deck, at
sunrise, the sky was as blue as the heavens that bend
over the valley of the Hudson on an October morn
ing, save' where the scattering clouds, white shining,
fled away towards " the seven stars," to the distant
land of winter and Alpine snows.
Far ahead of us, in the south, we descried a range
of mountains uplifted grandly from the sea, showing
in purple silhouettes crested with roseate snow. It
was the coast-line of Sicily, finely limned against an
opalescent sky. In the northwest, upon our star
board quarter, thirty miles or more away, lay the
Island of Ustica ; in the east the Lipari (^olian) Isl-

SICILY AT LAST! 3
ands floated athwart the level rays of the rising sun
on an ocean of golden light. It was a brilliant, a glo
rious morning ; the air was invigorating, the atmos
phere remarkably transparent. We forgot our woes,
the deadly sinkings and upheavals of the night, and
eagerly scanning the sea and shore, feasted our eyes
upon the inspiring picture. As we drew nearer to the
coast mountains seemed to advance from out the
golden distance ; great headlands and promontories
grew towards the sea ; shadows withdrew into the
depths of valleys ; the brows of precipices and the
crests of rock-ribbed mountain-steeps caught the glory
of the morning; intervening hills, becoming luminous,
stood out in high relief in front of the " Sicilian Ap
ennines." Last of all, the lowlands and the sea-shore
received the day and glowed in russet -brown and
tawny -yellow of fallow fields, in green of meadows
girt with deeper green of orange-trees and silver-gray
of olive groves.
On either hand, as we steamed into the Bay of Pa
lermo, two vast promontories towered superbly from
the sea : to the left, but miles away in the southeast,
Monte Zaffarano ; to the right and close aboard, Monte
Pellegrino. Strangely familiar in aspect — in contour and in
color- — seemed the nearer mountain. We could easily
fancy we were back again at Capri, sailing along that
flank of it which confronts the Bay of Naples. Capri
we had, indeed, beheld the evening before, glorified
by the setting sun. Pellegrino was now before us,
resplendent in a mantle of morning light ; but so like
Capri ! Two Dromio mountains ! So similar in bulk,
in height, in sky-line, we could readily imagine that

4 PICTURESQUE SICILY
.^olus had driven us back past "The Rocks of the
Sirens"- — that in the night-time we had blindly re
crossed the Tuscan Sea, as Virgil calls it, and were
again under the lee of Monte Solaro, navigating the
Bay of Naples, midway between Sorrento and Cape
Miseno. '
The north and east faces of Monte Pellegrino over
look the Mediterranean ; its southeastern precipices
rise from the margin of the Bay of Palermo ; while
from the base of its southern crags the shore, describ
ing a crescent twelve miles in length, extends around
to Monte Zaffarano in the east. From a long curving
line of white breakers falling upon yellow sands the
land emerging from the sea ascends in gentle accliv
ity of meadows and rich plantations of orange and
lemon groves and gardens of rare luxuriance. Far
ther inland, upon softly undulating hillocks, flourish
thousands upon thousands of almond and- olive trees;
and beyond, vineclad hills rise in terraces to the base
of the mountains that enclose a fertile plain within a
vast amphitheatre. This " pianura," lying in the sun
light between the mountains and the sea, is II Conco
d' Oro — " The Golden Horn of Plenty," so called by
poets in ancient times; and in this Golden Shell, " Pa
lermo the Superb " shines like a pearl in an emerald
chalice. Palermo, " The White City," surrounded by
gardens where grow 1,he myrtle and the palm, the ilex,
laurel, pomegranate, and fig-tree ; where oranges hang
" like golden lamps in a green night," where the al
mond flourishes and the citron blooms ; where every
month blossom tropical flowers that vie in beauty
with the rose, the lily, and the jassamine.
The red roofs, domes, towers, minarets of the city

SICILY AT LAST! 5 '
stand up against a rich background of vegetation ;
and beyond, across a band of variegated greenery,
rise the mountains, with masses of snow on their sum
mits, which still reflect, as do the feathery clouds, the
glories of early morning.
Palermo looks seaward, facing the northeast. In
front of it are two harbors having one and the same
entrance. " II Porto," the modern basin (that to the
right as vessels enter from the bay), is protected from
storms by " II Braccio del Molo " , " La Cala," the an
cient harbor, opens on the left, and before it there
extends, forming an angle, the breakwater " Antemu-
rale." The Arm of the Mole and the Ante -mole
reach out from the shore like the claws of a crab, and
within their embrace the commercial navy of Palermo
finds safe and convenient anchorage.
Panormus, "All Harbor," was the name given to
the seaport by its Graeco-Sicilian colonists. The Car
thaginians, according to some authorities, called it
Mahhanat, "A Fortified Camp " ; according" to others,
" Sis," or " Tsits," " The Flower." This last title may
well have been bestowed upon it in consideration of
the charm and loveliness of the ancient colony ; it is
a name that may be used advisedly, to-day, to de
scribe Palermo, than which " there are few spots upon
the surface of the globe more beautiful." *
Shortly before nine o'clock The Malta, slowly round
ing the south end of II Braccio del Molo, headed
north, and drifting a cable's length came to anchor in
II Porto. Before the steamer was made fast to her
moorings she was surrounded by a flotilla of small
* T. Addington Symonds.

6 PICTURESQUE SICILY
boats with prows or cut-waters rising a yard or more
above the line of their gunwales — after the fashion of
the " ferro " of a gondola. In other respects also the
" barche " are quaint and curious in shape and build.
It is not their model, however, that calls for particular
mention, but the dazzling brilliancy and bewildering
variety of colors with which they were painted with
out and within. There were scores of these " bum-
boats," and as they arranged themselves in circles
around the steamer, the surface of II Porto resembled
a vast palette spread with all the bright pigments
needed to paint a picture of the gaudiest of Dutch
villages. In such gay company. The Malta, in her cus
tomary suit of solemn black, suggested comparison
with a crow in the midst of a flock of paroquets, or a
gentleman in conventional evening attire at a fancy-
dress ball.
In keeping with the brilliant hues of the smaller
boats were the colors of the coasting vessels and fish
ing-smacks moored against The Mole, or returning
from and departing to the sea. Chioggia, the dream
of artists who are set in ecstasies by the multicolored
sails that decorate the lagoons of Venice, was never
so gorgeously arrayed as was the water-front of the
White City on the morning of our arrival in Sicilian
waters. All in good time we took passage in one of the
wonderful boats and followed our baggage to the
Dogana landing-stage, where we disembarked; cus
tom-house formalities gave us little trouble and but a
moment's pause.
At last we set foot in Sicily, " The land of brigands,
earthquakes, and social disorders." So it had been

SICILY AT LAST! 7
described to us by our friends in America, who, when
bidding us farewell, charged us " not to do anything
rash " ; by English people, who, when we announced
our destination, summed up their surprise in the ex
clamation, "Only fancy!" Germans whom we had
met at Naples and Capri advised us to read Goethe's
Italienische Reise and to go to Greece if it were
Greek ruins we were in search of ; and a Frenchman,
who, in answer to his inquiries, learned of our inten
tion to spend the winter in Sicily — Sicily of all places !
— shrugged his shoulders and politely inquired : " Les
Amdricains wish to make the acquaintance of Fra
Diavolo?" •
It was not without certain misgivings that we landed
in the mysterious island which Rene Bazin describes
as "un pays qui fut dangereux, et pourrait I'etre en
core." Of earthquakes and social disorders we had no ex
perience while we were in Sicily, and after the first
day of our stay in Palermo we took no further thought
of such matters. As for Sicilian brigands, we did not
have to go out of our way to fall in with the most
celebrated and redoubted members of that fraternity,
nor did we have long to wait. On our way from " II
Molo" to our hotel we crossed La Piazza Ucciardone,
on one side of which stands the great prison (" vicaria ")
founded by Ferdinand II. in 1834, and constructed in
its latest additions on the model of the famous Moya-
mensing Penitentiary in Philadelphia.
Issuing from the prison gates, there came across
the piazza a prison-van, guarded by two " carabinieri"
and six " bersaglieri." The conductor of the omnibus
in which we were being conveyed to the Hotel des

8 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Palmes, observant of the particular notice we took of
the passing vehicle, informed us that in it were ten
brigands, members of " La Banda Maurina," desper
ate villains all of them, on their way from La Prigi-
one to the Corte d' Assiso, where they had been on
trial for several days for crimes and misdemeanors —
videlicet : murders, abductions, extortions, cattle-steal
ing, arson, and the like. We gazed with intense in
terest at the van, inspecting it curiously, as country-
boys examine the wagon alleged to contain the cage
of serpents belonging to a menagerie about to be ex
hibited in their native village ; and we wondered if
all — in very truth all — the members of La Banda
Maurina were inside.
Beyond doubt, then, there were brigands in Sicily !
But as those we positively knew of were safe under
lock and key, and guarded by eight riflemen, we felt
reassured and continued our journey at ease in body
and mind. Soon we dismissed the strange and star
tling incident from our thoughts, for Palermo inter
ested us, charmed us. We found it one of the bright
est, most picturesque, as well as one of the cleanest
cities we had visited in many a day of travelling ; and
all in good time we arrived at the Hotel des Palmes,
where we chose apartments the windows of which
looked out upon two of the many beautiful gardens
of Palermo.

II
THE CAPITAL OF SICILY
" Knowest Thou the Land ?"— " The Pearl of the Mediterra
nean " — " A Transformed Palace " — A Picturesque Wreck
— " The Bells, Bells, Bells,"— Street Cries— The Wonder
ful Palermo Carts — A Picture-gallery on Wheels — A
Land of a " Strange, Eventful History.''
We had arrived in the capital city of a country to
which we had been attracted as mysteriously as was
Sindbad to the " Island of Loadstone." We had set
out on our voyage to Sicily in simple faith, believing
that, in due time, we should come to our desired
haven, Palermo. We had determined to adjust our
selves to new circumstances and strange surround
ings ; had made up our minds " to have a good time "
in spite of ordinary, or even some extraordinary, dis
comforts. We had but little fear that we should not
enjoy travelling under any and all conditions, for we
had been abroad in the world and knew how, and
were disposed, to take things as we found them.
Moreover, we cherished the hope that we should
find pleasure and profit both in mind and body by so
journing in a country concerning which we had re
cently held much discourse with a certain venturesome
friend who had lately visited the wonderland. To our
eager inquiries about Sicily, its scenery, its history.

10 PICTURESQUE SICILY
and its people, he had made answer — Yankee-like — by
asking a question:
" Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen bliihn,
Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen gliihn,
Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht,
Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht.?
Kennst du es wohl .'"
We had to confess we did not know the land, had
not even been award that it was Sicily Goethe had in
mind when he formulated the question in melodious
German verse. The words sank into our hearts, and
we began dreaming of the day when- — the Fates being
propitious — we should behold "The Pearl of the
Mediterranean " in all its loveliness.
And now we were actually in Sicily ! Unknown
strangers in a strange land ; ignorant — let us confess
it — of everything concerning the geography of the
island of to-day, of its inhabitants, of its modern his
tory, of the manners and customs of its people, or of
its politics and sociology. In the great city, in all
the island, we had, so far as we could guess, never a
friend, no one even whom we could call an acquaint
ance. The sights, the sounds, mankind, the aspect of
places and things were strange and new to us, the
very atmosphere, the sunlight, the summery Decem
ber air seemed unnatural ; and yet we entered Paler
mo joyously, and, presenting ourselves with the free
dom of the city, immediately made ourselves at Home
and comfortable in a transformed palace, taking pos
session of our apartment as if we had been the an
cient lords of it coming to their own again.
We had planned a stay of two weeks in Palermo.

THE CAPITAL OF SICILY II
We dwelt there in health and happiness for three
months lacking a few days. We did not idle away
the time, although we learned the significance of the
happy Italian phrase, "dolce far niente"; and prac
tised that gentle art assiduously. How the days flew!
How the weeks grew into months, and the months
transformed themselves into a quarter of a year, we
are a.t a loss to tell. We seemed to lose all count of
time, mislaid days recklessly ; and, every week, made
the discovery that Sunday had stolen upon us un
awares while we were wondering if yesterday was
Friday. Palermo interested, charmed us ; we loved to study
it, to view it in all its aspects ; to conjugate it, so to
speak, in all its moods and tenses. It was ever chang
ing, presenting each day new attractions for our de
lectation. We delighted to wander up and down in
it, to sit in the sunlight enjoying the quiet of its gar
dens, to be out in the air, to catch glimpses up and
down its streets of the blue sea spreading to the east
of it, of the purple mountains beyond II Conco d' Oro.
We left our guide-books at home and sallied forth to
saunter hither and thither, enjoying the sensation of
getting lost in its maze of highways and byways, and
for no other reason than that we migh\ have the sport
of finding our way back to the H6tel des Palmes. On
occasion we asked our way or inquired the name of a
church or palace of passers-by, merely to make an op
portunity for studying an interesting face or pictur
esque costume, and because it gave us pleasure to be
courteously entreated by people who, in their polite
ness, seemed at least to consider it a compliment to
be accosted by a friendly foreigner.

12 PICTURESQUE SICILY
We spent the first hour or two, after our arrival at
our " albergo," in the employment of " setting ourselves
to rights," varied by looking out of the windows, one
of which, opening towards the rising sun, gave upon
the garden of the hotel, a garden of palms. Two
south windows afforded access to balconies, from
which we could see up and down the Via Stabile — up
to the I Quattro Canti di Campagna, and the hills be
yond II Conco d'Oro; down to II Porto, which opens
upon a wide expanse of deep-blue sea. Across the
street was another garden — a large square — in which
grew a bewildering variety of palms, evergreens, and
trees that shed their leaves shortly before Christinas,
to put them forth again early in the new year.
Above the red -tiled roofs of the houses, far be
yond the limits of the town, mountain peaks rose
to view, and hitherwards numberless minarets, tow
ers, and domes stood up in the sunlight, shining
against a background of purple, violet, and misty
blue. At the foot of the Via Stabile, a hundred yards or
less from shore, a large bark, which, in entering the
harbor pilotless, had run upon a sunken reef, lay upon
her bilge, her topmasts gone by the board, her rig
ging all unset. She made a picturesque but pathetic
object, in our view. It was so strange to see a great
ship seemingly lying in the middle of a city -street,
almost at the doors of the houses ! Every morning
during our stay in Palermo our first glance from our
south window was directed down the street, to see if
the derelict had slipped into deep water and drifted
away during the night. But there she stuck week
after week, and slowly the remorseless waves devoured

THE CAPITAL OF SICILY 1 3
her piecemeal, within biscuit-toss of the harbor inner-
wall. It so happened that vve arrived in Palermo on a
fete-day. The city was decorated, embellished with
countless flags and banners, and its citizens were in
holiday attire. It was a " festa " in honor of the Holy
Virgin, the celebration of which continued for three
days, and during all that time the populace made
merry in their light-hearted, good-natured fashion.
All the church bells — and their number is legion —
were ringing incessantly. " Ringing," however, hard
ly conveys an adequate idea of the billows, the del
uges, of sound that rolled, echoing and re-echoing
through the air. Be it noted that the Sicilian church-
bells are not rung like " Father Prout's" — " swinging
uproarious"; but hang motionless and are struck with
hammers in the hands of muscular bell -men. This
method of manipulating bells permits of rapid and
strong percussion ; the strokes follow each other faster
than they can be counted. There is no solemn ding-
dong, ding-dong, about the bells of Palermo. Sharp-
smitten, they clang away fortissimo, staccatissimo.
One, two, three ! bang, bang, bang ! One, two, three,
four! bang, bang, bang! — da capo — over and over
again ; the monotony of the sound varied occasionally
by a volley of bangs that reminds one of the alarm
signal " All ashore," as performed on a steamship's
bell to warn the friends of passengers that it is time
for all who are going ashore to go.
On that day, of all Sicilian days, the 27th of May,
i860, when the red-shirted Immortals — "The Thou
sand of Garibaldi"— captured the city, the citizens,
frantic with joy, rushed to the belfry to sound the

14 PICTURESQUE SICILY
tocsin ; they found that Maniscalco's police spies had
removed the bell -clappers. "Nothing daunted, they
beat the bells all day with hammers and other imple
ments, and so produced an indescribable noise, which
had a material influence on the nerves of the terrified
Neapolitan troops."*
Of the sonorous quality and remarkable power of
Sicilian lungs and vocal organs we had abundant
proof from the moment of our arrival in Palermo. Not
even in Naples had our ears been assailed by such a
cacophony of street cries. To the wild accompani
ment of the bells, the chorus of fruit, vegetable, and
fish- mongers, sellers of nuts, sea -weed — " frutti di
mare" — cakes, candies, flowers, and other miscellane
ous dealers in indescribable wares, rose and fell upon
the air, reproducing babel, confusion worse confound
ing, until our tympana seemed ready to crack under
the blows of sound. Our attention was kept con
stantly on the qui vive. When we peeped from our
windows or stood on our balcony looking boldly up
and down the street, we were astounded by vociferous
appeals directed presumably at us, to induce us to buy
their wares, by a host of hucksters who made the
most frantic demonstrations in their efforts to attract
our attention.
If we had found food for astonishment in the brill
iant and variegated colorings of the flotilla of small
boats that surrounded The Malta on her arrival in the
harbor, the gaudiness — not to say glory — of the " Pa
lermo Carts," the marvellous vehicles which serve the

* Countess E. Martinengo Cesaresco. The Liberation of Italy,
page 281.

THE CAPITAL OF SICILY 15
trade and trafific of the town and in which the better
class of vendors convey their wares from door to door
for the convenience of customers, awakened wonder
and challenged our admiration. These "carrette," con
structed in a novel manner, consist of a pair of yellow
wheels, the hubs and spokes of which are striped and
tricked out with bands and rings of contrasting colors
and yellow shafts similarly decorated. The body of
the vehicle, a square box twice as wide as it is deep,
is also painted a fresh lemon color within and with
out ; and it is further embellished with bizarre pictures
representing scenes drawn from the world of fact and
fancy. During our stay in Palermo we spent much time in
gadding about the streets, in our endeavors to study
the art of the carretta painter, and solve, if possible,
the allegories figured forth in glowing colors by brushes
manipulated with no little skill and surprising daring,
not to say freedom of touch. The school of art from
which the painters who adorn all sides of these surpris
ing vehicles seem to have sought inspiration is decid
edly pre-Cimabuesque, reminiscent of the Byzantine.
Mythology is represented by tableaux of the Greeks
encamped before Troy, ^neas carrying off Anchises,
Dido on her funeral pile, ^neas landing in Sicily —
the latter a very favorite theme, as was to be ex
pected. There are innumerable illustrations of inci
dents in the life of Ulysses, of Achilles, of Pyrrhus; rep
resentations of Olympian gods and demi-gods, heroes,
goddesses, dryads, nymphs. There are pictures of
adventures, of combats ; apparitions of pagan deities
and Christian saints to favored mortals. Historical
subjects there are also : the meeting of Richard and

l6 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Saladin, the capture of Jerusalem by the Saracens, the
landing of Roger in Sicily, a Turkish camp surprised
by Greeks (the last evidently an incident from the
Greek War of Independence), Turks massacring Chris
tians, assassination of Julius Caesar, and many other
illustrations of celebrated murders and innumerable
scenes from the war of the Sicilian Vespers. One
series of pictures especially interested us — we found
it repeated ad libitum, and all the carrette so deco
rated were, if not new, at least of recent manufacture.
We were told that these particular carts were replicas
of the Sicilian carretta exhibited at the World's Fair
in Chicago. On one side-board were two panels — one
representing Columbus at the Court of Queen Isabella,
the other Isabella giving Columbus her crown jew
els. On the other side-board were likewise two tab
leaux — Columbus discovering America and Columbus
crowned King of America.
The catalogue of this peripatetic picture-gallery
could be spun out to greater length than the Homeric
register of the Greek navy — indeed, to set it in type
would be to compile a volume as large as the official
catalogues of the paintings in the Pitti Palace, at
least ; if indeed it did not equal in bulk the catalogues
of the Louvre or the Prado. There were panels rep
resenting scenes, no doubt, of present contemporane
ous interest: A personage in Sicilian costume (pre
sumably a brigand) standing on a mountain peak
defying soldiers by brandishing a blunderbuss; the
same surrounded by soldiers firing a volley, evidently
in order to induce the personage to surrender ; the
same looking through prison bars ; and the hanging
of the same by a masked and cloaked hangman.

'"'¦'¦¦.• 1:1;-:-'

THE CAPITAL OF SICILY 1 7
Other series of four panels pictured the horrors of a
dissecting-room, others dealt with the story of Jonah
and the whale, Daniel and his lions, Noah and the
ark, David and Goliath, the Four Evangelists ; Popes,
many ; saints, innumerable ; St. George and his dragon ;
" San Giuliano appealing to the Normans " to encour
age them to renewed attacks upon the Saracens.
There were fanciful portraits of beautiful women and
handsome men ; knights and ladies ; enchanters, fai
ries, monsters, and angels ; devils and monks. Many
carts were adorned with scenes from Italian operas,
and many more with designs of fruits and flowers or
gaudy landscapes — ^tna in eruption, for instance,
and storms at sea. In the endless collection were
portraits of Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, Julius Cae
sar, Dionysius of Syracuse, Charlemagne, Don John
of Austria, Barbarossa the Pirate, Richard the Lion-
hearted, Giovanni di Procida, Napoleon I., Abra
ham Lincoln, Vittorio Emanuele, King Umberto ;
and, more numerous than all, of Giuseppe Garibaldi.
The marvellous vehicles, thus decorated, are drawn by
asses tricked out in all the colors of sunset, with pom
pons nodding on their heads and from the middle of
their backs, and all clothed in gaudy harnesses, to
which are attached rosettes, bows of ribbons, and
bright bunches and bits of tapes and cords of the
brightest hues.
These arrangements in polychrome parade the
streets, " coquets et color^s," droll and fantastical,
attractive to the eye, fascinating the mind — like re
buses, as Guy de Maupassant calls them, which out-
puzzle thought, and of which one is constantly seek
ing the solution. Nevertheless, the carrette are most

l8 PICTURESQUE SICILY
interesting and worthy of particular mention and de
tailed description, because, in some sort, they serve to
render popular many facts and incidents culled from
the chronicles, real and mythological, of Sicily — the
land of a "strange, eventful history."

Ill
MONTE PELLEGRINO
Italian Cavalry — The Soldiers of Hamilcar Barca—" La Strada
di Montagna" — Satyrs and Pan-pipes — May-flowers in
December— An Ancient Monastery— The Shrine of Santa
Rosalia — A Saintly Daughter of Kings — The Vision of
Girolama — View from the Summit of Pellegrino.
When we beheld Monte Pellegrino, rising in noble
outlines from the sea high into the morning sunlight
— our first glimpse of the Sicilian shore — we deter
mined to make the ascent to its summit, thence to
study the topography of Palermo, II Conco d' Oro,
and the surrounding mountains. Accordingly, the
day after our arrival, the weather being fine, the air
fresh and invigorating — th^ very morning for a moun
tain expedition — we passed out of the north gate of
the city. Porta San Giorgio, and, taking the Via del
Monte Pellegrino, came to "la falda di montagna" —
that is to say, to " the skirts of the mountain." Pur
suing our journey, we crossed a plain, on which a
company of Italian cavalry was going through its ev
olutions. We halted for a few moments to watch the
movements of the troop, and we remember trying to
imagine the havoc that small body of men, armed
with carbines and other modern tools of war, would
have played with the soldiers of Hamilcar Barca, who

20 PICTURESQUE SICILY
pitched their tents on that same plain, at the foot of
Ercta (the ancient name of Monte Pellegrino), two
thousand one hundred and forty-one years ago.
At the foot of Monte Pellegrino we found awaiting
us an "asinajo," with two well-kept, well-fed beasts
of the patient tribe which, as the Sicilian proverb runs,
" Porta il vino e bee 1' acqua." * They were sturdy,
laborious creatures, and, if not willing travellers, nev
ertheless went their gait perseveringly, doubtless mind
ful of that other proverb, " Asino duro, baston duro."f
We lost no time in mounting our steeds, which gra
ciously permitted us to do so without protest. In
deed, so meekly, and withal so stolidly, did they submit
to the manceuvre that we conceived a violent suspicion
we were being beguiled into delusions of security from
which we were certain to be aroused, sooner or later,
when, at a more convenient season, our " asini " took
it into their heads to masquerade for one wild mo
ment in lions' skins. Our asinajo informing us that
the asini were " giovani" and " multi forti," cast loose
their tethers, dealt each of them a preliminary whack
with his cudgel, as he gave voice to a shrill, guttural
cry, " Ah-ee !" " Avanti !" and our cavalcade began the
ascent of La Strada di Montagna, a broad, substan
tially built viaduct, with arches and piers; a miracle of
boldness for seventeenth-century engineers. It zigzags
up the mountain, crossing and recrossing a precipitous
ravine, down which in winter-time pour great torrents
of water. Fifteen or twenty times La Strada leaps
from side to side, until one does, indeed, marvel how

* Carries wine and drinks water.
f Stubborn ass, hard stick.

MONTE PELLEGRINO 21
the engineers found their way up the precipices, and
where the builders stood while laying the founda
tions. Shortly after starting we overtook a flock of over a
thousand goats — there may have been more, certainly
there were not fewer. Surely we never saw so many of
the tribe before — all kinds, all colors, all ages and con
ditions of goats. Behind them followed, constantly
shouting the strange cry " Ah-ee !" a number of goat
herds, brown and sun -burned, ragged and unkempt,
some clothed in sheepskin trousers and coats, others
bare-legged save for knee-breeches, and all of them
wearing upper garments of goatskin. Queer, unnat
ural-looking beings — satyr- like! We could almost
fancy that one old fellow with squalid beard and a
most un-Sicilian-looking paunch, was Silenus himself.
We were ready to believe that all of the uncanny
company, had Pan himself been there to pipe, would
have gone dancing and whirling away over the rocks
amid the vines and ferns, after the manner of their
kind before Christian saints drove away the Pagan
gods from Panormus and sent the mountain and
woodland deities a-packing.
And why not fancy that — or anything?
We were among wild scenery of rocks and tower
ing crags, flitting fearsomely over shadow -grasping
gulfs and yawning chasms, alone in a savage world,
and there around us were all the accessories needed
to set the mind romancing, turning courage and light
ness of heart to softness and superstition. Why not
fancy the return of Pan ? Indeed, more improbable
day-dreams might well be conjured up by imagina
tions susceptible to the influence of time and place ;

22 PICTURESQUE SICILY
for by the roadside, in December, within a week or two
of Christmas, we beheld daisies, marigolds, and sweet
alyssum, wild thyme, flowering-mint and dandelions,
pink-tipped asters, budding trefolia, sorrel, and last,
but not least, purple violets, peeping shyly at us; fam
iliar eyes that glanced and gleamed pleasantly in the
mellow sunlight. The view of them gladdened sight
wearied by the savage aspect of sullen crags and in
hospitable peaks of the overhanging mountain. And
all these flowers were blooming in loveliness within a
fortnight of Christmas ! December in the gay motley
of May ! The world was growing young again! Why
not satyrs and Pan-pipes ?
Having passed the last arches that bore the road
back and forth, across and up the ravine, we followed
a paved highway from the north around to the west
front of the mountain, and came to a halt at the foot
of a broad flight of steps cut in the rock. We left our
asses untethered, not doubting that we should find
them again, and, a.scending fifty steps or more, stood
before the great door of an ancient monastery.
We had left the bright and bustling city behind us
scarce an hour ago, and here we were, seemingly as re
mote from life and its affairs as if we had crossed a
desert, or had climbed some vast St. Bernard, and
stood before the gates of an ancient brotherhood,
" The world forgetting, by the world forgot." Sud
denly there came from within the gloomy walls the
mufffed fluting of an organ and the harmony of sweet
voices singing. It was the monks within at prayers ;
unseen choristers were chanting' an old Gregorian
hymn dear to the ear, touching the heart, one that
lingers sweetly in the memory. Within were peace

MONTE PELLEGRINO 23
and quietness; only the outer world seemed dreary
and desolate.
Presently, in answer to our knocking, a postern
door was opened by an old monk, at whose invitation
we entered a vestibule, at one end of which was a sac
risty, at the other a mural shrine, before which flick
ered three or four nearly burned -out candles. The
ceiling was supported by twisted monoliths of red
marble, surmounted by carved capitals of florid de
sign. Strange it was to stand in the shadow of this
entrance-hall, looking beyond the pillars to find the
sunshine falling into a court -yard that served as a
nave, the vault of which was heaven, its walls, that
on the right unhewn cliffs, that on the left a continu
ation of the masonry of the vestibule. At one side of
this square, open space was a baptismal font, a natu
ral well ; and beyond, across the court, there opened a
large cavern into the mountain-side, in the interior of
which many candles twinkled on a high altar, where a
priest was saying mass. The silence of the place was
broken only by the murmur of prayer, the welling of
the organ, and the song of the choristers. We could
guess at, rather than see, the figures of the monks in
their stalls on each side of the grotto.
Crossing the roofless nave we entered the chancel,
a mysterious cave, with stalactites hanging from its
ceiling, beneath which was suspended an odd and
complicated system of lead gutters to catch the wa
ter that otherwise would drip on priests and worship
pers. Our ghostly cicerone pointed to a seat where
we placed ourselves behind the robed and cowled
monks at the side of the gospel-desk. The front part
of the cavern was lighted by the sun ; the inner re-

24 PICTURESQUE SICILY
cesses were in darkness, save where the light from the
candles on the altar faintly illumined the walls and
roof of the mysterious sanctuary.
When mass was over, and the echoes of the last
Amen had died away, when the holy fathers had one
by one stolen softly from the cavern, returning to the
cells in their dormitory, our guide lighted a taper and
bid us look within a glass-case enclosing a shrine under
an altar that stood to the left of the chancel. Kneel
ing where Goethe had knelt, to pry, like him, into the
mysteries of the tomb, we were willing to believe that
we beheld what he more than a century ago thus de
scribed :
" By the steady light of a small lamp I beheld the form of
a beautiful woman. She lay as one in an ecstasy, her eyes half
closed, her head softly resting on her right hand, on which
were many rings. I could not with a certainty distinguish her
features, nevertheless they seemed to me still to possess a
wondrous charm. Her garments were of tinsel gilt, which had
the appearance of rich and delicate cloth of gold. The head
and hands were of white marble, sculptured, if not in the high
est style of art, nevertheless so naturally and beautifully wrought
that one must believe the figure breathed and moved. A lit
tle angel stands by her as if to fan her with a lily, fair and white."
All this we tried to see — like Goethe, giving our
selves over to the passing illusion of the place and
its inspirations; but our imagination fluttered feebly
where his had fearlessly soared, and we turned away
in disgust from the tawdry, grewsome simulacrum of
the saint, and tried to forget even what we had seen,
or tried to make believe we saw.-* As one seeks to
* " When Professor Buckland, the eminent osteologist and geologist,
discovered that the relics of Rosalia, at Palermo, which had for ages cured

"LA CALA.' PALERMO. (THE OLD HARBOR)

MONTE PELLEGRINO 25
take away a bad taste from the mouth by substituting
a more agreeable flavor, so we, endeavoring to blot
out the offensive spectacle — a burlesque of the vic
tory over death — turned our eyes to the light and
the sweet realities of life. We welcomed the sight of
some dainty maidenhair ferns, growing in the sunlight
around the coping of the well in the open court — the
nave — of the church. An old well truly, and pictur
esque, which serves as baptismal font, holy-water ewer,
and drinking -fountain, where babies are christened,
where monks and pilgrims devoutly cross themselves
and drink to be cured of evil diseases.
From the chapel of Santa Rosalia to the top of
Monte Pellegrino is an interesting climb, easily ac
complished by a good walker in twenty minutes.
The view from the summit is vast in its extent, varied
in its features ; a landscape of sea and shore, of isl
ands and mainland, of wide ocean and sheltered bays.
In the east, as far as the eye can reach. Cape Orlando
rises from the Mediterranean, and hitherward extends
the range of mountains, the Sicilian Apennines, which
skirt the northern coast of Sicily. Many of the peaks
soar to heights varying between five and six thousand
feet, to culminate in Pizzo dell' Antenna, which uplifts
its crest six thousand four hundred and eighty feet
above the sea. Cape Orlando runs far out into the
sea, pointing north to Vulcano, nearest of all the JEo-
lian Islands to the Sicilian main. Four more of the
group appear to the northwest of Vulcano, but Strom-

diseases and warded off epidemics, were the bones of a goat, this fact
caused not the slightest diminution of their miraculous power." —
Andrew D. White. A History of Warfare of Science with Theology.

26 PICTURESQUE SICILY
boli, like ^tna in the far east, hides itself in mists.
To the north we behold distant Ustica, and midway
between it and the foot of Pellegrino we discover a
wee black speck, from which a plume of smoke extends
along the west wind. Like a tiny " umbrella-ant," the
packet from Palermo bound to the island of Ustica
crawls almost imperceptibly across boundless space
two hours out, with two hours more to crawl before it
enters its desired haven. Even while we are looking
at it, it disappears, distance absorbs it as the sea drinks
a raindrop. From the foot of Pellegrino, extending
around the margin of the Bay of Palermo, a line of
surf shows like a string of white beads, and broad sand-
beaches, dwindled to mere threads of gold, embroider
the green mantle of II Conco d' Oro. With peculiar
distinctness sounds and echoes rise through the calm
air, shrill, plaintive, pathetic, the cries of children, theirs
alone distinct ; all other voices hushed, the droning
of the city, the whisper of the waves breaking on the
sands; the soughing of the wind in the tree-tops, as
soft, as solemn, as impressive as the hollow murmurs
of the oracles of the ancient gods. Herdsmen leading
their flocks on distant hill-sides utter strange, croaking
sounds — "Ah-ee!" — and ravens flitting about the spires
and steeples of Pellegrino mimic the cries with impish
cleverness. The flocks we had passed that morning,
on our way up the mountain, now scattered over the
foot-hills, creep everywhere, like white ants swarming
on their hills of pine-needles and withered leaves, and
the bleating of lambs sounds like the shrilling of
crickets and katydids. Wonderfully near seems the
barking of a dog, and yet the house he watches is but
a dot of white in the wilderness of greenery. Mysteri-

MONTE PELLEGRINO 27
ously far away seems the world ; men we see none,
only their dwellings; but always there come up to us
the cries of living things and the voices of Nature,
like invocations rising through the serene ether to
Olympus. Palermo well deserves her name, " La Bianca " —
The White City ; for the stone of which her palaces
and dwellings are constructed is of a very light-cream
color, white shining in the brilliant sunlight ; so that
from Pellegrino one beholds a city of marble. Imag
ine, if you can, the beauty of such a city seated be
tween the sea and II Conco d' Oro, a vast park inter
spersed with groves of ilex, orange and almond trees,
and gardens of stately palms. Truly no more magnif
icent prospect is to be beheld in all the world.

IV
THE HEART OF PALERMO
"I Quattro Canti" — "II Corso" — Via Macqueda — Ancient
City Gates — The Four Quarters of the City — Baroque
Architecture — Saracenic-Norman Churches — San Cataldo
— La Martorana.
The summit of Monte Pellegrino affords a bird's-
eye view of Palermo, II Conco d' Oro, the sea-shore,
and the surrounding mountains.
To know Palermo well, however — to enable one to
study understandingly the extent, contour, and con
figuration of the city in detail, one must begin one's
explorations by taking as a place of departure La
Piazza Vigliena — difficult to find if one looks for it
on any of the modern plans of the city, or inquires
his way to it, calling it by that name ; for the piazza
is generally known — indeed is always spoken of by
Palermitans — as " I Quattro Canti." The " Place of the
Four Corners " is formed by the intersection of Corso
Vittorio Emanuele and Via Macqueda, commonly
called " II Corso " and " La Via," the principal thor
oughfares of Palermo, the main arteries of travel,
which are crowded all day long and far into the
night by an interminable procession of vehicles and
thronged by hosts of foot-passengers.
Standing in I Quattro Canti, facing northwest, look-

the heart of PALERMO 29
ing up Via Macqueda past the site of the old porta of
the same name (the gateway itself was removed years
ago to permit of the widening of the street), the
vista through the new town is closed by Monte Gallo,
rising at a distance of eight miles or more at the end
of the valley of La Favorita. Facing about and look
ing through the old town down the Via Macqueda
out beyond Porta San Antonio, Monte Grifone, five
miles distant, marks the limit of La Pianura di Ma
donna della Grazia. To the northeast, down II Cor
so, more than half a mile away. Porta Felice spans the
street, and through its arch a glimpse is to be had
of the Mediterranean. Sunlight transfigures the gate
way of pearly gray stone, and it glows a golden yel
low ; the peep of blue water framed by the arch
sparkles like a sapphire in an antique setting of beat
en gold. Turning again and looking up II Corso to
the southwest. Porta Nuova shows in quaint design ;
also the golden frame of a picture, not of the sea this
time, but of amethystine hills which rise beyond II
Conco d' Oro, the castle-crowned hills of Monreale.
I Quattro Canti is the " Heart of Palermo." Near it
are the University, the public libraries, many churches,
the courts of justice, numerous clubs and palaces, and
the principal shops of the town. It is the most inter
esting point from which to observe the life of the city.
Two streams of travel meet here, two brimming rivers
of humanity. The current which ebbs and flows along
the Via Macqueda is composed, especially in the after
noon, of the fashionable element of Palermo society,
the people who keep carriages or hire " carrozze," pat
ronize the grandest shops, visit the clubs and libraries,
attend the courts or the University. II Corso is more

30 PICTURESQUE SICILY
commercial in its aspects, noticeable for the array
of carts and drays, all wonderfully painted; for the
smaller number of leisurely strollers, and particularly
for the greater crowd of itinerant peddlers who fill
the air with their cries. On La Via Macqueda one
buys violets and confectionery ; on II Corso one bar
gains for fruit, or, if one is in search of them, cauli
flowers, or even " finnochi " and garlic. If one is in
quest of articles of luxury one looks for them on La
Via ; if household articles are req^uired they are to be
found on II Corso, and it is to II Corso one must re
sort if one desires to satisfy a craving for those neces
saries of life, books.
The Place of the Four Corners has the form of an
octagon, and the four fagades at the angles of the
street are highly decorated in the baroque style with
columns and statues. Not in Italy, but in Spain, can
one see the like ; in Seville, not in Florence, can one
find similar schemes of ornamentation ; and the crowd
of passers-by who have known I Quattro Canti all
their lives are, if not Sicilians, Spaniards — most unmis
takably not Italian. And what wonder? Sicily was
under Spanish influence for many generations; it has
only been a part of Italy — if it can be called an inte
gral part to-day — for one generation. There are stat
ues, no doubt, of Victor Emanuel, first king of Italy,
in Palermo ; and Palermitans, loving his memory, have
called a grand street by his name ; but they have not
forgotten the days of Spanish rule ; indeed, it is great
ly to be feared that they have only ceased to remem
ber how badly they were governed by Spanish vice
roys — among others, by Macqueda, who in 1600 de
creed I Quattro Canti and La Via known by his name.

THE HEART OF PALERMO 31
The southern facade, with its back to the Rione
(Section) Palazzo Reale, is embellished with the statues
of Spring, Charles V., and Santa Christina ; that fac
ing it, on the north side, and belonging to the Rione
CasteUamare, is adorned with effigies of Autumn,
Philip III., and Santa Oliva; that to the east, Rione
di Tribunal!, with Winter, Philip IV., and Santa Ag
atha ; that to the west, Rione di Monte-di-Pieta, with
Summer, Philip II. , and Santa Ninfa. The effigies of
kings are not always appropriately to be placed near
the statues of modest saints, and one cannot refrain
from thinking that Santa Christina and her three com
panions might well be found in more congenial socie
ty. But there is an appropriateness — a world of sug
gestion — in the juxtaposition of the effigies of the
four Spanish kings and the statues of the four seasons.
In the time of Charles V. — without doing great in
justice to the memory of his ancestors — Spain may
be said to have been in the spring-time of her glory.
Philip II. filled with his long reign the summer of her
magnificence. Philip III. saw her splendor fade to
the sear and yellow leaf, and Philip IV. (rescued from
oblivion by the brush of Velasquez) brought decrepit
old Spain to the beginning of the winter of her dis
content. The edifice which supports the fagade on which is the
statue of Santa Christina — by whose name the Rione
Palazzo Reale is also known to churchmen — is La
Chiesa di San Giuseppe di Teatini, a colossal structure
in most extravagant baroque, begun in 1612 and inau
gurated in 1645 by the viceroy. Marquis de Los Valez.
How auy architect, having as models from which
to draw inspiration for his art the superb Norman

32 PICTURESQUE SICILY
cathedral of Monreale and the Pafatine Chapel (which
we had not yet seen, but were to behold and marvel
at), could be guilty of the designs for this church of
St. Joseph, it is hard to comprehend. The same may
be said of all the churches of Palermo built in the
seventeenth century. In all of them " the Jesuits' love
of show and finery is exhibited in its greatest extrav
agance, not from design or plan, but by accident, as
artist after artist, sculptor, carver, gilder, painter, or
worker in marble chose to labor, without taste or rule,
merely to display his own abilities."* The exteriors
of these baroque churches are invariably offensive to
one's sense of the fitness of things architectural ; they
remind one somehow of elephants and hippopotami,
clumsy, uncouth, heavy, and ungraceful — " flabby," if
one may use the term. As you study these buildings
closely you wonder how even a seventeenth-century
bishop could wish to possess one of the gaudy mon
strosities. When we entered San Giuseppe we were not im
pressed with the beauty of the interior ; the bad taste,
the vulgar display of excessive ornamentation, op
pressed us. What we could and did admire, however,
and, although we visited the church many times dur
ing our stay in Palermo, never wearied of studying,
was the superb collection of Sicilian marbles, plain
and inlaid, of all colors, of all grains, of all degrees of
beauty, with which the interior of the church is ve
neered from floor to roof. We found much to inter
est us in the details of the embellishment — inlaid altars,
beautifully chiselled fonts and candelabra, cornices,
* Goethe. Italienische Reise, Leipsic, page 42.

PULPIT. CAPPELLA PALATINA, PALERMO

THE HEART OF PALERMO 33
panels, crucifixes, lintels, and door-posts ; all delicately
carved in variegated marbles, matched and joined to
gether as nicely as the inlaid woodwork one sees at
Sorrento or the delicate mosaics for which the artists
of Florence are celebrated. Assuredly, the artificers
who embellished the interior of the baroque churches
in Palermo were as cunning to work in marble as their
brethren who carved from oak the chancel of the
cathedral at Seville or beautified the stalls in the choir
of II Duomo at Pisa with exquisite marquetry.
Beneath the nave of San Giuseppe is another church,
dedicated to La Madonna della Providenza, and below
that again is a chapel sacred to Santa Rosalia. In the
latter we bought a ticket at a box-office, giving for it
five centesimi, which was duly exchanged at a desk
for two hazel-nuts wrapped in a paper on which were
printed the directions for wisely and devoutly apply
ing the sacred comestibles, the curative qualities of
which were confidently advertised. From this inci
dent may be gathered the idea that Sicilians are
superstitious. No doubt ignorant Sicilians are very
superstitious. Even Signor Crispi, a Sicilian born, is
said to have inherited an implicit belief in charms, as
witness the coral ornament in the shape of a horn
which he is said to wear on his watch-chain as a pro
tection against the " evil eye."
Near I Quattro Canti, in Via Macqueda, we stopped
to examine a collection of ballads and cheap litera
ture strung up along the wall of San Giuseppe. Mu
tatis mutandis, they were of that kind and quality
with which Londoners and New-Yorkers, for instance,
who pay attention to such light and trivial matters,
are familiar, and with which the literary cravings of
3

34 PICTURESQUE SICILY
the " street arabs " of the two cities are fed, perforce
satisfied. It was interesting to discover that Jack
Sheppard, Claude Duval, Red - Handed Dick the
Scout of the Rockies, Barney the White Boy, Old
Sledge the B'ar Hunter, found their prototypes in
Francatrippa, Fra Diavolo, Antonio Cacciatori (An
tonio the Lion-hunter), Botindari, Brigante di Santo
Mauro, and the like. Many of the old " dime-novel "
heroes were represented, disguised as Sicilians, having
for the nonce discarded the costumes in which they
had masqueraded for English and American readers.
We penetrated the incognito of some of them, recog
nized others under their aliases, and enjoyed for a few
moments all the pleasure experienced by a detective
of Scotland Yard or the Central Office when he estab
lishes the identity of a noted " crook." There were,
however, some entirely respectable historical charac
ters whom we were surprised to find in such question
able company. Cheek by jowl with Fra Diavolo was
pious .(Eneas ; Francatrippa's side partner was no less
a personage than the " dog-eyed Ulysses." Hercules,
slayer of the Nemean monster, touched shoulders with
Antonio the Lion-hunter; while Dionysius of Syra
cuse, Pyrrhus of Epirus, and Ruggiero, Re di Sicilia,
mingled with the crowd of more modern popular Sicil
ian celebrities, the bare mention of whose names sends
a chill down the vertebrae of peaceful citizens and
causes the hair of the conventional good boy to stand
on end.
We crossed the Via Macqueda and entered the
Piazza Pretoria, where stands the Palazzo Municipale,
or della Cittk, commonly called " II Municipio," the
City Hall. In the centre of the square is a fountain

THE HEART OF PALERMO 35
built in the style of the sixteenth century. From the
variegated marble wall surrounding the basin animals
of all kinds, carved in white marble, stretch out their
necks as if trying to escape from the port-holes of a
sinking ship. The sculptor understood his zoological
modelling, but the general effect of the fountain is not
pleasing, notwithstanding it is the "admiration of the
whole island." In this square are also the old Palazzo
Serradifalco, and the side entrance of the Church of
Santa Catarina, which we entered and found to be gor
geously decorated in the baroque, a tasteless jumble
of beautiful marbles, jaspers, and other rare stones,
carved and inlaid, worthy of examination in detail,
but most disappointing when studied as a scheme of
interior decoration.
From the steps of the Church of Santa Catarina we
looked across the Piazza di Teatro Bellini (named in
honor of the Sicilian composer) and studied the pict
ure presented by the Chapel of San Cataldo and the
Church of Santa Maria del Ammiraglio, or La Mar
torana. Both edifices stand on a platform above the
piazza, from which they are reached by a flight of stone
steps. The smaller, begun in 1161 A. D., was finished
twenty years later by William I., " The Good." Cer
tain archaeologists, however, assert that it was erected
at an earlier date to serve as a Moorish mosque ; and
its rectangular form and three cupolas — the central one
supported by four columns surmounted by arches —
seem to lend plausibility to the statement. The
larger Church of La Martorana, built in 1143 by
George Antiochenus, the Admiral of Roger II., first
Norman king of Sicily, is, in certain parts of it, one
of the most remarkable of the existing monuments of

36 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Arabo-Sicilian architecture of the twelfth century.
The two buildings in their various parts illustrate
many of the styles of architecture that have been at
one time or another, during the last one thousand
years, in vogue in Sicily. San Cataldo has low-point
ed Moorish windows and an Arabian battlemented
frieze, carved with texts from Al- Koran. The two
lower stories of the Campanile of La Martorana have
been preserved in their primitive beauty; the two
upper stories, much more ornate, are probably of four
teenth-century workmanship. The facade of La Mar
torana facing the piazza is of early seventeenth-cent
ury design. The church has been much "restored,"
but is very beautiful still, and well worth the careful
examination of antiquarians and the study of artists.
When La Martorana was built, Greek and Arabic
were the languages of the better class of Sicilians, as
is to be learned from the act of endowment, writ-ten in
those languages, a fact which serves to prove that
Latin was not the language of the courtier and the
clerk of Norman times. Upon entering La Martora
na we came face to face with one of the most re
markable remains of Sicilian-Norman art, and by one
glance at an ancient mosaic that shone as brightly as
the day the workmen finished it we learned the story
of Roger, descendant of Vikings, kinsman of William
of the Strong Arm and Robert Guiscard, and ancestor
of " the greatest man who reigned in Europe between
the days of Julius Caesar and Napoleon," namely, the
Emperor Frederick II.* Had Roger been a man less
great than history warrants him to have been, the
¦* E. A. Freeman. Essay on Frederick II.

THE HEART OF PALERMO 37
mosaic representing him receiving the crown of the
kingdom which he had carved out for himself with his
own sword, from the hands of Christ Himself, would
have savored of blasphemy. But when we know how
Roger fought, how he governed, being every inch a
king, and how he stood between his people (a people
fortunate, if in nothing else, in that Roger conquered
them) and the ambitions of the Papacy, that schemed
and fought to put all men and all things under it —
when we know all this, we realize that the artist who
designed the mosaic had not presumed to flatter a
man who acknowledged no over-lord but the Saviour
of mankind.
It is a famous old story, the tale of the Normans
in Sicily, a wonder -inspiring chronicle of great en
deavor and grand achievement by world -compelling
men. Inconsiderable ideas and hints of its glory have
been gathered from fragments of documentary evi
dence, inaccessible to all but favored specialists who
find admission to uncatalogued libraries of monaster
ies and palaces. A few disjecta membra of laws and
public records have been rescued from oblivion by
scholars who have devoted years of their lives to pa
tient grubbing amid the mouldering archives of an
almost forgotten epoch.
Fine and inspiring are the few syllables we catch of
the chronicles of Roger and his Norman successors,
whose story, more strange, because truer, than the le
gends of ^neas and Ulysses, more romantic than the
tale of Charlemagne or of that other Norman, William
the Conqueror, is still untold, awaiting the scholar
who shall be inspired to sing the epic or write the
history in noble prose.

38 PICTURESQUE SICILY
The sight of the two ancient sanctuaries, the Chapel
of San Cataldo and the Church of La Martorana, with
their divers styles of architecture, serves to carry the
mind backward, as if on stepping-stones, from time
present to time past, from the Sicily of to-day to the
Sicily of the Norman, of the Saracen. The facade of
La Martorana told its story of Spanish rule when Sicil
ian architects sought to reproduce the thought of the
builders of the Cathedral in Seville and other Spanish
cities. Certain arches borne on round columns and
fragments of ornamentation suggested the chapels one
sees in far-off Normandy or the Church of St. Barthol
omew the Great in London ; while the friezes carved
with texts from Al-Koran, the rounded cupolas and
windows with arches constructed of alternating red
and white voussoirs recalled the mosque at Cordova,
" that flower of Moslem architecture."

V
LA CAPPELLA PALATINA
La Porta Nuova — The Royal Palace — King Roger's Chapel
— Jewelled Walls — La Stanza di Ruggiero — Tapestries
in Stone.
" The true splendor of Palermo, that which makes
the city one of the most glorious of the South, is to
be sought in its churches: in the mosaics of the Cap
pella Palatina, founded by King Roger, the vast aisles
and cloisters of Monreale, built by William the Good
at the instance of his chancellor Matteo ; in the Cathe
dral of Palermo, begun by Offamilio, and in the Mar
torana, dedicated by George the Admiral."* It is
true, therefore, that in Palermo one must look for
" the noblest monuments of Norman days." -f
La Martorana we had seen when we came upon it
unexpectedly during our first ramble in the heart of
the city. We had yet to see " the wonder of wonders,"
La Cappella Palatina, " la plus belle qui soit au
monde, le plus surprenant bijou religieux rev^ par la
pensee humaine et execute par des mains d'artiste.":}:
On the highest eminence within the old walls of
Palermo, facing the Piazza Vittorio — formerly called
* T. Addington Symonds. Italian Sketches. '
f Sarah Orne Jewett. The Normans in Italy.
X Guy de Maupassant. La Vie Errante.

40 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Piano del Palazzo — there is a row of buildings as in
congruous in architectural effect as can well be im
agined. To the right, spanning II Corso, stands La
Porta Nuova, a triumphal arch erected on the site of
Porta del Sole, in 1535 A.D., to commemorate the
"joyous entrance" of Charles V. when he visited Pa
lermo on his return from his expedition to Tunis.
Some say that the plans for this gateway were drawn
by Michael Angelo, others by Pietro Novelli, the Si
cilian artist ; but it is more probable that Gaspard
Quercio, the constructor of the arch, also drew the de
signs for it. It is a quaint and picturesque specimen
of sixteenth-century architecture, and was originally
named Porta Austria by the Senate of Palermo ; but
the Palermitans, having no cause to love Charles V.
or to honor his memory, insisted on renaming it Porta
Nuova, and so it is called to-day. This gateway is
connected with the Royal Palace by a corridor two
stories in height, with balustrades surmounting its
cornice. None of the buildings composing the palace
are older than Norman times, although certain foun
dations laid in the days of the Saracen emirs are still
in existence, and, possibly, some of the walls of the
Saracenic nucleus around which Robert Guiscard,
Count Roger, King Roger, William the Good, and
Frederick II. built their towers and keeps.
This group of buildings presents to-day an appear
ance very different from its aspect in Norman times.
Then, many towers and battlemented edifices occu
pied the space within the fortified enclosure. At
present, none but La Torre Pisana — now called " San
ta Ninfa " — remains to serve as a reminder of the age
of chivalry. Santa Ninfa has been used for many

MONREALE CATHEDRAL. (INTERIOR)

LA CAPPELLA PALATINA 4 1
years as an astronomical observatory, where, in 1790,
Piazzi compiled his catalogues of the fixed stars, and
where he discovered a planetoid to which, in honor of
the ancient protectress of Sicily, he gave the name
Ceres. In the times of Spanish viceroys the hand of
the restorer was laid on so much of the Norman pal
ace as had escaped demolition during the civil wars of
the last half of the fourteenth century, when it was
occupied in turn by both contending factions during
their contests for possession of Palermo. In those
evil days it was robbed of its ancient splendor, and
the magnificent home of the Norman kings became
unfit for the dwelling-place of royalty, so that Martin
and Alfonzo of Aragon deserted it, preferring to lodge
in a palace of the Chiaramonti. So ruthlessly was
the work of destruction carried on that there remains
of the original palace little else than La Torre Santa
Ninfa, La Stanza di Ruggiero, and La Cappella Pala
tina. On the ground now occupied by one of the least
attractive edifices composing the Palazzo Reale once
stood La Chiesa di Santa Maria la Pinta, built by
Belisarius about the year 535 A.D. Pity it is that this
old relic has been utterly destroyed. It was in the
style of the very earliest Christian basilicas, and marked
the period of transition from Greek temple to Chris
tian church ; but its proportions and plan are only to
be guessed at by architects of to-day. The chapel of
Belisarius gave place ages ago to less interesting halls
and chambers.
Entering the main door of the palace, we found our
selves in a court-yard having an arcade of three open
ing's in each face. We ascended a staircase to the

42 PICTURESQUE SICILY
first floor, and, turning to the right, stood before the
door of La Cappella Palatina, the royal chapel dedi
cated to St. Peter by Roger II. before the year 1132
A.D. The wall of the vestibule is embellished with
mosaics of modern workmanship above a wainscoting
of plates of white marble streaked with black, which
at a short distance resembles satin hangings with
many -colored borders of arabesque designs. In the
early morning the sunlight falls upon the marble pave
ment within the portals of the only entrance to the
chapel, a small door in the side wall at the anglp far
thest from the grand altar. When we stepped across
the sill, the interior of the sanctuary was shrouded in
darkness. As we stood in silence, wondering, we be
came conscious of dormant color-tones blending with
deep, soft shadows, as mysterious, as entrancing as mel
odies heard from a distance through a calm night.
Broad bands and beams of sunlight, falling obliquely
athwart the darkness of the nave and chancel, were
reflected upward from the marble pavement and illum
inated the high -altar and the apse above it. This
mysterious radiance revealed the figure of Christ, His
right hand rai.sed in the act of blessing, the attitude in
which He is always represented in Norman -Sicilian
mosaics. In His left hand He holds an open book,
on the pages of which is the inscription, in Greek text :
" I am the Light of the World." The figure is colos
sal, its bearing majestical, its aspect benign. The de
sign, which is on a golden ground, is drawn in strong
lines, and one marvels at the genius of the artist who
has expressed so much by the use of means and ma
terials so simple. Nevertheless, the grand presence
fills the church ; all other ideas are subordinated to the

LA CAPPELLA PALATINA 43
effect to be produced upon the minds and souls of
men by the revelation of the face of the Son of God.
And it is the face of a God ! Passionless, calm, imper
turbable- — a grand ideal ; not of the " Man of Sorrows "
— the " Crucified One " — but the Son of God ascended
and sitting on the right hand of the Father. So the
old Byzantine artists represented the Saviour of man
kind ; and no face of Christ, no " Ecce Homo," more
perfectly realizes the divine character of God incarnate
than the old Norman pictorial mosaic when illuminated
by the light of the sun reflected from the marble pave
ment and jewelled walls of La Cappella Palatina.
Gradually, as the eye becomes accustomed to the
contrast of deep shadows and sharply defined bands
of light, other forms and faces grow out of the dark
ness, becoming visible through and beyond the golden
sunbeams. The mosaics on the upper walls, the mar
ble wainscoting, the inlaid floor, the polished columns,
gleam and glisten, imparting to the atmosphere of
the chapel a color quality of its own, as if it had ab
sorbed and were suffused with rainbow hues, emanat-
ting from the precious material with which La Pa
latina is adorned and rendered glorious.
The interior, consisting of a nave, aisles, and triple
apse, is one hundred and eight feet in length, includ
ing the eastern apse, and forty -two feet in width.
Ten columns of Egyptian granite and Greek marble,
sixteen feet in height, uphold Saracenic pointed and
stilted arches, which in turn support walls encrusted
with mosaics ; and above all is a curiously carved
wooden roof resembling the vault of a cavern of stal
actites in the early stages of their formation. In
modelling, the ceiling reminds one of that in the Sala

44 PICTURESQUE SICILY
de los Abencerrages in the Alhambra, save that what
is there pearly white is here bronzed, painted, and
golden ; that showing like whitest marble, this like
jasper. Five marble steps lead to the choir, over
which rises a dome seventy-five feet in height, solidly
encrusted with mosaics, except where eight windows
pierce the wall. All the floors of the chapel are cov
ered with inlaid marble plates, and the walls above the
" cipoUino " wainscoting, in the aisles and above the
capitals of the pillars in the nave, are overlaid with
exquisite pictorial mosaics, in which large quantities of
lapis lazuli, not to mention more precious stones, have
been lavishly used. All the mosaics are on a golden
ground, ornamented, radiant with Oriental colors, har
monious, splendid.
The Normans of France and England, with ready
wit and admirable discretion, adapting themselves to
their environment, indulged an inborn love of poly
chrome by using stained glass in the windows of their
churches, which produced charming effects of rich and
varied coloring. Glass windows are a necessity in the
chill North-land. In the sunny South they can easily
be spared ; and the artists who enriched La Pala
tina and La Martorana secured no less beautiful
color -effects than those of stained glass by well-
studied blendings of the tints and colorings ofthe rare
stones with which they adorned the interiors of these
churches. So perfectly do the mosaics of La Palatina
lend themselves to the intention of their makers, so
softly do they reflect the light of day, that the edifice
in which they are exclusively used to decorate all parts
of the interior is illuminated by the same mysterious
light which, falling from " irised panes," transforms

LA CAPPELLA PALATINA 45
the naves and choirs of Northern cathedrals until they
glow with all the tints of the bow of promise.
The pictorial mosaics in La Palatina, as do those
in the Cathedral of Monreale, the paintings on the
walls of Campo Santo, in Pisa, and the frescos by
Giotto in the Arena Chapel in Padua, represent sub
jects drawn from the Old Testament, the life of
Christ, and the lives of His xA.postles, particularly from
the life of St. Peter, who is said to have preached in
the primitive church which he established on this same
site when he was returning from Africa to Rome to
meet his death on the Janiculum, where is now the
Chapel of San Pietro in Montorio. On the right of
the nave, by the steps leading to the choir, is a pulpit
(a plain cube of red porphyry with a frieze of white
marble encrusted with mosaics and inlaid with dainty
geometrical patterns of the same material), borne aloft
on four marble columns exquisitely engraved and del
icately carved. The frank simplicity of the design
and the unostentatious enriching of the work are
most charming. To have highly embellished the rare
material of which this piece is composed would be
" to gild refined gold, to paint the lily." By the
pulpit stands a very ancient carved white candela
brum fourteen feet in height. Some say King Roger
imported it from the East, others that it was wrought
by Norman-Sicilian artists. In either case it bears wit
ness to the wonderful degree of perfection to which
the art of carving in stone was carried in the days
when it was chiselled from the solid block. Between
the shadows of the nave and the brightness of the
choir, almost directly above the steps leading to the
latter, there hangs a large silver lamp, said to have

VI
MONREALE
King William the Good — The Cathedral of Santa Maria Nuova
— The Basilica on Mount Royal — The Benedictine Clois
ters — Treasures of Architecture — Norman Splendor.
William II., called " The Good," had long desired
to build a church in honor of " The Holy Mother of
God," but being at a loss to choose a site for the
sanctuary, he prayed that the Madonna herself would
indicate the place where it might please her to have
a church and shrine. One day, returning from the
chase, the good King reposed at Monreale, and in his
sleep the Holy Virgin appeared and commanded him
to build on that very spot the church which he pur
posed erecting in her honor. The King awoke and
vowed to endow a cathedral which should surpass in
magnificence all Sicilian churches. In 1174 he found
ed on Monreale — " The Royal Mount" — the Church of
Santa Maria Nuova and the adjoining Benedictine
monastery. In 11 82, thanks to the assistance rendered
him by his mother, Margaret of Aragon, the edifice,
the splendor and magnificence of which redounded to
the glory of William the Good, was finished and con
secrated. Around the cathedral and its chapter-houses there
sprang up a considerable town, which to-day has a

MONREALE 49
population of sixteen or seventeen thousand. Mon
reale (pronounced Mtir-ri-a-li by its Sicilian inhabi
tants) is four miles from Palermo. The highway
thither, known as Corso Calatafimi, constructed in
1550 by the Spanish Viceroy Marc-Antonio Colonna,
passes through gardens and villas, orange and lemon
groves, olive plantations and vineyards, and then
mounts the abrupt ahd rocky heights from which
Monreale looks down upon an earthly paradise. Vice
roy Colonna caused to be placed at intervals along
the grand avenue fountains, surrounded by seats from
which visitors and pilgrims to Monreale can enjoy
the wonderful prospects which present themselves at
every turn of the road.
The Cathedral of Monreale is situated at the en
trance of the town, and beyond it, along the hill-side,
the old houses stand in irregular rows, curiously
mediaeval in aspect and surroundings. The glimpses
we caught up and down the streets impressed us
strangely, as if in coming from Palermo we had gone
backwards several centuries — if not indeed to King
William's time, at least to the days when the Colonnas
were viceroys and Sicily was a province of Old Spain.
The exterior of the cathedral is very simple, not to
say plain, in appearance ; the three apses at the east
end are ornamented from top to bottom with tiers of
small pillars and interlacing arches, the latter of alter
nate voussoirs of black and white stone. The edifice
is in the shape of a Latin cross, the dimensions of
which are variously stated in different guide-books
and descriptions of the cathedral.* We incline to the
* Length, 334 feet ; width, 131 feet. — Baedeker, Southern Italy and

50 picturesque SICILY
belief that Baedeker is to be relied upon for the
accurate measurements — viz, length, three hundred
and thirty-four feet ; width, one hundred and thirty-
one feet.
Like all Sicilian basilicas, Monreale has between the
towers an atrium, or portico, the front wall of which
was originally decorated with a carved marble screen
surmounted by an entablature of mosaics representing
eight scenes from the life of the Virgin. The west
portal is pointed ; the pilasters at the sides are en
riched with Greek scrolls and mosaics, and it has
bronze doors, each of the two leaves of which is di
vided into twenty-four compartments containing low-
reliefs of subjects taken from the Old and New Testa
ments, all executed by Bonannus civis Pisanus. This
artist, according to Vasari, worked at Pisa with Guliel
mo Tedesco, aided by whom he designed the doors
of II Duomo and " the famous leaning campanile, the
marvel of all ages and of all men." The bronze doors
of the north portal of Monreale, by Barisano da Trani,
are of later date. The portico, which extends the full
length of the nave on the north side of the cathedral,
was added by Alexander Farnese, Archbishop of Mon
reale, in 1586. The exterior of Monreale was never
finished — it awaits embellishment and decoration;
therefore it conveys no idea of the wonderful interior,
which we entered from the Piazza del Duomo by a
door in the side of the north aisle.
Monreale has a nave and two aisles ; two rows of
nine columns of Oriental granite support stilted and
Sicily. Length, 102 metres ; width, 40 metres. — Carlo Clausen, Guide
de Palermo. Length, 85 metres ; width, 24 metres.— Gustave Clausse,
Basiliques et Mosaiques.

MONREALE 5 1
pointed arches, above which are nine windows in the
clerestory; other windows admit light to the aisles.
The choir and transept (the latter taking in the width
of the aisles) form a Latin cross ; the floor is here
raised above that of the nave, and is reached by seven
steps within a beautiful altar rail of carved marble.
" The nave and aisles have apses at their eastern ex
tremities ; that of the nave, in which is the high altar,
is of striking proportions and impressive size ; the
other two, less elevated, contain smaller altars. All
the openings, the grand arches of the choir, the vault
ing of the aisles, the windows and doors, are of the
style adopted by Arab architects of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries ; but in the details of construction
and ornamentation Monreale belongs to no one school
of art." The splendid work of Norman-Sicilian artists
is " Latin in its shape, Roman in its colonnade, Byz
antine in its mosaics, Greek in its sculpture, Sara
cenic and Norman in its many mouldings " (and, we
may add, baroque as to its restorations), exhibiting a
" most curious combination of styles."* The eighteen
columns of Oriental granite are monoliths taken from
Greek and Roman buildings. Some of the capitals
are antique, but a greater part are of the age of the
founding of Monreale. These last are of similar pat
terns, " exhibiting foliage, volutes in the shape of cor
nucopias with figures intermixed," and all are of the
most delicate workmanship, such as the Byzantine
Greeks knew how to fashion. On one capital is a
curious group representing King William in the act of
introducing the archbishop to the Holy Virgin, emble-
* Henry Knight, Esq., M.P. The Normans in Sicily,

52 PICTURESQUE SICILY
matic of the subordination of Church to State, a char
acteristically Norman way of asserting the divine right
of heaven-anointed kings. The lower walls of both
aisles and of the choir and apses are wainscoted with
plates of cipoUino surmounted by a Saracenic trefoil
of rich marble on a ground of mosaics, which, as in
the portico of La Palatina, has the appearance of white
satin hangings with embroidered silken borders. All
of the floors are of variegated and inlaid marbles, and
above the wainscoting of cipollino all the walls, arches,
arcades, and vaultings of aisles, nave and choir, transept
and apses, are solidly incrusted with Byzantine mosa
ics on a golden ground. The wall surface so covered
is, according to Baedeker, seventy thousand four hun
dred square feet.
Of all churches, St. Mark's in Venice alone can vie
with Monreale in the extent of wall surface covered
with mosaics ; but in the quality of material used and
in the skilful workmanship displayed by the makers
of them, the mosaics of Monreale excel all but those
in the cathedral of Cefalu even the mosaics in the
Battistero degli Ortodossi in Ravenna being distinctly
inferior. The names of the architects of Monreale are un
known. Vasari attributes the fact " to the stupidity of
the artists or to their contempt of fame." The evidence
afforded by careful examination of the mosaics estab
lishes the fact that King William intrusted the direc
tion of the work of the embellishment to Greek — that
is to say, Byzantine — artists, or to their Sicilian disci
ples, who succeeded in producing "the most gorgeous
display of Byzantine decoration now in existence."
All the personages represented in the pictorial mo-

MONREALE S3
saics are in Byzantine costumes ; Greek inscriptions
appear everywhere. On the grand arch which sepa
rates the nave from the choir is the image of " Divine
Wisdom," before which the archangels Michael and
Gabriel prostrate themselves. But it is in the colossal
half-length figure of Christ in the dome of the central
apse that Byzantine art most distinctly asserts itself.
The Redeemer — " Christ, the Creator " — appears sur
rounded by a vision of the Apocalypse and the Apos
tles ; His countenance reminds one of the faces of
colossal Greek or Egyptian statues — placid, majes
tical, godlike. He has a full beard, long, flowing
hair — a cruciform nimbus proclaims the God; His
form is enveloped in a blue mantle, partly opened,
displaying a red tunic embroidered in gold. His
right hand is raised to bless. His left holds an open
book, in which appear the words in Greek text, " I am
the Light of the World ; whoso follows Me shall not
walk in darkness." " Below the figure of the God-
Creator sits the Holy Virgin on her throne, wrapped
in a veil of dark blue, holding in her arms the Divine
Infant clothed in a red tunic. The face of the Virgin
is of a classic type, of which the original must be
sought in Grecian sculpture."
The upper parts of the walls of the nave are cov
ered with mosaics, representing scenes drawn from the
Old Testament, from " The Creation " to " The Strug
gle of Jacob with the Angel," etc. One is impressed
by the thought that from these same mosaics, or from
copies of them, Michael Angelo may have drawn in
spiration for certain of his designs on the ceiling of
the Sistine Chapel in Rome. That this is likely will
appear to any one who compares Michael Angelo's

54 PICTURESQUE SICILY
" Separation of Light from Darkness," in the Sistine
Chapel, with the " Separation of the Waters from the
Land," the fourth of the series of mosaics in the nave
of Monreale. Not only in conception are both repre
sentations similar, but the attitudes of the Creator in
both are alike in composition. Nine subjects from
Bible history illustrated by Michael Angelo, and espe
cially " The Sacrifice of Noah," may have been sug
gested by fhe twelfth - century mosaics to the great
artist who painted his wonderful masterpieces more
than three hundred years later. We do not unduly
insist on the idea that Michael Angelo copied, or even
drew, inspiration from the works of the older artists
who embellished Monreale ; we merely wish to con
vey some idea of the kind and quality of designs
executed by King William's craftsmen.
In the transept are subjects from the New Testa
ment: "An Angel Announcing the Coming of Christ
to Zacbarias," " The Massacre of the Innocents,"
"Joseph's Dream," "The Flight into Egypt," " The
Presentation in the Temple," " Jesus before the Doc
tors," " The Wedding at Cana," " The Baptism of
Christ "; and on the walls of the choir, "The Tempta
tion," " The Transfiguration," and " The Resurrec
tion." In the two lateral apses are large tableaux of
St. Peter and St. Paul, considered the most remark
able Sicilian mosaics of the thirteenth century.
In the midst of all this world of angels, archangels,
prophets, patriarchs, martyrs, monks, and holy wom
en, amid the portraits of saints and kings, two mosaics
in the choir possess a particular historical interest.
One, that on the right, above the archiepiscopal seat,
represents William II. offering the Cathedral to the

MONREALE 55
Virgin ; the other, that on the left, above the royal
throne, exhibits Christ in the act of placing the crown
on King William's head, recalling the mosaic in La
Martorana of Roger II. receiving the crown from the
same Divine Over-lord. Fallowing the example of his
grandfather, William IL, good son of the Church as
he was, caused the fact to be emphasized in Monreale
that the Norman kings of Sicily acknowledged no
suzerainty but that of the Creator and Redeemer of
the world. Proud and independent were these old
Normans, whose ancestor Roger proclaimed himself
''Rex Divina Favente Clementia" (King by the favor
of Divine mercy), as his Norman-English contempo
raries claimed to be "Reges Dei Gratia" (Kings by the
Grace of God).
The ceiling of the nave is of wood, gabled with
beams decorated in gold and painted in bright colors.
It was constructed in 1811 to replace the old roof
which was destroyed by fire, the expense of the restora
tion being borne by King Louis I. of Bavaria. In the
south transept are two porphyry sarcophagi, contain
ing the remains of William I. and William II. In the
north aisles are the tombs of Queen Margaret of Ara
gon, mother of William the Good ; and those of Roger,
Duke of Apulia, and of Henry, Prince of Capua, sons of
William the Bad. Beneath an altar, also in the north
aisle, is a sarcophagus containing the heart of St.
Louis of France, whose body rests in the sanctuary of
the French kings at St. Denis, near Paris. Louis IX.,
the last of the Crusaders, died in Tunis, of the plague, in
1270 A.D. Near that city there is a little town, Sidi-ben-
Sai'd, the " Village of the Saint," to-day an Arab vil
lage of peculiar sanctity, so sacred that no Christian is

S6 PICTURESQUE SICILY
allowed to sleep there. Strange as it may appear, the
saint who gave its renown to Sidi-ben-Said was no
less a personage than this same Louis, King of France.
So widely were his virtues known by the Saracens
whom he came to conquer that they wished to be
lieve he died a true Moslem, and their descendants
to-day maintain that the body of the Christian king
lies in the mosque of the little town which his spirit
ual presence sanctifies. And when they are asked,
"Was he not an unbeliever and a Frank?" the Arabs
quote from Al-Koran : " Say unto the Christians that
their God and our God is one."
The artists who embellished Monreale in the latter
part of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth
centuries were in every way the equals in artistic abili
ties of the Italian masters who lived and worked a
century later. Therefore, when we talk of " The
Renaissance," we should not forget that long before
Giotto had executed his wonderful frescos in the
Arena Chapel at Padua, the Sicilian artists in the em
ploy of William the Good had produced works of
art that to-day challenge the wonder and admiration
of critics.
" Other cathedrals may surpass that of Monreale in
sublimity, simplicity, bulk, strength, or unity of plan.
None can surpass it in the strange romance with
which the memory of its many artificers invests it.
None can exceed it in richness and glory, the gor
geousness of a thousand decorative elements." *
Adjoining the cathedral is the Benedictine monas
tery, founded at the same time as the church. To-day,
*T. Addington Sy.monds. Italian Sketches.

CARVED CAPITALS. CLOISTERS OF MONREALE

CARVED CAPITALS. CLOISTERS OF MONR-EALE

MONREALE 57
however, nothing remains of the original buildings
but the cloisters, than which there are no more su
perb examples of twelfth-century architecture to be
found anywhere in Europe. The court, which is one
hundred and sixty - nine feet square, is surrounded
by an arcade of small, pointed arches supported by
coupled columns of white marble, with a group of four
at each angle. There are twenty-five arches in each
of the four sides, two hundred and sixteen richly
sculptured pairs of columns in all, of which the capi
tals are of different patterns and the shafts elaborately
adorned with an infinite variety of designs in mosaic
and delicate carvings.
The word " cloisters " suggests to the mind familiar
only with the monasteries of northern Europe the
idea of a severe and sad retreat of ascetic beings who
sought retirement from, and shunned all contact with,
the world at large. A silent, gloomy place, a place of
cells and shadows, where ghostly fathers passed years
in solitude or in the joyless companionship of those,
and only those, whose presence nerved them to banish
the charm and sweetness of life and human society.
The cloisters of Monreale impart no such impression
to the mind. There all was light and joyous color,
fair outlines, graceful ornament. Imagine a charming
garden planted with shrubs and flowering vines laid
out in parterres of exquisite greenery, where, in the
shade of orange and citron trees, fountains played to
cool the perfumed air. Imagine an acre of Eden — an
Eveless Eden, it is true, but nevertheless a paradise,
delicious, entrancing — such were the cloisters of Mon
reale ! Or, to speak more correctly, such a place was
the court -yard of the Benedictine monastery in the

58 PICTURESQUE SICILY
good old days when monasteries were the dwelling-
places of the Muses, when all that was best in all
the arts was employed in the embellishment of the
palaces of luxurious churchmen.
Wonderful as is Monreale, with all its treasures of
architecture, to the completion of which all the arts
have been laid under contribution, it is still more won
derful to remember that this superb creation of genius
is to be discovered in Sicily. The world has paid lit
tle attention to the history of the Normans, who re
deemed that island from the rule of the Moslems, or
to the chronicles of a dynasty of kings, who in their
day were the most powerful and richest, as they were
the most enlightened, of sovereigns. Verily the history
of Sicily is a sealed book, of which but a few scholars
have guessed the contents. Forgetful of all this mar
vellous story, having paid little heed to the tale of
Roger and his descendants, the traveller who sees for
the first time the glories of Santa Maria Nuova, or be
holds the still exquisite remains of the cloisters of St.
Benedict, stands entranced, silently wondering at what,
to his unprepared mind, seems to be unreal, impossi
ble, a creation of enchantment wrought in an age of
poetry and fable, rather than the work of patient,
toihng men.

VII
IL DUOMO DI PALERMO
Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta — " Walter of the Mill "
— Tombs of Norman Kings — King Roger II. — Emperor
Henry VI. — Constance, " The Last of the D' Hautevilles "
— Emperor Frederick II., " The Wonder of the World."
On II Corso Vittorio Emanuele, near Porta Nuova,
is La Piazza del Duomo, to which II Duomo di Paler
mo presents its right flank. This church of Santa
Maria Assunta exhibits a curious mixture of architect
ural incongruities. The parts of the original Sara
cenic-Norman building which still remain are shapely,
graceful, and charming in plan and detail; the mod
ern additions and restorations are, in truth, abomin
able excrescences.
The cathedral, originally a Christian basilica, is said
to have been erected in 592 A.D., on the foundations
of an older pagan temple. The Arabs converted the
basilica into a mosque. Gualterio Offamilio (Walter
of the Mill), an Englishman whom William the Good
created Archbishop of Palermo, having reconstructed
and enlarged the edifice, reconsecrated it, in the year
II 85 A.D., to the service of the Holy Virgin. In the
seventeenth century a Neapolitan architect, display
ing his flagrant bad taste, deformed the beautiful
building by surmounting it with what he was pleased

6o PICTURESQUE SICILY
to call an Italian cupola. The exterior of II Duomo,
when seen from a point of view from which all sight
of the Neapolitan restorations and additions is cut
off by other buildings, presents a harmonious com
bination of Arabic and Gothic architecture.
The lateral fagades which flank the piazza are pict
uresque and interesting, while the front of the edifice,
abutting on a narrow street, over which are thrown
two arches to connect the sanctuary with the archi
episcopal palace, is plain and severe in design and
ornamentation. The porches are enriched with three
beautiful Gothic portals of the early fifteenth century.
The south door was inserted at about the same time,
and the highly ornamented portico, which was added
about 1450 A.D. , consists of pillars, pointed arches, and
Greek details ; one of the pillars probably belonged
to a mosque, as it bears an inscription taken from Al-
Koran. This south porch, which gives on the piazza,
is the most highly ornamented part of the exterior of
the cathedral, and on an old stone beneath its arches
there is inscribed in large letters the proud device,
" Prima Sedes Corona Regis et Regni Caput,"
the title claimed by Palermo, in virtue of the fact
that within its walls and in its cathedral, the Sicilian
kings crowned themselves, or, as they always main
tained, " received their crowns from Christ, whose leg
ates they were."
The interior of the cathedral has been modernized
throughout ; that is to Say, the walls and roof have
been repaired, in many places entirely reconstructed ;
and except that the triple nave of the basilica and the
choir are rendered impressive by their vastness and

IL DUOMO DI PALERMO 6l
correct proportions, there is little to charm the be
holder, who vainly tries to imagine the grandeur of
the edifice as it appeared in the old days of Norman
magnificence. The most remarkable objects of interest, the treas
ures of the cathedral, are the Tombs of the Kings.
In the first two chapels at the right of the west door,
there are four sarcophagi of porphyry similar in de
sign, on bases of gray marble with raised canopies,
two of which are of porphyry and two of white mar
ble enriched with gilding and mosaics. These tombs
contain the remains of Roger II. (second Duke of
Apulia and first King of Sicily), who died in Palermo
1154A.D. ; of his daughter, the Empress Constance,
who died in Palermo, 1 198 A.D. ; of the Emperor Henry
VI., Roger's son-in-law ; and of Henry's son, the Em
peror Frederick IL, who died in Apulia, 1250 A.D.
Beyond all peradventure, two of the sarcophagi
contain the ashes of two of the most remarkable men
who ever lived in any land or in any age : King
Roger II. , first King of Sicily, and his grandson,
Frederick 1 1., Emperor of Germany, King of Italy,
Sicily, Sardinia, Apulia, Burgundy, and Jerusalem — ¦
" Emperor of the World."
Roger when but a lad gave promise of the greatness
which he afterwards more than fulfilled. When he
became king he governed vigorously, cleared the high
ways of robbers, suppressed all attempts at rebellion,
and established himself firmly in power. While still
young he married Elvira, the daughter of Alfonzo,
King of Castile. Shortly after his marriage he went
to the assistance of his cousin, the Duke of Calabria,
and assisted him in quelling a rebellion in one of his

62 PICTURESQUE SICILY
provinces. In payment for the services rendered to
him by Roger, the Duke of Calabria resigned all pre
tensions to any territory or authority in Sicily. When
his cousin died leaving no direct heirs, Roger promptly
claimed succession to his government. When Hono
rius II. declared that it was the right ofthe Holy See
to decide who should inherit the dukedom, Roger op
posed the pretensions of the Holy Father, whereupon
the Pope excommunicated him and summoned the
Barons of Apulia and Calabria to defend the rights of
the successor of St. Peter. Nothing daunted, Roger
collected a powerful army, composed of Saracens and
Normans, and, presenting himself in southern Italy,
offered battle to his enemies, who, however, declined
to meet him in the field. Unable to hold their army
together, the Barons again did homage to the Count,
and the Pope was obliged to acquiesce, when Roger
assumed the title of King of Sicily, and united in his
person the sovereignty of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily.
Roger determined that he should be crowned at
Palermo. Accordingly, on Christmas Day, 1130 A.D.,
the coronation of the first Norman King of Sicily
took place in the cathedral, which had been but lately
transformed from a mosque into a Christian church.
Into the sacred edifice the King, armed cap-a-pie, rode
on his war-charger, preceded by the Barons of Sici
ly, Apulia, and Calabria, arrayed in steel armor en
riched with gold and silver. At the door of the
cathedral Roger was met by nine archbishops, seven
teen bishops, five abbots, and an innumerable crowd
of priests. The haughty Norman proudly refused to
allow the Papal legate to place the crown on his head,
nor would he permit the Archbishop of Palermo (as

IL DUOMO DI PALERMO 63
representative of the Pope) to stand on the highest
step of the altar during the ceremonies, but compelled
him to take his place one step below His Majesty.
Roger, however, suffered the archbishop to anoint
him, but, that done, the King, turning to the Prince
of Capua, his first vassal, took the crown from him
and placed it on his own head.*
It is interesting to note that the ceremonials of the
coronation, as well as the costumes ofthe participants,
were copied from the court of Byzantium, "which
was at that time considered the model of splendor
and refinement, and to which the eyes of the Greek-
Christian population of Sicily were at all times di
rected." Greek was the polite language of the day,
but Roger and his Court spoke Norman-French, and
made it fashionable.
The year following Roger's coronation the nobles
of Apulia, once more taking up arms against their
newly crowned king, appealed to Pope Innocent II.,
who put himself at the head of his troops and marched
into Calabria. Roger captured the entire Papal army,
and a Pope once more became the prisoner of a
D'Hauteville. Roger followed the example of his ancestors in the
respect he showed His Holiness, but nevertheless
wrung from Innocent II. a final acknowledgment of
all his claims and the confirmation of his royal title ;
* In after-times, when the Norman kings were dead, the Norman
dynasty extinct, certain chroniclers, better churchmen than historians,
rewrote the story of Roger's coronation in order to create an entirely
erroneous impression in the public mind regarding the claim of the
Papacy to priority of right in matters pertaining to the government of
Sicily.

64 PICTURESQUE SICILY
and the Apulian Barons never revolted again. By this
stroke Roger gained the Principality of Capua and the
Duchy of Naples. He returned to Sicily, and ad
dressed himself with rare wisdom and great diligence
to the administration of the affairs of his kingdom.
Taking, it is said, as his model the laws framed by
William the Conqueror, Roger gave to Sicily a sys
tem of jurisprudence which, even to-day, commands
the admiration of statesmen, who marvel at the learn
ing and wisdom displayed in its compilation.
Roger was thrice married. His third wife, Beatrice,
was the mother of Constance. His second wife, Al-
beria, had borne him five children, of whom only Will
iam survived. In 1154, in his fifty-ninth year, the
first King of Sicily died. " Of him it has justly been
said that he was one of the wispst, the most renowned,
the most wealthy, the most fortunate princes of his
time, an enlightened monarch who, by his own la
bor and by his own free will, presented his country
with a code and constitution. Sicily was never so
prosperous or glorious as under his reign. A tranquil
realm and a full treasury were the legacies he be
queathed to his successor."
Then came "William the Bad" and "William the
Good," good apparently by contrast chiefly; and Wal
ter of the Mill, virtual regent and champion of Con
stance against Tancred, the illegitimate son of Roger,
who was crowned at Palermo in 11 89. Constance had
married Henry VL, Emperor of Germany, who waged
war on Tancred for the purpose of obtaining the
crown of Sicily in the right of his wife's title. While
he was preparing to defend his title Tancred died and
Henry took possession of the kingdom of Sicily.

PALERMO CATHEDRAL

IL DUOMO DI PALERMO 65
Henry VI. , son of Frederick Barbarossa, was German
by birth, German in mind and temperament, and he
gave little care to his Sicilian possessions except to
repress promptly all opposition to his rule. When he
died his infant son Frederick was left to the care of
the Empress Constance, who lived but a few years
to guard the interests of her son ; dying, she left him
to the guardianship of Pope Innocent III.
Constance, the daughter of Roger and mother of
Frederick (third in descent from the Norman squire
Tancred d'Hauteville), transmitted to the princes of
the race of Hohenstaufen the vigor of her Norman
ancestry unweakened. To have been the daughter
of such a king as Roger, the mother of such an em
peror as Frederick, has rendered her name famous for
all time.
" The times were troublous, and there were many
claimants for the kingdom and provinces to which
Frederick was legitimate heir ; but he early displayed
the abilities that proclaimed his greatness, and in time
assumed the management of his own affairs, faced
fate and fortune with a daring and a magnificent dis
play of power that entitled him to be called, while
still a beardless youth, ' The Wonder of the World.'
By that title Matthew Paris, the English chronicler,
more than once speaks of the emperor ' who drew
on him the eyes of all men during the greater part of
the former half of the thirteenth century, and whose
name has ever since lived in history as that of the
most wonderful man in a wonderful age.' "
Frederick was of Sicilian birth and education, a
man of noble qualities of mind, learned in all the
wisdom of Mohammedans and Christians of his time.
5

66 PICTURESQUE SICILY
At his court in Palermo was given the first impulse
to Italian literature. From his reign Dante dates the
rise of Italian poetry.
" Warrior, statesman, law - giver, scholar, there was
nothing in the compass of the political or intellectual
world of his age which he failed to grasp. In an age
of change, when in every corner of Europe and civil
ized Asia old kingdoms, nations, and systems were
falling and new ones rising, Frederick was emphati
cally the man of change, the author of things new and
unheard of — he was indeed ' stupor mundi et immuta-
tor mirabilis.' " *
* E. A. Freeman. jEssay on Frederick II.

VIII
TWO HISTORIC CHURCHES
San Giovanni degli Eremiti — La Chiesa dei Vespri — Campo di
Santo Spirito — The War of the Sicilian Vespers in Panto
mime — Giovanni di Procida.
Near the Royal Palace are the ruins of the chapel
and cloisters of San Giovanni degli Eremiti. In a
diploma bearing the date of 1 148, Roger caused it to
be recorded : " We grant to that monastery (Sancti
Johannis), for the love of God, and the salvation of our
mother and our father the great Count Roger I. ; of
the most serene Duke Robert Guiscard, our uncle, of
most blessed memory ; and also for the welfare of the
soul of our consort, the Queen Elvira, of most blessed
remembrance; and for the forgiveness of the sins of
our children and all our relations alive or dead ; and
for the particular devotion which we bear to that
monastery, which is situated under our own eyes and
near to our own palace, which was built at our own
expense, all those contiguous buildings which we
have caused to be erected for this purpose."
It is possible that in constructing this chapel King
Roger retained parts of an old mosque, for the pres
ent building has five round cupolas in form exactly
like those which are to be seen in all Mohammedan
countries. The shape of the church is that of an

68 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Egyptian cross, or letter T, and it has three apses and
three naves separated by marble columns ; it is, how
ever, in a sad condition of ruin, as are the cloisters
adjoining it, and to-day vines and flowers grow lux
uriantly where once were marble pavements ; roses,
oranges, and tropical vegetation occupy the court
yard where once upon a time grave monks invited
their souls and breathed the air cooled by the wa
ter of living fountains. The church is empty, the
cloisters deserted ; nevertheless, San Giovanni degli
Eremiti is one of the most picturesque and precious
relics of the art of olden times.
We were met at the gate by the sole guardian of
the place, a lively and entertaining gentleman, who wel
comed us as if we were his oldest and dearest friends.
He informed us, in pantomime, aided by perhaps a
score of English words, that, although he spoke no
language but his own, he possessed the art of making
the gentlemen of all nations, and especially the ladies
(with a sweeping bow to la signora) to understand
everything. And, indeed, he succeeded in elucidating
the subject of his morning's lecture in a most ingen
ious and amusing manner.
He spoke in Italian, but so distinctly, so loudly did
he vociferate every word, we had little difficulty in
gathering the drift and purport of his discourse.
From time to time he " fired" at us (no feebler term
will convey the idea) the very few words of English
he knew how to use, and always illuminated his Ital
ian phrases and sentences with artistic and elaborate
pantomime. First, he led us to one side of the
cloisters, and saying " monaci," which he translated
" monco," he put his head to sleep on his right hand;

TWO HISTORIC CHURCHES 69
awakening, he fed himself, chewing ravenously entirely
imaginary food ; and we understood perfectly that
we were in what had anciently been the dormitories
and refectories of the monks. He then assumed a
solemn, grave, and woe -begone expression, such as
Friar Tuck, or the Friar in "Reynard the Fox " might
have assumed when wishing to seem devout ; gyrated
his forefinger around the crown of his head, as if he
were scalping himself with an invisible knife, rolled
his eyes, crossed his arms upon his breast, and, moving
slowly, with exaggerated show of dignity, crossed the
court-yard as if leading a procession, and so gained
the side-door of the chapel. There he dipped his fin
ger into an imaginary basin and crossed himself be
fore entering the building, which he called " La Chie
sa," and wherein he made genuflexions before the altar
towards the east. All thisjneeded but little explana
tion. We who had fojlowed him (scarcely able to
repress our laughter) knew the purport of the show ;
how the tonsured monks were wont to go in solemn
procession from their cells to hold service in the Chris
tian chapel.
As we stood by the door he returned to the court
and informed us that, although he was not " Inglese,"
he had " make to understand." Then, ejaculating " Sar
aceni," he rearranged his expression and attitudes and
gave us to understand that he was " Coperto di tur-
bante "- — covered with a turban, from which we in
ferred he was about to perform a Moorish comedy for
our delectation. This he proceeded to do as follows :
Taking off an invisible pair of slippers, he divested
himself of an imaginary bournous and other vestments,
and feigned to perform ablutions in a supposititious

70 PICTURESQUE SICILY
tank ; then (whether dripping or dowlassed we could
not determine) he again entered the sanctuary, which
he informed us was a "moschea." Turning to the
east, he pronounced the word " Mecca," placed his
thumbs in his ears, and, extending his fingers fan-fash
ion, waved them as he made obeisance towards the
Orient. Again we readily understood his meaning and knew
that where Christian monks had worshipped Moham
medans had also come to pray. We also discovered
that whereas the monks were solemn-looking, over-sad,
and timorous creatures, who dared not so much as to
raise their eyes to heaven, the followers of the Prophet
were fierce, fanatical, truculent, and haughty person
ages, who bore themselves more like warriors than
studious clerks and hollow-eyed ascetics.
Returning again to us, the versatile " custode " re
peated his formula:
"Io faccio capire?"
To which we made reply, as in duty bound :
" Perfettamente, signore !"
Our custode then, to demonstrate how the enlarged
Christian chapel, as we saw it, had been cleared of
the walls of the moschea, paced off the dimensions
of an inner parallelogram, ejaculating as he moved,
" spazio " ; when he stopped for an instant, " colonna
o pilastro " ; and when, alternately walking and stop
ping, he had completed the circuit of the chapel, we
needed no plan to enable us to elucidate his meaning
— that the inner enclosure had consisted of alternate
spaces and columns which upheld the roof of the an
cient building.
There is little to study or to describe in the ruins of

TWO HISTORIC CHURCHES 7 1
the interior of San Giovanni. They are mere reminis
cences of the Moor and the Norman, of whose handi
work few vestiges remain except bare walls, Oriental
cupolas, broken arches, and the shattered columns of
the cloistered court-yard. But the ruined church and
all its surroundings are wonderfully picturesque, savor
ing of poetry and romance. Therefore we lingered
long amid the mass of greenery and flowers, wander
ing up and down the silent, moss-grown walks. When
our guide left us to gather flowers for " la signora,"
the echoes of our own hushed and solemn voices came
back to us from empty corridors and ruined halls like
the murmur of ghostly fathers at prayer.
As we crossed the court -yard to leave the place,
the custode detained us while he told us that near
San Giovanni degli Eremiti was II Campo di Santo
Spirito, where was La Chiesa dei Vespri Siciliani.
To convey an adequate idea of his meaning, the cus
tode resorted once more to pantomime. He pretended
to ring the vesper-hell, fancied he saw crowds of peo
ple running towards him from all quarters, then, as if
bewitched, or seized with homicidal mania, he fired
guns, aiming them in all directions, stabbed and was
stabbed, cut throats and had his throat cut in turn,
closed his eyes to show that he, presumably a French
man, was asleep when seized and clubbed to death.
He rang the supposititious bell again frantically, un
til we could fancy we heard its alarum booming
through the outraged air, and fell to his horrid work
once more, shouting:
" Morte, morte ! Detto di Franchy !" which we un
derstood to mean " Death to the French."
In short, he enacted all the various forms of massa-

72 PICTURESQUE SICILY
ere his ingenuity could invent, until he had figurative
ly strewn the precincts of San Giovanni with " molti
corpi morti, molti cadaveri," and made an end only
when he was able to inform us that " All the French
had been massacred!"
We had become accustomed to exhibitions of Sicil
ian dumb-show, but in the art of " speaking by gest
ures " the custode of the ruins of San Giovanni degli
Eremiti outdid any and all performers we had ever
before wondered at.
" Pugnat, ludit, amat, bacchatur, vertitur, astat,
Illustrat verum, cuncta decare, replet ;
Tot Ungues, tot membra viro ; mirabilis ars est
Ques fecit articulos, ore silent e loqui."
We applauded his latest and most artistic effort,
and while bidding him good-bye assured him he had
" make to understand."
About half a mile south ofthe Porta Santa Agatha,
within sight of the Royal Palace and San Giovanni
degli Eremiti, is an old cemetery, II Campo di Santo
Spirito, and within its walls are the remains of a Cis
tercian monastery, founded by Walter of the Mill in
II 73. Grim, unholy legends haunt about the place.
When the bell of this old church was tolled on the
evening of Easter Tuesday, 1282 A.D., there began
that massacre of the French known as the Sicilian
Vespers. The miserable Sicilians had suffered untold cruel
ties at the hands of the French during the spring of
1282 A.D., and there seemed to be no relief at hand.
The island was held in subjection by the garrisons of
forty-two royal castles and other military posts, es-

SICILIAN (SARACEN TYPE)

TWO HISTORIC CHURCHES 73
tablished in all the cities. All the great estates vvere
held by French feudal lords, who treated the people
as slaves. The foot of the stranger was on the neck
of the people. Tax-gatherers exacted the uttermost
farthing, and seized lands, houses, and crops to satisfy
unpaid claims. Palermo, the ancient capital of the
kingdom, most hated, most oppressed by its foreign
governors, was daily the scene of outrages, arrests, and
banishments. Herbert of Orleans, the viceroy of King
Charles of Anjou, had his palace in Palermo, and was
guarded night and day by a strong body of soldiery,
who treated even the native nobility — the few that
were left — with insolence. There seemed to be no
hope of deliverance for a down-trodden and desperate
people living in dread of outrages, the horror of which
they dared not contemplate, and against the perpetra
tion of which they were unable to protect themselves.
At a distance of half a mile from the southern wall
of Palermo, where the plain slopes gently towards the
Oreto, there was a church consecrated to the Holy
Spirit. It stood in the midst of fields and gardens,
and between it and the city there was a grand espla
nade, which the citizens crossed and recrossed on their
way to and from the sanctuary.
Easter Sunday, 1282 A.D., was an occasion for
mourning rather than for celebrating the resurrection
of the Saviour of the world. On Easter Tuesday this
open space was crowded with people on their way to
church or amusing themselves in the shade of the
trees, when the followers of the French governor sud
denly appeared among them and caused great alarm
by their unusually bold and truculent behavior. Near
by a young woman of rare beauty and of modest mien

74 PICTURESQUE SICILY
was walking with her sweetheart. A French soldier
made an insulting remark to her, which was resented
by her escort. The captain of the guard cried out :
"The ribald chatterers are armed, seeing that they dare
to reply to the remark of a soldier," and, under the
pretence of looking for a dagger, seized the young
woman and attempted to put his hand in her bosom.
The terrified girl fell fainting into the arms of her be
trothed, who, frenzied with rage, shouted : " Oh, mu-
oiamo, muoiamo, una volta, questi francesi!" (Let
us kill, let us kill these French !), and he struck down
the aggressor. The almost unarmed crowd rushed with
desperate ferocity upon their well-armed opponents.
If the struggle was brief, it was bloody and decisive.
Great was the slaughter of the Sicilians, but greater
still was the slaughter of the French. An historian
laconically states : . " There were two hundred French
men, and of them two hundred were killed."
Rushing to the bell - tower, the infuriated crowd
sounded the tocsin; others of the mob spread them
selves throughout the city, crying, " Morte ai fran
cesi !" and all the French upon whom hands were
laid were promptly despatched by the daggers of the
blood-thirsty Palermitans. All that day and all that
night the massacre continued ; palaces were stormed,
guard-houses broken into ; every corner of the city
was searched, and everywhere, to the cry " Morte
ai francesi!" the slaughter went on. Nor did the
rage of the people abate until two thousand French
were destroyed. Not only did the mob kill the
French residents of the city, but it slew all Sicilians,
men and women, who had in any way connected them
selves with the French people. When a suspect fell

TWO HISTORIC CHURCHES 75
into the hands of the mob and protested that he was
not French, but in very truth a good Sicilian, he was
commanded, with a sword at his throat, to pronounce
the word " Ciciri,J' and according as he sounded the
" c " and put the accent on one or other of the sylla
bles he was declared to be, or not to be, French, and
killed or spared. Woe to the man or woman, old or
young, or child, who failed to pronounce correctly this
Parlermitan shibboleth.
From Palermo a sudden outburst of popular fury
was propagated and spread over Sicily and into every
corner of it, and the massacre continued for days, un
til hardly a person of French birth or extraction was
left alive in the whole island. The people everywhere
flew to arms. " Death to the French !" was every
where the watchword, and by their own unaided ex
ertions, under the leadership of Giovanni di Procida,
the islanders freed themselves at last from the hateful
tyranny of the French. It is true that the War of the
Vespers continued for years, but the dominion of the
French in Sicily had passed away forever.

IX
SARACENIC QUARTERS OF PALERMO
Rione CasteUamare — Rione Palazzo Reale — The Slums of
Palermo — "Rag Fair" — Albergheria — A Victim of the
Triple Alliance.
If II Corso and La Via Macqueda recall the streets
in certain cities in southern Spain, there are thorough
fares in Palermo that remind observant travellers of
streets in Tangier, Algiers, and other north African
cities. There are to-day districts in Palermo that ap
propriately may be called the Saracen quarters of the
town. Such are La Via Monteleone and its neigh
borhood, in the heart of the northeastern section, the
Rione CasteUamare ; and La Via Albergheria and La
Via Bosco, which intersect the Rione Palazzo Reale in
the southwestern quarter of the city. These streets,
so un-European, so Oriental in general appearance
and in detail, are the resort of a teeming population
of paupers who live in quaint, old, dilapidated dwell
ings, packed away, to use an illustration appropriate
to things Sicilian, " like sardines in boxes." The life
of these people is mostly out-of-doors, or at the
doors of their dark, unfurnished, cave - like houses,
and, except during the wettest weather, untold multi
tudes swarm in the lanes and by-ways night and day
and throng the narrow streets.

SARACENIC QUARTERS OF PALERMO T]
We spent much time, not in the idle occupation
known as " slumming," but in appeasing a real desire
to know something of the condition of life of the
Sicilian poor. We made many expeditions through
the stews and purlieus of Palermo by night and by
day. In this way we were able to form our opinions
by what we ourselves saw, and we venture to state
that, so far as the municipal authorities are concerned,
there is little to desire in the matter of cleaning the ¦
back streets and by-lanes of those districts of the city
in which multitudes of human beings are crowded to
gether in their wretched dwellings. One may search
in vain, it is true, for any evidence of that comfortable
arrangement or wholesome fitting and furnishing of
tenements which are supposed to be necessary to the
home -life of even the poorest of the poor; and the
people who live in the cheerless dwellings are not
clean. In what city does one find clean people living
in tumble-down rookeries and dilapidated tenements?
Curious are the sights that meet the eye, the sounds
that fall upon the ear of the visitor as he threads his
way through the dingy, melancholy purlieus of the
Rione CasteUamare. He is constantly reminded that
the people, so like Saracens in aspect, are not indeed
followers of the Prophet, for at almost every corner of
the streets he beholds shrines of the Madonna and
the saints; and in the darkest court -yards and nar
rowest lanes are other shrines, before which little oil-
lamps twinkle like stars in the almost constant night
that lurks in the shadows of these hideous holes and
corners. Some of the streets are so narrow that the
people in the upper stories of the houses, which lean
tottering over the pavement and seem threatening to

78 PICTURESQUE SICILY
fall upon the heads of passers-by, can almost shake
hands across the chasm. Narrow as they are, these
streets are the highways of a large traffic. On each
side of them are all descriptions of shops and the
stands of dealers in cheap articles of food, clothing,
and household furniture, such as supply the wants of
people who have little money to spend in making
themselves comfortable.
Passing and repassing at all times of the day, vocif
erating in reply to the shouts of the vendors, laughing,
talking, screaming, scolding with a volubility that
passes all belief, there ebbs and flows a tide of custom
ers, of idlers, of busy people, the majority of them
in rags, but more or less picturesque and interesting
in their tatters. And we repeat, the majority of peo
ple are Asiatic, not European, in aspect, action, and
manner of doing things.
Here and there are to be seen women with a dozen
or two chickens tied by their legs to a cord suspended
irom the neck of the vendor. These poultry-sellers cry
their wares in tones shrill enough to drown the cack
ling of live birds that loudly protest against their cap
tivity. We watched a transaction in poultry. The
'negotiation was carried on with such earnestness, not to
-say violence of voice and manner, that an uninitiated
•passer-by might fancy the parties engaged in it were
accusing one another of crimes unmentionable. They
stood close to one another, the would-be purchaser
carefully examining and feeling what little meat
there was on the bones of a decidedly old and time-
worn hen that had in all probability long since laid
her last egg. The discussion as to the merits of the
fowl and the price thereof was long, exceedingly

SARACENIC QUARTERS OF PALERMO 79
vociferous, and seemed likely to end in blows. Finally,
having come to an arrangement with the dealer, the
customer received the hen she had selected, paid the
price, and, taking her merchandise, moved off down the
street. Undoubtedly, with an early dinner in view,
she began plucking the live bird, an operation against
which the unlucky biped protested clamorously, as,
handful by handful, the feathers were torn from its
emaciated carcass and given to the winds.
There are many cobblers to be seen at work, seated
on their benches in front of their shops mending shoes;
and many tailors, whose principal business seemed to be
the patching of garments that often had been patched
and mended. The people who live in these purlieus
never seem to be able to purchase all the parts of a
new outfit contemporaneously, but eke out the new
with old rags that in more prosperous countries would
long since have found their way to paper-mills.
In front of the dwelling-houses women boil ragged
clothes in copper kettles placed over charcoal fur
naces of about the size of an ordinary beer-keg. This
is a frequent sight on any fair day of the week, but
particularly on Monday, which is wash-day in Paler
mo, as it is in the rest of the world. On that day the
narrow thoroughfares present a most curious appear
ance, for from every window, from side to side of the
streets, are suspended the tatters of so many households
that it is almost impossible to look up and catch any
where a glimpse of the sky. Of course this exhibition
of weekly washing is only made by those people who
can afford to have two coats, or whatever it may be,
apiece. Thousands upon thousands of people of Pa
lermo cannot afford to spend a day in bed, and there-

80 PICTURESQUE SICILY
fore it may be presumed that their rags and tatters are
rarely, if ever, treated to soap and water.
In the market - places itinerant menders of all
imaginable things are to be seen piecing, patching,
altering, refitting all kinds of articles hardly worth
a moment's trouble to keep them longer in use, and
wherever there is one busy person, around him or her
there gathers an audience of listless spectators, who
lounge and loiter. Everybody with anything to do is
intently watched by a dozen or more idle people who
have nothing to do because they cannot find or do
not seek employment.
At the butcher-stalls there is displayed a most un
attractive supply of flesh of one sort or another, prin
cipally of goats ; but it is only the better class of
people, those who can afford to have their clothing
washed weekly, that venture to inquire the price even
of goat's meat. To eight -tenths of the people of
Sicily animal food is an untasted luxury. One cor
ner of the market-place is devoted to fish -mongers,
and large and varied is the assortment of the finny
tribe they offer to their customers : small jars of tiny
anchovies ; larger anchovies in larger jars ; anchovies
grown to be sardines — boxes, buckets, barrels filled
with these ; and overgrown sardines, resembling small
herring, fresh, salted, or preserved in oil. The seas
about Sicily swarm with these fish, which correspond
to the whitebait, sprats, and pilchards of northern
Europe. Mackerel there are in abundance, and many
fish known and unknown to Englishmen and Ameri
cans. Oysters of an appearance and kind which we,
over-fastidious perhaps, never were tempted to eat
unless they were served at our hotel or opened for us

" STREET ARABS '

SARACENIC QUARTERS OF PALERMO 8 1
by the boatmen who dredged them from the sea.
But the principal staple of sea-food is a slimy, grew
some -looking monster, the polyp, called "squid"
by Newfoundland fishermen, who use them for bait.
More uninviting, more disgusting-looking objects than
these same polyps, the small -fry of Victor Hugo's
devil-fish, one can hardly imagine; and yet they are
eagerly sought for by poor Sicilians, who count them
selves fortunate if — on Friday at least, if not oftener —
they may make a meal of a mess from which a New
York 'longshoreman would turn away with loathing.
Among the vegetables displayed upon the stands
are surprising quantities of cauliflowers, larger and
coarser than those grown in Northern Europe, of all
shades — bright green, pink, red and purple, yellow and
golden. At a distance they look like huge chrysanthe
mums, and lend vivid color to the market-place filled
with people and things dressed and painted in the
gayest hues, all combining, with the gaudy carts and
the gay harnesses of the asses that draw them, to
form a multicolored kaleidoscopic scene, whereof we
shall not attempt to describe the polychrome, for the
reason that it is indescribable, almost unimaginable.
Many booths there are at which are sold cheap
trinkets and " brummagem " ornamentations intend
ed to be hung up in churches, in commemora
tion of miraculous cures vouchsafed by saints who
have heard the petitions and regarded the vows of
their devotees. There are countless carts containing
skins of wine, and stands where various kinds of "be-
vete " are sold — soda-water, herb-teas, and " bevande
medicinale," a sort of root-beer. " Readers of books"
sit surrounded by eager people listening to expositions

82 PICTURESQUE SICILY
of the cheap literature of the day. " Letter-writers "
there are also who for five soldi indite epistles for the
people who know not how to write, or make up the
simple accounts of the costermongers. Around the
fountains there is always a host of womankind, who
bear upon their shoulders amphorae of the same shape
and material as those to be seen in the collections of
Greek antiquities. Occasionally, as we watched these
throngs, we beheld a young Palermitana of fair face
and graceful figure, who, when she raised her filled
amphora to her shoulder, unconsciously posed in a
statuesque attitude, a subject for a sculptor or an art
ist, a bit of old Greek art in the wilderness of modern
conventionalities, charming in comparison with the
worn and wearied matrons so intent upon the affairs
of to-day, so wrapped up in thoughts of the things of
this work-a-day world and oppressed by its cares. When
the pleasing figure vanished there was little to attract
one in the sight of the market-place, with its crowd
of toiling, struggling, ragged, half- starved humanity.
The cries, the smells, of the market-places in the
Rione CasteUamare, who can describe them ?
In the Rione Palazzo Reale the appearance of the
streets and the people is no less Saracenic in aspect
than those of the Rione CasteUamare. There are
many churches in this part of the town, .said to have
been erected on the foundations of old mosques; for
the district known as the " Albergheria " was in an
cient times the most crowded quarter ofthe Palermo of
the Emirs. From the Piazza del Carmine, an irregular
open place, there radiate in all directions lanes, alleys,
and by-ways, narrow, dark, and mysterious passages,
between the tottering houses. It is worth while

SARACENIC QUARTERS OF PALERMO 83
sometimes to walk through these places for the sake
of obtaining bits of local color. Women stand in the
ivory-black shadows of doorways, which bring out in
strong relief the brilliant hues of their frocks and the
brightness of their eyes. Many of the younger wom
en display good taste in arranging the cheap materi
als they use in making their scant apparel. All of
them — girls, young women and old — hood themselves
with their shawls, which they clasp beneath their
chins, partly covering their faces. Groups of men and
women squat in dark doorways, around shallow brass
platters containing a handful of glowing charcoal over
which they cook their food and in cold weather at
tempt to warm their frosty hands.
Near La Chiesa del Carmine we beheld the not
unusual spectacle of a young recruit, newly drafted,
taking leave of his family. He was a good-looking
boy, but seemed hardly to be of an age to fit him
for service in the army. He was in uniform, had his
knapsack packed, and was ready to depart, but he
stood in the middle of the street blubbering as he re
lated his tale of woe to his younger sisters and broth
ers, and perhaps cousins, for there were at least ten or
twelve small children around him, some of whom
stood, others knelt, upon the pavement, all of them
weeping as if their hearts would break. The boy's
mother, her eyes red, her hair dishevelled, was deliv
ering a tirade (presumably against the iniquity of the
military system of the kingdom) to a dozen or more
of her friends, who gave their most unequivocal, vocif
erous assent to all her propositions and complaints.
The lane was full of women ; there were a few men,
and these latter were very old, too old to work. The

84 PICTURESQUE SICILY
windows and doors of the houses were occupied by
other women, all talking, all gesticulating, all very an
gry. Many of them had reason, no doubt, to remem
ber with anything but pleasure and patriotic joy the
day when their sons or brothers, sweethearts or hus
bands, had been taken away from them to serve their
time in the royal army. When the young recruit was
motioned to come away by the sergeant (a good-
natured fellow, who had permitted his charge to halt
on his way to the railway station), the scene in the
lane beggared description. The children gave loud
voice to their sorrow ; the mother frantically kissed
her boy, his face, his hands, his clothing, and, falling to
the ground, kissed his feet. Then, rising to her knees,
she clinched both hands, and, raising them to heaven,
seemed to be delivering curses at the sergeant and at
all above him set in authority who had lot or interest
in taking her son from her. Leaping to her feet in a
paroxysm of fury, she crossed herself, spat upon the
tips of her fingers, and, stooping, made the sign of a
cross upon the pavement, upon which she threw her
self and lay at full length, weeping hysterically. Her
women friends gathered around her, raised her from
the ground, and led her into her wretched house.
The children, bellowing and gesticulating, followed the
young recruit to the corner of the street, whence they
shrieked a last farewell to the young soldier, who
trudged beside the sergeant, weeping aloud. So far as
we were witnesses to the incident it closed then and
there, and little is suggested by this recital if not the fact
that undoubtedly the Triple Alliance is very unpopu
lar with that class of Sicilians from which are drafted
the common soldiers who serve in the Italian army.

IN PALERMO
The Genius of Palermo — La Piazza della Rivoluzione — La
Chiesa della Gangia — Volfango Goethe — La Villa Giulia —
L' Orto Botanico— La Via Borgo— Le Belle Donne — Inter
esting Sights — "The Sailors' Rest" — La Cala — II Foro
Italico.
From La Porta Garibaldi, through which " The Lib
erator" entered when he captured Palermo, La Via
Garibaldi leads to La Piazza della Rivoluzione, in the
heart of the southeastern quarter of the city. This
open space was anciently known as Forum Vetus.
" Fiera Vecchia " it was called in later times.
On the 1 2th of January, 1848, and again on the
27th of March, 1850, La Piazza della Rivoluzione was
the scene of revolts against the tyranny of the Bour
bons, and in the middle of the triangular piazza there
stands a statue of the Genius of Palermo, which, with
out possessing any artistic merit, is dear to the hearts
of the people. In i860 the followers of Garibaldi,
having discovered this statue where it had been con
cealed by Maniscalco (of infamous memory), the po
lice agent of King Bomba, replaced it on its pedestal,
where it remains safe and secure until this day, a re
minder of the grand period of " Sicilian Regeneration."
Not far from La Piazza della Rivoluzione, on La Via

86 PICTURESQUE SICILY
AUoro, stands La Chiesa della Gangia, built in 1430,
and dedicated to Santa Maria degli Angeli. The ex
terior of this church is in the style ofthe architecture
of the fifteenth century, but it has been spoiled by
reckless restoration. Its interior, however, preserves
its ancient form and construction, notwithstanding
the fact that it was much damaged by a fire that
threatened to destroy the building two centuries ago.
The roof is in wood, and is an interesting study,
reminding one of the old Norman roofs of the cathe
drals of Cefalu and Monreale, from which it was evi
dently copied. But it is not architectural beauty nor
adornment that makes La Gangia one of the most in
teresting buildings in Palermo.
On the 4th of April, i860, an attempt was made by
numerous citizens, headed by Francesco Riso, who
raised the standard of revolution, to free the city from
the detested Neapolitans. The outbreak was prompt
ly suppressed ; Riso was mortally wounded, and his
companions took refuge in the church and adjoining
cloisters, where certain of them were captured by the
Bourbon soldiery. Two of the revolutionists, Philippo
Patti and Gaspari Bivona, escaped and concealed
themselves in the crypt of the church, where they re
mained hidden for five days. Their place of refuge
was known to certain of their friends, who, eluding the
vigilance of the sentries, communicated with the
refugees, and, while supplying them with food, assured
them that trusty citizens would find some means of res
cuing them from their perilous situation. Patti and
Bivona loosened two or three ofthe large stones in the
walls of the crypt, but left them in place ready to be
pushed out when the signal to attempt their escape was

IN PALERMO 87
given. One evening, as the friends of the prisoners
had planned, a large load of hay was driven through
La Via Alloro. So great a crowd of people gathered
around the wagon that the sentries were unable to see
up and down the street. At the right moment the
two refugees pushed out the loosened stones, and,
crawling through the hole, gained the street and lost
themselves in the crowd of their fellow-patriots, who,
in silence, made way for them as Patti and Bivona fled
for their lives and liberty. The hole through which
the two patriots made their escape from the crypt is
called in Sicilian dialect " II Bucu dellu Salvezzu," *
and has been closed by a block of marble, on which
there is an inscription commemorating the rescue of
the two revolutionists.
Not far from La Chiesa della Gangia, in the centre
of a large and handsome square surrounded by sight
ly buildings of modern construction, there is a monu
ment to the memory of those companions of Patti
and Bivona who were massacred after their capture
in La Gangia. An inscription recites that the obelisk,
which was erected by the municipality of Palermo,
"In memory of the thirteen victims of April 4, i860,
was dedicated on April 4, 1883." There is also a tab
let commemorating the heroism of Giovanni Riso, the
leader of the revolt ; and on the other three sides are
the names of his twelve unfortunate fellow-conspir
ators, who, after their capture in La Gangia, "were
brought to this place and shot down by repeated vol
leys by the troops of King Bomba."
At the foot of II Corso Vittorio Emanuele, near
* The mouth of safety.

88 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Porta Felice, there stands a spacious mansion, in the
front wall of which is a marble tablet containing an
inscription which will be read with interest by all
lovers of poetry and letters : " Giovanni Volfango
Goethe, durante il soggiorno a Palermo nel 1789,
dimoro in questa casa — allora publica albergo." *
The apartment which the great poet occupied has
been dismantled and changed since he lived in it.
"The endless variety of views " from the windows
and balconies, which so delighted his eye and charmed
his artistic spirit, have been shut out by surrounding
buildings erected in these later times. The house
itself is still attractive in its situation and arrange
ments ; but times have changed, and it is no longer
one of the fashionable resorts of the city. The old
buildings near it, once occupied by nobility, are now
turned into lodging-houses and the offices of impor
tant mercantile firms.
Not far from the Goethe house, at the foot of La
Via Lincoln, close by the sea, there is the garden of
La Flora, otherwise known as La Villa Giulia, a large
square enclosed in handsome railings, and recently
enlarged and beautified.
In this fair park Goethe spent many delightful
hours. " It is the most wonderful place in the world,"
he writes in April, 1787; "regularly laid out by art, it
looks like a fairyland planted but a short time ago ; it
nevertheless transports you into ancient times." And
then he informs us that he hastened to purchase a
" Homer" and read the pages familiar to him. Here
¦* " In this inn, then one of the principal houses of public entertain
ment in Palermo, Goethe resided during his sojourn in the city in the
year 1789."

IN PALERMO 89
he resorted daily, in fine weather, and he paints a
charming picture when he describes how he sat in the
garden, in the shade of grand trees, in the midst of
flowers, and over a glass of Sicilian wine made an im
promptu translation of the lines of Homer for the
benefit of his friend and travelling companion, Kniep,
the artist, whom he had induced to accompany him
to Sicily. It is a charming bit of personal narrative.
Pity it is that some great artist has not conceived the
idea of transferring it to canvas.
From La Piazza Quattro- Venti Consolatione to La
Cala, La Via Borgo extends along the harbor. A
stroll on this wide esplanade will well repay observant
travellers who delight in lively street scenes and
crowds of active people. On La Via Borgo, where the
houses face the sea, all is activity, noise, strange cries,
color, and, be it noted, odors, not of dirt however, but
of comestibles, cook-shops, fish-markets, and the like.
In baker-shops one sees queer-shaped loaves sugges
tive of the legless bodies of mulatto babies, round
" twists," solidified whirlpools in dough ; and in these
shops, the dark interiors of which resemble caves,
women stand before ovens baking bread — oftentimes
handsome women — -whose faces, lighted by the glow
of charcoal fires, are worthy of more than passing
glances, especially as " le belle donne " of La Via Borgo
do not resent admiration. In the butcher-shops there
are to be seen much kid's meat, with the skin and hair
still adhering to it, and sausages of all degrees of
convolution and entanglement, various hashes and
minces, bladders of blood-puddings, black puddings
and white, and some of ghastly blue ; all of them ap
petite-destroying, grewsome articles, reminding one

90 PICTURESQUE SICILY
of Scotch haggis and the hideous puddings one sees
in Germany and other parts of continental Europe.
In the fruit -shops are oranges and lemons, green
and golden ; prickly pears, mottled, white, scarlet,
crimson, and yellow, as curiously variegated as the
ripe cocoa -pods one sees in the West Indies; and
bunches of tomatoes, peppers, egg-plants, melons,
hung on the walls to dry. In cheese-shops are won
derful shapes and designs of cacio cavallo, odorifer
ous, pungent, biting, the cheese of the country, with
out which no mess of macaroni can be prepared to
suit the Sicilian palates. Over a wine-shop we noticed
a curious motto, " Sinchero il trovi sempre, e di valore,
e avrai sana, la verita, e lieto di cuore," which may be
paraphrased, " In wine are sincerity, valor, health,
truth, and lightness of heart."
But most curious of all exhibitions are those afford
ed by the shops where " pasta " is sold ; with lambre
quins of macaroni — spaghetti — suspended on rods in
front of the buildings and across doorways, like Jap
anese portieres, for in such fashion sellers of pasta
exhibit their wares, as the cheap -jacks of Chatham
Square display dry goods and second - hand clothing.
In fact, everywhere there are incredible quantities of
macaroni hung in this strange fashion on the walls,
along the streets, in vacant lots, on the roofs of build
ings, in court-yards, and from window to window across
narrow lanes ; everywhere macaroni hanging in the
open air, in the sunlight, to be rained upon, to be
blown upon by the odor and dust -laden winds, reek
ing, possibly, with bacilli; macaroni hung up care
lessly where it must catch the dust, the infection of a
thickly populated and not too clean neighborhood ;

IN PALERMO 91
macaroni drying by the shore, among the fishing-
boats, where fishermen lounge and smoke, where boys
play tag and other games, dodging under and around
the fringes of the yellow and white pasta. And yet
this favorite article of food is not stolen, although it
is left out at night, and is apparently unguarded. A
strange fact ; for we are told that the people are
hungry, starving, and some travellers would persuade
us that Sicilians are characteristically dishonest, steal
ing whatever they can lay their hands on. Certainly,
in the matter of macaroni, a chronically hungry peo
ple may plead " not guilty " to the indictment.
From a narrow alley, where the macaroni portieres
hung aloft like " flies " above the stage in a theatre, a
company of priests in white cotton robes emerged
upon La Via Borgo, carrying the Host around a
building in which a death had occurred. The eldest
priest walked under an umbrella held aloft by one of
his younger assistants, six small boys carrying lan
terns, and one large boy ringing a bell preceding him.
The candles twinkled, the priest intoned, the bell
rang, in vain. Nobody cared, nobody paid attention
to the procession, being diverted bythe organ-grinders,
of whom there were many, playing airs so familiar to
us that we could imagine the musicians and their
organs had been across the Atlantic and were come
home again to delight the Sicilians with rehearsals of
the latest " minstrel songs " of the Western World.
Indeed, we fancied that we recognized two grinders
and their organ — they seemed to form a familiar group
in our memory. It is not impossible that they had
been in New York, for they were playing an air w^ich
all the little boys on Manhattan Island whistle most

92 PICTURESQUE SICILY
excruciatingly. There were children dancing to the
music of the organs, and, farcical beyond all expression,
a donkey braying thereat. The combination of sounds
was a little more than our ears could stand, and
we hastened our footsteps to escape the cacophony.
Nevertheless, if the children of men may dance to
the sound of a hurdy-gurdy, why may not an ass
bray ? Every one to his taste !
Of unceasing interest and endless change are the
scenes along La Via Borgo, where, at the edge of the
sea-wall, every two hundred feet are movable sentry-
boxes, alternately green and yellow, in which stand ca
rabinieri in gray-and-scarlet uniforms. The sentinels
remain motionless in the shadow of their sentry-boxes
(one is reminded of soldier-crabs in their stolen shells),
and keep their eyes on the groups of idlers, boatmen,
fishermen lounging about ; for, be it remembered, at
the time of which we are writing Sicily was under
military rule, and the government had quartered a
large contingent of troops in Palermo for the purpose
of applying a leaden ounce of prevention at the very
beginning of social disorders.
Along the sea-wall were hundreds of fishing-boats,
but we need not dwell upon the quality of their deco
rations — like all other things, they were painted in
Sicilian style ; boats setting out for and returning
from the fishing-banks; boatmen with fish for sale;
men mending their nets, picturesque-looking fellows,
so unlike, indeed without the faintest resemblance to,
the fishermen one sees at Naples — not even remotely
Italian in aspect and manner, but more like Moors
and Berbers are these watermen of La Via Borgo. It is
said that the denizens of this neighborhood use many

IN PALERMO 93
Arabic words and are more Saracen than Italian,
more Arabic than Latin, in their manners and cus
toms, the most Oriental of all Sicilians.
Our attention was called to a very handsome priest
standing in the sunlight which shone into the vesti
bule of the Church of Santa Lucia. His figure stood
out against an ivory -black background of interior
shadow. He was good-looking and picturesque, and
was gazing with evident admiration at a pretty wom
an who sat on the door-step of a well-restored, pros
perous-looking house across the street. She was a
busy woman, neatly clad, and sang as she knitted to
a toddling baby that frolicked and played hide-and-
seek, now running into the shadow of the doorway to
come again into the sunlight, like a humming-bird
flitting near its nest. Over the door of the baby's
home was a sign in good, plain, satisfactory English —
"Sailors' Rest" — and the house was the neatest, clean
est, and most comfortable building in the neighbor
hood. Its walls were painted a sober, serviceable
gray ; its doors, windows, and shutters were in good
repair, and gave an orderly, well-dressed appearance
to the establishment. It was an attractive place, and,
in addition to the sign over the door, there was an
illuminated lamp with " Sailors' Rest '' painted on the
glass — a pillar of cloud by day, of fire by night; a
buoy and a light-house, for the guidance of English
and (as we learned upon inquiry within) American
sailors, who find themselves, stranded on shore, as
much at a loss what to do with themselves as the
landsmen who find themselves afloat at sea.
La Cala, the old port of Palermo, is a most interest
ing and picturesque oval basin surrounded by antique

94 PICTURESQUE SICILY
houses. When the sun shines, it resembles a mirror
in a golden frame. Between it and the sea stands the
old fortress CasteUamare, which, although disman
tled and, in i860, after Garibaldi captured it, thrown
down to prevent its being garrisoned anew by King
Bomba's soldiers, is nevertheless an imposing pile of
masonry. The houses that face upon La Cala are old
and curious, many of them with gables and pictur
esque balconies. The sunny color of their walls con
trasts pleasantly with their red -tiled roofs and the
bright flowers in painted boxes on the window-sills.
La Cala is a busy place ; the broad esplanade in
front of the houses is always crowded with carts and
drays, and in the basin are all sorts of queer-looking
craft — feluce, golette, fishing -smacks of every rig
known to the Sicilian main. Many of them are most
ancient vessels, strange sea monsters, with great star
ing eyes painted on their bows and lee-boards that
look like fins. On all of them are little shrines, be
fore which lamps are kept burning. The sailormen
belonging to these craft wear fantastical costumes,
which give them the air of Barbary corsairs and the
Sallee rovers made familiar to us by much study of
fascinating wood-cuts in our well-thumbed " Robinson
Crusoe." Tough and hearty, sun-browned, sea-worn,
web-footed sea-dogs, so Moorish-looking, some of them,
that one might almost fancy they were descendants of
the crews of the two Barbarossas — Uruj and his
brother, Kheyr-ed-din — or of that redoubtable rover,
Aydin Reis, whom the Spaniards of old dubbed
" Cachidiablo " (Drub -devil). Fishing- smacks and
coasters are constantly entering or leaving the harbor,
which is reserved for this small, coast-wise traffic, and

IN PALERMO 95
therefore rarely contains a steam vessel, so that one
has little trouble in fancying that as it looks to-day,
so it must have looked centuries ago. From time to
time, when you meet a group of sailors with yellow,
brown, or red hair, blue eyes, and ruddy cheeks,
stolid, earnest-looking chaps, more jovial in tempera
ment than their excitable Saracenic-looking brethren,
your memory carries you back to the days when a
handful of" canning-men " lorded it over a multitude of
Moors, who acknowledged the Northman's supremacy
on land and his right to rule the Mediterranean waves.
Beginning at La Cala and extending south, a grand
esplanade known as II Foro Italico extends along the
water - front between a sea - wall and the gardens in
front of a long row of palaces. This grand boulevard.
La Marina, from La Porta Felice to La Villa Giulia, is
several hundred feet in width, and down the centre
of it there are two rows of ilex-trees. The waves beat
against the sea-wall, and often during storms great
clouds of spray sprinkle the flowers in the gardens in
front of the palaces. In the summer-time II Foro
Italico is the grand promenade of fashionable Palermo.
There, in the evening, crowds of idlers sit gazing out to
sea as they sip lemonade or partake of ices, " granata,"
and the like, for which the caf^s of Palermo are famous.
Nothing can be finer than the view obtained from this
sea-front, nothing more picturesque or stately than the
palaces, some of them the richest in Sicily, occupied
by families whose names have been household words
in Sicilian history for many generations ; and near by,
in La Villa Giulia, is always music on fine afternoons
and evenings, where it is delightful to promenade be
neath the grand trees among the flowers and statuary.

XI
SUNNY WINTER DAYS
La Villa Belmonte — La Favorita — Mondello — La Villa Scalea
— San Martino — A Noble Charity — Ancient Trees.
Contrary to the dogma of the weatherwise of
more northern latitudes, as the days grew longer the
cold did not grow stronger, and almost at the opening
of the new year the good weather, which had been
confidently predicted for Palermo and its environment
during January, set in, and more delightful sunny
days, grander star-lit nights, cannot be imagined. Our
Sicilian friends, who knew of our disappointment at
finding December so wintry and tempestuous, now
greeted us triumphantly when we met them, calling
to us cheerily to know if Sicilian weather was not all
that they had promised that it would be when the
new year brought round its changes. We were abroad
early and late, spent our mornings and afternoons out
of doors, rejoicing exceedingly in the sunlight and the
fine air, which inspired us to venture on long walks,
and rendered driving about II Conco d' Oro and into
the neighboring country a delightful recreation.
Our favorite morning ramble was to La Villa Bel
monte, a most enchanting estate on the southern foot
hills of Monte Pellegrino, overlooking Acqua Sancta,
the favorite .seaside resort of fashionable Palermitans.

A FORTUNE-TELLER

SUNNY WINTER DAYS 97
From the grand gate of the domain a broad avenue
winds upward through a grove of lemon-trees to La
Villa Belmonte. On each hand are hedges of gera
nium, " fico d' India," heliotrope, and honeysuckle,
woven masses of every shade of green. Pines and
myrtles, ilex, cypresses, and curious pepper-trees shade
the lawns, and in front of the great house is an "Ital
ian Garden," embellished with statuary, vases, marble
steps, and balustrades. Amid the roses are marble
seats, where it is pleasant to sit in the sun as the
eye wanders over the charming expanse of II Conco
d' Oro. The murmur of the city is borne hitherward
on gentle breezes, and the chanting of the surf rises
from the sea - shore below. The sound of distant
voices, the laughter of children at play, fall gently
upon the ear; the notes of thrushes, nightingales
hidden in the shrubbery, and of larks singing high
overhead, fill the air with gladness. The outlines of
the hills and mountains, so rich in color, show tremu
lously, wreathed in mists rising on the warm air. Soft
shadows flit across the landscape, and when the sun
light chases these away II Conco d' Oro indeed seems
an earthly paradise. From the city onward there ex
tends towards the southeast a long crescent of yellow
sand, the golden hem of a mantle of green meadows
that sink in gentle declivity to the sea. All the air is
still, not portentously silent, as in the lonely glens
amid the savage peaks of Cuccio and the Mountain of
the Griffins, but calm and restful — peace brooding
where all nature is beautiful. Such is the prospect
from La Villa Belmonte, and the beholder, in dreamy
contemplation of its glories, drinks in all the delicious
sights and sounds and odors ofthe enchanted spot.
7

98 PICTURESQUE SICILY
In the Italian Garden we spent several mornings,
where we tried to read, but constantly caught our
selves gazing far away over the top of the page, too
listless to give our mind to what was written when
so much that was sensuously delightful was pictured
before us to woo our thoughts from even the sem
blance of study or work. Near our favorite seat is a
monument, of all that we had seen most fantastic,
and upon it an inscription which much amuses the
passer-by, exciting curiosity to know the full meaning
of it : " The last residence of the affectionate flea ;
born in London from the quadrupedal family of ter
riers ; died in Palermo 9th day of May, 1879." Such
is the inscription ; and we teased ourselves in vain to
learn how the obelisk came there, who erected it, and
why. The conceit is whimsical, and when we told our
fellow-guests at the hotel that the monument was to
be seen and the inscription read in La Villa Belmonte,
they smiled incredulously, but nevertheless set off the
next fine day to visit the tomb of certainly the only
insect of its kind that has been thought worthy of
commemoration in enduring marble.
When it was our good-fortune to fall in with the
gardener who had charge of this paradise, we returned
home with an armful of flowers which he gathered for
us, giving us meanwhile permission to pluck others, as
many as we chose, for ourselves. When we did not
meet our goodman-gossip in his accustomed walks, we
climbed the hills behind the villa and helped ourselves
to the wild flowers that grow in profusion all over the
country-side ; and as we returned home through the
sunlight with our treasures, it was almost impossible
to persuade ourselves that we had found them in the

SUNNY WINTER DAYS 99
latitude of Washington, D. C, blooming early in Jan
uary. We ventured abroad one morning before sunrise,
intending to be present when the fishermen who had
spent the night off the coast returned with their
catch to their homes in the little fishing village of
Mondello, one ofthe most picturesque hamlets on the
north Sicilian shore. As the sun arose from behind
the purple mountains, the eastern sky was suffused
with a shell-pink glow; the horizon-line but vaguely
suggested where the sea and sky met and mingled in
opalescent light. The heavens overhead were a dark,
steel blue, the waters far out from land emerald ;
hitherward, the sea shone brightly iridescent in ever-
changing sheen of heliotrope and apple-green and un
certain shades of polished and antique bronze ; nearer,
bands of purple, ultra-marine and orange, bright gold,
dove color, and creamy white. At a short distance
from, the shore an almost unbroken band of frosted
silver stretched across the picture from side to side.
The surf breaking upon the beach was milk white, and
the waves that languidly rolled and crumbled upon the
yellow sands flowed upon the beach in filmy undula
tions of ivory, coral, mother-of-pearl, glittering rifts of
liquid light. Almost at our feet, ripples breaking into
beads and lacework of foam and bubbles, catching all
the tints of Iris, glistened like opals, onyx, and price
less gems. If one can imagine old Venetian lace
woven of rainbow, such were the tints and texture of
the borders of the sea on that enchanting morning.
The artist who, in Sicily, strives to hold the mirror
up to nature finds himself foiled by the exhaustion of
chromatic force and discovers that it is impossible, by

100 PICTURESQUE SICILY
contrasts of light and shade, to give expression to the
brilliancy of the Sicilian sky or the glamour of Sicil
ian landscapes. As well attempt to paint a ruby im
bedded in a jacqueminot rose, a pearl in the heart
of a cream-white rosebud ! Watching the grand and
wonderful spectacle of sunrise from Mondello, we for
got all about the fishermen and their fish, and when it
was bright day we were content to turn our faces city
ward, taking with us the memory of a scene the mag
nificence of which it is impossible to paint in words.
Four miles or more beyond La Favorita is La
Villa Scalea. We were fortunate in being invited by
the proprietress of this rich estate to visit her villa
and inspect her treasures, in the collection of which
she has displayed unerring good taste and rare dis
crimination. We were bidden to make ourselves at
home and examine, at our leisure, many beautiful and
precious articles most tastefully arranged where they
would show to the best advantage in the spacious
rooms of the palazzo. There were old tapestries of
exquisite design and workmanship on all the walls,
priceless Oriental rugs on the floors of the spacious
saloons ; there were Moorish cabinets curiously inlaid
in rosewood and ebony of inestimable value; ancient
treasure-chests, once the property of Saracen emirs ;
and chairs and divans fit for Norman kings to sit
upon. We were greatly interested in examining ex
amples of Saracenic-Spanish majolica, particularly one
magnificent plaque in gold and white, presumably of
the tenth century. It was almost two feet in diame
ter, as perfect in form, as bright in glaze and color, as
if it had just come from the hand of the master-
workman who created it in obedience to the com-

SUNNY WINTER DAYS lOI
mand of a mighty caliph. Regally mounted was this
royal object of art on a stand of carved ebony, and
again and again we returned to it to wonder at its
perfection and admire its matchless beauty. Al
though we saw many articles of European manufact
ure, the greater part of the collection consisted of
the work of Arabic and Oriental artificers, and we
could readily indulge the fancy that we had been ad
mitted to the palace of a Moorish nobleman, who to
his specimens of native art had added the spoils
taken from Christian princes to embellish the castle of
a valiant courtier of the caliphs of Cordova.
When we had passed two hours or more in wonder
ing at all the beautiful things we found to interest us,
tea was served in the English fashion, and when we
took our leave we found in our carriage large wicker
trays of fruits and flowers, honey in dainty jars, and
flasks of wine, all of which were from the gardens,
orchards, and vineyards surrounding the palazzo.
One fine afternoon, when the mild weather wooed
us far afield, we found ourselves at San Martino, an
ancient Benedictine convent built by Gregory the
Great in the seventh century, but now occupied by
" La Colonia Agricola di San Martino." In this re
formatory are twelve hundred boys, mostly street
arabs of Palermo, who, but for the opportunity here
offered them to become useful men, would remain in
the condition of misery and criminal association in
which they were born. The vast estate, once tilled
by the serfs of the Abbot of San Martino, is culti
vated by boys, who thus gain practical knowledge of
husbandry which will stand them in good stead in
after-life, when they go forth from their Alma Mater

I02 PICTURESQUE SICILY
to plough and prune in the fields and vineyards of
their native island.
The healthy, wholesome appearance of the pupils
and the orderliness of their deportment bear testimony
to the care that is taken of them, and they bid fair
to become good followers of St. Benedict, the holy
monk who never ceased to preach the doctrine that
he who labored with his hands was doing God's work
and benefiting humankind. To good uses, there
fore, has the old monastery been put. Instead of
sheltering a few dreaming, idle drones, it has been
turned into a busy bee-hive of workers, and its young
inmates, rendered intelligent by the knowledge ac
quired in boyhood, will in after-years help to solve
the social and political problems that present them
selves on every hand for the consideration of all Si
cilians who love their native land and pray for her
good-fortune and success.
On the foot-hills of Monte Grifone, near the ancient
convent of Santa Maria di Gesii, where we often
walked, enjoying a marvellous view of II Conco d' Oro,
we found a constant source of delight in studying the
ancient olive-trees, most picturesque in their incredi
ble antiquity. There were hundreds of them said to
have been planted by the Saracens, and consequently
more than a thousand years old — grand ruined trees,
gray and venerable, weird, misshapen, and fantastical,
overgrown with vines and creepers like ruined towers,
clutching moss-grown rocks with gnarled and knotted
roots, grasping the earth with giant claws whose death
less grip had resi.sted the whirlwinds of many centuries.
They reminded us ofthe supernatural beings described
by Dante and drawn by Gustave Dor6. We recalled

A SICILIAN "madonna"

SUNNY WINTER DAVS 103
the birth of the first priests of Rhea-Cybele, the Cu-
retes and Corybantes, the first beings of human form,
which sprang from the mountain -side in shape like
trees — grand leafy monsters, brethren of the sacred
oaks of Dodona ; and as we listened to the soughing
of the wind in their branches we could fancy we heard
"the voice of the powerful God murmuring the ever
lasting oracles."
One noble living ruin we found, whose boughs re
minded us, by their mighty folds and cords, of the
arm of Hercules; its trunk, of the marble "torso"
which blind Buonarroti loved to stroke and deftly
touch, studying its faultless anatomy. From the roots
of it there flowed a living spring, and amid its branch
es a flock of pigeons nested, resting broodingly or
circling in short flights about its crown of leaves like
the ring-doves that guarded the tree sacred to Aphro
dite, daughter of Zeus and Dione. Near by a no less
mighty form, with wide-spread roots appearing here
and there above the turf, recalled the dragon-encircled
tree from which Jason stole away the Golden Fleece ;
and almost in its shadow grew a fre.sh young graft
casting its slender arms heavenward above its lithe
and graceful figure — Daphne, whom the " spotless
goddess " transformed into an olive-tree when Apollo
wooed the nymph too rudely and too persistently.
What a world of mythology was revealed in the at
titudes and groupings of these old, old trees growing
on the slopes of the Mountain of the Griffins, in the
chasms of which are to be found the Caves of the
Giants ! We were strangely fascinated by the fan
tasies that formed themselves in the mind as we
passed through this land of chimeras and uncanny

104 PICTURESQUE SICILY
presences. We returned again and again, drawn to
it, especially in the gloaming, when unearthly shapes
wavered and trembled between light and darkness,
teasing sight and imagination, as deepening shadows,
weaving mystery, transfigured the landscape over
which there seemed to linger the twilight of the an
cient gods.

XII
AT THE OPERA '
A Study of Sicilian Character— The Rival Claques — Initiating
a New Opera Troupe — " Carmen " — " Toreador Attento " —
A Musical " Sicilian Vespers " — Moral.
Palermitans are music- mad. No less emphatic
term will adequately describe their intense craving
for the kind and quality of music that stirs their
hearts, arouses their passions, and appeals to their
imaginations. Music with them is really an affair of
the heart rather than an intellectual delight, as it is
with the Germans. A Sicilian audience at an opera,
actually and in a practical sense, " assists " at the rep
resentation ; it makes itself an important factor of the
performance, as much a part of the opera as the
Greek chorus was a part of the exhibition on the
stage. The audience not only hears the music, but
feels it, lives it. The crowd seems to become vibrant,
infected by the harmony and rhythm, responding in
voluntarily to the tone of the instruments and the
expression of the singers. The auditors are rarely
silent ; they attend the performances in the Politeama,
not to see and be sfeen — they go there to hear and
to be heard.
To visit the capital of Sicily when, of all operas,
"Carmen" is having a run — in other words, when

Io6 PICTURESQUE SICILY
there is a season of " Carmen " at the Politeama-Gari-
baldi — without attending one or more performances,
is like being at Seville and failing to see a bull-fight,
or visiting Rome and neglecting to avail oneself of
the opportunity of acquiring malaria by a visit to the
Colosseum by moonlight.
From a New York or London point of view, going
to the opera in Palermo is not a ruinously extrava
gant form of polite amusement. If the cost of tick
ets, flowers, carriages, and the other accessories and
superfluities is compared with the ruling market-price
of the same in New York, it will be found that the
balance is overwhelmingly in favor of Palermo. A
pair of white gloves (gentleman's) costs in Palermo three
and a half lire (seventy cents) for the very best qual
ity; a lady may have ten buttons for the same price,
additional buttons costing at the rate of twenty-five
centesimi (five cents) for each pair of buttons up to
x+y buttons in all. A vettura with two horses, coach
man in livery, very smart and well turned out, may
be hired for opera service for eight lire ($i 60). But
one can ride comfortably to the Politeama from any
part of the city in clean, reputable -looking carozze
for the exceedingly reasonable sum of sixty centesi
mi, or twelve cents American money. One can buy
a bunch of five hundred of the rarest violets for a lira
and a half (thirty cents) or an armful — literally that —
of magnificent roses for the New York price of one
American beauty or a pair of Boston jacqueminots.
A box (palcho) containing chairs for ten people costs
but thirty-five lire ($7 00) ; half a box, eighteen lire ;
an orchestra chair (poltrona), seven lire ; a posto dis-
tincto (orchestra circle), five lire; standing-room in

AT THE OPERA 107
the pit (platea), two and a half lire ; a seat in the
family circle (prima cavea), one lira ; and foot-room
in the gallery (seconda cavea), fifty centesimi (one
dime) ; and, to complete the price-list of a Palermitan
opera outfit, a libretto costs five cents. A reduction
is made to the military, who, it is understood, are to
present themselves in uniform, which they do in large
numbers ; and as they lend dignity, distinction, and
color to the audience, the favor shown them in the
matter of prices is not considered excessive or inap
propriate. The officers are conspicuous, by reason of
. their gold lace and trappings, at all times and in all
positions, but between the acts especially are they
prominent features of the picture. As the curtain
falls they rise with professional precision, face about,
raise, level, take aim, and, to complete the analogy,
fire their opera - glasses point-blank at the lace and
diamonds in the boxes, until the rising of the curtain,
when they recover, ground opera -glasses, front face,
and resume their seats.
A performance in the Politeama is preceded by the
playing of Garibaldi's Hymn, an incident which al
ways excites the audience to delirious demonstrations
of delight and approval. It warms them up, as it
were, to the work of the evening, and it may be said
to be the only number of any programme which
is invariably and inevitably applauded, and never,
under any circumstances, at any time, by any per
son or persons whomsoever, hissed or interrupted.
Drowned it may be by the volume and intensity of
applause, but woe to the man, Sicilian or foreign
er, who dares so much as lift the corner of his
eyebrow or draw down the corner of his mouth

I08 PICTURESQUE SICILY
during the performance of the Sicilian psalm of lib
erty !
But to "Carmen"! On the occasion of its first rep
resentation during the season of which we are writing,
the Politeama was packed from floor to ceiling. Long
before the orchestra began the overture it became ap
parent that the audience was made up of two parties.
What parties? Why two? What their intent, pur
pose, or sympathies? Only the best-informed Paler
mitan can tell, if he can be induced to speak at all
about the matter. Without warning, without cause,
so far as the uninitiated foreigner could discern, one
party broke into a round of applause, clapping hands,
shouting, whistling, roaring like the waters of the Bay
of Palermo against the shores of Monte Pellegrino.
Equally without apparent cause the other party began
to hiss and groan, to hoot and utter shrill, angry cries.
During the overture the demonstrations and counter-
demonstrations were repeated frequently and with in
creasing enthusiasm, followed by a demand for the
repetition of the entire overture and opposing disturb
ances, hissing, and cries of " Basta ! Basta !" An encore
was not granted, and when the curtain went up there
was a pandemonium of applause, hisses, and groans.
The parties had changed sides — those who had hissed
the performance of the overture applauded the re
fusal to repeat it, those who had demanded its rep
etition resented the denial of their demands. So
the audience continued to rave and roar during the
first part of the evening ; first one party applaud
ed and the other hissed — when the latter hissed,
the former applauded ; at no time was there una
nimity of sentiment or concert of demonstration,

AT THE OPERA 109
except during the performance of the Garibaldi
Hymn. When the curtain went up on the first act, the
house divided itself into two very nearly equal fac
tions, one of which, apparently, applauded the scenery,
while the other expressed its disapproval of the same.
The first notes of the chorus were rendered inaudible
by an outburst of hissing. The entrance of Michae
la was the signal for "short-winded accents of new
broils " among the " gods." Jos6 was roundly hoot
ed when he came upon the scene. His duet with
Michaela did not please many of his auditors, but at
the end of the third scene he gave a cue and an occa
sion to his partisans, and they overwhelmed the hisses
by a short, decisive, angry round of applause.
The debut of Signora C-  , who had come to Pa
lermo with the enthusiastic endorsement of the mu
sical public of Milan and Florence, was made under
most trying circumstances. Signora C  is not a
Calve, but she knows hovv to sing Carmen, has a
clear, sweet voice, and acts with grace and admirable
discretion. Nevertheless, she had to run the gantlet of
the yelling barbarians in the prima and seconda cavea.
A cruel test it was of her nerves and temper. She is
a brave woman, albeit slight and dainty of face and
form ; and with a courage that won for her the admi
ration of the more manly and gentler part of the
audience she struggled on through the first act, never
once sang false nor missed her cue. Partly because
she sang very charmingly, and, doubtless, partly be
cause she was not Carmen — probably for no other
reason than the latter — Michaela was the first one of
the singers to receive a round of genuine applause;

IIO PICTURESQUE SICILY
but until the close of the first act all the other per
formers were treated with scant courtesy — indeed, that
is a mild and timid phrase — with downright churlish
ness — bythe audience, which gave a painful exhibition
of what may be bluntly called " bad manners."
At the end of the act pandemonium broke loose
again. There were applause, hissing, whistling, cat
calls, an undertone of roaring, which continued as long
as the demonstration lasted. The " implacables "
seemed to " have it " — " they had it " — there were no
recalls. Between the acts the male occupants of the
parquet arose, turned their backs to the stage, lighted
cigarettes or cigars, and, puffing away, critically ex
amined the occupants of the posti distincti and of
the double row of palchi. One of the " gods " let
his hat fall into the pit, and there were uproarious
shouts of "Bis ! Bis!" laughter, and applause, that for
several minutes drowned the roar and buzz of conver
sation. There was no smoking in the boxes, where
ices, confetti, and liqueurs were passed around to such
persons and personages as saw fit to order the same
from the waiters of the Caffe Politeama.
The second act opened badly for the singers and
those of the audience who desired to hear Carmen's
solo with which the act begins. There were disturb
ances which continued all through the earlier scenes.
When Escamillo sang the great barytone aria, " Tore
ador attento !" which Guy de Maupassant heard so
vigorously applauded in 1890, the " gods " hissed every
refrain, and at the end of the number wildly hooted
the singer from the stage and refused to allow him to
be recalled, as he nevertheless richly deserved to be,
for he sang well and with fine expression and spirit.

AT THE OPERA III
Not until Jos^ sang the solo, " Alto la, chi va la ?"
and sang it well, taking the final high note easily and
holding it finely, did any one of the artistes score a suc
cess with the crowd of disorderly critics in the cavea.
Then, however, the applause and cries of " Bis! Bis!"
were so emphatic, so fiercely sustained, that Jose came
to the foot-lights again and again, smiling, bowing his
acknowledgments. Jos6 had won his victory. He had been encored.
And thenceforward he had nothing to complain of in
his treatment by the occupants of the galleries, who ap
plauded his every effort, encored all his solos. When
he did not at once heed their demand the " gods "
hissed him and kept up the disturbance until he was
compelled to sing the number over again in order that
the rest of the opera might be gone on with.
Carmen was now listened to attentively and in
silence. The toreador sang as if he regarded the
raving of the audience no more than the bellowing of
the bulls he knew how to conquer. He maintained his
indifference of manner, kept his head, sang his best,
and developed a claque which increased in numbers
and lung power, so that at the end of the act, after
Josd had been recalled thrice, and had induced Car
men to advance to the foot-lights with him, but had
not been able to persuade Escamillo to show himself,
a cry went up from all over the auditorium, " Torea
dor ! Toreador !" and the toreador came forth bowing
and smiling. Then the house rose at him, cheered
him, waved their hats at him — and his troubles were
over. He had run the gantlet of the Palermitan
" gods," and was enthusiastically accepted as their
toreador of the day.

112 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Carmen triumphed in the third act. She sang her
duet with Jos6 admirably, and acted with self-sus
tained dramatic power. Her encore, although long
delayed, was bravely won, and came at the very close
of the opera. But, when it did come, there was no
mistaking the fact that the brave little lady had com
pelled the admiration of all claques and all factions in
the audience. She was recalled again and again ; and
as the audience by this time had roared itself into
good-nature, every member of the company came in
for a share of applause. Favors thus bestowed can
hardly be said to be worth struggling for. It must
have been with much heart-swelling and not easily
concealed contempt that Signora C  and her fel
low-artistes received the ovation that brought their
first representation of " Carmen " in Palermo to a suc
cessful close.
The Palermitans, undoubtedly, are lovers of music.
Many of them have a delicate -musical sense, and some
are instinctively good critics ; but it seems strange
that music awakens in the bosoms of the lower sort of
opera-goers passions that inspire acts and exhibitions
of brutality that would do discredit to the sunny side
of a Plaza de Toros.
The opera in Palermo does not begin until nine
o'clock, and what with interruptions, pauses in the
performance incident to a first night, long waits be
tween the acts, it was after one o'clock in the morn
ing before the large audience was ready to disperse.
In time, however, the concluding demonstrations
came to an end, the audience simmered down, and
the cries and hurrahs ceased. The gas-lights were
turned out all over the theatre, hundreds of matches

SICILIANA

AT THE OPERA II 3
were struck preparatory to lighting cigars and cigar
ettes, and so we moved out of the theatre like an in
cipient torch-light procession, and " gave ourselves to
the street " roaring in chorus " Toreador attento !"
We have dwelt at length and particulariy on the per
formance of "Carmen" in the Pohteama of Palermo,
for the reason that we believe that from the study of
even so light and trivial a subject much knowledge
may be gained of the character and propensities, likes
and dislikes, of the Sicilians. There is a strong infusion
of Spanish blood flowing in the veins of all classes of
Palermitans ; therefore, they love " Carmen " and its
pictures of the bull-ring, and go wild with enthusiasm
over the song of the toreador. What other lessons
are to be learned by those who closely observe the
manners and customs of the people we shall endeavor
to indicate by Abraham Lincoln's device of telling
"a little story" :
In the days before " the late unpleasantness between
the North and South," when discussions of the slavery
question led to many misunderstandings between mem
bers of Congress and other citizens of the slave-holding
republic, a certain grave and thoughtful Dutchman
was sent from Holland to represent his country near
the government of the United States. On the morn
ing after his arrival, he was seated at breakfast in a
Washington hotel, when an " elegant gentleman " en
tered the dining-hall, and, drawing his derringer, shot
a person seated at the same table at which the diplo
matist was solemnly sipping his coffee. With that
marvellous imperturbability which characterizes his
race, the honest Dutchman turned to his companion,
who sat petrified with horror by the tragedy which

114 PICTURESQUE SICILY
had just been enacted, and remarked: " Sdranch beo-
ple, dose Amerigans ! If dey do such dings for preak-
vast, vot vill dey do vor dinner?"
If the Palermitans behave in the manner above
described, at the opera, what may they not do when,
driven to desperation by unwise or tyrannous rulers,
they risk their lives in mad attempts to sweep away
political and social abuses which they believe are the
prime causes of their misery and discontent?

XIII
A MOUNTAIN EXCURSION
The Alpine Club — Boccadifalco — The Summit of Cuccio —
A Vision of .^tna — San Martino — Monreale.
At sunrise on a clear January morning twelve
members of the Alpine Club of Palermo and their
guest for the day, an American, met outside of La
Porta Nuova, one of the picturesque ancient gates of
Palermo, dressed and provisioned for an excursion
into the mountains. The expedition was the first
business meeting of the season, and the club members
who intended to take part in it looked upon the pro
posed " giro " merely as a preliminary canter to try
their hob -nailed mountain -boots, take the size of
their belts, and test the spikes of their alpenstocks.
Promptly at the appointed hour the expedition took
its way to the hills, from La Porta Nuova along II
Corso Calatafimi. The objective point of three of the
party is the summit of Monte Cuccio, ten good Eng
lish miles from the city gate. The other members of
the club have decided to attempt Castellaccio, and
the rendezvous is to be the monastery of San Martino
in the valley between two grand mountains, the two
most prominent of the peaks that rise from the bor
der of II Conco d' Oro. Turning into La Via Cappuc
cini, " the three," crossing II Conco d' Oro, proceeded

Il6 PICTURESQUE SICILY
three miles and arrived at the quaint village of Boc
cadifalco, where their mountain climb really began.
Boccadifalco is at the entrance to II Vallone di Para-
diso. It straddles the path leading up to it, and the
stream which flows down to II Conco d' Oro from the
valley above struggles fiercely through a narrow, tort
uous gorge, on the edges of which perch the houses
of the town. From this very irregular array of quaint
old dwellings, that seem almost to totter on the verge
of the ragged cliffs between which the Oreto cleaves its
way, the town scrambles and tumbles indiscriminate
ly, indescribably, up the front of steep terraces. In the
heart of the town, where the streets and by-ways twist
and twine in an almost inextricable confusion, there
stands a little church — not mentioned in guide-books
— in no way notable — tucked away almost out of
sight, as if the devout Boccadifalconi who worship
there were ashamed of it. Early mass was being
celebrated in the sanctuary, of which even the name
was not to be learned, and to say that the build
ing was packed is simply to ignore the fact that not
more than two-thirds of the worshippers were within
the walls of the edifice.
At the upper end of the town the main street
wriggles down to a little bridge that crosses the
stream, and then as steeply zigzags up again, to lose
itself amid the houses on the other side of the water
course, like a serpent slyly approaching from its
haunts among the rocks to cross the sunshine and as
swiftly to take refuge again in its hidden lairs and
lurking-places. Near the bridge, standing in the bed
of the stream, and on the bank of it, by an open irri-
gating-drain built of stone, there was a busy and pict-

A MOUNTAIN EXCURSION II7
uresque group of women in bright petticoats with
small shawls pinned, hood -fashion, over their heads,
all engaged in washing garments once as gaudy as
dyer's pot could make them, now tattered, faded,
patched, but nevertheless, to the minds of the own
ers, worth washing and patching again and again. It
was an industrious assemblage and a merry one.
Many of the women were young, well favored, and
lissome ; those in the stream were barefooted, and,
although there was a certain abandon in their atti
tudes, a frank and simple - minded disregard of the
finer proprieties regarding the happing and gathering-
up of skirts and philacteries, Diana at her bath never
more unconsciously exhibited her ungirt shapeliness
or less designedly displayed her grace of limb.
The path of the climbers led them from the bridge
along the side of the brook, until the town lay a
hundred yards behind ; then, turning to the left, it
mounted the face of a steep knoll, from the top of
which a view of Monte Cuccio broke upon the sight,
a vision of grandeur which, to those unaccustomed to
Sicilian scenery, was a spectacle to wonder at, a sub
ject for day-dreaming, a sight never to fade. from
the memory.
We stood in the deep shadows of the lower valley.
The lesser hills were shrouded in mysterious darkness,
with which there seemed to be blended dark- green
and faintly glowing tints, an undertone of darkest
blue. The narrow road up which we climbed took
to itself a hue of violet - gray, and the groves of
gnarled and knotted olive-trees outlined in shimmer
ing light seemed as if etched in unburnished steel.
Before us, as we looked up the valley, towering three

1X8 PICTURESQUE SICILY
thousand six hundred feet into the air, Monte Cuccio
uplifted its symmetrical, triangular peak, a stupendous
mass of brilliantly illuminated rocks and precipices,
shining as rich and rare as a pyramid of Guinea gold.
Near at hand, on the valley-side, under perpendicular
cliffs, where the shadows were deepest, were many
lime-kilns, and through the open mouths of their fur
naces there burst forth a fierce glow from the fires
within, which lighted up the forms of crouching, busy
beings bent and doubled under enormous burdens.
The chimeras skulked out of the surrounding darkness,
as if they came from the nether world, cast their
loads into the glowing pits, and disappeared into the
shadows again. In silence they toiled, like gnomes,
like laboring cyclops, weird and spectral, haunting the
borders of the night, feeding subterranean fires.
We made haste to be gone from the dark valley
into the daylight of the mountains, and, leaving the
imps of darkness flitting about their paling fires, we
pushed onward to the glory of II Vallone di Para-
di.so. Far above in the serene ether, the full moon,
swinging majestical, hung like a bowl of silver, just
above the pinnacle of Monte Cuccio. The front of
the mountain, facing the east, glowed in the light of
morning, while the hills behind us still faintly reflected
the dying splendor of the moon. As we clambered
up the steep ascent, following a bridle-track, we sud
denly passed into the full glory of a new day ; the
moon had dropped behind the peaks above us and
not a shadow or thought of night lingered in all the
land. We now beheld with wonderful distinctness, several
miles of our road zigzagging upward to the shoulder

A MOUNTAIN EXCURSION II9
of Cuccio, and we braced ourselves for as stiff a bit
of scrambling as man or " asinello " ever had cut out
for him. The path became steeper and steeper and
more tortuous as we climbed higher. It also became
less and less distinctly marked. At times we lost our
way, on which occasions we left the matter of finding
it again to the instinct of our four-footed companion,
and he invariably brought us back into the track, but
not until after he had extended his peregrinations for
the purpose of nibbling a few of the tempting bunches
of grass that, on the mountain-side, grew more luxu
riantly than in the valleys.
At last ! Three hours after setting out from La Porta
Nuova we arrived at the tiny Alpine club-house
perched on the pinnacle of Monte Cuccio. And what
a view was presented to our sight ! The sky was
cloudless ; the atmosphere, deprived of moisture by
recent rains, was as transparent as the air on those
grand October days that are the glory of an American
fall. Looking down from Monte Cuccio towards the sea,
one beholds a wide extent of wonderfully fertile valley,
overgrown by almond orchards and plantations of the
fruits for which Sicily, and especially II Conco d' Oro,
are famous all the world over. For miles and miles,
in spring-time, the traveller in this sheel of gold makes
his way through an ocean of orange blossoms that
perfume the air with odors rivalling the spices of
Araby the Blest. Orange blossoms are everywhere,
white as snow, glistening all the whiter because they
shine amid deep, rare green foliage. Amid the orange
and lemon plantations are pastures, grain fields, and
o-ardens, and where the soil is mixed with detritus

I20 PICTURESQUE SICILY
washed from the hills terraced vineyards give promise
of an abundance of grapes. A score of towns and
villages, red-tiled and white-walled, appear here and
there, connected by highways with each other and
the mother city. These " strade " wind through the
valley, dropping gently from the mountains, and, al
though apparently wandering aimlessly hither and
thither through the land, are nevertheless all trending
towards Palermo, the Rome of Sicily, to which all
Sicilian roads lead at last.
Turning from the view of II Conco d' Oro and the
city by the sea, facing the south and east, a wonderful
change comes over the spirit of one's dream. Beyond
the double peaks of Monte Pizzuta and the turtle-back
summit of Costa di Carponato, Rocca Busambra shows
its stupendous precipices, extending for miles along
the sky-line, its sides all jointed and greaved like the
armor of an armadillo. The imagination easily recog
nizes its resemblance to the monstrous shape of a sau
rian, showing its back, its neck, its bristling head and
beak over the lesser hills ; these latter, all snow-capped,
may be likened to the foam-strewed waves in which
the monster plays and vaunts its infinite strength.
Beyond Busambra the eye sweeps through a range of
one hundred miles of sea and shore as far as Cape
Orlando. But Cape Orlando is not upon the verge of vision.
The sky does not draw its mysterious curtain even at
that distance from Monte Cuccio. Beyond the far
thest range of the Madonian mountains, towering
above all other peaks and pinnacles, there rises a
superb dome of snow, grandly uplifting its vastness
to the heavens. It dominates the land and looks

NORMAN WINDOW. PALERMO

A MOUNTAIN EXCURSION 121
down upon all the coast of Sicily ; it presides ma
jestically over the convocation of all the lesser hills
that gather around it like barons of a mighty king
kneeling before their lord. Back of the crests of the
Madonian mountains a sky-line of glistening snow
rises, gradually and evenly, from both sides of the
picture to a rounded cupola, from which there drifts
a feathery cloud of steam. The background of blue
sky throws this snowy eminence into high relief, and
all the picture shows distinctly in sunlight, rare in
color, wonderfully impressive in contour and signif
icance. The stranger needs no guide-book or well-
versed alpinist to tell him what vision rises before
him. For one moment doubting, then mastered by
a strange elation, he cried aloud " .^tna !" and his com
panions, accustomed to the spectacle, replied " ^tna!"
and leave him to marvel in silence.
Yes, there was ^tna, and in his presence all the
mountains dwindle to hills, and all the hills to pleasant
knolls. The eye noted nothing but the sky, the sea,
and ^tna, through leagues and leagues of thin, trans
lucent air ; so distant and yet apparently so near, it
seemed as if one might journey to its base bq^re
night had shut out the view of the everlasting snow.
Thereafter, all the glories of landscape, of mountains
and valleys, and long reach of coast seemed insignif
icant and of small import ; the eye lingers upon .jEtna,
attracted resistlessly to the superb spectacle.
From the summit of Cuccio our downward path
ran very appropriately through II Vallone dell' In
ferno ; and, as the leader of the expedition, our four-
footed companion set a rattling pace, we reached the
plain between Monte San Pietro and the farther hills.

122 PICTURESQUE SICILY
where stands the monastery of San Martino, in time
to keep tryst with the members of the Alpine Club,
who had climbed to the Norman keep of Castellaccio.
Our meeting and our procession with our friends to
the gates of San Martino savored of the old, old
times. The pilgrims from Cuccio had stopped at a
quaint hamlet whereof every house was a charming
study for an artist. The ancient dwellings, time and
weather stained, gathered together in a most pictur
esque group at the bottom of a lovely glen, where
three or four huge trees cast a ripple of shadow over
red tiles and white walls. It scarcely needed the in
vitation of bright -eyed girls to induce us to rest
awhile and drink of the crystal water that fell into a
stone basin all overgrown with mosses and delicate
ferns. The children and their elders made a pretty
picture, bright and gay with many colors, which blend
ed charmingly with the greenery and gray of the old
fountain. Four venerable monks in brown gowns and
hoods drew near apace and joined the company, and
a procession of young priests, headed by two Canons
of San Martino, came winding down the valley and
approached the well. Presently there came in sight
the party of alpinists from Castellaccio. Lastly, there
came two fair ladies who had walked all the way from
La Porta Nuova, and who, presently, merrily protested
that they were not footsore or weary in the least.
This goodly array of pilgrims took up its march along
the valley to the monastery gates, and, as they went,
discoursed of their adventures during the morning.
The monks and gowned priests bore them company,
and the asses followed, urged on by their drivers, at
whose heels ran the children, marvelling to see so

A MOUNTAIN EXCURSION 1 23
many travellers on the road to old San Martino. In
such order we came to the great gates, which were
thrown open to receive us as the clock struck two.
After a short halt, the pilgrims again set out on
their different journeys. The three from Cuccio fol
lowed the road which leads from II Vallone di Para-
diso over the hills to the town of Monreale, where
William the Good built his wonderful cathedral. We
passed the foot of the great hill on which stands Cas
tellaccio, the walls and towers of which still remain,
although much weakened by the weight of centuries,
and crumbling into ruin. Where our road began to
descend into the valley of the Oreto we had a grand
view of Monreale, its cloisters and cathedral, but we
could spare only a few moments to sit on an old
stone settle where the monks of San Martino, many
years ago, before their monastery was turned into an
" agricultural colony," were wont to sit and watch
the shadows chase the sunlight across the lovely
valley. From the abbot's seat to Monreale was a short
twenty-minutes' walk, and we arrived at the cathe
dral door in time to enter that superb edifice and
catch a glimpse of all its splendors lighted by the rays
of the setting sun. Surely the gold and rich mosaics
of that interior never showed more magnificently than
they did on that fine winter evening. In the Cathe
dral of Monreale all that the brain of man could de
vise, all that the hand of man could create, has been
realized to beautify one of the wonders of the world
of art. Nevertheless, while standing in the irised
light of the grand choir, looking at the jewelled walls,
at the gold, the marble, the jasper, the lapis lazuli.

124 PICTURESQUE SICILY
teased out of thought by all the dainty loveliness of
the place, we remembered the glory of the snow
capped dome of ^tna, marvellous in sunlight, and
the painfully wrought earthly splendor of Monreale
faded away as the soul recalled the words, " What
is man that Thou art mindful of him?"

XIV
SOLUNTO
Winter Scenes — Blossoms and Snow-flakes— Bagheria — An
cient Solous — A Carthaginian Town — -Men in Sheepskins
— A Shipwreck.
After waiting for several days for clear weather,
wearying at our confinement within doors, we wel
comed a sudden outburst of mellow light as the sun
was rising one chilly morning, and, making ourselves
believe that we were to have a fine, day, ordered a
vettura to be ready in half an hour.
As we started on our excursion to ancient Solous, a
twelve-mile drive along the shore of II Conco d' Oro
from Palermo to Bagheria and Cape Zaffarano, the
clouds settled down again and it began snowing. It
might snow all day — it might clear. We took the
benefit of the doubt. If it cleared, well and good. If
it continued to snow, we should see many sights and
have many experiences not obtainable when the sun
was shining. Our " vetturino," to whom the weather
was a matter of small importance, was willing to con
tinue the journey.
" Non fa multo freddo !" Were not the Americans
accustomed to snow ?
The Americans had seen snow before.
" Va bene. Avanti !"

126 PICTURESQUE SICILY
In some respects the drive of twenty-four miles to
Bagheria and back was one of the most interesting it
was our fortune to take during our stay in Sicily.
We entered into the spirit of it, and our hearts were
cheered by the merry jingle of the Russian sleigh-
bells attached to the trappings of our three horses
harnessed abreast. The bells gave out a pleasant
sound, which seemed appropriate to the snow-storm,
and, although our vettura was on wheels, it required
but little effort of the imagination to fancy we were
actually sleighing in a country where a sleigh would
be as great a curiosity as a date-palm growing in the
open air in winter-time would be to the inhabitants
of our native New York.
Presently the sleet turned to hail, which beat mer
cilessly upon beasts and men and so astounded the
asses plodding along the road, drawing heavily laden
carts through the mud and snow, that they stopped
and, refusing to budge, stood shaking their heads and
wagging their ears, which were strangely tickled and
stung by the pelting hailstones. For a moment or
two it seemed as if, after all, we should have to give
up our expedition and return to our fireside in the
hotel. We called to our vetturino, telling him to turn
back if his heart failed him, but he bravely shouted,
"Niente!" and, cracking his whip, set his horses in a
gallop. The highway was crowded by all kinds of
vehicles driven by men in sheepskin overcoats and
trousers; weird shapes they represented — rustic fauns
of winter, brown and white bears. No doubt they
were comfortable ; and, certainly, unless so clothed it
would have been better for them not to have vent
ured out-of-doors on so inclement a day. When the

SOLUNTO 127
hailstorm passed the sunlight fell on Cape Zaffarano,
far ahead of us, and turned it into silver ; over the
mountains, beyond II Conco d' Oro, dense black clouds
hung low, now hiding, now revealing, many snow
peaks. There was a strange, unearthly white light
over the sea, and from moment to moment, when
the sun broke through rifts in the clouds, the waters
gleamed with all the colors of a dying dolphin. We
passed droves of pigs, flocks of goats and sheep, all of
them bewildered by the unaccustomed spectacle of
snow, and long rows of carts filled with skins of wine,
heaps of lemons and oranges, in transit to the store
houses on La Via Borgo. Most unseasonable did the
sunny fruit, partly concealed by snow, seem to us.
When we reached the country beyond the custom
house at the borders of the town, we were interested
by the weird incongruity of things in the vegetable
world. The apple and pear trees were lifeless, but
there were oranges and lemons hanging ripe amid
dark green leaves ; the plum-trees (carrubi) were in
full blossom, and apparently none the worse for the
hail and snow. The olive-groves were gray and fruit
less, but in many fields there were long rows of pea-
vines covered with white flowers which at first we
mistook for snow-flakes. The pomegranates and fig-
trees showed never a sign of flower or fruit, and the
date-palms stood stark and stiff in the bitter cold.
In one garden we saw a woman (an odd figure in a
sheepskin coat) picking strawberries. It was curious
to mark the surprise of children when they beheld the
snow ; they seemed not to know what use to make of
it, did not play in it and with it, as children at home
would be likely to do, but cuddled together in groups.

128 PICTURESQUE SICILY
under the eaves of the houses, with their little coats
and "cappas" happed close around them, or toddled
fearsomely about like the sparrows, with ruffled plu
mage, that chirped piteously as they hopped about in
vain search for food.
The rivers we crossed, beginning with the Oreto,
which flows close to the city wall, were swollen by
the rain and melting snow, and came seething down
from the hills, crossed the plain in tawny floods that
overflowed their banks, and deposited clay and gravel
wide upon the meadows and plantations.
After a journey of two hours we came to the office
of " The Custodian of the Antiquities of Solunto."
There we left our carriage and proceeded on foot, not
an easy or pleasant excursion, for the snow had turned
into rain, the roads were miry, and the wind was blow
ing a gale. We crossed a garden, and, taking a lane
through an orchard of plum-trees, began the ascent of
a steep and stony road that led us in half an hour to
the ruins of the city we had set out to visit. Near
the top of the easternmost summit of Monte Catalfano
we found traces of the ancient city called " Solous," or
" Soloes," by the Greeks, " Soluntum " by the Romans,
" Solunto " by the men of to-day. It was originally a
Phcenician town, one of the three settlements which
remained to the traders from Tyre and Sidon when
they were driven by the invading Greeks, in the
seventh century B.C., from all other places in eastern
and central Sicily. In the day of its prosperity the
walls of Solous were two miles in circumference, and
it was the most important outpost of the Phoenicians
against the Greeks, who possessed the land to the
eastward, having their outpost at Thermae Himeren-

SOLUNTO 129
sis. Unlike many other Phoenician cities, Solous was
seated on a hill near the sea, and not on the sea-shore.
The site of this ancient town was forsaken by its
founders, and the ruins discoverable to-day are not of
Phoenician origin, but date from Roman times. His
tory is strangely silent concerning Solunto. We know
that Pyrrhus of Epirus captured it ; that after the
taking of Panormus by Metellus the citizens of So
lous threw off the yoke of the Carthaginians and in
vited the Romans to lord it over them. "Thus," says
the historian Freeman, " was the great Semitic city
of Sicily for the second time won for Europe. The
Greek under Pyrrhus had made his way in for a
moment ; the Roman was to keep his hold abid
ingly." Ages ago the very existence of Solous seems to
have been forgotten, all vestige of it had disappeared,
and not until 1825 was it possible to ascertain pre
cisely the site of the ancient Phoenician metropolis ;
moreover, it was a peasant, not an archsologist, who
brought to light a colossal statue of Jupiter and a
curious statuette of Isis, which bore witness that Ro
man and Egyptian gods had usurped the honor for
merly paid to Ashtoreth and Baal. Little remains
above ground of the Roman town that replaced the
older settlement, but the traveller to-day climbs the
ancient paved causeway, and, entering the limits of
the city, marks the streets running at right angles be
tween the foundations of rows of houses lately ex
cavated and barely showing above the surface of the
ground. A part of the colonnade of a house which
attracts attention was re-erected but a few years ago,
and, although it makes a picturesque feature of the
9

130 PICTURESQUE SICILY
landscape, it seems to intrude itsal£ upon the utter
desolation of the scene where
". . . self-slain on his own strange altar,
Death lies dead."
On the day of which we are writing, during our
short stay at Solunto, it rained as if the fountains of
the great deep had been broken up, as in the days of
Noah, or, to use an illustration more in keeping with
our classic surroundings, as it rained in the days of
Deucalion. Seeking refuge from the storm, we took
shelter in the lee of the portico of the restored house,
where we found three goat-herds cowering, chilled to
the bone, their teeth chattering and their sheepskin
coats soaking, dripping wet. Nevertheless, they greet
ed us pleasantly, and one of them politely inquired
what I Signori were doing on the mountains on such
a day. We felt some embarrassment in answering his
inquiry. To explain that we were sight-seeing on such
a day, in such weather, and in such a storm-swept lo
cality, seemed to us to be equivalent to making an
admission that' if we were not indeed bereft of com
mon - sense, we were, at least, somewhat fanatical in
our pursuit of archaeological knowledge. We were
further embarrassed by our ignorance of the Sicilian
dialect, so we limited ourselves to the words of the
inquiry : " Piovera questa sera ?" The three goat
herds nodded their heads violently, and our interlocu
tor, casting an eye to windward, confidently asserted
that it would rain abundantly that evening, if it did
not snow ; that it would certainly rain to-morrow, and
probably would not clear for several days.
In default of a greater command of words with

SOLUNTO 1 3 1
which to continue the conversation, we presented our
three storm -bound companions with a cigar apiece,
which they concealed within their sheepskin cover
ings, remarking, presumably, that they would smoke
them after dinner. And there we stood, they in their
sheepskins, we in our mackintoshes, eying one an
other curiously, all anxious to talk ; they to question
the " forestieri," we to catechise the strange denizens
of a country that was little like any other region we
had yet visited in all our wanderings. However, they
were good-natured fellows, and, although free and famil
iar in manner, exhibited a certain courtesy and rough
politeness that inspired confidence that at least they
were not brigands. In their sheepskins they looked
like bears, but they were good-natured beasts, and
when we turned to go, one after the other, they ex
tended their great, rough, dripping paws to us, and,
bending, made as if they would kiss the hands of the
strangers as they bade us farewell.
As we made our way down the hill, we passed a
very ancient sacrificial table, a rude slab of rock on
two upright blocks, the sides of which were carved
curiously. The whole structure was placed on a base
of rough masonry. Upon this altar in old times
priests sacrificed, probably to Poseidon, beseeching
him to reward the labors of the fishermen, who, in an
cient times, as to-day, at all seasons of the year put
out from this shore to cast their nets in the wide bay
which extends from Cape Zaffarano to the square
head of Cefalu, thirty-five or forty miles distant in the
east. That the altar was sacred to Poseidon there
seems to be little doubt. He was the protector of
the ancient city, as we know from coins of Solous pre-

132 PICTURESQUE SICILY
served in the Museum of Palermo, on which are
stamped the head of the sea- god, surrounded by in
scriptions in Greek or Punic characters.
In fair weather the view from the heights of Solunto
is indescribably grand, as we could readily imagine.
Storming", as it was on the day of our visit, we never
theless, from time to time, caught magnificent pros
pects of the Madonian mountains, and down below us
we beheld the sea, lashed by the tempest into glisten
ing foam, a deserted waste, for on all the expanse
of it there was not one vessel, large or small, in
sight. Unhappy, thrice unhappy, were the mariners who
must needs sail the seas on that fearful day — a day
that will long be known to the fishermen of Cape
Zaffarano as " The Day of the Shipwreck " ; for, as we
learned on our return to Palermo at an early hour
that very morning, a large bark, which at sunrise
found herself in the bight of the Bay of Termini dan
gerously close to the shore, in attempting to weather
Cape Zaffarano was swamped by tremendous seas and
foundered off the point of the headland, carrying
down with her a crew of seven men, whom brave fish
ermen struggled in vain to save, risking their lives in
an impossible attempt to reach the sinking vessel.
When we at last arrived at the office of the guar
dian of the antiquities of Solunto, we were as dripping
wet as our friends the goat-herds, whom we had left
on the mountain-top, and who had been out for days
in the constant storm. Nevertheless, we soon forgot
our discomfort, for we were made welcome to seats by
the fireside in the snug office of the custode, where,
with his permission, we satisfied our vast appetites

SOLUNTO 133
with the contents of the lunch-basket we had brought
from Palermo.
Our host offered us a dish of " pasta con pomidoro,"
which we knew better than to refuse. We found it
exceedingly appetizing, prepared as only Sicilians
know how to prepare macaroni with tomato sauce,
and we can well imagine that those who can afford to
have it on their tables constantly become as fond of
it as the Scotchman of his porridge, the Englishman
of his Yorkshire pudding, or the Yankee of his pork
and beans.
Bidding our kind entertainer good-bye, we entered
our vettura, in which we found, placed there by our
thoughtful vetturino, who was ever solicitous for our
comfort and welfare, half a dozen hot-water bottles,
which gave us no inconsiderable relief from the pinch
ing of wet and frosted feet. Having fortified our
Jehu with a glass of Marsala to enable him to resist
the cold, we started through the storm, and without
further adventure arrived early in the afternoon at
the Hotel des Palmes. Over a blazing fire, in the
comfort of our own apartment, we dozed and dream
ed and fought over again our battles with Sicilian
snow-storms and gales, such as terrified the hearts
of the crew of the pious .(Eneas what time he passed
along the coast of Sicily during that tempestuous
winter which — who knows how many centuries ago ? —
"... saw the Trojan fleet dispersed, distressed,
By stormy winds and wintery heaven oppressed."

XV
PIANA DEI GRECI
A Mysterious Hill Town— Spectral Trees— Pareo— " La Scala
Santa "—A Dreary Ride through a Lone Land — An Alba
nian Colony — Greek Churches — Picturesque Costumes —
Curious Customs — Weddings "to Order."
We had heard much of a mysterious town situated
far up in the mountains, about sixteen miles from Pa
lermo, Piana dei Greci by name, and we had been told
that the best day to visit it — in fact, the only time
when we could see it at its best — was on Sunday or a
feast-day, when the people dressed themselves in the
costumes of their Albanian forefathers and attended
services where they worshipped according to the rites
of the Greek Orthodox Church.
We consulted with our faithful vetturino, and, while
he carefully refrained from prophesying fine weather
for our proposed excursion, he ingeniously suggested
that it was possible we might wait a fortnight, a
month — until spring, for that matter — without finding
a day when the weather would be perfectly to our
liking. " Why delay ?" he asked. " It cannot storm worse
than it did when the Americans made their trip to
Solunto, and I Signori enjoyed that adventure."
We were obliged to confess that the trip in question

PIANA DEI GRECI 1 35
had not been without its attractions ; moreover, we had
seen his horses, and did not doubt that the three
sturdy beasts could make the little journey of thirty-
six miles if the start were made in the early morning.
As for the vetturino himself, he would be proud to
drive the Americans anywhere, be the day fair or foul.
The strangers must not think of leaving Sicily without
seeing Piana dei Greci.
The strangers had no idea of missing any opportu
nity to see any of the interesting places in the island.
" Va bene. Avanti !"
"Avanti !" was a favorite word with our vetturino;
there was something inspiring in the ring of his voice
as he pronounced it. His cheery manner and snapping
eyes encouraged one to believe that come what might,
surmounting all obstacles, he would conduct his pa
trons in safety and insure them an interesting and in
structive outing. Accordingly we ordered our lunches
to be ready when the vettura came for us, and so, well
provisioned and provided with rugs and wraps, we set
out on our journey to the mysterious town " over the
hills and far away."
The weather was cold, it threatened snow, but from
time to time the sunlight broke through grand masses
of clouds and flooded the world with dazzling white
light. We left the city by La Porta San Antonio,
crossed the Oreto, and took a road leading inland along
the foot-hills on the eastern side of the valley, keeping
Monte Grifone on our left hand. Six miles from Pa
lermo we came to the town of Pareo, where William
II. had a hunting park and lodge, on the east side of
the Oreto, over against Monreale, but farther up the
valley and seated higher up the mountain slopes. We

136 PICTURESQUE SICILY
had ascended many hundred feet since leaving the
sea-shore, and the temperature had fallen considerably
below the freezing-point. As we left Pareo and as
cended into the heart of the mountains, a snow-squall
swept down upon us, the wind whistled shrilly, and
the air became bitterly cold. We entered a savage
country, beyond all imagination desolate and bleak.
We met strange, uncouth-looking men clad in sheep
skins, anxiously hurrying their flocks of goats and
sheep down from the mountain -passes, for already
there was half an inch of snow upon the road and all
the hills were white and spectral. Nevertheless, along
the roadside were purple irises in full bloom, and
daisies, and in the clefts of the rocks ferns and ivy
and jacks-in-the-pulpit, sweet alyssum, white ranuncu
lus, yellow buttercups, and, in strange contrast to the
drifting snow, heather in full bloom, such as ones sees
on the Grampians and Cumberland hills in September.
Bleaker and more barren did the land become as
we ventured farther and farther into the mountains ;
when we reached the upper table -lands there was
three inches of snow upon our road, and the bad
weather threatened to be worse for hours before it
began to mend. We crossed a dreary moorland, as
desolate as the Doone Valley, in Devonshire ; every
where the natural rock was tossed about in weird con
fusion — giant blocks standing on end and piled one
upon the other; huge cromlechs they looked like,
enormous monuments recalling the .structures of the
Druids and the race of Titans. But all this waste
land among the bowlders and broken reefs, so far as
we could distinguish for the snow, had been tilled and
cultivated with the greatest care.

INTERIOR OF CEFALfT CATHEDRAL

PIANA DEI GRECI 1 37
Four hours after leaving Palermo we arrived at
Piana dei Greci, a town of about seven thousand in
habitants, the largest of the Albanian cities in Sicily.
When the Byzantine Empire fell under the domin
ion of the Mussulmans, Albania alone, inspired by the
ardent patriotism of Scanderbeg, continued for some
years to offer effectual resistance to the power of her
enemies. In 1488 A.D., overcome by overwhelming
numbers, the Albanians resolved to abandon their un
happy country, at no matter what sacrifice of worldly
goods, rather than submit to the oppression of their
conquerors. Ferdinand of Aragon, King of Naples,
received the Albanian ambassadors and showed them
favor, and granted to their nation the privilege of
founding in Sicily four colonies of exiled people, who
crossed the seas, as did the later Pilgrim Fathers,
seeking " freedom to worship God " and liberty to
manage their temporal affairs. Certain of these exiles
settled in Sicily, at Piana dei Greci, Palazzo Adriano,
Contessa, and at Mezzojuso. There these brave people
made homes for themselves, and in the lonely valleys
where they built their cities their descendants have
continued to dwelf, cherishing the traditions of an an
cient race, preserving the manners and customs and
regulating their living according to the habits and
laws of their ancestors.
The people who were willing to exile themselves
rather than resign the right of worshipping God in
their own way did not change their religious beliefs
nor adopt new ideas, but insisted upon having, and
obtained, the right to practise the ordinances of re
ligion according to the ritual of the Orthodox Greek
Church. They did, indeed, consent to acknowledge

138 PICTURESQUE SICILY
the spiritual supremacy of the Holy Father at Rome,
but in all other things maintained their independence,
especially in matters ecclesiastical. Therefore there
are to be found to-day in the heart of even so devout
a Catholic country as Sicily communities of people
who enjoy a religious liberty which secures to them
their right to believe in many things that are utterly
at variance with the creed of the Church of Rome.
The priests, who neither shave their beards nor use the
tonsure, are permitted to marry — a privilege of which
they generally avail themselves — and they live with
their wives and children in parsonages, and enjoy
the friendship, consideration, and confidence of their
parishioners". For many years Piana dei Greci was represented in
the Italian Parliament by Signor Francesco Crispi, a
native of the town. When it is remembered that
Signor Crispi's predecessor and successor in office.
Marquis di Rudini, is also a Sicilian, it will be under
stood why Sicily plays no small part in the drama of
Italian politics.
When we entered Piana dei Greci the main street
was crowded by people hurrying to services about to
begin in all the churches. We made our way to the
centre of the town, where, around a small fountain,
was a crowd of women and young girls, dressed in gala
costumes at once striking and original. Most inter
esting we found them, when we remembered that
they were of the fashion which prevailed in far-off
Albania late in the fifteenth century. The dress con
sists of a woollen petticoat and a bodice made of
black or dark-colored silk, embroidered and otherwise
adorned. Some of the women, in heu of hoods, wear

PIANA DEI GRECI 1 39
bright neckerchiefs, which they fasten under their
chins, allowing the borders to hang down over their
shoulders. Others wear curious blue " nun's-bonnets,"
with deep capes. All were very neat and picturesque
in their costumes of time-honored fashion. On great
occasions, at christeftings and weddings, many of the
better class of women array themselves in silken
gowns and vests embroidered in gold, with short,
bright-colored sleeves similarly embellished, their arms
covered with white muslin trimmed with lace. Others
use corsages — always, be it understopd, silk and gold
embroidered — and chemises garnished with lace and
many - colored silken bows, and tie their hair with
gay ribbons, and wear, hanging down their backs,
a " schepi," or veil. A " chezza," or coif, heavy with
gold thread, is the distinctive head-dress of a bride on
her wedding-day. Around their waists they clasp a
" brejo," or belt, with massive silver buckles engraved
and gilt. Sometimes these buckles are of great value,
not only on account of the weight of metal used in
making them, but because of the curious and artistic
repouss6 work, representing the Virgin or San Nicolo
(the patron saints of the Albanian colonies), or St.
George, or La Madonna d' Odigitria, the protectress of
the town.
We followed a crowd of worshippers into one of the
churches, where we were much interested in watching
ceremonies that differed materially from the ritual of
the Roman Catholic Church. The grand altar stood
out from the wall of the apse, and the minister placed
himself on the farther side of it, facing the people.
At that part of the mass when the " divine miracle of
transubstantiatlon takes place," the priest, confront-

140 PICTURESQUE SICILY
ing the audience, raised his right hand with two fin
gers extended, and stood in the attitude in which
Byzantine artists were wont to depict Christ in the
act of blessing. Immediately chimes were set loudly
ringing in different parts of the church, and a man
stationed on the front porch beat upon a drum, while
the bells in the tower of the church were tolled
clangorously. Men, women, and children made haste
to enter the church, which in a few moments was
packed to suffocation. When all the congregation
had been gathered in, the drum ceased beating, the
bells were silent, and the priest, taking the sacred
chalice in his hands, marched down the middle aisle,
followed by his assistants and the choristers ; and, as
he came, all the worshippers fell upon their knees and
devoutly offered up petitions to the Father of All. It
was a strange sight, all the stranger when the ob
servances and ceremonies were compared with those
we had witnessed the Sunday before in the great
cathedral at Monreale.
After service we spent an hour or two sauntering
about the town, visiting its churches, which we found
to be uninteresting, decorated with tawdry pictures
and cheap gilt bric-k-brac ; there was nothing in any
of them worth study or examination. It was a cold
December day ; little was to be seen of the people,
who wrapped themselves closely in their capes, and
the doors of the houses were kept closed. Only the
better class of dwellings had panes of glass in their
windows, and we saw not one vestige or suggestion
of household comfort, as that word is understood in
America and northern Europe. No arrangements are
made to keep the houses warm or dry. There are no

PIANA DEI GRECI 141
fireplaces, and, as we have said, glass is but little used.
The homes of the poor of this mountain city are bare,
cheerless, dark, and dirty dens, in which prosperous
farmers in America would not think of stabling their
horses and cows. Strange to say, the children run
ning about the streets looked healthy ; they had rud
dy cheeks and did not remind us of the emaciated
babies and little ones we had seen in other towns.
There was a general aspect and flavor of poverty and
wretchedness about the place. The men were sullen
in manner, and went about as if heavy of heart. The
women, even those dressed in their Sunday costumes,
looked sad and careworn. The atmosphere of the
place was depressing. One was conscious of the prev
alence of a general sentiment of discontent, of in
articulate resentment against the imagined authors of
the misery, the oppressors of poverty-stricken, hope
less humanity. The snow fell almost constantly, the
wind swept over the mountain-top and drove the mist
through the narrow streets ; therefore, long before our
vetturino had made ready to set out on the homeward
journey we had wearied of sight-seeing and longed to
be gone from the town, the short list of whose attrac
tions we had exhausted.
We did not know, until our return to Palermo, that
had we applied to the proper person in authority we
could have had arranged for us, with little trouble
and delay, a marriage service. We regretted that we
had not told the proprietor of the Hotel des Palmes
of our intention to visit Piana dei Greci.
" Had you told me you expected to be in Piana dei
Greci, I should have telephoned to the sindaco, and
he would have arranged for a marriage ceremony to

142 PICTURESQUE SICILY
be held in the church ; then you would have seen
something to repay you for your trouble in taking so
long a ride on so inclement a day."
" Do they keep engaged couples in Piana dei Greci,
so that marriages can be celebrated for the entertain
ment of travellers?" we wonderingly inquired. Our
host made answer:
" I suppose very often couples who cannot make
up their minds to go to church to have the knot
tied fast by the priest are influenced by the fact that
guests of my hotel are willing to pay a small fee to
the clergyman and give something to the' bride and
groom to enable them to set up their own household
gods." Truly, the misery of the people of this moun
tain town must be great when, for a small fee, young
men and maidens are willing to assume the cares and
¦responsibilities of married life.

XVI
ALONG THE NORTH SHORE
The Coast-line — The Madonian Mountains — La Mafia— Ter
mini — Himera — The Sacrifice of Hamilcar — " The Happy
Fields ' — Cefalu.
There are some things that are worth doing for
themselves alone. The railway journey from Palermo
eastward to Cefalii, a distance of forty miles along
the northern shore of Sicily, is worth taking if for no
other reason than to obtain the magnificent views
into valleys opening to the south of the railway,
which give one' some idea, at least, of the grandeur of
the Madonian mountains. The line skirts the Tyr
rhenian Sea. Indescribably fine are the prospects of
wide bays embraced by promontories towering frorn
the water, of long, sweeping beaches and broad mead
ow-lands, of crags crowned with quaint ruins of cas
tles and watch-towers. Down by the shore are towns,
strangely mediaeval in appearance, little cities whose
history goes back to the age of fable ; fields and the
banks of streams where battles were fought between
Greeks and Carthaginians ; headlands that have given
their names to naval combats, fought when conquer
ing Romans made good their boast to rule the waves.
Through this country we journeyed one winter's
morning, having taken our departure from Palermo an

144 picturesque SICILY
hour before sunrise. When day broke we were at
Bagheria, anciently called Vaccaria, settled ages ago
by prisoners escaped from the galleys ; therefore we
may well believe that in some sort the old town de
served its bad repute. It was alleged to have been a
place where murders were frequent and where the peo
ple, easily stirred to violence, constantly engaged in
political, religious, and private feuds. Be this as it
may, until the middle of this century Bagheria was
none the less the favorite resort of Sicilian noblemen,
many of whom built palaces and resided there during
the summer months.
Beyond Bagheria we crossed the highest point of
the isthmus which connects Cape Catalfano with the
mainland, and caught a backward glimpse of Palermo
and Monte Pellegrino, barely discernible in the shadows
of night. Before us we beheld the beautiful Bay of
Termini, the surface of which reflected the deep crim
son of the clouds, foretelling the rising sun. It was a
frosty morning, the air exhilarating, the atmosphere
transparent, although in the zenith and towards the
west the heavens were hidden by an unbroken canopy
of clouds. We could see distinctly for immense dis
tances ; the blackness of the clouds served to intensify
the colored light which illumined sea and land. All
the atmospheric effects, the exceeding darkness of shad
ows, the marvellous brilliancy of bands and rays of
light that shot across the sky, were startling in their
intensity. As the sun arose the sea became radiant,
iridescent, and on shore the spectacle was no less won
derful. Every mountain, rock, grove, orchard, seemed
to hold dormant light, inexhaustible stores of color,
that awaited but the magic touch of the sun to awaken

AN ANCIENT WELL

ALONG THE NORTH SHORE 145
in wonderful illumination. It was a marvellous spec
tacle of a new day dawning upon a fair world. On a
height overlooking the plain and the sea we beheld
the ruins of Casteldaccia, an old Norman fortress ;
and on all the headlands square, battlemented watch-
towers, picturesque and legend - inspiring reminders
of the day when the pirate Barbarossa and other
"water-rats" infested the Sicilian main.
Near Trabia, a station we had passed after leaving
Altavilla, a most extraordinary murder was committed
a few years ago in a first-class carriage, while the train
to Palermo was in motion between the two towns.
That an ex-mayor of Palermo was assassinated there
can be no doubt, for his body was found in the com
partment, literally hacked to pieces with twenty-three
wounds. He was director of the Banca Siciliana, but
he was not known to be in the habit of carrying large
sums of money on his person ; he was a politician, but
was not a man who made personal enemies while in
office nor during the contests incident to his elections.
No cause has ever been assigned for the murder, no
theory has ever been established which reasonably ac
counts for the crime. His body was not robbed ; his
purse and watch were found upon him. There were
abundant evidences that the victim did not give up
his life without a terrible struggle in self-defence;
but to this day the criminal or criminals, whoever
they may have been, remain undetected. In default
of all explanations of the crime, people dismissed the
subject from consideration, and, when spoken to, mys
teriously shrugged the shoulders, or whispered the
portentous word " Mafia." Such crimes, committed
almost under the nose of the police, undoubtedly

146 picturesque SICILY
strengthen the grip La Mafia holds upon the imag
ination of timorous citizens in Sicily ; and yet, when
you ask them "What is this Mafia?" they glance
uneasily over the left shoulder, raise the eyebrows,
and change the subject of conversation.*
Twenty-three miles from Palermo we came to Ter
mini, a town of twenty -four thousand inhabitants,
which occupies the site of Thermae Himerensis, the
hot-springs of Himera, fabled to have been shown by
the nymphs to Hercules, who bathed and refreshed
himself here after his wrestling bout with Eryx. For
many years Himera on the north and Selinus on
the south coast of Sicily were the outposts of the
Greeks,"who ceaselessly contended with the Cartha
ginians and their Elymian allies for the possession of
the western third of the island. In 480 B.C. Hamil
car, one of the Shophetim of Carthage, landed at Pa
normus, and, having marched his army to Himera,
pitched two camps, one close to the sea, the other
on the hill above the town. On a day " commonly
said to have been the same as that of the Battle of
Salamis in old Greece," f the Sicilian generals Theron
and Gelon utterly destroyed the expedition of Hamil
car. According to the tradition current at Carthage,
which we may read in Herodotus, Hamilcar stood on
the top of a hill all day long, apart from the battle,
as did Moses when Israel overcame the hosts of Ama-
lek. In vain Hamilcar sacrificed to his gods. At even
ing, seeing his army cut to pieces, he threw himself, as
a supreme sacrifice, into the fire upon the altar. By
* For account of La Mafia, see Appendix.
f E. A. Freeman. Sicily.

ALONG THE NORTH SHQRE 147
this victory at Himera, Sicily was saved from the Car
thaginian invader, as by the triumph of the Greek
navy at Salamis old Greece was saved from the Per
sians. Very interesting in many ways is Termini, the old
seaport town, notable as the birthplace of Agathocles,
the bloodiest of Sicilian tyrants. As one wanders
about its streets, here and there are to be discovered
hints and reminders of many different epochs of its
long history : a fragment of a Corinthian cornice em
bedded in the wall of La Chiesa Matrice ; curious
frescos and inscriptions in Santa Catarina, which also
has a pointed arched doorway ; San Jacopo exhibits
a very ancient campanile, and on the walls of San
Francesco, an old and venerable edifice, there are
patches of curious stone-carving. In the museum is
a marble torso said to be part of a statue of Sthenius,
who was immortalized by Cicero for his patriotic and
successful opposition to the extortions and rapacity
of Verres. But there is really little left of the old
town : a few fragments of mosaic pavements ; the
foundations of a Roman basilica and amphitheatre have
been found by excavating in its suburbs ; and there
are to be seen vestiges of the Aqua Cornelia, an aque
duct that brought abundant supplies of water to the
town in Roman times and for many centuries there
after. Time and weather have dealt hardly with Ter
mini, and little remains to it of its former wealth, ex
cept the pure water of its springs, the use of which,
it is said, gives a dehcate flavor to the macaroni for
which this town is celebrated.
The railway runs east from Termini, crossing broad
meadow-lands, and at six miles passes a solitary farm

148 PICTURESQUE SICILY
on the west bank, and near the mouth of II Fiume
Grande. It marks the site of ancient Himera, " the
far -ruling city," as Pindar calls the metropolis of
which Termini was a colony and the outpost in Greek
and Carthaginian times. An olive -orchard covers a
lofty mound where Hamilcar sacrificed in vain to
Baal, while his soldiers warred with the conquering
Greeks on the plain below. On that same height
Hannibal Giskon, the destroyer of Selinus, sacrificed
three thousand of the male inhabitants of Himera, to
avenge the disgrace and death of his grandfather,
Hamilcar. Crossing II Fiume Grande the railway passes through
vast fields of artichokes and plantations of sumach.
For hundreds of yards along the side of the railway
grow hedges of geranium ; and, although there is snow
on all the mountains, and some patches of it on the
lowlands by the sea-shore, masses of scarlet blossoms
gleam in the sunshine, a delight to the eye, that also
finds much delectable food in the light green of
the leaves, which contrasts pleasantly with the sombre
shades of genesta and fantastic prickly-pear.
Campofelice gives the name " Happy Fields" to wide
downs stretching between the Madonian mountains
and the sea, and the view up the valley of II Fiume
Grande discloses fertile hill-sides and intervales, abo'ye
which tower Monte San Salvatore and Pizzo Antenna,
both of them over six thousand feet in height, the
latter the loftiest peak of the range. On Gibelmanna
are groves of " frassino," the manna -tree, relics of
Saracen times, for the Moslems introduced them into
Sicily from Africa, where trees transplanted from
Arabia flourished and multiphed under the care of

ALONG THE NORTH SHORE 1 49
Arab husbandmen. Another reminder of Arab days
are the irrigating wells, from which water is raised by
an endless series of buckets, operated by means of
clumsy wooden machinery, mostly Oriental, Asiatic,
certainly not European in appearance, but pictur
esque, as commonplace things are likely to be when
ancient, moss-grown, festooned with vines, and decked
with flowers.
From the crest of the isthmus connecting the moun
tains with a lofty promontory, on which are the ruins
of a watch-tower ornamented with arabesques and
Moorish windows, we caught sight of " The Head
land " (Kephale), so called by the Greeks, who named
the town which lies under its cliffs Cephalaedium —
Cefalu of to-day. The headland rises from the sea
in terraces to a broad platform, on which are the
ruins of a mighty castle which has never yet been
taken by sea attack or land assault. Close against the
cliffs an old cathedral lifts its twin towers, and the
houses of Cefalu gather around it like sheep about
their shepherd. The town stands with its back
against the wall of rock, and many a desperate fight
has it made in the tumultuous old times against the
fleets of all comers. A very strong fortress and a
sure refuge was the old castle ; and so Cefalu remains
to-day to tell its story, while others of the sea-coast
towns of Sicily — Selinus, Naxos, Solous, and many
more — are but heaps of crumbling ruins, hidden be
neath dunes of shifting sand.
With Cefalu in sight we cross meadows and planta
tions, from which green slopes strewn with monster
bowlders rise gently to broken cliffs overgrown with
ivy, aloes, and cacti, along the sea- face of which ex-

150 PICTURESQUE SICILY
tends a row of white villas, shaded by cypresses, ilex,
and date-palms. Wondering at everything, charmed
by every prospect, we arrived at the end of our win
ter morning's pilgrimage, and in the early forenoon of
a day in mid-winter alighted from the train at a pretty
station, where morning-glories, geraniums, heliotropes,
roses, and marigolds were blooming, reckless of the
snow-flakes — Danae's "Shower of Gold" — that fell
across bands and streamers of sunlight breaking
through rifts in the heavy clouds.

XVII
CEFALtT
An Ancient Sicel Town — Roger II. — His Escape from Ship
wreck — -Cefalu Cathedral — The Norman Bishop's Church —
Its Rich Adornnients — " The Finest Mosaics in the World."
An ancient Sicel town once occupied the site of
Cefalii, the summit of the high rock that overhangs
the. sea. There are Sicel remains to be seen in the
town and the foundations of the Sicel walls that for
merly joined the city to its harbor defences. But
Cephalaedium was a small place in Grecian times ;
Diodorus says it was only a castle, and in his time a
dependency of Himera. Little or nothing is known
of its history until 369 B.C., when Dionysius capt
ured it from the Carthaginians. In 307 B.C. Agathoc
les occupied it. During the First Punic War the
Romans were unable to reduce it, although they sent
against it a fleet numbering two hundred and fifty
vessels. The Saracens took possession of it in 858
A.D. These bare facts contain nearly all the informa
tion we have concerning Cefalii previous to the con
quest of Sicily by the Normans.
In the summer of 11 29 A.D. (not in 1105 A.D., nor
yet in 1 131 A.D., as is variously stated by different.
authorities), Cefalii suddenly became famous. King
Roger II. , on his return from Naples to Palermo, be-

152 PICTURESQUE SICILY
ing overtaken by a fearful storm, was in danger of
perishing by shipwreck. He vowed if he were brought
in safety to land he would erect a cathedral to the
honor of Christ and the Apostles on the spot where he
first set his foot on shore. His admiral succeeded in
making the harbor of Cefalii, where King Roger dis
embarked, beneath the western cliffs of the headland,
and there he founded a church, which he dedicated
to " St. George the Apostle." So good a knight as
Roger may well be excused for numbering the doughty
champion of Christendom among the Apostles. The
Church of St. George, falling into ruin, was rebuilt
by citizens and renamed San Leonardo. Two years
later, mindful of his vow still unfulfilled, Roger began
the erection of a cathedral, undoubtedly the most
magnificent sanctuary that had been built in Sicily
since the days when Greek architects reared the
beautiful Doric temples at Segesta, Acragas, and in
other parts of the island.
Around the' wonderful cathedral, during its con
struction and when it was finished, there grew up a
flourishing town, a favorite resort of the Norman
kings and of great church dignitaries. For many
years the see of Cefalii took precedence of all other
Sicilian ecclesiastical establishments, until the time
of William the Good, when the see of Monreale was
created and its archbishop endowed with superior
dignities. The cathedral stands with its back to the rock of
Cefalu, on a platform approached by a pyramidal
flight of twenty steps. The edifice assumes gigantic
proportions if compared with the relatively low houses
of the city. It dominates the surrounding scene, and

SICILIAN PEASANTS

cefalCt 153
the beholder is at once impressed by the fact that the
town was built for the cathedral — not the cathedral
for the town. Like that of Monreale, the Cathedral
of Cefalu is in the form of a Latin cross, perfect and
complete in all its principal parts. Like Monreale, it
has a nave, side aisles, and transepts, and three apses at
the east end. At the corners of an imposing fagade
stand two square towers, four stories in height, sur
mounted by square cupolas with high, peaked roofs.
The west front is exceedingly plain, and consists of a
portico between the two towers, the upper parts of
which are ornamented with a series of interlacing
arches with chevron mouldings. Cefalii Cathedral is
the most interesting, historically, of all the churches
in the island ; it is the earliest of Norman - Sicilian
churches, and was closely copied by the architects
who designed the basilicas erected later at Monreale
and elsewhere.
As one enters the church he is impressed by the
grandeur and solemnity of its interior, due to its noble
proportions and the grace of the stilted and pointed
arches that spring grandly from the walls and col
umns. The pointed vaulting of the nave and aisles is
supported by fifteen columns of granite and one of
cipollino, with graceful capitals, that were undoubted
ly brought from some pre-existing Greek building to
decorate the interior of this graceful church. The
interior is somewhat sombre in character, for only the
walls of the chancel and apse are incrusted with mo
saics. As in Monreale, La Martorana, and La Pala
tina, the central apse contains a half-length colossal
figure of Christ, clothed in a mantle of blue with a
tunic of gold — Christ, the Priest, the King, the Master

154 PICTURESQUE SICILY
of the World, who raises His hand to bless ; the Light
of the World, the God of a triumphant race, the Pro
tector of warrior kings. In His left hand He holds
an open book, on the pages of which are the words
"Ego Sum Lux Mundi." The space between the
dome of the apse and the wainscoting of white mar
ble that surrounds the choir is entirely filled with mo
saics divided into three zones. In the centre of the
highest zone, that below " The Christ," is a colossal
full-length figure of the Virgin, and standing on her
right and left hand are four archangels with out
stretched wings, wonderful figures, draped in dalmatics
richly embellished with precious stones. Immediately
below these are ten Apostles, and the two Evangelists
St. Mark and St. Luke. The walls at the side of the
apse are incrusted in four zones corresponding with
those of the hemicycle. The highest zone, on the
gospel side, contains representations of Melchisedec
and certain prophets, and below these again are eight
saints. On the epistle side, Abraham, David, Solo
mon, and seven of the prophets appear, and below
them eight other saints.
The greater part of the mosaics in Cefalii Cathedral
belong to an earlier period than those in Monreale.
Professor Bonanno Zuccaro, who is charged by the
Ministry of Public Instruction with the care of the
mosaics at Cefalii and other churches in Sicily, is our
authority for the statement that the mosaics in ques
tion are in a better state of preservation, as they are
of a higher class of work, than the best specimens to
be found elsewhgre, not even excepting those in La
Martorana, La Palatina, or in St. Mark's in Venice, or
in II Battistero degli Ortodossi in Ravenna.

CEFALlJ 15s
Travellers who have seen only the mosaics in St.
Peter's and elsewhere in Rome can form no concep
tion ofthe wonderful results to be achieved by artists
who not only knew how to design, but also were able
to realize their ideas of interior decoration when ac
tually working at what is to-day a lost art, for just as
the Gobelins tapestries of to-day offend against one's
idea of what should be and should not be attempted
by workers in woollen threads, so do the mosaics of St.
Peter's, for instance, violate the canons of mosaic art.
Like the present - day tapestries, the mosaics in St.
Peter's are bad imitations of oil paintings. They cer
tainly are not mosaics in the art-meaning of the term.
Those who have not beheld the pictorial mosaics of
Sicily, of Cefalii in particular, can form no idea of the
artistic beauty and perfection of workmanship attained
by the unknown artists who embellished the churches
and palaces of King Roger II. and his art -loving
descendants. The nave and aisles of the cathedral are unem
beUished, the walls are bare, flat surfaces of white
plaster, and where the latter has fallen the rough
stones are exposed to view, but the vast expanse of
the interior, its fine lines and proportions, lend a dig
nity and grace that cause one to forget the nakedness
and lack of superficial ornaments. It is impossible to
describe aU the beauties of this magnificent edifice,
the cathedral in which King Roger intended his body
should rest after death. He caused to be prepared,
during his lifetime, two porpliyry sarcophagi for him
self and his queen, but when he died, in 11 54 A.D.,
the disconsolate Palermitans declared that " so good,
so dear, so great a king, so glorious a warrior, so wise

IS6 PICTURESQUE SICILY
a statesman," would find a more appropriate resting-
place in the capital city of the kingdom he had carved
out for himself with his sword, amid the people whose
good fortune it was to have been conquered by " Rog
er the Magnanimous." And so King Roger sleeps in
the Cathedral of Palermo, which his grandson, William
the Good, dedicated to the Holy Virgin.

XVIII
RAMBLES ABOUT CEFALtT
La Porta Garibaldi — La Via Liberta — Cloisters of Cefalft — A
Cefalu "Trattoria" — Along the Water-front — Diana and
Acta;on — " II Trovatore.''
We had entered Cefalii by La Porta Garibaldi. In
what town of Sicily is there not a Porta or a Via
named after the popular idol, who, whatever may be
said of the rites celebrated in the churches, is indeed
worshipped in spirit and in truth by Sicilians of all
kinds and conditions ?
From La Porta Garibaldi, La Via Liberta leads to
II Corso Ruggiero, -where we found a " trattoria," which
we entered, intending to break our fast. Only a very
hungry traveller will be nerved to attempt the bills of
fare of any " ristorante " in Cefalii. We ventured to or
der coffee, " pasta con pomidoro," a " pasticcio," and
" pastelli." In a country where a very bad imita
tion of Mocha costs at lea.st three and a half lire
(about seventy cents American money) a pound, one
must not hope to regale oneself royally with " demi-
tasses " of a concoction that is coffee in nothing but
color. The pasta was good ; the pastry was we know
not what, for when our hostess's back was turned we
gave it to two shivering boys who stood at the door
of the trattoria chanting " Muore di fame, signori."

158 PICTURESQUE SICILY
On the walls of the trattoria were two flaming-colored
posters. We had seen their like before in America —
gaudy chromo - lithographs, one of a popular variety
actress, well known to the frequenters of the concert-
saloons and summer gardens of the American metropo
lis, and one of the race for the Brooklyn Handicap at
the spring meeting at Sheepshead Bay. It was star
tling to come upon two such reminders of joyous life in
the New World — America, of which the average Sicil
ian has such strange and untaught ideas, believiifg, for
instance, that because we came from New York we
must needs know husbands, brothers, or sons, as the
case might be, who, since their departure for Buenos
Ayres or Valparaiso, had forgotten to write home to
their wives, sisters, or mothers, who inquired of us
about their kin beyond the sea. Sometimes the eager
questioner could not keep back tears when we gently
told them we had no knowledge of those for whom
they so anxiously inquired.
La padrones.sa of the trattoria had a brother in
Baltimore engaged in the fruit business. Thinking
that his sister, who was " molto intelligenta," would
be pleased to see the portrait of a typical "Ameri
cana," and interested in forming an idea of Arnerican
scenery, he had sent the two chromo-lithographs to
her, and a letter in which he stated that he was well
acquainted with " la signora," and diligently patron
ized the race-track, the like of which was not to be
seen in his native Sicily, and where he sold many
oranges to " American! ricchi."
From La Piazza del Duomo we descended a narrow,
ill-paved, filthy lane to the sea-wall, along which we
proceeded, studying the quaint facades of old build-

RAMBLES ABOUT CEFALU" 1 59
ings that reminded us more of the houses we had
seen in Spanish seaports than those of Naples and the
other Italian towns we had visited. On the gravel
beach, between the piers and breakwaters, were many
fishing- smacks of different odd rigs, xebecs, " feluc
cas," "speroneras," some of which had been beached
high and dry above the surf, while others were be
ing berthed in very rude and primitive cradles run
ning on ship railways, operated by gangs of sailors
working windlasses that seemed old enough to have
served the mariners who drew up King Roger's fleet
upon this same beach centuries ago. Sicilian fisher
men of to-day employ the same forms of machinery,
operated in the self-same way, that their Saracen and
Norman ancestors thought so ingenious and labor-sav
ing. It is doubtful if a people that still use wooden
ploughs, such as were used in Egypt in the time of
the Pharaohs, have in any manner improved on the
machinery employed by the sailors of Homeric times,
or by Carthaginian mariners in careening their vessels.
The craft were as ancient -looking as the machinery
used to beach them, round -bodied, full- breasted,
clumsy hulks, with broad sterns and great rudder-
posts, and tillers overtopping their poop-decks. The
hawse-holes of the more venerable specimens were
painted to give them the appearance of human eyes,
and from the sides of these vessels projected lee
boards like the two fins of a vast sea-monster. Certain
of the smaller craft had been careened on the sands,
and caulkers were drumming a lively tune with their
mallets. Pitch-kettles boiling over fires of driftwood
sent up plumes of inky smoke to mingle with the dark
clouds which now and again discharged themselves in

l6o PICTURESQUE SICILY
eddying gusts of snow. It was all picturesque, quaint,
and interesting, so suggestive, so realistic, in fact, of
old, old times, old habits, ancient fashions of 'long
shore life. And the mariners themselves, in aspect,
manners, and costumes were as old-fashioned, queer,
and curious as the subjects of the rude pictures pre
served to us from mediaeval ages. Of the Italian cast
of countenance we saw almost no examples, nor
could we distinguish any that resembled the Spanish
type. Arabs and Berbers we saw, and fair - haired
Normans, ruddy and blue-eyed, some with curly hair
and gray or brown eyes ; Northmen, descendants of
the sailors that drew their ship ashore at Cefalii when
Roger escaped shipwreck, more than seven hundred
years ago.
From the careening-place we followed a street run
ning parallel to the sea — a thoroughfare, to judge by
the appearance of the buildings on both sides of it,
that formerly had been the resort of the merchants
of a once prosperous seaport town. We came to
where a stream of water, bursting from a wall, fell into
a pool below the roadway, and thence found its way
across the street, to plunge into a stone basin at one
side of a small court. From the court a semicircular
flight of stone steps led up to the street, and an arched
gateway opened to a narrow close that descended to
the sea-beach. Around the marble coping of this res
ervoir was a crowd of men, women, and children, all
engaged in washing household rags and tattered gar
ments. It was an industrious, noisy company, gossip
ing, quarrelling ; it stared defiantly at us, the " fores
tieri," passed remarks about us, and with one consent
began to solicit alms. The group around the foun-

A MILKMAID

RAMBLES ABOUT CEFALIJ l6l
tain did not present a picturesque or an agreeable spec
tacle ; the day was bitterly cold, the water in the res
ervoir dirty, soapy; the court decidedly sloppy; the
washermen and washerwomen were ragged, wet, be
draggled, and beyond the hope of soap to cleanse
them. All were barearmed and barelegged, but of
rounded figures or shapeliness of limb there was but
a beggarly display. One little girl stood in the icy
water flowing through the conduit beneath the arch
washing a pair of stockings. She was a v?ry pretty
child, as Sicilian children are apt to be, and she laughed
and frankly stared at the stranger, the Actseon who
had invaded the precincts of her bath. Snugly wrap
ped in his overcoat, Actaeon shivered to see the nymph
standing in the bitterly cold water, in the roaring
draught that carried the snow-flakes into the gloomy
gateway. The nymph pouted her lips, and with a
childish disregard of the weight of words mourned
plaintively " Muore di fame, signori," and put out
her soapy little hand for a soldo ; receiving which, she
climbed out of her bath and stood revealed " a nut-
brown maid," cowering and trembling in the biting
gale. Then, all untoweled as she was, she donned her
one little garment, a tattered frock of bright crimson
cotton, and, it is to be presumed in order to dry them,
drew on her wet, ragged stockings ; and nobody but
Actaeon seemed to entertain the idea that nymphs
ever died of croup or pneumonia.
We left the town by La Porta Giudecca and followed
a road that led us around the landward face of the
rock of Cefalu. Above us were battlemented cliffs,
the castle-crowned heights of the headland once as
inexpugnable as Gibraltar in the old days of Spanish

l63 PICTURESQUE SICILY
virility and national prowess. Heaps of ruins — of
towers, keeps, bastions, and curtain walls — lay tum
bled about, the debris hardly to be distinguished from
the vast confusion, the ruin of the time-worn, crum
bling mountain. Looking east from the highest point
of the neck of land that connects " the head " with
the shoulder of mainland, we beheld the shore as far
as Cape Orlando, sixty kilometers away. Looking
west, we could see Monte Pellegrino towering above
Palermo, distant fifty kilometers ; and in the northeast,
far out at sea. Volcano, Lipari, Salina, Filicuri, and Ali-
curi, five of the seven Lipari Islands, the ancient Isles
of yEoIus, uplifted their heads from the tempest-tossed
Mediterranean. To the south and east the Madonian
mountains reared stupendous snow -crowned peaks,
and when the flurries of snow ceased we discovered
all the country-side, and here and there white towns,
framed in sombre greens and grays — Collesano, where
are the remains of walls of an unguessed age ; Calto-
vulturo, the Kalat - Abi - Thaur of Saracenic times,
which Roger II. bestowed upon his daughter Matilda;
Polizzi " La Generosa," seated on its pinnacle, more
than three thousand feet above sea -level, near the
springs from which flow the two great rivers of Sicily.
We saw also Petralia di Sotto and Petralia di Sopra
looking down from their unscalable heights, and Gangi
perched two thousand eight hundred feet in mid-air.
We were especially interested, however, not to say
startled, when our guide pointed out to us the ill-
omened town of Santo Mauro Castelverde, beyond
Castelbuono, where the brigands we had seen on their
trial in the Corte d' Assiso in Palermo made their lair,
as precious a pack of villains as ever served the devil

RAMBLES ABOUT CEFALU 1 63
since his satanic majesty made his first appearance in
Sicily under the name of Daedalus.
Marvelling at all this grand panorama, now gazing
at the mountains, now out to sea, now surveying the
coast east and west for eighty or one hundred miles,
we almost forgot the fact that snow was falling ; that
the thermometer indicated most un-Sicilian weather.
We at length were driven to seek shelter under the
lee of the ruins of an old watch-tower, where we found
a very old man. So stooped and infirm was he, so
thin, so weak, it seemed impossible he could stay out
in the weather and not perish of cold. He arose as
we approached him, bowing obsequiously, making mo
tions as if he were doffing his hat. He wore a very
ragged and faded cappa, the cloak and capote, which
is the prevailing fashion of winter garments all over
Sicily. To our surprise he did not beg, nor did he
tell us he was dying of hunger, although he looked
most like to be of all the woe-begone humanity we
had seen that bitter winter day. He said something
in Sicilian to our guide, who translated to us the old
man's inquiry :
"Did I Signori wish to hear some poetry? Might
he be permitted, in God's name, to recite to the stran
gers the wonderful poem of the birth and crucifixion
of the Christ ?"
Permission being granted him, the old man threw
back the hood of his cappa and stood bareheaded,
clasping his hands in front of him. The forestieri re
gretted that ignorance of the Sicilian language pre
vented them from understanding much of the story,
which was recited in monotone, as if the old man were
praying aloud. It could hardly be said that he in-

164 PICTURESQUE SICILY
toned the lines, nor did he sing or chant them. He
spoke in a gentle, melodious voice, slightly accenting
the rhymes and preserving the rhythm of the compo
sition. It took him three or four minutes to repeat
the verses, which he did with but one momentary hesi
tation, as if he were recalling a word that had slipped
his memory. In all, he recited between two hundred
and two hundred and fifty lines, each couplet of which
rhymed. When he made an end our guide compli
mented him in our name, and asked him to recite
other verses. This he willingly did, choosing a story
from the " Chronicles of the Crusaders," and again he
continued to repeat verses for the space of four or
five minutes. During his recitations he stood as if
wrapped in thought, bareheaded, forgetful of the
weather and, seemingly, of our presence. The per
formance was not a mere repetition of lines by rote,
for, although there was little variation in accent or
tone, he seemed to speak as if his mind were fixed on
the ideas he was expressing. The tale of the Crusade
finished, we gave him whatever it may have been, and
again requested our guide to ask him to recite other
numbers of his repertoire. Informing us that he
would give us the story of the " Landing of Ruggiero
and the Building of the Cathedral at Cefalii," he be
gan in a louder and more inspiring tone, and repeated
the lines more vigorously and with finer expression,
using certain modest gestures. The tale of King
Roger was longer than either of the other two reci
tations, and, when he had finished it, the old man,
pointing eagerly in the direction of the town, told
our guide to say to the strangers " that there ! —
there, was the very city King Ruggiero had visited,

RAMBLES ABOUT CEFALtj 165
there the cathedral he had built in honor of the
Christ." How were the mighty fallen ! From the shoulders
of the disciples of Ciullio d' Alcamo, the favorites of
kings, the pets of fortune, the mantle of minstrelsy
had fallen on the bowed shoulders of this starved and
woe-begone old man whom we found on a bitter Sicil
ian winter day cowering under the ruins of an ancient
Norman keep. " Blow, blow ! thou winter wind.
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude."

XIX
THROUGH FRA DIAVOLO'S COUNTRY
To Corleone — Village of the Emirs — Roccabianca, "Castle of
Diana" — Baths of Gefala — Chiarastillo Mountains— Fra
Diavolo, "The Prince of Brigands" — His Betrayal and
Death.
The railway from Palermo to Corleone runs east-
wardly close to the sea for about four miles to " The
Point of the Corsairs," then, bending to the south, as
cends the valley of the Scanzano, passing Misilmeri, a
town of Saracenic origin, as its Arabic name Men-
zil-al-Amir (the Village of the Emirs) abundantly
testifies. Beyond Roccabianca we catch sight of the Castle
of Diana, of which a grand, square tower and battle
mented walls remain standing on the summit of a vast
mound rising before a background of snow -covered
mountains. Below Castello di Diana are the hot-
baths of Gefala, which the Greeks believed were dis
covered by the omniscient Daedalus ; but which, ac
cording to the early Christians, were set flowing by
that mysterious anchorite St. Kalogeros, who has
given his name to two mountains in western Sicily.
The Saracens called the baths Gefalk, and set great
store by the healing properties of the water, which
flows in abundance from never-failing sources.

THROUGH FRA DIAVOLO'S COUNTRY 1 67
The railway passes onward below the treeless, bar
ren flank of a range of rocky mountains known as
Chiarastillo, once upon a time the favorite haunt of
the renowned Fra Diavolo. At a height of two
thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea,
we entered one of the wildest and least explored
mountain regions of Sicily, and all the land was lone
ly, forsaken, with never a house in sight. The moun
tains were heaped and piled in vast confusion, their
summits inaccessible, the valleys between them un
canny lurking-places of shadows, abodes of one could
not divine what mysterious beings, human or super
natural. What wonder that Daedalus, "that thief of
the world," was said to haunt about this huge wilder
ness ; that here Diana was fabled to have her favorite
hunting-grounds ; that here, in the early days of the
nineteenth century, Fra Diavolo lurked in safety, defy
ing pursuit, for years setting at naught all efforts of
the military to capture him, until he was finally be
trayed into the hands of his enemies by one of his
own faithless companions. That he should have re
mained at liberty so long, notwithstanding the fact
that there was a great price set upon his head, can
be readily understood when the impenetrable nature
of the country is taken into consideration.
Fra Diavolo, or, as he was christened, Antonio Bor-
zetta, and his brother Ambrozio were born about the
end of the last or the beginning of this century, in
Carini, the native city of Lais, the mistress of Alcibia
des. The father of the lads was a small proprietor,
but he was unable to check the inbred natural propen
sities for evil-doing that grew with the growth of his
two sons and strengthened with their strength. While

l68 PICTURESQUE SICILY
still a callow youth Antonio Borzetta made himself
notorious by a series of lawless escapades which
brought him under the penalties of the law. Being
arrested for petty crimes, he escaped from jail and fled
to the mountains of Chiarastillo, where, in six months,
he gained the reputation for wild and reckless defiance
of all authority from which he received his " nom de
guerre," " Fra Diavolo." For years he haunted the
mountain fastnesses, where one man, posted on a nar
row pinnacle of rock, or at the head of a steep and
narrow defile, might safely defy a whole company of
soldiers ignorant of the topography of the place.
In despair of being unable to rid the world of so
talented a strategist and so busy a villain, the authori
ties of Palermo readily listened to the proposition of
Mario Granata, of Misilmeri, a member of Fra Diavo-
lo's band, who was serving a life -sentence in prison,
to deliver Fra Diavolo alive or dead into the hands
of the soldiers as the price of his (Granata's) liberty.
The faithless brigand, whose name is execrated to-day
in the songs and stories which perpetuate the fame of
the chief he betrayed, demanded of the viceroy money
enough to purchase powder and ball. He also re
quested that his escape from prison should be con
nived at by his jailers, so that he might present him
self before his " capo " as the hero of a desperate
self-deliverance from prison. In accordance with his
plans, Granata was allowed to escape, and, providing
himself with ammunition, set out from Palermo on his
dangerous and delicate mission.
Fra Diavolo's brother, Ambrozio, entertained suspi
cions of the wily Granata, which he communicated to
the capo. To prove the sincerity of his lately escaped

SICILIAN (ARAB TYPE)

THROUGH FRA DIAVOLO'S COUNTRY 169
comrade, Fra Diavolo intrusted him with a considerable
sum of money with which to purchase, in Misilmeri,
supplies for the band. It was argued that if Granata
was a true man and a trustworthy brigand, he would re
turn to Chiarastillo with the purchased supplies ; if, on
the other hand, he was dishonest enough to rob a
robber, he would keep the money, as he would be able
to do with safety to himself, for it was not illegal to
steal from a brigand. Mario Granata faithfully per
formed his mission and returned to his chieftain, and
from that moment enjoyed the full confidence of his
unsuspecting comrades. Shortly after Granata re
joined Fra Diavolo he asked leave of absence for
twelve hours to visit his wife. Fra Diavolo, suspect
ing no evil, granted the request, and the bandits con
tinued their journey, expecting to be rejoined by
Granata before they entered the defiles of Chiarastillo
mountains. Granata did not come, and Fra Diavolo,
ordering a halt, sent Vitali into the town of Villafrati
to learn, if possible, what had become of their missing
companion. Vitali entered the town, and, as it was
the Day of Annunciation, attended mass and listened
to a sermon preached by a Capuchin father, after
which he left the church and resumed his rambles
for the purpose of gaining the information he was
seeking. He discovered the presence in the town of
a force of gendarmerie, an extraordinary spectacle,
which convinced him that the authorities were on the
tracks of Fra Diavolo a»d his band. He set out for
the mountains, but was captured by troops who had
been placed in ambush by the viceroy, according to
the advice given him by Granata. The captain of
the battalion demanded of Vitali what he was doing

170 PICTURESQUE SICILY
in the mountains. The latter replied that he was en
gaged in gathering simples for an apothecary and
botanical specimens for one of the professors of the
University of Palermo.
While the soldiers were consulting what had best
be done with their captive, Vitali made a bold dash
for liberty, and, although fired upon by the troops,
succeeded in escaping, and later rejoined his fellow-
brigands, to whom he recounted his adventures. The
band attempted to escape from the toils that had
been woven around them, but were driven back to
the mountains by the military, who had completely
surrounded the district known to be haunted by Fra
Diavolo and his merry men. At a signal the troops
advanced, and after four hours of desultory firing, dur
ing which the brigands offered a desperate defence,
the object of the expedition was assured. Late in the
afternoon the soldiers carried into Villafrati the body
of Fra Diavolo, who, to save himself from capture,
had shot himself in the head at the moment when
the soldiers were about to lay hands on him. In the
encounter two or three soldiers were killed and a
gendarme and one of the brigands wounded. The
pastor of the church at Villafrati repaired to the
mountains to shrive the dying. All the members of
Fra Diavolo's band who were not killed were taken
prisoners. Ambrozio and Vitali, who could have saved
themselves, but who had wished to die with their
comrades, were captured, taken to Carini, Fra Dia
volo's native town, and shot. They died game. As
Ambrozio was being led from Carini to the place of
execution, followed by the entire population of the
town, he remarked to his executioners: "My mother

THROUGH FRA DIAVOLO'S COUNTRY 171
lost nothing by not making me a priest. Whatever
reputation for sanctity I might have earned in holy
orders would never have entitled me to the chief place
at the head of so great a procession as this which fol
lows me to-day."
The corpse of Fra Diavolo was decapitated. His
head, preserved in boiling vinegar, was sent to the
Viceroy of Palermo, who sent it back to Carini, where
it was exposed to public view in an iron cage. Thus
perished one of the most renowned brigands of mod
ern times, Fra Diavolo, whose name lives in song and
story, recalling the shady celebrity of Claude Duval
and Jack Sheppard, so famous in the annals of English
criminology. It is not true, as has been alleged by
some chroniclers, that the Fra Diavolo in question
was the hero so well known to the opera-going pub
lic. Auber's' Fra Diavolo did not visit Sicily, but con
fined his operations to the mountains within a radius
of fifty miles of Mount Vesuvius. He, too, was a ro
mantic villain, whose story lends itself to drama and
music, and it will be remembered that it was his love
for a sweetheart, known in the opera as Zerlina, that
brought the Italian Fra Diavolo within range of the
guns of Neapolitan troops. The Sicilian Fra Diavolo
was no less susceptible to female charms than was his
Italian prototype, but he bestowed his favors liberally
and somewhat indiscriminately, as we may surmise from
the fact that of many of the towns in the Chiarastillo
mountains it is affirmed that in each of them Fra Dia
volo Borzetta, of Carini, left a sweetheart, if not a
widow, to mourn his loss.
Talking of Fra Diavolo reminds us that when we
had bidden good-bye to Palermo and were on our way

172 PICTURESQUE SICILY
to Girgenti we passed Lercara, a town rendered nota
ble by the fact that its environs were the scene of
two as pretty comedies as ever were enacted by good-
natured travellers supported by a stock company of
heavy villains possessed of a nice sense of humorous
and dramatical possibilities. In 1876 an English resi
dent of Palermo was captured by brigands while visit
ing his properties near Lercara. Ren6 Bazin must be
our authority for the statement that Mr. John Foster
Rose was released after some days of captivity on
the payment of a ransom of sixty-five thousand lire.
That Mr. Rose was not treated with undue severity
during his sequestration we may well believe, for the
same author states that " This rich foreigner, a man
of spirit, who cherishes no rancor against Sicilians on
account of his picturesque adventure, will certify to you,
if need be, that during the twenty days of'his captivity
he had his coffee and daily newspaper for breakfast." *
The Baron Sgadero, another victim of the band
that " held up " Mr. Rose, was even more considerately
treated than was the Englishman. The brigands who
captured him respectfully kissed the baron's hand
and apologized for the trouble they were giving him.
Nevertheless, the prisoner was kept closely guarded
for eight days in a cavern, but every attention was
paid him as became a man of his quality. Upon his
release he willingly testified before the judges of 11
Corte d' Assiso of Palermo that he would have had
nothing to complain of if it had not been that each
day of his captivity in II Bosco San Onofrio had cost
him "la bagatella," to wit, "fifteen thousand eight
hundred and seventy-five lire."
* Rene Bazin. Sicile.

XX
CORLEONE
Mezzojuso — An Albanian Town — Rocca Busambra— II Bosco
di Ficuzza — Corleone — A Sicilian Locanda — "The King of
Mexico " — " The Annals of the Poor."
From Villafrati the railway winds along the side
of a deep valley, across which we beheld the town of
Mezzojuso, seated at the foot of cliffs, enormous but
tresses and bowlders, the ruined wall of Rocca Busam
bra. Had time permitted we should have ventured
upon an excursion to this most curious place, not
withstanding the warnings we received that it would
be utterly impossible for us to entertain the idea of
resting, even for a few minutes, in the albergo, if in
deed there were one in the poverty-stricken town.
Mensiuso, as it is called in Sicilian (in Arabic, Men-
zil-Jusuph, i. e., " Joseph's Village "), was once a Sara
cen settlement ; it is now, and has been since 1498, an
Albanian colony. It was colonized, as were the other
Albanian towns in Sicily, by Christian refugees from
Turkish tyranny who followed Giorgio Castriota (bet
ter known as Scanderbeg) into involuntary exile to
escape death, and worse than death, at the hands of
their Moslem oppressors. John IL, father of Ferdi
nand the Catholic, granted lands to the refugees, and
set aside for their habitation certain cities — twenty-

174 PICTURESQUE SICILY
three in Calabria and four in Sicily — where they es
tablished themselves, and, having acknowledged the
supremacy of the Pope, were permitted to exercise
their own religion according to the ritual of the Or
thodox Greek Church.
No scenery is wilder or more rugged than that
which presents itself to view after the train leaves the
station where passengers for Mezzojuso alight. To
the west of the town, beyond the valley, the depths of
which are but little cultivated, rises Rocca Busambra,
a long range of bare, serrated, gray rock over five thou
sand feet in height and several miles in length, having
the contour of an enormous letter S, resembling the
body of a vast saurian, ribbed, plated, and greaved —
an infinite lizard, a plesiosaurus, showing its horrid
head, its crested neck, its back, above a chaos of rocks.
We could fancy that the beast had crawled from its
lair amid the mass of mountains rising behind it, in
its progress crushing like grass the trees of the forest
of Ficuzza, that grow close to its stupendous flanks.
Crouched prone upon the earth, its long neck stretched
out to its full length, projecting its crocodile-shaped
head, the chimera stealthily creeps, joint by joint,
upon its prey. One is reminded of how —
" Leviathan
Hugest of living creatures on the Deep,
Stretcht like a Promontorie, sleeps or swimmes,
And seems a moving land."
About the neck and head of Rocca Busambra
spreads the Royal Domain of Ficuzza, one of the
two or three so-called forests of Sicily. English and
German guide-books call it "a dense forest of ilex.

corleone 175
birch, and cork trees." Trees there are, and of the
kinds named, but the trees of II Bosco di Ficuzza no
more make a forest, in the American acceptation of the
word, than the proverbial swallow makes a summer.
The birches, ilex, and chestnut trees are not large, nor
do they grow close together ; and except for the un
evenness of the ground and the roughness of it, a
gunner might pursue his journey through Ficuzza
with greater ease than through the woods that shade
the banks of the upper Hudson or the pleasant groves
that clothe the foot-hills of the Catskills.
Ficuzza, a forest for many generations, was enlarged
at the expense of the cattle - raisers and farmers by
William the Bad, the Norman King of Sicily, who, like
William Rufus of England, recked not what settlements
and villages he obliterated in making royal forests,
royal wildernesses, where kings and nobles might fol
low the chase. In the good old times, the life of even
small game was held in higher esteem than the lives
of the miserable peasants, whom any man of con
dition might slay at his sweet will, when he pleased,
and where he fell in with them, knowing full well
that serfs of the soil were not protected by law, and
that there was no "close season" for common men
— mere hewers of wood and drawers of water.
Beyond II Bosco di Ficuzza we came again to
wheat -lands and treeless hills, and saw perched on
knolls and on summits of giant rocks ruins of castles
and watch- towers, relics of the old days when the
husbandman was armed with sword and spear as he
drove his team afield, when granaries must needs
be fortresses if he that sowed would garner his crop.
Winding around the head and fore-front of Rocca Bu-

176 PICTURESQUE SICILY
sambra, the train descended in wide, sweeping curves,
describing horseshoes and almost complete loops as it
found its way down into the valley of 11 Fiume Donna
Beatrice, crossing which it mounted again, and short
ly arrived at the present terminus of the railroad, the
City of Corleone.
Whatever else we might have gone out " into the
wilderness for to see," it certainly was not Corleone.
We had made the journey of forty-three miles, a dis
tance accomplished in four hours, solely for the pur
pose of viewing the picturesque country through which
the railroad finds its way ; and all along the route
from Palermo our busy minds made countless "snap
shots " of the grand, unnatural, almost unearthly,
scenery through which we passed, taking mental pho
tographs, which memory develops with wonderful dis
tinctness when we recall our Sicilian journeyings.
At the station of Corleone our attention was chal
lenged by a sky-blue omnibus. Nothing of all its
component parts or its furnishing was new but a body-
coat of blue paint, which contrasted, oddly enough,
with the clay - incrusted running -gear of the vehicle.
The mud of years clung to its wheels, and it seemed
as if the dust of ages had collected in the ragged,
faded " inside." It was driven by a living scarecrow,
and drawn by two horses, the toughness of whose
hides was demonstrated by the fact that their bones
had not yet penetrated the parched and crackling
integument in which they were enveloped. Fortu
nately for the poor beasts, nobody took passage
within the coat of blue paint ; and when we set out
from the station we left the equipage where, later
in the day, we found it, still awaiting the arrival

SICILIAN (greek type)

CORLEONE 177
of passengers who delayed to come or never came
at all.
In the square in front of II Duomo were three post-
wagons, as old as the specimen we had seen at the sta
tion, one in red and orange, with one blue and three
yellow wheels, and an old vettura, a grandiose vehicle,
in blue, black, and yellow. The form of the latter was
familiar to us. We had seen prints of its kind that
were in vogue in the middle of the last century. Its
windows were large enough to permit the aiming of a
blunderbuss through them ; its doors so narrow that
the average man must needs enter sideways ; the seats
were but six inches in width, its interior but four feet
square, very suggestive of agonizing posturing by in
mates, " cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd," ifi a vehicle built
to resist the shocks consequent upon travelling over
rough and rocky roads, and evidently intended to
afford a defence for its armed occupants from the
attacks of brigands. In such conveyances did the
Sicilian nobility make their journeys in the days of
Fra Diavolo of fearful memory.
Opposite the cathedral was the only locanda in
Corleone. We lunched there — on a balcony overlook
ing a piazza; we would not have sat down within the
precincts of the place for a deed of gift of all it con
tained. We had brought our provisions with us, and,
fortunately, were obliged to make use of nothing be
longing to the albergo but the balcony and a cork
screw. The odors that hung about the building
seemed to be almost visible and tangible. They so
saturated, pervaded the rooms and halls that one was
inclined to doubt if it would be possible to close the
-window-shutters without risking an explosion of ac-

178 PICTURESQUE SICILY
cumulated fumes. In the room through which we
stepped to the balcony was a bed — fit only for the
flames — two broken chairs, a table, a cracked looking-
glass, that reflected such distorted, puffy images of our
faces that for a moment we fancied we had already
fallen victims to the fearful contagion that infected
the locanda. We noticed two colored lithographs
hanging on the walls, and conquered disgust at the
environment long enough to pause and read the in
scriptions, from which we learned that, after " the sub
mission of America" Cortez had condemned a certain
cacique to death. In one of the prints the two
daughters of the cacique were represented as arrayed
in the garb of " belles sauvages," kneeling before
Cortez to intercede for their luckless father. Cortez,
in satin robes, with the crown of America on his brow,
grants the prayer of the maidens. The other print
represented Cortez, the two beautiful savages, and
their rescued father banqueting under a palm - tree,
served by negroes in Turkish turbans, while Love and
Glory, hovering above, awarded a wreath of victory to
the magnanimous Spaniard. Thus, in another form,
we beheld examples of the handiwork of the artists
who decorate the carts at Palermo ; and the litho
graphs testified to the universal craving of Sicil
ians for illustrations of mythological or heroic sub
jects. In the centre of the square in front of the locanda
is an octagonal fountain, to which crowds of women
came to fill their cruses and amphorae with water, but
there was never a Rebecca or " Cruche Cass^e "
among them all. All were worn and anxious-looking ;
the young giris appeared like middle-aged women.

CORLEONE 179
and the middle-aged women like ancient hags, witches,
and ghostly crones.
While we partook of our repast, as we sat on the
balcony, we were the cynosures of an observant crowd
that had gathered in the square in front of the lo
canda, an envious, hungry company that begrudged
us every bite. To the half- starved people the sight
of us eating our lunch was beyond expression inter
esting. Poor souls ! The thought that anybody had
enough to eat must have been tantalizing to them,
for in Corleone the spectacle of man, woman, or child
who goes not hungry to bed every night is a vision
of paradise.
The exhibition of misery, of pubhc woe, took away
our appetites. We could not eat in the presence of a
starving multitude; so, paying our reckoning, we hur
riedly left the locanda and started on a tour of in
spection of the town. Up one filthy street, down
another, meeting poverty-stricken folk : pale, ansemic
women, hollow-eyed men, ragged, weird children, who
begged us for bread, croaking in hoarse accents like
weary old people tired of the world. The streets were
paved, it is true, but in that respect resembled the
beds of mountain torrents. The dens in which the
inhabitants of Corleone live are dark, damp, and deso
late ; but, be it noted particularly, they afforded evi
dence of a continued struggle on the part of their
occupants for cleanliness. There was no wilful sloven
liness visible ; the people had evidently not resigned
themselves to a condition of bestiality ; they still
fought against a hopeless state of dirt, and were not
content with their existence in the midst of squalor
and unmitigated misery. Although it was near noon.

l8o PICTURESQUE SICILY
and the air was wintry, there were fires in le-ss than
one-tenth of the houses, and little preparation, ifany,
for a mid-day meal. Where there was work to do it
was being done, and we saw mere children — little boys
busily pegging and sewing shoes in the stalls of the
cobblers, and wee girls mending rags that were but
fit for paper-mills. We saw but two shops of an)'
pretension, although Corleone is a town of fourteen
thousand inhabitants, and they were the establish
ments of gunsmiths, who work for the sportsmen
from Palermo and elsewhere, who come to Corleone
" to shoot the covers" in the valley and on the neigh
boring hill -sides. We looked in vain for butcher-
stalls, and found but few baker -shops; but we did
see several ill-omened sign-s of lottery- offices ; our
guide, pausing a moment, pointed first to one of the
latter and then to a neighboring church, saying:
" They make the soldi jump out of the pockets of
people who have hungry children."
If the dwellings are poor, and hardly deserve the
name of houses, and still less can be thoug.ht of as
homes, but little rent is paid for them. We asked a
woman what she paid a year for her two rooms, each
of them about ten by twelve feet on the ground floor
of a two -story building. She paid forty lire (eight
dollars). She had a board bed, two cheap chairs, a
wooden box, two amphora, two pots, a cupboard, a
brazier, a few mugs and plates, four knives, no forks,
six spoons. The place was clean, the scanty bed-
clothing not very dirty, and the rooms were as neatly
kept as it was possible to make such quarters. The
woman's face and hands were clean, her hair was
combed, her gown patched, and actually some of the

CORLEONE l8l
patches themselves were mended and pieced. All this
betokened that she did not by any means belong to
the lowest class of Corleone society.
She, the wife, keeps house and sews, prepares the
food, and, when she has babies, cares for them. Her
husband can earn a Hra and a half a day. He is a
good workman, but he could not get work more than
half the time. Her boy, the only child now at home,
can earn fifty centesimi a day tending goats. Some
times on a festa they can afford meat ; they give
forty centesimi — think of it, philanthropists! — each
Sunday to the church. Wine was dear ; it cost thirty
centesimi a litre ; it used to be fifteen, but the " dazio "
had been increased. Her boy could read a little ; he
knew more than his father and his mother ; he was four
teen ; in two years he would have to go for a soldier.
Yes, they were better off than many of their neigh
bors ; they were fortunate in having had only two
children, the son and a daughter. The latter was
married, and lived in Chiusa, fourteen miles away.
The daughter had a baby four years old, a little girl,
called after its grandmother ; its grandparents had not
seen the child ; they seldom heard from their daugh
ter; she could not write. The last time they had news
of her the baby was ill — they hoped the Virgin had
made it well again. Babies were misfortunes to poor
people, but when they come poor people love them
as much as do I Signori.
We asked her if she had heard of America. Yes,
the husband of her neighbor across the street had
gone there, and this year two acquaintances had re
turned thence, but were going back. In America
people had meat two or three times a week, and al-

l82 PICTURESQUE SICILY
ways pork ; and her friends had coffee even frequently.
But they have great snows in America, and it was far,
and she and her marito were no longer young. Her
husband was good to her — once when .she was very
ill, when her boy was born, he had sent for a doctor.
Such are " the short and simple annals of the poor "
of one family. There are hundreds of such families
in Corleone; tens of thousands of them in Sicily. Are
they the most wretched of Sicilians? Not if their
state of poverty is contrasted with the indescribable,
unutterable misery of hundreds of thousands of their
less fortunate countrymen. One cannot contrast pov
erty with riches in speaking of the Sicilian masses ;
one can only differentiate the degrees of pauperism.
Sicily is as poverty-stricken to-day as in the ancient
days when Verres laid waste " the granary of the
world," and the traveller who beholds the heartrend
ing woe of the inhabitants of an island that, in hap
pier days, was "a garden of delight," may well recall
the words of Cicero — " O spectaculum miserum atque
acerbum."* * Cicero. F^n-., Lib. V,, Sec. 38.

XXI
JOURNEY TO SEGESTA
An Early Start — Starlight — Sunrise — Birthplace of Lais — Cy
clops, Giants, and Chimeras Dire — Acres of Wild Flowers —
Ancient Rivers — Saracen Strongholds — Calatafimi — Hosts
of Beggars.
January 28th we were astir before daylight, for
we were to take a train that started at five o'clock.
We had provided ourselves with a well -filled lunch-
basket, for we were in doubt as to the quality of the
restaurants we were likely to find on our journey, if,
indeed, any restaurants there were between Palermo
and our destination. We took with us all our wraps
and rugs, for later there was to be a ride of sixteen
miles through a wind-swept, mountainous country, in
the midst of which stands the object of our pilgrim
age, the Temple of Segesta.
Out from the station of Palermo -Lolli the train,
promptly on time, makes its way under the stars,
across II Conco d' Oro, past many villas, through
orange groves, onward to the northwest, with Monti
Cuccio and Billiemi towering on the left, Monte Pel
legrino and Capo di Gallo standing between the sea
and the sleeping valley. At " Unshoe a Horse "
(Sferro - Cavallo), so called in consideration of the
roughness of its main street, a fishing-village eleven

I 84 PICTURESQUE SICILY
miles from Palermo, the train skirts the sea-shore, and
we behold a fairy picture of dancing, flitting lights
down by the water's edge where fishermen were launch
ing their boats, eager to begin their morning labors on
the fishing-banks. The train bends to the west, bur
rows beneath a cliff standing up from the sea, emerges
and runs along at the foot of a mighty precipice which,
in the starlight, resembles the walls of stupendous
fortifications. The engine shrieks, startling the echoes
accustomed to mellow Sicilian music, and we stop a
moment at Isola delle Femine (not the "Isle of
Women," but the Island of Euphemius), a few hun
dred yards from shore, capped by a Norman tower,
in which, long ago, was executed Cottizona, the sor
cerer, who, with all his magic, was unable to persuade
his judges that he was in verity Don Sebastian of
Portugal. We skirt a fertile plain, after we pass Capaci, at the
foot of Monte Zacate, and the graying dawn reveals
the town of Carini, a picturesque village, with the
well-preserved walls of a feudal castle looking down
upon it fr-om an overhanging rock. This town owes
a certain shady celebrity to the fact that in 415 B.C.,
Nicias, the Athenian ally of Segesta, captured and
plundered it, and finding Lais, a girl of seven, even
then bewitching fair to look upon, carried her to
Athens, where Apelles painted her as a nymph at a
fountain, where Demosthenes wooed her with his
oratory, Aristippus patronized her, and even Diogenes
left his tub to greet her softly and speak her fair.
Carini is also notorious as the birthplace of no less
famous a personage than that prince of brigands, Fra
Diavolo, of whom we have already discoursed at length.

SICILIAN MOUNTAINEER

JOURNEY TO SEGESTA 1 85
Onward, from the inward curve of mountains at
Carini, the railway bends seaward again, and then
rounds the base of Monte Orso, three thousand feet
in height. In the light of the coming sun, in a few
minutes to rise above the heights of .(Etna, far in the
east, we pass through a vast orchard of olive-trees,
planted — who knows when ? The people call them
"saracinesca," and say that the trees are older than
the Norman castle on the heights above ; that, in
deed, they were no longer young when King Roger
landed in Sicily a few years after his kinsman, William
the Conqueror, defeated Harold at Hastings. Be that
as it may, the ancient olive-trees in the shadow of the
mountain whose crest the risen sun has transfigured
with a marvellous light are of remarkable age. Their
gnarled, misshapen trunks, lurking in the night, as
sumed the forms and attitudes of cyclops, giants,
chimeras, in act to speak, tossing their arms, writh
ing in agony like the weird, unearthly shapes that
accosted Dante in the twilight of the under-world.
What fearful forms, what portentous spectres were to
be guessed in the dimness of departing night ! what
superstitions might chill the heart and torment the
mind of the lonely wanderer in such a scene! for,
lashed by winter gales, would not all that convocation
of unearthly, monstrous shapes moan and growl and
hiss, as the wild blasts tortured them into more fear
ful attitudes? On the edge of the land overhanging
the sea there were tree-like phantasmagoria, swaying,
bending, tottering, threatening to dash themselves
down below into the sea, to the rocks, anywhere, to
escape from their doom, the arrows of the coming day.
AH this was partly seen, in part imagined, as the

1 86 PICTURESQUE SICILY
train sped along, winding its way in and out among
the old olive-trees, planted ages ago, when the Sara
cens held all this sunny land and the Normans still
haunted the forests of the wintry North.
And now the sun peeps over the eastern hills and
glorifies the mountains beyond the Bay of CasteUa
mare, a wide expanse of sparkling water, as great in
extent as the Bay of Palermo, margined by a sickle
of white sand, as fair and brilliantly limned as the
new moon. All around the borders of the bay orange
groves and pleasant fields spread far and wide be
tween the sea and sand-dunes, rising in gentle undu
lations to hills that, sweeping upward in noble outlines,
grow to mountains, walling in this charming domain
from the unguessed world beyond.
The train has passed Partinico, a town of twenty
thousand inhabitants, renowned for its trade in oil and
wine, and soon reaches Balestrate, whence it skirts the
shore of CasteUamare, keeping close to the beach and
sand-dunes, the latter overgrown with gorse and heaths,
curious reeds and rushes, and cane with feathery
plumes. Acre upon acre of purple flowers growing
close to the ground beautify a wild and barren reach
of coast, with only here and there a patch of soil econ
omized from the general waste and tilled by contadini,
who live in the wattled huts erected in the midst of
the plantations. Strange reminiscences of the past
are these same tabernacles; for in such, doubtless, the
Sicans and the Siculi dwelt, in prehistoric times, when
they made their dwellings and their fishing-boats of
plaited cane covered with skins of goats, as the ancient
Britons covered their willow basket-work with skins
of wilder beasts.

JOURNEY TO SEGESTA 1 87
Up from CasteUamare station, three miles from the
town of that name, the railway winds along the back
of II Fiume Freddo, the ancient Simoi's, a turbulent
stream, which, when swollen by winter rains, spreads
devastation far and wide along its course through the
narrow valley, down which it careers to meet II Fiume
Gaggera, the ancient Scamander. The confluence of
these two streams forms the San Bartolommeo (called
by the Greeks Krimisos), which flows into the Tyrrhen
ian Sea at the foot of Monte Inice, near CasteUamare
del Golfo. On the banks of the Krimisos, Timoleon
made a fearful slaughter of the Carthaginians, B.C. 342.
Confronting Monte Bonifato to the southwest,
across the valley of II Fiume Freddo, stands a range
of hills, and just beyond its crest Calatafimi sits at an
elevation of eleven hundred feet above the sea. This
hill city takes its name from the old Saracen castle,
Cal-at-Eufimi, but it is better known from the fact
that it gave its modern name to the battle-ground
where Garibaldi fought his first fight for Sicilian lib
erty in 1861.
To Calatafimi we were bound, and from the railroad
station we beheld our route mapped out on the green
hill-side, coiling upward from the bottom to the bleak,
wind-swept summit. We found awaiting our arrival
a vettura, a landau with three horses harnessed abreast.
Worn and travel-stained was the ancient equipage, and
faded and torn the very old - fa.shioned livery of its
driver; but when we had taken our seats in it the
three horses whirled it lightly along the road, respond
ing gallantly to the snapping of whip and the shrill,
raven-like cry, " Ah-ee ! Avanti !" of their master, who
drove, as did the son of Nimshi, furiously, as do all

1 88 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Sicilian drivers of to-day, as if the veritable Fra Dia
volo himself were in full cry in pursuit. An hour of
climbing, of relentless and apparently needless urging
of willing horses that tugged viciously at the traces,
straining them almost to the breaking-point, and we
arrived at the crest of the hill, and just below it, on its
further, its southwestern, slope, beheld Calatafimi, a city
of ten thousand people. Down a short stretch of badly
paved highway we plunged, the old vettura rattling
like a hundred pairs of castanets, bumping, thumping,
swinging, and swaying from side to side, and entered
a narrow and untid)' street, through which we careered,
reckless of the consternation, not to say terror, we oc
casioned to children, pigs, fowls, and mangy cur-dogs,
that fled screaming, squealing, cackling, and yelping
promiscuously into dirty houses or down filthy side-
streets, or still filthier alleys, pell-mell, in mad struggle
to escape from our onward charge. Suddenly the
vettura drew up in front of an albergo, at sight of
which we instantly congratulated ourselves that we
were not dependent upon its hospitality for entertain
ment. Indeed, the squalor of the town, the filth ac
cumulated in the streets, the sickening odors which
polluted even the mountain air, the poverty-stricken
appearance of the inhabitants, the loathsome aspect
of hosts of beggars who crowded around our convey
ance, mumbling, whining, some boldly demanding
alms, grimacing idiotically, gesticulating wildly, as
they exhibited grewsome scars or hideous deformities.
All these sights and sounds made us impatient to con
tinue our journey with as little delay as possible. On
taking our departure from the albergo we were com
pelled to go on foot, owing to the steepness and rough-

JOURNEY TO SEGESTA 1 89
ness of the streets, to a gate of the city at the oppo
site side of the town from that by which we had en
tered. It is needless to say that we were followed by
a crowd of beggars, who limped and hobbled after us,
plucked at our garments, ran before us, and stood in
our way, crying " Muore di fame, signori ! Muore di
fame, signori !" (Dying of hunger, your worships !
Dying of hunger, your worships !) We hurried on,
utterly disconcerted by the awful spectacle, dropping
half a handful of soldi in hopes of delaying the mob,
that seemed ready, in the recklessness of despair, to
lay hands on us, and we dared not look behind to see
the mad scramble for the coppers.

XXII
SEGESTA
A Distant View of a Doric Temple— The Valley of the Gag
gera—" The Rolling Scamander " — Fording the Torrent —
" A Wild and Lonely Land "—Ancient Segesta — Its Glori
ous Temple— A Greek Theatre— Wonderful Landscapes.
At the western gate of Calatafimi we sprang into
our vettura, shouted to our driver " Avanti !" and
urged him, who needed no urging, to rapid flight
from the hideous precincts of the town and its hordes
of beggars.
As we drove away from the city gate we beheld
perched on a lofty pinnacle of rock the Castle of
Calatafimi, hanging fearfully over the valley, looking
down which we caught a distant view of hills on hills,
rising in gray and purple masses from the depths of
the valley down which our road led along the right
bank of the Gaggera, flowing a thousand feet below.
Two miles or more ahead of us a rocky pyramid juts
boldly out from the western mountain, with which it
is connected by a neck of rock, and on this isthmus
stands a Doric temple superb in its isolation, desolate,
deserted, silent. In color the edifice is golden brown,
and at this distance, as the mellow, winter sunlight
falls upon it, the Temple of Segesta, possibly the most
perfectly preserved relic of Greek architecture in Sici-

SEGESTA 191
ly, reminds one of a daintily carved reliquary of ruddy
gold placed on a great altar overlaid with cloth of
green. Cradled among the hills, lapped round by up
land meadows, where the turf grows velvet-soft, the
ancient sanctuary sits in magnificence, guarded and
watched over by silver-gray and purple mountains, up
lifting their domes and spires to the blue vault of
heaven that bends over the consecrated spot.
We found ourselves in a lonely land, a country bare
of trees (as are all the wild valleys and mountain
sides of Sicily), scarcely a house to be seen, and little
evidence of human life or activity. The road before
us, twining and undulating along the mountain-side,
finally lost itself among the great hills far ahead.
Throughout all its length we could not discover other
travellers than ourselves. The distant hills seemed to
rise like the monstrous waves of a dead and immobile
sea ; their woodless heights and summits presented a
barren, dreary aspect that even sunlight failed to cheer.
There was snow on the crests ofthe mountains ; the air
was sharp and wintry ; the wind made a hollow moan
ing as it swept the naked fields and sere pasturages.
By the side of the road blanched stalks of bitter aloes
stood erect like spears and cacti (fichi d' India), in
congruous growths, intruding their uncanny shapes
amid thickets of leafless brier -bushes, sombre gorse,
and planta genesta. The highway declined to the
river-bottom, and finally led us to a level tract cov
ered with pebbles and bowlders left by a late-receding
flood. Where a by-path led down to the bank of the
Gaggera the vettura stopped, and we found an asi
najo and his beast awaiting our coming. Asinajo
did not seem particularly glad to see us, and when we

192 PICTURESQUE SICILY
alighted our driver turned his vehicle about and drove
off without as much as saying " A riverderci," and
there were we alone in a desolate glen, miles from the
nearest police station. The two carabinieri we had
seen on their way back to Calatafimi had doubtless
arrived there by this time. The air was biting cold,
the sky had become overcast, the country looked sav
age and desolate, our sole companion had as yet
spoken no word, we had breakfasted before sunrise, it
was after mid-day and we had not lunched. What
wonder that thoughts of brigands — Sicilian brigands —
crossed our minds. And of all places we had visited
during our rambles in Sicily most suggestive of
brigands and " brigantaggio " was the valley of the
ancient Scamander, " on whose banks " (according to
our Murray) " the ferocious Agathocles slaughtered
all the poorer citizens of Segesta." To us, nursing our
suspicions and weakly foreboding all degrees and kinds
of misadventures, our asinajo preferred the request :
"Un pezzo di pane, signori."
We made haste to serve him, and in addition to the
bread gave him a piece of cheese and both the legs
of a cold fowl. What would we not have given him
had he announced himself as a deputy of Fra Diavolo
and insisted upon mistaking us for an English lord
and lady or American millionaires? If asinajo found
it in his heart to thank us, he prevented his good in
tention (for which we gave him credit) by gagging
himself with a drumstick, and in an incredibly short
time our gift of provisions had disappeared. Then,
for the first time, he deigned to smile upon us as he
suggested starting immediately upon our journey.
Having assisted la signora to mount a gorgeously

KORMAN ANr> SARACEN TYPES

SEGESTA 193
caparisoned asina, he drove the beast into the stream,
where the careful animal, taking her own time, pick
ing her way cautiously, judgmatically setting her
feet on solid bottom, managed to struggle through
the torrent, and finally to emerge on the farther
bank. Meanwhile, the writer, accepting the invitation
of the youth, who was several inches shorter and
perhaps forty pounds lighter than himself, mounted
upon the back of the Sicilian, where he clamped him
self pick-a-back, fully determined that he should not
be gotten rid of so long as the asinajo kept his feet and
chose to play the role of Sindbad to an Americano
" Old Man of the Sea." The current nearly swept
the youth from his slippery footing on the smooth,
round stones which composed the bed of the stream.
The eddying, swirling sweep of water made the tour
ist giddy ; he closed his eyes, tightened his grip, ex
pecting every moment to find himself plunged beneath
the " rolling floods of Scamander."
At length the asinajo, a mere boy, staggered up the
farther bank and set the full-grown man on solid
ground ; then, turning to survey his late burden from
head to foot, as if to measure its proportions and esti
mate its solid contents, the panting youth ejaculated,
in a tone of self- congratulation, " Per Bacco!" and
crossed himself. Not another word, good or bad, did
he vouchsafe ; nevertheless, he seemed to regard the
incident good-naturedly and entirely in the light of
business. We proceeded on our journey, the lady
riding the asina led by the asinajo, the writer follow
ing humbly behind with what speed he could, over as
muddy and slippery a bit of road as it has ever been
his fate to travel on foot. Up the steep ascent we
13

194 PICTURESQUE SICILY
climbed for half an hour, rounding the northern face
of Monte Barbaro ; then, crossing the shoulder of the
mountain, came to the house of the custode, from the
door-steps of which we obtained a view of the Temple
of Segesta we are not likely soon to forget.
In plan and elevation, in detail, in decoration, the
edifice is a perfect specimen of the Doric school, and
of that school at its best. Its austere simplicity, its
massive construction, the grand effects of faultless
perspective, all inspire the imagination with a sense
of true beauty and appeal to the intellect as demon
strations of supreme art. All the world has seen
Paestum and admired the three ruins superbly rising
on the solitary, naked plain, surrounded afar by blue
mountains and within the sound of the breakers roll
ing upon the beach. It may be questioned whether
the Temple of Neptune, of the three ruins of Paestum
the most beautiful, is purer Doric than the Temple of
Segesta, or whether it is better preserved. The latter
is placed in the midst of such a wonderful landscape,
and is so charmingly related to its surroundings, that
it creates in the mind an indescribable impression of
grandeur and beauty. Guy de Maupassant expresses
this idea when he says: "The Temple of Segesta ap
pears to have been posed by a man of genius who had
revealed to him the only site where it might be fitting
ly placed ; where it alone, in its solitude, animates the
immensity of the landscape, giving life to the scene
and rendering it divinely beautiful."
The peristyle of the Temple of Segesta is 191 feet
7 inches in length by 76 feet 5 inches in width; it
has thirty -six columns in all, six on each front and
twelve on each side, not counting the four columns

SEGESTA 195
at the corners, which belong both to the front and
wings.* The columns, resting on a platform of four
steps, are unfluted, and at their base measure 6 feet
II inches in diameter and are 35 feet in height. The
capitals are in one piece, and the blocks of the archi
traves are of enormous size, spanning the width be
tween the centres of the columns. That the columns
are unfluted, and that there is no trace of a cella or of
interior pavement, shows that the temple was never
finished. The work on it was probably suspended
when Segesta was taken by Agathocles (307 B.C.)
and its inhabitants put to the sword.
As we sat looking at the superb ruin from the
house of the custode we became conscious that it
owed its charm and grandeur primarily to the perfect
symmetry of its design — to the exact and effective
co-ordination of all its parts each with each; in a
word, to the harmonious relation of all its dimensions
whether of general plan or of detail of construction.
It seemed to us faultless, equally and proportionately
massive in all its parts, so that the enormous size of
its columns was not unduly emphasized ; and, not
withstanding the age-defying solidity of the structure,
we found it to possess grace, elegance, and apparent
lightness, notwithstanding its Titanic strength and
solidity. When we resumed our walk we were followed by
a dozen boys, who had congregated we knew not
whence, for there was no house in sight, save the of
ficial residence of the custode, and he most emphati
cally disclaimed responsibility for any of the party ; in-
¦* Chiesi. Sicilia.

196 PICTURESQUE SICILY
deed, he seemed to be as much troubled as were we by
their company and their demands for alms, for " pezzi
di pane," which were prefaced and followed by the
wail " Muore di fame, signori ! Muore di fame !"
The incessant importunities of these youthful ban
ditti, who mocked at the threats of the custode and
laughed when he brandished his cudgel, robbed our
visit to the temple of much of its anticipated pleas
ure. At length we opened our lunch-basket, and, re
serving for ourselves certain of its contents, gave the
remainder to our asinajo, authorizing him to divide
the provisions with his chums, on the condition that
he induce them to leave us in peace and quietness.
They retired to the far side of the temple, and we
secured a short respite from their onsets, but we could
hear them wrangling like angry brigands quarrelling
over their booty. They soon returned, however, to
where we were seated, and we were obliged, finally, to
rid ourselves of their company by leaving them in
possession of the place and betaking ourselves to the
theatre of Segesta.
From the front of the temple a narrow mule-trail
leads downward to and across the meadows, then up
again, curving around the south side of Monte Bar
baro, and so mounts to the summit, a rocky platform
a few acres in extent. The northeast angle of the
face of the mountain has been hewed and hollowed
to form the cavea (auditorium) of the ancient play
house. In form it is semicircular, its greatest diame
ter being two hundred and five feet ; it is surrounded
by a wide gallery, below which are twenty semicircular
rows of seats divided into seven cunei by flights of
steps leading down to the chorus. The scena, or stage.

SEGESTA 197
is ninety feet wide, and is in such a fair condition of
preservation that one may study its construction and
gain an adequate idea of the arrangement of the scenery
and the mechanisms employed in the representations of
Greek plays. While the theatre of Segesta is not as
large as the theatre at Taormina or Syracuse, being
about one-third the size of the former and but half
the size of the latter, it is in some respects a more
artistic and handsonier structure than either, and in
the grandeur of its situation is surpassed only by the
theatre at Taormina.
At the back of the scena, which of old was orna
mented by a double row of columns, the face of
Monte Barbaro drops in sheer precipices, disclosing a
magnificent panorama of mountains and highlands
across the valley of the Gaggera, beyond which rise
the superb pyramids of Monti Inice, Sparagio, and
Del Romito. To the right of Monte Inice, and be
tween it and Monte Bonifato, crowned with the Castle
of Alcamo, the eye ranges over a long vista of fertile
land, extending along the foot-hills, sinking gradually
onward to the Gulf of CasteUamare, as far as to Mon-
taniello, thirty miles distant in the northeast. Down
the valley of the Gaggera is to be seen the site of the
celebrated Thermae (hot-baths), near the town of Cas
teUamare (Emporio Egestano), the ancient seaport of
the metropolis Segesta.
We could have remained long seated in the old
theatre that has been for ages silent and tenantless,
but the day was drawing to a close, and it was a far
cry to the station of Alcamo-Calatafimi. We accord
ingly set out on our return journey, taking a sheep-
walk, which wound down and around the face of Mon-

198 PICTURESQUE SICILY
te Barbaro, and in a few minutes came to the house
of the custode. Stopping there but long enough to
register our names, we bade the custodian " riverder-
la," and in the order in which we had made the ascent
in the morning, so we descended to the banks of the
Gaggera, forded the stream, and paid our asinajo, who
loudly complained of our "tip," although it was more
than double the sum he was entitled to receive. He
accepted an extra allowance equal to the sum we had
at first given him without a word or sign of thanks
for this quadruple fee. Then, turning as if to depart,
he halted, and returned again to ask us with undaunted
assurance to give him " qualche cosa per mangiare,"
and, in spite of the fact that we had made over to him
the larger part of our lunch, ventured the assertion,
"Muore di fame, signori!" We found our vettura
awaiting us, and, losing no time, we set off for the
railway station. As we went around the town, and
did not enter Calatafimi, we saw no more of its beg
gars and its poverty-stricken people.

XXIII
SELINUS
The Quarrel of Selinus and Segesta — Salemi — Castelvetrano
— The Ruined Temples of Selinus — A Scene of Desolation.
From Alcamo-Calatafimi to Castelvetrano the rail
way runs over meadow-lands, and where the valley of
the Crimisus expands into the plain of Salemi we
beheld the vast extent of all that fruitful country
(celebrated for its wheat) for the possession of which
the citizens of Segesta and Selinus waged unceasing,
ruthless war during the fifth century before Christ.
It is hard to believe that it was the war between the
two ancient cities for the possession of these Sicilian
wheat-lands that involved Athens in a contest which,
in the end, so greatly impaired her military and naval
power that thereafter the Spartans, and not the Athen
ians, dominated the internal affairs and dictated the
foreign policy of Greece.
Midway between Alcamo-Calatafimi and Castelve
trano we came to the station of Ninfa- Salemi. The
latter, the ancient town of Halicyae, contains to-day
about ten thousand inhabitants, and is superbly placed
on a picturesque height crowned by the crumbling re
mains of a Saracen castle. From here on, as we de
scended from the water-shed between the Tyrrhenian
and the African seas, leaving the wheat-lands behind.

200 PICTURESQUE SICILY
we travelled through a country of vineyards, orchards,
and olive groves, crossed a wide plain of corn - fields
and pastures, and came to Castelvetrano, where we
proposed stopping for the night.
Casteddu Vetrano, as its inhabitants call their city
of twenty thousand people, sits upon a hill-side, over
looking a fair and fertile district of which the Dukes
of Monteleone are hereditary proprietors. Their old
palazzo, adjoining a church with a curious campanile,
stands in the market-place of the town ; but Castelve
trano is a squalid, wretched abode of miserable people,
and it is not to be wondered at that the dukes rarely
visit their estates or lodge in the Aragona-Pignatelli
Palazzo. At Castelvetrano we lodged comfortably at
the Hotel Bixio, and at an early hour on the morning
after our arrival we set out on our expedition to
Selinunte. It is seven miles and more from Castelvetrano to
the site of ancient Selinus ; * the road descends about
five hundred feet in that distance, crossing a wide plain,
which, as the traveller approaches the sea-shore, loses
its varied charm of groves, vineyards, and highly culti
vated grain-fields. We saw many cork-trees, the first
we had seen in Sicily, and in the bottom, by the water
courses, we beheld the " selinous,"or wild parsley, which
gave its name to the city whose ruins we were now to
behold. We followed the Madiuni River, a stream that in
winter-time only sends a sluggish current across flat
lands to the Mediterranean. The scene becomes deso-
*Some classical dictionaries erroneously state that Castelvetrano
occupies the site of ancient Selinus.

SELINUS 20I
late. As you approach the sea you hear the muffled
beating of the surf upon the sand, the wind sighs
among the sedges and reeds, and sea-gulls fly scream
ing overhead. The soil is unfruitful ; gorse, cacti,
mimosae, and aloes stand stark and bare, wind-swept.
The " chippolazzo," a noxious bulb, sends up faded
and sickly blossoms resembling blighted hyacinths ;
" porre " erects its spikes of ill- formed flowerets —
plants that we were warned not to handle, for both are
said to be poisonous to the touch. The curse of soli
tude and desolation is on the land ; myriads of snails
infest the herbage, clinging to stunted palmettos, and
there are gruesome plague-spots on all the vegetation.
Wormwood, which our guide called " herba bianca," a
pale, uncanny - looking plant, grows everywhere, and
tawdry pestilential weeds usurp the choicest morsels
of ditch and ragged highway.
A fit setting, all this, for the picture of ruin that
now comes in view.
One hundred feet above the " African Sea," on a
table - land that sinks gradually to the west, to II
Gorgo di Cotone — now a marshy valley said to have
been drained by Empedocles to rid it of infection in
the days when a multitude of men lived along its
borders — upon a barren, wind-swept waste, there lie in
vast confusion the broken columns, overthrown walls,
and entablatures of three Doric temples. As one ap
proaches them the magnitude of the ruins does not
at first impress the beholder, but upon closer inspec
tion the colossal proportions of the stones of which
they are composed, and the bulk and weight of the
prostrate columns, are better appreciated, and one re
alizes their grandeur, their stupendous purport. The

202 PICTURESQUE SICILY
thought rushes into the mind : if the ancient builders
were not in very truth a race of giants, they built like
Titans, playing with mechanical forces, lost arts to the
men of the present time.
The largest of the three temples, supposed to have
been dedicated to Apollo, was built about the begin
ning of the fifth century B.C. It was never com
pleted, its columns were left unfluted, and its internal
embellishment was probably not begun. It measured
371 feet in length, 177 in width, including the steps
and stylobate on which it is mounted. That is to
say, it had a frontage equal to that of the Madison
Square Garden, and a depth equal to the frontage of
fifteen ordinary New York City houses. On this par
allelogram there were set up, in the peristyle, forty-six
huge columns, each 57I feet in height (including the
capitals) and iij feet in diameter at the base. These
columns are each composed of five drums tapering
successively from the base of the columns upward
from iij to 7 feet 11 inches at the neck, and each
drum is more than ten feet in height. One of our
party, the tallest man, placed himself by one of them,
and although he stood on tip-toes and with upstretched
arms, his fingers did not reach within two feet of
the top of the monstrous stone ; it would take five
men with extended arms to encompass the wonderful
girth of the chiselled block. The ruins of this temple
are more confused than are those of the other two.
The irregular, chaotic pile of blocks and drums rises
like a broken and disordered mountain-crest, upheaved
from grass-grown earth, or like a mighty reef upborne
above the smooth sea. One can appreciate the pur
port of this huge confusion only by calling upon the

SELINUS 203
imagination to picture the incalculable force of the
earthquake that wrecked in one instant of time a col
ossal edifice intended by its builders to last as long as
the world itself should endure.
" But mighty Jove cuts short, with great disdain,
The long, long views of poor designing man."
What mind can adequately conceive the idea that
this temple of the Sun -God fell into shapelessness
like a mole-hill crushed beneath the heel of a plough
man ? And all these years the ruins of its monstrous
fabric have lain where they were lightly tossed. Na
tions have come and gone — Greek, Roman, Byzan
tine, Saracen, Norman, Spaniard. The god in whose
honor the temple was built is dead ; but there, in
the midst of all the wreck, are vast round blocks of
stone, some of them unblemished by weather and un
touched of time, bearing silent witness to the wonder
working skill, the deathless genius of a race of men
whose story shall be as familiar as household words to
races yet unborn, long after the very dust into which
the Temple of Apollo is crumbling shall have been
wafted far and wide across the Sicihan plain.
About fifty yards to the south of the TempJe of
Apollo (which was surpassed in size only by the Tem
ple of Diana at Ephesus and that of the Olympian
Jupiter at Agrigentum) there are the ruins of a tem
ple dedicated to which one of the old divinities is not
surely known. This second structure was of much
smaller dimensions than the edifice above described —
viz., 202 feet 6 inches in length, 79 feet 8 inches in
breadth, and had twenty-two columns 30 feet 4 inches
in height, and 6 feet 3 inches in diameter at the base.

204 PICTURESQUE SICILY
When the earthquake overturned the columns of this
temple, many of them fell outward from their bases,
and the frustra of some of them lie in the same rela
tive position they occupied when standing. This ca
pricious action of the seismic wave scattered the dis
jointed members of the temple more widely over the
surface of the plain ; but, strange to say, the platform
on which the structure stood, wherever it can be seen
amid the chaos of superimposed blocks and drums,
does not appear to have been rent or disrupted by
the upheaval of the ground. This fact is only to be
accounted for by imagining that there was no undula
tory motion of the earth at this point, but that the
temple was thrown down by a lateral, horizontal mo
tion, produced at right angles to the side walls of the
building. A sudden movement of the land from north
to south tipped the columns in the north wall to the
north ; a following recovery and swing from south to
north, which, acting in unison with the thrust of fall
ing superstructures, felled the columns in the south
wall so that they lay with their capitals towards the
south. No pretence is made of actually describing the
action of the earthquake ; but the appearance of the
ruins as they he upon the ground suggests this ex
planation of the exhibition of the forces that threw
the different parts of the structure into the positions
they now relatively occupy.*
* While we are inclined to admit the reasonableness of the ' ' earth
quake theory '' of the overthrowing of the temples of Selinus, we hold
that it is more than probable that the vast destruction was wrought by
the Carthaginians, who attempted to utterly destroy the frontier city of
the Siceliots. This they did by turning their engines of war and other
mechanical devices against the citadels and temples of the doomed city.

SELINUS 205
To the south again, fifty yards away, are the ruins of
a third temple, 223 feet 3 inches in length, 83 feet 7
inches in breadth, the columns of which rose to the
height of 33 feet 6 inches, and are 7 feet 5 inches in
diameter at their base. At the southeast angle of the
front of this temple three columns, or portions of them,
are still standing, but on the north side of the build
ing all the drums and blocks lie in regular order, ex
tending outward from the steps of the stylobate, as if
arranged for the reconstruction of the building. The
columns, capitals, and entablatures of this edifice were
more ornate, more richly decorated, than the members
of either of the other two temples. The columns are
fluted, the capitals exhibit an owl's-beak moulding, and
in 1 83 1 some very beautiful metopes, carved in a me
diocre style of Greek art, which were used to adorn
the entablature, were discovered and taken to the
Museum of Palermo, where we curiously examined
them. The view eastward from the three temples (they all
face the rising sun) is very picturesque. Beyond the
desolation of the plain, miles and miles away, a great
bay makes into the land, and on the farther side of
the blue water bluer hills rise against the sky, soar
ing higher and higher to the mountains of central
Sicily. Three-quarters of a mile to the west of the three
temples the ruins of the acropolis and city of Selinus
stand beyond II Gorgo di Cotone. Across the un-
A very careful study of the condition of the ruins supplies almost incon
trovertible proof that the latter theory is as reasonable and as suscepti
ble of proof as the assumption that Selinus was destroyed by a convul
sion of nature.

206 PICTURESQUE SICILY
wholesome quagmire we took our way over a bridge
spanning a small creek which discharges a pinched
and shallow stream during the rainy season into the
African Sea. From the bridge a cart-track leads up
to the foot of a crumbling wall, the ramparts of the
ancient town, passing around one end of which we
come to the platform where, ages ago, the city gate
opened towards the harbor, which is now choked and
filled with sand and mud. We passed within the limits
of Selinus and walked upon a pavement over which
Grecian and Carthaginian chariot wheels once rolled,
and again stood in the midst of a group of ruins, the
remains of four temples which were erected within
the boundaries of the city itself.
The level top of the hill upon which these temples
were built was formerly surrounded by walls, and this
part of the town, the acropolis, was traversed by two
main streets running north and south. From these
avenues others extended at right angles; but little is
to be seen of streets or houses save the two principal
thoroughfares and certain ruined pavements which
were excavated during the present century. The four
temples face the east, as do the three already de
scribed. That one nearest to the sea, but fifty yards
from the bluffs which rise boldly from a beach of
sand, is 139 feet in length and 60 feet in breadth. Its
ruins, which lie in a confused heap, have been partly
cleared of the sand which had drifted into the cella
and weeded of the grass and palmetto? by which they
were hidden from sight for many centuries.
Across, a street which runs east and west there are
the remains of a small temple, differing broadly in
style from any of the others. It had Ionic columns

SELINUS 207
and Doric entablatures, and was of diminutive size,
only 28^ feet by 1 5 feet. Its total height was but 14^
feet, and the dainty columns measured but iJ feet at
the base, tapering to i foot in diameter A mere
plaything compared with the Temple of Apollo, the
mighty structure thirteen and one -half times its size.
One of the columns of the latter had a diameter equal
to the width of the miniature edifice, which, however,
made up for what it wanted in size and grandeur
by the exquisite decorations with which it was
adorned. A few yards to the north, again, are the ruins of a
third temple, which, like all the rest, except the one
last mentioned, is in the pure Doric style. It is sup
posed to have been dedicated to Hercules, and is re
markable for the evidence it presents that the Greeks
painted the exteriors of their temples in strongly con
trasting colors. Some of the columns and part of the
entablature still show patches of blue, red, and black
pigments laid on a shell of plaster or stucco, with
which this temple, and doubtless some of the others,
were originally finished.
Beyond these temples to the north and inland ex
tended the city and citadel, and from the vast cumuli,
the mounds and barrows, it can readily be learned that
in the days of its glory Selinus was a city fortress
that could be taken only by an overwhelming force.
Such a force, an army of one hundred thousand men,
did Hannibal Giskon bring against Selinus in the year
409 B.C., and the proud city — its acropolis, its temples,
its harbors, and the abodes of its multitudes of citizens
 was given over to the destroyer The magnificent
city became " the abiding-place of dragons, a habita-

2o8 PICTURESQUE SICILY
tion for owls." The gods deserted its shrines. Its
walls and battlements crumbled throughout the centu
ries, and all the land, once the scene of marvellous en
terprise and high endeavor, was delivered over to
" Silence and slow Time."

XXIV*
A MYSTERIOUS EXCURSION
"Sleepless Activities" — Trapani at Dawn — An Uncanny
Guide — Monte San Giuliano — The Field of Hercules —
"Gobbo Brings us Luck" — "A Guide-book in Breeches."
There are two hotels in Trapani. If the traveller
puts up for the night at one of them he will wish a
thousand times before morning that he had gone to
the other. If he be a student of Boswell's immortal
biography he may recall Dr. Johnson's pronuncia-
miento : " No man who has contrivance enough to get
himself into jail will go to sea in a ship," and for the
last six words, in bitterness of spirit and sleepless ex
asperation, substitute "spend the night in a Trapani
hotel." But there is no philosophy in dwelling upon
the discomforts of travelling. He that cannot endure
with patience and good-nature an occasional hardship
had best hug his own fire and sleep o' nights under
his own coverlid. As for the landlords of the two
Trapani inns — may they make their own beds and
be compelled to lie in them ! " Time and. the hour
runs through the roughest day," or night, and with
daybreak came deliverance from the filthy precincts
* Chapters XXIV. and XXV. were written later than those which
precede and follow them — in April, when we returned to Sicily on it
second visit, and especially to make the ascent of Monte San Giuliano.

2IO - PICTURESQUE SICILY
of an evil- smelling tavern, whose hapless guests are
not so sure of feeding as of being fed upon.
At the first gray of dawn, on a fine morning, we
found our way stumblingly, yawning and blinking,
down a creaking, winding stairway to the door of the
albergo, where a drowsy publican sat at the receipt of
custom. To him we paid our reckoning, and, without
so much as asking for a cup of coffee, fled from sight
of him and his environment, as glad to be gone "as
were Bunyan's pilgrims what time they escaped from
Doubting Castle. At the corner of the next street
we found awaiting our appearance a landau with three
horses harnessed abreast like the coursers of a Grecian
chariot. Entering the vehicle, we were driven away from
the scene of our trials and tribulations ; but presently
our vetturino drew up his horses at a baker's shop,
where, for forty centesimi, we bought two new-made
loaves of sweet white bread. From a fruit-stand across
the way we selected half a dozen oranges, with ruddy
blushes on their cheeks, as rare and ripe and luscious
as the Sicilian sun and soil can produce. What more
did we want? We were alive, and it was a luxury to
live on such a morning ; the air was tonic enough had
our appetites needed whetting.
With pistol -like cracking of whip, which set our
three horses a-prancing like the steeds of Diomede,
our cocchiere " gave himself to the road." Merrily on
we rattled, out of town towards the east beyond the
limits of the city, to the foot of Monte San Giuliano,
where our road began its upward climb of seven miles.
Near an ancient church we were aware of a very
diminutive dwarf, who stood by the wayside holding
up a warning hand, as if to stay our farther progress.

A MYSTERIOUS EXCURSION 211
He was misshapen, uncouth, as twisted as one of the
gnarled and knotted olive-trees that grew near the spot
where he had taken his stand to challenge us. He evi
dently knew of our coming. Our driver heeded his
signal to halt ; indeed, the three horses seemed instinc
tively to obey the peremptory gesture of the prodigy.
His dwarfship nodded good-naturedly, reassuringly to
us, who regarded him curiously and not without rever
ence, due to his sudden and surprising apparition. He
advanced in silence to the side of the vettura, rfnd,
without receiving a word of invitation, or waiting for
it, drew himself up, baboon-like, by the mere strength
of his long, uncanny arms to the box-seat, whence he
grinned pleasantly over his shoulder at us, and in a tone
of command ordered the driver to give the whip to his
horses. In such fashion we began our journey up the
ancient mountain, under the care and guidance of as
queer and mysterious a creature as ever slaved for an
enchanter or cracked jokes for a king in the good old
days when dwarfs and other merry men found their
way to courts to grace festivals or dandle cap and
bells. Our Sicilian guide presently, standing up in the
carriage, reached out his hand and laid it gently and
with marked respect upon the humped back of the
amiable monster; then, seating himself again, said in
an impressive whisper, " Gobbo, he brings us luck."
If the reader will have patience while it is explained
to him under what circumstances the Americano wit
nessed the performance of the mystic ceremony above
described, he may be able to appreciate why this most
excellent fooling produced a somewhat weird, but
withal a pleasantly superstitious, impression upon the
imagination of even so sceptical a modern as a travel-

212 PICTURESQUE SICILY
ler from the New World. We had set out from a
city which Virgil would have us believe was founded
by ^neas and his Trojans, where, as Dante tells us,
old Anchises " finio la lunga etade," died, and was
buried ; where, on his return from Carthage, leaving
Dido all forlorn and forsaken, pious .^neas celebrated
games in honor of his father's ghost, and whence he
made a pilgrimage to the shrine of his mother, Venus,
on the summit of the mountain named after Eryx,
son of Butes, the mighty wrestler, whom Hercules
overcame what time that son of Jupiter drove the
stolen herds of Geryon lowing along the far Sicilian
shore. In the city of Eryx, at the top of Monte San
Giuliano, as the mountain Eryx is called to-day, we
had been told, and did verily believe, that we should
find a shrine of Venus-Erycina on the former site of a
temple of Astarte — Astarte, to whom King Solomon's
friend, Hiram of Tyre, and his country-woman Didb,
Queen of Carthage, offered sacrifices on altars 'whose
very stones have ages long gone crumbled into dust.
From the place where we encountered our unbidden
fellow-passenger we could see the island, the goal in
the boat - races given in honor of the manes of An
chises, and it did not shock our belief in the truth of
Virgil's story to learn that the sailors and harbor-men
of to - day know, the rock only by its modern name,
" asinello" — id est, " the ass." On the mountain - side
before us were ruins, said to be of temples, where al
tars had smoked with sacrifices to Baal, where pious
Carthaginians had caused their children to pass through
the fire, and where Moloch and Melkarte had been
worshipped with bloody rites. This we could believe,
for in the blue distance beyond the foot-hills of Eryx

A MYSTERIOUS EXCURSION 21 3
we beheld the mountain where dwelt Phalaris, for
whom Perillus made the brazen bull which annually
devoured its hecatombs of human victims. All this
we knew or guessed, and how much was not left to
the imagination concerning the mysterious city we had
set out to visit ?
What wonder, then, if it seemed to us entirely ap
propriate and in the natural order of the day's events,
to be met upon the threshold of our adventure by a
messenger from the powers beyond, sent to lead us to
the mysteries we might seek in vain alone and unat
tended. Moreover, Gobbo added to the romance and
picturesque detail of the pilgrimage. It was charm
ingly fantastic to let the imagination play around him,
especially in such a place. On the highway to the
shrine of Venus the sight of him suggested humorous
fancies of Bottom and Titania, Beauty and the Beast.
He seemed to us to be a familiar spirit whom we had
often met before, in dreamland belike, of whom we
had read many times and oft in the dear old but ever-
new stories of " Once upon a time."
The boldly surveyed, firmly laid highway of Monte
San Giuliano crawls upward in many curves and cir
cumbendibuses. Forty times or more does this trail
of a serpent upon the rock of Eryx double back upon
itself, now crawling around the faces of cliffs, gliding
along the tops of crag and precipice, now hiding itself
in the shadows of gorge and cafton, whence it emerges
again to encircle jutting masses of rock that stand
boldly out from the mountain-side. So favorable are
all the gradients, so well calculated all the curves of
this masterpiece of road-building, that the ascent may
be made in comfort and expeditiously, horses being

214 PICTURESQUE SICILY
able to proceed for the greater part of the distance,
seven miles, at a jog-trot.
A mile from the foot of the mountain we overtook a
pedestrian, whose polite salute and cheery " Buon gi-
orno " prompted us to offer him a seat in our vettura.
He accepted our invitation, explaining that he had
missed the " posta " which leaves Trapani every day
before daylight. Our companion proved to be Sig
nor Guerreri, " Ispettore Domaniali," that is to say,
the Inspector of Government Domain, who was on his
way to his official residence in the city we proposed to
visit and explore. He was able, by reason of much
study of books and documents and from personal ob
servation, to give us unlimited information concerning
the ancient, mediaeval, and modern history of Eryx and
its inhabitants, information which is not to be readily
acquired by ordinary travellers. We congratulated
ourselves upon being able to exchange compliments
with such a distinguished guest, who, if not indeed a
priest of Astarte nor the Guardian of the Temple of
Venus, was no less a personage than the Warden of
the Marches of Mount Eryx. Gobbo had brought us
luck ! We proceeded merrily, and with much pomp
iand circumstance, upward on our journey, enjoying a
grand view of the plain of Hercules, which, as we as
cended higher and higher up the mountain-side, seemed
to unroll and spread out beneath us like a great map.
We looked over a land of vineyards, of orange, lemon,
and olive groves, of meadows and wheat-fields, varied
by golden-brown plantations where the soil was newly
ploughed. The base of the mountain was margined by rich
fields of crimson " peperone " and trefolia in full

A MYSTERIOUS EXCURSION 21 5
bloom, and golden senape mixed with scarlet poppies.
Upon the mountain-side grew masses of planta genes
ta, with its yellow blossoms, such as the Plantagenets
of England wore so proudly in their bonnets, and
gorse, the dark hue of which accented the tender green
of sumach, artemisia, wild asparagus, belladonna, and
camamilla. There were ferns in endless variety, " fiore
di mattina," our own morning-glories, still asleep, and
cyclamen. A world, a sea, of flowers of brightest
colors. From time to time we exchanged greetings with
herdsmen and goatherds seated by the road-side break
ing their long fast, making their first meal on coarse,
dry bread. In hooded cloaks they looked more like
Berber or Moorish mountaineers than men of Euro
pean blood ; and all of them carried pottery flagons
or crocks of classic shape in which to mix their wine
and water, and wore sandals of hide or goatskin of the
same shape and fashion shown in ancient Greek or
Roman sculptures.
At the foot of the mountain we had seen figs as
large as ripe plums upon the trees ; at a height of one
thousand feet above the plain the trees were but put
ting forth their leaves. The air had grown colder, few
er flowers were blooming, and we lost sight of many
varieties that love the warmer sunlight of the plains.
The upper range and cliffs of Eryx are draped with
heather, amid which roam flocks of sheep, watched
by shepherds carrying long pastoral crooks, clad in
sheepskin coats and trousers, picturesque and picture-
inspiring subjects for artists in search of classic models.
Such figures were to be seen in the old, old times,
when Acestes, guarding his flocks in Eryx, saw with

2l6 PICTURESQUE SICILY
wonder the return of the Trojans' ships from the Lib
yan shores. For although the times have changed,
the races of men that inhabit Eryx have not changed
with them, at least not in dress and manner of life, if
indeed in mind or habit of thought.
Suddenly we experienced a rapid decline in tem
perature, and while we were huddling ourselves into
our overcoats a sea-fog swept around the northwest face
of the mountain and enveloped us in a dense white
mantle. The magic of the change was most impres
sive, not to say awe-inspiring. But a moment before
we were in the world and of it ; then, in the twinkling
of an eye, the far -ranging vision of mountains, plain,
and sea was blotted out, and we seemed to be caught
up to sublimer heights, to journey on through silent
chaos, where all space, as at " the beginning," was void
and without form. As suddenly as it overcame us the
fog lifted and was wafted away, the sunlight shone
again, and then again the fog. But ere it closed in
upon us we made out, doubtingly, a picture of shining
battlements, towers, and castle walls, all apparently
upborne on clouds that concealed the peaks and pin
nacles of Eryx. For one moment the pageant as
sumed definite and earthly shape ; but even as we
gazed at it the aerial citadel dissolved and disappeared
like the passing of a glorious vision, and the mists, up
lifted, revealed the earth, the sunny plain, the planta
tions, and the haunts of men.
As we approached the summit the steep slopes of
the mountain-side rose to the base of crags and per
pendicular escarpments resembling stupendous walls,
founded upon and growing from the everlasting rock.
Finding our way slowly through the fog, and skirting

A MYSTERIOUS EXCURSION 217
these cyclopean ruins, we came to a turn in the road.
The cocchiere cracked his whip, the jaded horses sprang
forward in a final burst of speed, and, smiting sparks
from the pavement, scrambled up a steep bit of road
between two massive bastions. Gobbo turned, and,
smiling upon us cheerily, shouted " Eccoci !" as we
passed beneath the pointed arch of a giant gateway
and entered the precincts of the most ancient city in
Sicily. Turning to the right, into a small square, an irregu
lar piazza, on which were stables, a blacksmith's forge,
and a half-ruined locanda (described in guide-books as
the principal inn of the city of Monte San Giuliano),
we halted ; our steeds, panting after their mad gallop,
reeking and steaming like creatures of the mist about
to vanish, dissolved in clouds. A crowd of muffled
and veiled figures, materializing out of the fog, gath
ered around our vettura, saluting " II Ispettore " re
spectfully, but casting searching glances at his com
panions, "The Strangers," as if bidding them stand
and unfold themselves. Gobbo clambered down from
his seat on the box, opened the door of the landau,
and, bowing profoundly, invited us to alight. Seeing
which, the silent bystanders did us reverence, thereby,
as we were fain to hope, expressing their approval of
our presence, and according to us the freedom of their
municipality. In such state, so attended and thus welcomed, did
we make "joyous entrance" into the ancient city on
Mount Eryx, a city sacred to Venus !

XXV
A CITY IN CLOUD-LAND
Three Gates of Eryx — Astarte, Aphrodite, Venus, Madonna —
Cyclopean Masonry — " A Street in Bagdad " — The Castle of
Eryx — Shrine of Venus-Erycina— Return to Earth.
Three great gateways pierce the walls of Eryx ;
that one by which we had entered is called " The Tra
pani Gate." "The Gate of the Heralds" is close to
the " Mother Church " — Matrice — and, therefore, often
spoken of as La Porta del Carmine. At " The Gate of
the Sword " occurred the massacre of the French dur
ing the Sicilian Vespers, and many unholy legends of
cruelty haunt the shadows of its grim tower and the
glowering recesses of its most unchristian arches,
which are characteristically Saracen in model and
construction. It was not alone the commanding and
isolated site of this acropolis, surrounded as it is by
walls, moats, and natural precipices, that, in all ages,
have rendered Eryx " inexpugnable." Its inhabitants
trusted loyally to the protection of divinities that
were fabled to have their abodes in the sacred pre
cincts consecrated to them in the uppermost courts of
the Citadel, where, since the morning of the world,
have stood successively a temple of Astarte, of Aphro
dite, of Venus-Erycina, and, in these later days, a
shrine of the Holy Madonna. The beauty-loving

A CITY IN CLOUD-LAND 219
Greeks, finding in Astarte the prototype of one of
their own goddesses, made a place for her in their new
mythology, under the name of Aphrodite ; her the
Romans renamed Venus, the mother of their ancestor
.(Eneas, and so greatly 'venerated in Mount Eryx was
this loveliest of all pagan divinities that the early
Christians could not find it in their hearts to banish
the Goddess of Love to the limbo to which they
ruthlessly consigned the less bewitching attendants of
Jove's starry court. Therefore, as pagan priests had
paid divine honor to Astarte, Aphrodite, Venus, so in
time did Christian ministers bow themselves at the
shrine consecrated to their ideal of womanly grace
and loveliness, erecting on Mount Eryx an altar to
the " Madonna of all the Graces." The priestesses of
Astarte became in time Vestal Virgins, and these,
after many centuries, were succeeded by a sisterhood
of holy nuns.
Eager to begin at the very beginning of things histori
cal, we followed our guide to the Gate of the Sword.
A pointed archway proclaims its Saracenic or Nor
man origin. Beneath the impost of the arch are lay
ers of confused and irregular masonry of unknown
workmanship, probably of Roman construction. To
the right of the gateway, constructed of cyclopean
blocks, is a square bastion, the corner-stones of which,
at least, were laid nearly thirty centuries ago. Who
laid them there? What men installed them in the
places where — protected from the sun and the rain by
mounds of earth and superimposed masonry — they
have lain buried out of sight until resurrected by
ninet-eenth - century antiquity hunters? We seek in
vain to know their history, and but tease imagination

220 PICTURESQUE SICILY
in endeavoring to solve the mystery of their unwrit
ten, unchiselled story.
From the Gate of the Sword we found our way to
the Cathedral of Monte San Giuliano, recently re
stored, but of which the west bays are ancient. The
portico and vestibule of this otherwise unattractive
edifice are as beautiful specimens of Saracenic-Nor
man architecture as are to be seen in Europe, and the
people gathered in the open space before II Duomo
and on the steps of the portico were as Oriental in as
pect as the folk one may see across the water in Tunis
or Biskra at the door of a mosque.
From the cathedral we followed the windings of a
very picturesque street, and a corner or two away
came to the Monastery of San Pietro, which we could
easily believe had been at one time a Moorish palace.
A pointed archway carried a covered bridge — a " Bridge
of Sighs " in miniature — from the dormitories of the
monks over the causeway to a little mosque-like chap
el, and through the arch, down the street, we could
see decorated gables, lattices, and windows with curled
and twining iron bars, quaint porches, and quainter
porticos of carved pillars supporting balconies orna
mented with Arabesque and Norman designs. Far
ther down the rambling thoroughfare, in the side wall
of a palace that trespassed boldly on the roadway, a
richly carved casement suggested a window of the Al
hambra at Granada. This peep was charmingly pict
uresque ; it recalled a picture of a street in Bagdad,
one of the wood-cuts in our well-thumbed, dog-eared
copy of The Arabian Nights, and it needed but
turbans and Oriental gowns to metamorphose the
passers-by into Abdallahs of the land or Sindbads of

A CITY IN CLOUD-LAND 221
the sea. What wonder, therefore, that we lingered
long day-dreaming near this "bit" so Oriental in
design and spirit, hoping actually to behold Aladdin,
and to hear the street-cry " New lamps for old !"
Along the winding streets, through the golden fog
which added mystery to our strange and bewildering
surroundings, stopping now to examine an old and
moss-grown arched gateway, or to admire the carv
ings on porticos or double lancet windows, now to
inspect the facade of a chapel or a mediaeval palace,
we found our way, thanks to the guidance of II Is
pettore, to the Piazza di Municipio, where, curious to
think of it, we beheld the municipal theatre of a city
seated among the clouds on the top of a mountain
half a mile in height. From the piazza we began to
ascend to the higher level of the rock, on the verge of
which stands an ancient ivy-clad castle, founded, so
runs tradition, by Daedalus, the father of Icarus. We
trustingly took our guide's word for it that there was
a castle somewhere above and beyond us, and contin
ued on upward through the mist, which, as we ascend
ed, became more transparent and filmy, until we felt
the warmth of the noon-day sun, and beheld its image,
a silver bowl floating high above the haze.
We left the houses behind us, and, entering a garden,
explored its paths winding between hedges of white
thorn in blossom, and, significant of the meeting of
the temperate and tropical zones, fichi d' India and
cacti. We made our way amid trees and shrub
bery to an open space in the centre of the garden,
where we sat down to rest on a stone settle in the
midst of beds of roses, where were palms, flowering
aloes, giant euphorbia, where ripe fruit hung ungath-

222 PICTURESQUE SICILY
ered on blossoming orange-trees, where there were
laurels and pomegranates, fig, almond, and cherry trees,
great pines, ilex and pinnated oak, beech and chest
nut, bamboo, mulberry ; where wistaria, morning-glo
ries, Virginia-creepers, and bougainvillea disputed with
the ivy for possession of the trellises and garden-walls.
Bewildering and wonderful confusion of things botani
cal, setting at naught the seasons and the order of
nature, for in that small enclosure were to be seen
growing in the open air all species and varieties of
plants collected from all latitudes between Sahara and
the Baltic Sea.
As we sat musing, expectant, the mist dissolved.
The sunlight glorified the place. And there, just be
yond the greenery overlooking the garden, arose the
mysterious castle, its gray walls wet with fog, glisten
ing like frosted silver in the intense light of the April
sun. Below it swept tossing cataracts of cloud, the
rock from which it rose into the blue sky floated like
an island in a sea of snow-white foam, but nowhere
else in all space was there wrack or vestige of the
human under-world whence we had ventured on our
pilgrimage to the ancient abode of pagan gods.
Across the yoke of the mountain, from precipice to
precipice, plunging downward on each side of the
fortress into the sea of mist, was a deep moat cut in
the living rock.
So much we had time to note, and then the clouds
swept across the picture, and the vision disappeared.
So for hours, while we haunted the precincts of the
castle, it appeared and disappeared, to reappear and
vanish momently, as the wind, the shepherd of the
clouds, drove his flocks landward from the sea.

A CITY IN CLOUD-LAND 223
Curious to know more of the form and contents of
the Castle of Monte San Giuliano, we found our way
out of the garden down to an open space whence a
causeway led up from the city to its citadel. Ascend
ing this steep approach, with the castle walls on our
left and a precipice on our right hand, we came to the
main entrance ofthe tower we had seen from our seat
in the garden. We knocked loudly, boldly summoning
the warden to admit us. This he did by opening a
small wicket-gate, and, entering in, we found ourselves
in a part of the edifice which to-day is used as a
prison. Passing through a series of gloomy, vaulted
chambers, we came to the castle court -yard, grass-
grown and covered with rubbish and fragments of
ruined walls. Gates and doors were opened to admit
us, and closed behind us by the warden, whose large
bunch of curious antique keys jangled at his belt as
he led the way. At last we entered the precincts of
a temple, invaded the " holy of holies," where an
ciently had stood the altar of Venus-Erycina.
Ascending a flight of ruined steps we passed into
the court-yard, a forsaken garden, where, in the midst
of a wilderness of greenery, we discovered an ancient
well, around the edge of which feathery grasses trem
bled "in the gentle breeze, and nodding flowers peep
ing timorously below beheld their pretty faces mir
rored in the crystal water at the bottom. Clinging
to moss-covered stones and rooted in the crevices of
the masonry there hung graceful festoons and knots
of " maidenhair " (Capillus Veneris), which doubtless
had suggested the name " The Bath of Venus."
Mounting the wall of the court - yard we looked
down into a chasm, across which once hung a wonder-

224 PICTURESQUE SICILY
ful bridge, a work of enchantment, according to an
early legend, and to-day, in corroboration of the tale,
called " II Ponte del Diavolo." In ancient times the
span was known as the " Arch of Daedalus." Wheth
er the Diabolos of monkish lore or Daedalus of old
built the bridge we do not pretend to be able to de
cide. We merely record the fact that in Sicilian dia
lect the sound of Daedalus runs trippingly into that
of Diavolo. Perhaps the unclassical inhabitants of
Monte San Giuliano (not knowing who the Diavolo
Dasdalus was) have given their arch enemy more than
his due, seeing that the bridge was built long before
" that old serpent " was heard of — at least, so far to
the westward of his original bailiwick, the Garden of
Eden. Outside of the court-yard we climbed to the top of
a ruined tower poised on the edge of a cliff, whence
we caught glimpses through the fog of crags and
rocks far below us. Once as we looked the mists
lifted in the east, and we obtained a fleeting but mag
nificent view of all the country - side and the sea,
stretching far to the north and the northeast. Con
fronting us was the lofty peak of San Vito, and tow
ards the south, in the order named, Saragio, Laccie,
San Barnaba, and Rocca-corvo, grand mountain-peaks
all of them. Close at hand, lower than Monte San
Giuliano, the promontory of Cofano extends its mas
sive, adder-shaped head into the Tyrrhenian Sea. A
grand and wonderful spectacle, but quickly gone !
Again the fog came down upon us, therefore, we can
but faintly imagine all the glory of the prospect which
is revealed to those who stand upon the summit of
Mount Eryx on a perfectly clear day.

MONTE SAN GIULIANO (ery.x). TRAPANI

A CITY IN CLOUD-LAND 225
Continuing our explorations, we passed through
bowers and trellises overgrown with vines, threaded
mazes and secret passages that led us into giant tow
ers and lofty, roofless halls, ventured into the gloomy
recesses of keep and donjon, climbed broken stair
ways to crumbling battlements and ruined platforms,
where, ages ago, armored men kept watch and ward.
The romance of the place, the weird picturesqueness
of all we saw, cast a potent spell upon us, tempted us
on and on, and we wandered here and there, up and
down, as if vainly seeking an exit from a clueless laby
rinth, forgetful of the magic word that alone could
open passage for us to the outer world. How long
we might have tarried in this romance-inspiring, su
perstition-awakening spot we cannot tell. Certainly
the setting sun had found us there had not II Ispet
tore, practical man of action and of this world, looked
at his time-piece, and, remembering, uttered the for
gotten " open sesame," Colazione ! (breakfast). In
the twinkling of an eye we came back to every-day
existence, and discovered that we were very hungry.
Hunger lent us wings. Our long fast served to clear
our brains of vaporing conceits, of pagan goddesses,
mediaeval enchanters, and the like, and we made haste
to be gone, to repair the waste of tissue, to satisfy
the cravings of three nineteenth-century appetites.
At the official residence of the companion of our
morning rambles we found coilazione waiting for us,
and never did hot coffee and suiidry viands of tempt
ing appetency prove more welcome or taste more de
licious than did the feast so unexpectedly spread for
us by our kind host. " May his shadow never grow
less !" 15

226 PICTURESQUE SICILY
After luncheon Signor Guerreri accompanied us to
the locanda where we had left our equipage. It was
awaiting us, with horses fully harnessed, ready to de
part. We bade farewell to our " guide, philosopher,
and friend," entered our vettura, passed through the
gate of Eryx, plunged downward into the mists that
rolled up the mountain-side, and the City of Venus
was caught up into the golden clouds and vanished
from our sight.

XXVI
GIRGENTI
The Land of the Greeks — Acragas — Agrigentum — Mons
Caraicus — Ruined Temples — " Fairest of Mortal Cities "
— La Rupe Atenea.
At last the day of our often-postponed departure
came, and with many regrets we bade farewell to Pa
lermo, the city in which we had dwelt for all too short
a time so pleasantly. At two o'clock in the afternoon
of as fair a day as ever shone upon II Conco d' Oro,
we took train for Girgenti, and entered upon a new
phase of our Sicilian expedition. Until now we had
had to do with the Carthaginians, the Saracens, the
Normans (we do not mention the Romans, because
that race has left but few reminders of its occupation
of the land, being destructive rather than constructive
in its Sicilian policy). Hereafter we were to behold
the wonderful relics of Greek civilization, relics that
have outlasted twenty -five centuries, defying all at
tempts of the Romans, the early Christians, the Sara
cens, the Normans, and of the modern Sicilians them
selves, to destroy these reminders of the grandest of
all epochs in the marvellous history of Sicily.
The railway from Palermo to Girgenti runs east-
wardly along the seashore, passing Bagheria and Ter
mini. Six miles beyond the latter town the train.

228 PICTURESQUE SICILY
turning inland, enters the valley of II Fiume Torto,
and, ascending to the interior table -lands, passes
Cerda and other quaint towns perched high on the
mountain steeps. At forty-four miles from Palermo
we arrived at Roccapalumba, where we changed car
riages for Girgenti. The town of Alia, from a rugged
peak, two thousand four hundred feet in height, looks
down upon Roccapalumba and the desolate valley of
the Torto ; and we could trace the highway, four miles
in length, where it crept in serpentine coils upward
from the station to the city gate.
From Roccapalumba onward the scenery is barren
and wild, the hills bare and treeless, great rocks and
bowlders of monstrous shapes cast fantastic shadows
on the mountain-side. Here and there, all along the
road, uplifted on crags and pinnacles, are the ruins of
Norman and Saracen castles, picturesque reminders of
bloody wars between Christians and infidels.
At an elevation of more than two thousand feet
above sea-level we cross the water-shed between the
Tyrrhenian and African seas, and, at forty-eight miles
from Palermo, reach Lercara, in the neighborhood of
which are the northernmost of the celebrated sulphur
mines of Sicily. The aspect of all this country is
strange and unnatural, the soil unfruitful, and the veg
etation stunted and discolored bythe fumes set free in
the process of reducing the sulphur ore to commercial
form. Traversing the ancient border-land, to the west of
which was once Carthaginian territory, to the east of
which were the ancient marches of the Greeks, the
train rapidly descends to the soutli shore, and at
eighty -four miles from Palermo reaches the town of

GIRGENTI 229
Girgenti. Night had fallen, and as we were driven
away from the station we beheld the lights of the
town on Mons Camicus twinkling high above us, like
a cluster of stars shining through a calm night. About
three-quarters of a mile beyond the town we came to
the Hotel des Temples, where we were made welcome
and comfortably bestowed for the night.
Bright and early the next morning Signor Frances
co Ciotta, Consular Agent of the United States at
Girgenti, waited upon us and politely offered to act as
our cicerone during our explorations of the precincts
and environments of his native city. We gratefully
accepted his proposition, and we had good reason to
congratulate ourselves that Signor Ciotta found it in
his heart to befriend the strangers within his gates.
At a distance of a little more than one mile from
the African Sea, Mons Camicus and La Rupe Atenea
stand boldly up one thousand feet, overlooking a
table-land which extends from the base of the south
ern front of the two rocky heights half-way to the
water. This table-land terminates at the verge of a
row of cliffs that drop two hundred feet to a plain
which gently declines to the beach. Mons Camicus
was the acropolis of ancient Acragas, and La Rupe Ate
nea a sacred precinct, containing, among other edi
fices, a wonderful Temple of Minerva; hence its name,
the " Athenaeum." All the ground lying between the
base of Mons Camicus and the Athenaeum was at
one time covered by the houses of the ancient Greek
city. To-day Girgenti, shrunken to its original pro
portions, finds space for all its dwellings on the crest of
Mons Camicus, while the heights of La Rupe Atenea
are strewn with the ruins of fortifications and other

230 PICTURESQUE SICILY
buildings, which are not, however, of great antiquity.
Along the seaward limit of the table - land, on the
verge of the cliffs, midway between the beach and La
Rupe Atenea, the people of Acragas built the great
sea-wall of their city, and within its battlements erect
ed a row of temples, six in all, the ruins of which are
to-day the wonder and admiration of all beholders.
The fertile pianura is one vast meadow-land, here and
there planted with orange, lemon, and olive groves
and orchards of almond-trees, the latter in full bloom
on the day of which we are writing.
Did the ruined temples stand alone on the barren
plain, as do the ruins at Selinus and at Paestum,
they would even then be indescribably beautiful, but
the fact that they appear in the midst of fhe scenery,
than which nothing can be lovelier, adds to their
charm ; the eye loves to dwell upon their fair propor
tions, and memorj' preserves their superb and pictur
esque outlines and surroundings. The material of which
the six temples are constructed presents a most delight
ful contrast to the variegated greenery by which the
ruins are partly overgrown. In the morning sunlight
the yellow sandstone exhibits delicate tints of pearl,
shell-pink, and violet, accented by blue-black shadows
of velvety softness; the deep blue sky bends over the
golden shrines surrounded by greensward and bright
flowers innumerable ; the air is heavy with the odor
of almond blossoms ; nightingales, swinging on the
boughs of venerable olive-trees, pipe their softest
notes, and larks rise singing from the meadows. It is
impossible to believe that it is no later in the year
than the last week of February — we breathe the deli
cious air of June.

GIRGENTI 231
The Temple of Juno Lucina stands at the south
eastern angle of the table-land above the bed of the
Acragas, now called II Fiume Biagio, a small stream
which flows across the plain to join the Hypsas, II
Fiume Drago, and form II Fiume Girgenti. At the
mouth of the latter water-course once stood Emporio,
the seaport of Acragas. The temple, which is supposed
to have been erected between the years 480 and 500
B.C., is elevated on a lofty platform (stylobate), and
approached by a grand flight of steps leading to the
eastern portico. It had six columns in front and six
in the rear, and twenty-two others at the sides, all of
which were fluted. It is Doric in style, and belongs
to the best period of that school of architecture The
columns in the front are in a fair state of preservation,
and still uphold one course of the blocks of the entab
lature. Two perfect columns at the southeast corner,
united at their tops by a monolith, are all that re
mains of the front of the temple, save one other h.alf-
ruined column standing alone. Of the structure of
the south side there remain but four or five fragments
of columns all much worn by the sirocco, " the re
morseless destroyer of the temples of the gods."
Following the picturesque ruin of the city walls for
a few hundred yards westward, passing many tombs
and sepulchral niches hewn in the inner surface of the
battlements, we came to the Temple of Concord. This
edifice, almost precisely similar in form to the Temple
of Juno, but slightly larger, owes its present state of
preservation to the fact that in the third century it
was converted into a Christian church and rededicated
to " S. Gregorio delle Rapi " — " St. Gregory of the
Turnips." "The Temple of Concord has withstood

232 PICTURESQUE SICILY
many centuries ; its light style of architecture closely
approximates to the present standard of the beautiful
and tasteful, so that, compared with Paestum, it is, as
it were, the shape of a god to that of a giant."*
Although much smaller than the Temple of Nep
tune at Paestum, the Temple of Concord is in all re
spects more beautiful and interesting to study. When
it was transformed into a Christian church the spaces
between the columns were walled up and the cella
roofed with wooden beams and a superstructure.
These incongruous additions have been removed, and
the original plan of the temple may be studied more
in detail than is possible in other Doric structures in
Sicily or elsewhere.
West, again, of the Ternple of Concord, three hun
dred yards or more on the line of the ancient ram
parts, lies a vast confusion of enormous blocks, in the
midst of which stands a solitary column of sandstone
marking the site, so it is supposed, of a Temple of
Hercules, a much larger structure than the two tem
ples above mentioned. For this sanctuary Zeuxis
painted his famous portrait of Alcmene, mother of
Hercules, and from it Cicero tells us Verres attempted
by night to steal the statue of Hercules in order that
it might adorn his palace.
Close by the Temple of Hercules, and below it, are
the ruins of La Porta Aurea (" The Golden Gate " of
Acragas), by which the Roman legions under Laevinus
were admitted when, in 210 B.C., the Numidian mer
cenaries under Mutines betrayed the Carthaginian
garrison to the besiegers. From that day the name
* Goethe. Italienische Reise.

GIRGENTI 233
of Acragas disappeared from the pages of history, or
was disguised under its Roman form, Agrigentum.
Returning within the city limits, we stood upon the
table-land immediately opposite the Temple of Her
cules, where is a vast ruin, the parts of which lie scat
tered over the plain like " the bones of a gigantic
skeleton." These are the remains of the great Tem
ple of the Olympian Jupiter, the only temple within
the ancient limits of Acragas now surely known by
its ancient name. Nothing remains of the edifice but
fallen fragments of stone, but we may gain some idea
of its vast size, of the enormous proportions of its parts,
from the fact that the flutings of its ruined columns
are so broad that a large man, standing with his back
against the stone, barely fills the space. Each column
has twenty-two flutings and is 14% feet in diameter
— that is to say, 44^ feet in circumference and 53
feet in length. The temple itself measured 340 feet
by 160 feet, and Diodorus states that it was 120 feet
in height. It was, therefore, the second largest tem
ple ever erected or dedicated by the Greeks to any
god, being surpassed by the Temple of Diana at Ephe
sus only, and greatly exceeding in size the Temple of
Apollo at Selinus, the latter the third of the great
temples of the world. It is true, then, that two, at
least, of the temples of Sicily were of grander dimen
sions than any of the temples of ancient Greece.
This fact alone, if others were wanting, bears witness
to the wealth of the Greek cities of Sicily, and es
pecially to the magnificence of Selinus and Acragas.
In the cella lies a gigantic statue, more than twenty
feet in height, one of three caryatides (telamones)
which supported a porrion of the entablature. Gre-

234 PICTURESQUE SICILY
gorovius describes this giant in a sentence of poetic
power: "And here, stretched out, this weird giant-
form appears like a god — Hercules himself, who has
lain him down, in the midst of the ruin of this temple,
for a sleep of centuries, not to be awakened by earth
quakes and the strife of elements, nor by any syllable
of the history of the little human race."
This giant figure suggested to the men of Girgenti
their municipal motto :
" Signet Agrigentum mirabile aula Gigantum."
Still farther to the westward of the Temple of Ju
piter we found the most picturesque ruin of all — four
columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, sur
rounded by old olive and almond trees in the midst
of a tangled growth of vines, crocuses, lilies, asphodel,
and scarlet and purple poppies. This edifice origi
nally had six columns in each portico, and thirteen at
the sides, all of which were thrown down and lay in
ruin for many centuries. Not long ago four of the
columns — two of the west portico and the two adjoin
ing them on the north side — were carefully restored
and placed in position, and now uphold an angle of
the cornice and entablature. Truly the picture com
posed of this fragment of the old temple justifies its
re-erection. The four columns form so charming a
feature in a lovely scene that to have replaced them
on their old foundations bespeaks the good taste and
artistic judgment ofthe antiquarian who re-established
them. Would that all restorers of Sicilian antiquities
had been endowed with as nice a sense of the fitness
of things ! There is evidence that the four restored

GIRGENTI 235
columns, like all other parts of the temple in question,
were originally coated with stucco ; and on the cor
nice there are traces of bright pigments, red, blue, and
black, additional proof that the Greeks painted the
exteriors of certain temples in gaudy colors.
Below the Temple of Castor and Pollux, in a ravine
drained by a rivulet that falls into the ancient Hypsas,
there are the remains of a great " piscina," or fish
pond; and, on the far side of the Hypsas, a single col
umn in the midst of an almond grove marks where the
Temple of Vulcan stood in a garden the beauties of
which are celebrated by Diodorus.
From the temples we followed a road leading to
La Rupe Atenea and ascended the heights on which
formerly stood the Temple of Athene, which gave its
name to the rock. Near the eastern end of the Athe
naeum are the remains of another temple, supposeti to
have been sacred to Demeter and her daughter Per
sephone. This old edifice was converted by the Nor
mans into a Christian church ; but almost nothing
remains of their structure or embellishment, and there
is little of interest to repay one for the climb except
the view to be had from the edge of the cliffs ; that is,
indeed, well worth a longer and more fatiguing ex
pedition. As one stands looking towards the sea, the city of Gir
genti on Mons Camicus rises to view on the right hand;
beyond it a range of hills sinks gradually to the African
Sea. In front of La Rupe Atenea, and far below, ex
tends the table-land once occupied by the houses of old
Acragas, now planted with almond and olive trees, in
the midst of which stand the ruins of the grand old
temples. Beyond the lower plain the waves of the

236 PICTURESQUE SICILY
sea fall upon a beach of yellow sand. Quiet and
peaceful is the scene, and one cannot readily believe
that in the years gone by all these fair meadows had
been the camping-ground of vast armies besieging a
populous city. Acragas, the ancient, is desolate ;
naught remains of all its edifices but the ruined fanes
of the dead gods and the broken range of city walls
and battlements. " We travelled in the prints of olden wars,
Yet all the land was green."
Curious it was to stand in the silence of the golden
afternoon and think what ages had elapsed since, on the
altar of the largest of the temples, offerings had been
made by Greek priests to Zeus. On that same altar
human sacrifices had been burned to placate the wrath
of Moloch. Perhaps on the very spot where we were
standing Phalaris set up his brazen image of a bull,
the burning, fiery furnace into which he cast his vic
tims whose roarings the remorseless tyrant likened to
"the bellowings of the devouring beast."

XXVII
the heart of SICILY
Girgenti to Caltanisetta — Sulphur District — Veritable Infernal
Regions — Kal-at-al-Nisa ("Fortress of the Women") — A
Strange Ride — An Ancient Albergo—" Un Ballo in Ma-
schera" — " Sermons and 'Gazzoza.' "
Late in the afternoon we took a train bound from
Girgenti to Caltanisetta. In the compartment of the
railway carriage we found Signor C  , of Licata, a
most polite and well-informed gentleman, to whom
we became indebted for many courtesies, as will ap
pear in the sequel.
The railway ascends from Girgenti, winding up to
the heights of Verluccia, where we saw orchards of
almond -trees in bloom, and then enters a desolate
land of sulphur mines, a dreary country, which pre
sents the appearance of having been but recently the
scene of violent convulsions of nature — earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions. At Aragona-Caldare the branch
road to Caltanisetta leaves the main line and passes
through a country the sadness and weirdness of which
may be guessed from the names and history of some
of the stations along the route : Comitini (" The Sul
phurous"); Erbessus, where, in 262 B.C., Hanno, the
Carthaginian, slaughtered the Roman garrison which
vainly tried to protect the military stores deposited

238 picturesque SICILY
there for use in the siege of Agrigentum ; Rocalmoto,
called by the Arabs Rah -al- Mot ("The Village of
Death"). About nine at night we arrived at our
journey's end, Caltanisetta, the seat of a bishopric, a
town of Saracenic origin, containing at the present
time not fewer than thirty thousand inhabitants. In
our journey we had ascended from the sea-level to the
high table-lands of central Sicily; the thermometer
had fallen many degrees, there was " a nipping and an
eager air," and snow was falling.
At the dimly lighted station, after we had given
up our tickets to the official at the exit, we were left
to our own devices, and had it not been for Signor
C  we should have been utterly at a loss what to do
with ourselves, where to turn, what albergo to choose
— if there were a choice — and how to find it when
chosen. But our companion was a man of many
resources, a brisk and bustling person, of whom his
compatriots are justified in declaring " Egli non si
lascia mettere mosche sul naso." * The Sicilians
have another proverb : " He that has no head must
have legs"; and, in Shakespearian phrase, we should
have had occasion and opportunity on that inclement
evening for " tasting " ours, in a dreary ramble about
the town in search of lodgings, had it not been for a
brilliant idea which inspired our guide. Begging us
to exercise patience and keep ourselves dry in the
waiting - room, Signor C  disappeared into the
night, was gone a matter of ten minutes, and returned
triumphantly announcing that " un veicolo " was upon
the point of arriving.
* "He does not suffer flies to light upon his nose." — Sicilian
proverb.

the heart of SICILY 239
The vehicle which followed Signor C  from the
place in which he had discovered it to the station
proved to be " la vagone di posta " — a mail-wagon. By
the light of the solitary lamp which twinkled feebly
where the wagon drew up at the platform, the veicolo
looked like a prison-van, and our gloomy surroundings
invoked sufficiently disagreeable fancies that were to
be woven of the suggestion. We preferred, however,
to regard the conveyance in a less lugubrious light,
and, as its appearance lent itself to the illusion, we
transformed it, in our imagination, into a circus-van,
intended for the safe conveyance of "trick animals"
attached to " a show." A dancing bear belike ! The
latter pleasing fancy was strangely verified when a
round and burly form emerged head first from the
forward end of the van, and, placing its two fore-paws
upon the back of the horse, turned itself about and
descended slowly and clumsily to solid earth, where it
stood in silence erect upon its hind-legs, an uncouth,
shaggy, hairy monster. To whatever genus of four-
footed things it belonged, it was a mannerly and gen
tle beast and made a show of helping la signora
to her place on the driver's seat, to which her com
panion climbed without assistance. Signor C — - —
mounted upon the rear step of the veicolo, the ami
able monster, stepping to the head of the horse, gave
voice to a loud cry, " Ah-ee !" and the " Strange Ad
ventures of a (Mail) Phaeton " began. We entered the
precincts of a town the streets of which were so dimly
lighted that we felt, but did not behold, the ruts and
inequalities of the pavement. We could hear the cries
of the beggars who hobbled beside the wagon, gib
bering, moaning, like the wailing voices that accosted

240 picturesque SICILY
^neas " on the dismal shores of Acheron," and were
conscious that we were followed by an ever-increasing
throng of "poveri." We knew that the streets were
muddy, for we had seen the splashed and spattered
condition of the veicolo by the dim lights of the sta
tion lamp. It snowed and rained by turns during
the ten minutes consumed in driving to the albergo.
It was cold, and gusts of wind turned inside out the
umbrellas we attempted to hold in front of us. We
were hungry, albeit not as hungry as the troop of
poveri who chanted their " miserere " as they limped
beside our conveyance. We became chilled, and shiv
ered although wrapped in our thickest cloaks and lap-
robes, and envied our conductor his garments of sheep
skin and the cappotto he wore, as an extra covering,
to shield him from the cold and wet.
Nevertheless we laughed. Not because we were
cold and hungry — surely not at the sad plight of our
escort of poveri ; but it struck us that our situation
and surroundings were sufficiently fantastical and ab
surd to warrant laughter. We congratulated ourselves
that things were no worse ; especially, that we had
not been obliged to go albergo - hunting on foot
through the storm. That would have been no laugh
ing matter. But here were we entering a mysterious
town of which we knew nothing, except that it was
called by Arabs, centuries ago, Kal-at-al-Nisa ("For
tress of the Women ") ; conducted by a creature that
we could readily fancy had been born under the constel
lation of Ursa Major ; seated in a mail-wagon, as if we
had posted ourselves (from the Great Bear only knows
where!), and were on our way, properly stamped and
post-marked, to the address at which we were to be

THE HEART OF SICILY 24 1
finally delivered. If incongruity be the cansa causans
of laughter, surely our adventure contained the ele
ments of much mirth.
Finally, we halted in a dark street at the foot of a
still darker and very narrow lane which led from dark
ness visible into utter blackness. Ursa Major ad
vanced to the side of the veicolo, and, in a great, gruff
voice, like the voice of the Great Big Bear whose
words so terrified " Little Goldenhair," requested I
Signori to descend. Signor C  explained that we
were in the neighborhood of the albergo. I Signori
descended. Ursa Major seized our traps and belong
ings, and waddled off into the almost palpable blackness
of the lane. Stumblingly and with uncertain tread,
we blindly followed our leader, and, after a short walk
over wretched pavement, through pools and puddles,
hearing mysterious noises made by people in lightless,
fireless cellars, smelling all kinds of 'dank and bilgy
odors, we came to the albergo, of which, if we ever
knew it, we have forgotten the name.
" Whate'er our stages may have been," we sigh to
recall our welcome at this particular inn. Ursa
Major dropped our dripping satchels and rugs on the
sloppy sill of the front door and grumbled at the tip
with which we supplemented a double fare. We pla
cated the insatiable monster, who condescended to
growl " Buona sera" as he waddled off into the dark
ness, which instantly devoured him. We had ar
rived unexpectedly at an albergo where few travellers
ever arrive late any evening, particularly on such an
evening of storm and bitter cold, where forestieri
in general are rarities, and " Americani " curiosities
of phenomenal interest. This fact we gathered later

242 PICTURESQUE SICILY
from a conversation our " cameriera " held with our
" cameriere " in our hearing :
" What do they speak, these Americani?" asked the
buxom daughter of Caltanisetta.
" They speak la lingua francesa."
" They are not English, then ?"
" I believe not."
" That is droll ! II signore has yellow hair and
la signora red cheeks like the Inglesa who was here
last year. It is far to this America?"
" Credo. Giacomo did not reach Argentina for
five weeks."
I Signori felt that they indeed were " rare birds in a
strange land."
We did not fare badly at the albergo in Caltanisetta,
when our arrival was made known to " mine host " by
Signor C  , who was a welcome and frequent visitor
at the hotel. The landlord and landlady, the head
waiter and his two assistants, and the cook, made
obeisance to us as we passed through the main hall,
and the " facchino " and the " cameriera " who showed
us to our rooms kissed our hands.
When we had warmed ourselves as best we could
over a pan of glowing charcoal, being nearly suffocated
during the operation, and had seated ourselves at a
table in the dining-room, we forgot our troubles and
curiously made note of all we saw, endeavoring to
translate as much as possible of all we heard. There
was much in the place and all our surroundings to in
terest and amuse us. We seemed to have dropped sud
denly from time present backward through centuries,
to find ourselves, if not in the Middle Ages, at least in
the days long before stage-coaches, when travelling

THE HEART OF SICILY

243

was uncomfortable, if not dangerous, and when trav
ellers were few and far between.
At a large oblong table on one side of the room
there were seated ten or twelve officers belonging to
the regiments quartered in Caltanisetta during the
social disturbances. These military gentlemen were
in full uniform and had their swords by their sides
and wore spurs ; were, in fact, arrayed in the full pano
ply of war, in which Italian officers invariably appear
on or off duty. They were having a merry time of it
over " bottiglie " of Caltanisetta, the very light, very
thin, very sour wine of the country, and " fiaschetti "
of Marsala, a sweeter, heavier, more inspiring beverage
of Sicilians who can afford to pay two or three lire a
bottle for the best of the wines made in Sicily.
At another table was a party of " mercanti," trav
elling salesmen, and sulphur-brokers, who cast admiring
glances at the officers, and were evidently much grati
fied when the military gentlemen recognized them, or
from time to time chatted affably with them across
the full width of the dining-room. After the padrone
himself had spread a clean cloth upon the table at
which we were seated, the head waiter brought in a
large platter containing a mess of " macaroni con pom
idoro." This being disposed of, we were served with
a "risotto" and a " contorno," the latter an immense
sausage, with " fave " (broad beans) and the inevitable
" carciofi " (artichokes), without which no Sicilian dinner
can be properly served. Then there was a dish which
we suspected to be goat's flesh, and we were glad that
by this time our appetites had been appeased that we
could, with grace and politeness, decline to partake of
it, explaining to the padrone that after such delicious

244 PICTURESQUE SICILY
macaroni and such a risotto it was impossible even to
taste of other delicacies. A " dolce " and fruit com
pleted our repast.
After supper, when la signora, pleading fatigue,
had retired to the seclusion of her apartment, one of
the officers approached our companion and suggested
that Signor C  and his friend might find amusement
at " un ballo in maschera," at the Caltanisetta Thea
tre. Notwithstanding the inclemency of the night, of
which we had already had large experience, our desire
to see something of the social life of the better class
of people of a typical Sicilian provincial town in
spired us to set out with our new friends, and, after a
short walk through the cold and wet, we arrived at
the scene of the festivities. We paid one lira apiece
for our tickets, and, having deposited our coats and
hats in the cloak-room, for which privilege we were
charged ten centesimi, we entered the auditorium
and found ourselves in the midst of a crowd of mas-
queraders, whose costumes were not especially re
markable, the larger, part of the assemblage, men and
women, finding sufficient disguise in ordinary do-
minos of cheap, highly colored calicoes.
If the truth must be told, the spectacle was not
highly attractive nor interesting. The music was not
of a quality to please the ear, and the people did not
seem to be inspired with the idea that they had come
to the ball in search of amusement. The dancers
whirled about in a listless, weary sort of way ; there
was little merriment ; people sat in groups and seemed
to be talking of sadder things than dancing and mu
sic, and their present attempt to relieve the mi.sery of
their lives was a pathetic failure. So we found this

THE HEART OF SICILY 245
strange and solemn ballo in maschera to be, and we
were not sorry when Signor C  proposed that we
take our departure from a scene that lives in our mem
ory as a sad and sorrowful spectacle of careworn, hope
less people trying to make merry in spite of troubles
that crush their hearts and embitter their existence.
In the matter of beds we did not fare badly at our
albergo. True it is we did not explore the mysteries
of our " letti," nor venture into the dark corners of
our chamber. But if tourists will insist upon visiting
out-of-the-way places, where the manners and customs
of people who lived two or three hundred years ago
are thought to be good enough for the people of to
day, they must not peep and pry or examine too
closely into arrangements which, no doubt, in the six
teenth century would have entitled the albergo in
Caltanisetta to be considered a first-class house of en
tertainment, supplied with all the conveniences and
comforts of life.

XXVIII
" THE LAND OF DEMETER "
Enna — Castrum Enna — Castrogiovanni — Worship of Ceres
— Pagan Rites — Christian Ceremonies — Lake Pergusa —
" Flowers of Persephone."
The magnificent forests from which the Carthagin
ians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, and Normans obtained
timber for building ships have long since disappeared ;
the coast and interior table-lands and plains of Sicily
have been denuded ; everywhere the felling of trees
has gone on until now less than five per cent, of all
the compass of the island contains timber of any kind,
and only here and there, on the sides of ^tna, are any
pines. As was to be expected, this denudation of the
island has served to increase the dryness of the cli
mate. Nevertheless, the soil of Sicily is generally
fruitful, although one constantly hears the statement
that " fields which in the days of the Greeks returned
one hundred times the amount of seed sown now
yield but sevenfold, and that only one-ninth of all
the land is productive." *
Certainly all the country in the heart of Sicily
through which we passed from Roccapalumbra to Gir-
* Le Vicomte Combes de Lestrade. La Sicile sous la Monarchic
de Savoie, page 15.

" THE LAND OF DEMETER " 247
genti, from Girgenti to Caltanisetta, and from the lat
ter city to Castrogiovanni, is a dreary, treeless waste,
and we found it almost impossible to beheve the tales
told of the fertility of these table -lands during the
days of Greek and Roman dominion, when Sicily was
called the Land of Demeter, the " all - nourishing
mother," the " protectress of husbandmen," and known
as the " Island of Persephone," the goddess of spring
time and flowers.
Castrogiovanni is wonderfully placed on the crest
of a rock more than two thousand six hundred
feet in height, and is so surrounded by unscalable
cliffs and precipices that it forms " one of the most
remarkable natural fortresses in the world." Pliny
described it as inexpugnable, and the Saracens knew
it as " The Key of Sicily." Notwithstanding the fact
that it frequently changed hands during the Punic
Wars, Castrum Ennae was never captured by assault,
being delivered, now to the Romans, now to the
Carthaginians, by treacherous generals who betrayed
their military trusts. The Saracens were unable to
take it for thirty-one years after first laying siege to
it, and the Normans did not finally reduce it "until
they had practically ruled in all other parts of Sicily
for a quarter of a century.
The railway from Caltanisetta approaches Castrogi
ovanni through a country that little resembles the
land described by ancient authors. The dense for
ests, the brooks and lakes that made the " heart of
Sicily " (or, as some classical authors called it, " the
navel of Sicily ") so beautiful in the eyes of the
Greeks and the Romans, have all disappeared ; it is
no longer " a luxuriant garden where the hounds lose

248 PICTURESQUE SICILY
scent of the game amid the fragrance of the myriad
flowers of Persephone." Great bare hills rise every
where like the billows of a vast and troubled sea.
At all the stations we saw trains laden with that
" Gold of Sicily," sulphur, as if to remind one that
this weird land is indeed the very gate of the infernal
kingdom of Pluto. From the station Castrogiovanni-
Calascibetta roads lead in opposite directions to the
two citadel cities, seated, each of them, on its own
mountian-top, Castrogiovanni more than one thou
sand feet above Calascibetta, which confronts it to the
north. Long before we reached the summit of the
Rock of Enna we wished that the chariot of Pluto
had been sent to meet us on the arrival of the train.
Many times we were tempted, owing to the roughness
and muddiness of the road, to trust ourselves in the
rickety, rattling, creaking omnibus, drawn by two
starved horses, which followed closely behind us, over
weighted by our two small portmanteaux and one
very small bag of Royal Mail.
Evidently forestieri do not often make their ap
pearance in Castrogiovanni. We " Americani " were
objects of curiosity to the inhabitants, who boldly
stared, as they grouped themselves around us, when
ever we stopped to take note of any of the few inter
esting sights of their town. Not only did they stare,
they commented audibly and with perfect frankness
on the appearance of the " stranieri "; and the boldest
of them, put forward as fugelmen, asked our Sicilian
guide many questions concerning our identity and
the business that brought us to the town. " Were
I Signori interested in sulphur mines?" "Had
they come to buy cattle?" "Did I Signori wish to

TEMPLE OF CASTOR AND POLLUX. GIRGENTI

"THE LAND OF DEMETER" 249
buy lands ?" " If- I Signori were not English ' mi-
lordi,' were they not those German engineers who
had been employed by the government to fortify Cas
trogiovanni ?" " It would be a happy day for Cas
trogiovanni when that work was begun, for many
people who were dying of hunger could find work to
do on the fortifications."
After we had been thus " buttonholed " in front
of the cathedral (founded in 1307, but of little present
interest), we moved to a neighboring church, before
which we halted to examine the few remaining frag
ments of Sicilian -Gothic architecture. One of our
former interlocutors came running after us and
eagerly inquired if the forestieri were really Ameri
cani. Receiving an answer in the affirmative, he
shouted to his congeners, who, hastening to where we
were standing, gathered around us and listened in
tently while our guide made further answer to innu
merable questions concerning I Signori, who were'
" davvero Americani." " I Signori were from New
York, not, as was supposed, from Buenos Ayres."
"They had not been in Argentina." " I Signori lived
more than a thousand miles from Nuova Orleano."
" New York was more than five thousand miles from
Buenos Ayres." This last bit of information was re
ceived with extreme wonder, not to say incredulity.
"I Signori were not traveUing on business; they had
come to Castrogiovanni on a pleasure trip ; they were
making a 'giro ' in Sicily." " No, I Signori were not
' molto opulenti.' II Signore was a ' scrittore,' a ' gi-
ornalista,' ' un povero diavolo ' who worked for his
bread." This last statement was received with scorn
and derision, for in Castrogiovanni,. as elsewhere in

250 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Sicily, it was perfectly well known to be an indisputa
ble fact that all Americani were molto ricchi — million
aires, in fact.
Although Castrogiovanni is inhabited by more than
fifteen thousand souls, it is a lonely and dismal place.
Wonderful are all the prospects to be had from the
verge of its cliffs, and often all the land about it lies gold
en in sunlight, the mountains robed in marvellous col
ors, but the aspect of the town itself is sad and dreary.
Of all the hundreds of squalid, comfortless houses
there are none fairly describable as the homes of hap
py folk. The people who inhabit the dark dwellings
are woe-begone creatures who shuffle about the nar
row, dirty streets with discontent written in every line
of their careworn faces. Verily, it seems a cruel
mockery even to think of the town as once the abode
of the " Goddess of Plenty." For twenty centuries
Castrogiovanni has been sinking deeper and deeper in
' the " Slough of Despond," and to-day it would seem
as if the town had reached the depths of its misery;
The precincts of the city are horrible places even when
the sun is shining, and there are many dark days in
Castrogiovanni ; for, seated on its mountain-height, it
draws to it the silent awe of mists and clouds and
hides itself in fogs that shut out all sight of the sun
and the green world. Perhaps the hungry folk of Cas
trogiovanni dream of the far-away ancient days when
Ceres filled their storehouses with abundant golden
grain ; they do keep alive, so it is said, the traditions
of Demeter and Persephone, although it is more than
likely they do not remember the names of the ancient
protectresses of pagan Enna.
On the day of the fete of the " Madonna of aU the

"THE LAND OF DEMETER" 251
Graces" her worshippers place before her statue large
sheaves of grain and bunches of wild flowers, and form
processions in her honor, composed of men in long,
white tunics, who carry flowers in their hands, make
offerings of grain and other products of the soil before
the altar* in the churches. Certain writers pretend
that they have discovered in these Christian ceremo
nies traces of the worship of Demeter and Persephone,
although Pitr6, the great authority concerning all that
appertains to the manners and customs of Sicilians, is
not entirely convinced of the soundness of this theory ;
nevertheless, it seems most reasonable to believe that
many of the old pagan rites have been preserved in
their essential forms in Christian ceremonies of to
day. In many of the cities of Sicily the people who
till the soil deck the altars and holy sepulchre with
greenery and deposit flowers at the feet of the cruci
fix, where they offer prayers that the ingathering of
the crops may be successful and the harvest abundant.
In many little towns the " campieri " load their beasts
of burden with sacks of grain, the first-fruits of the
harvest, which are carried to the church, where the
priest in all his noblest vestments gives his blessing
and returns thanks for the harvest. Then the cam
pieri make their donations to the church. During the
harvest time the peasants in certain of the most pros
perous valleys of Sicily " preserve a kind of religious
behavior." No other songs are heard in the fields but
hymns and chants, which always end with the refrain,
" Sia lodatu lu santu sagramentu,
E viva di lu carminu Maria.''
In the morning when the peasants arrive at the

252 PICTURESQUE SICILY
scene of their daily labor the overseer cries aloud
"Viva Maria!" His companions reply to him "Viva
Maria !" and the silence of the morning is broken by
this musical salutation, which is heard arising from
fields ripe for the harvest. The songs and choruses
with which the reapers begin their work long before
sunrise are repeated many times during the day,
whenever the laborers rest for a few moments from
their toil under the blazing sun. In certain parts of
the island the Sicilians have replaced Demeter-Ceres
by St. Anthony of Padua, the day of whose festa
almost coincides with that day which in former times
was sacred to the Goddess of Plenty. Just as Deme
ter is represented in ancient sculpture as holding grain
and flowers, so are statues of St. Anthony decorated
with the first fruits of the harvest and the flowers of
Enna. At Caltagirone on the morning of Easter Day the
Holy Virgin is carried in procession through the
streets of the town and a short distance into the sur
rounding country, where the cloak of the Virgin falls
from her shoulders, permitting the escape of numerous
doves, which take wing and fly in all directions. This
wandering of the Virgin is supposed to represent her
search for her Son, whom she had lost, and it may be
that the ceremony is a reminder of the wanderings of
Demeter in search of the lost Persephone. The more
one studies the mythology of ancient Trinacria, the
more firmly does he become convinced that the early
Christian fathers founded many ceremonies upon the
pagan rites which inspired the devotion of the Greeks
and Romans. We can gain much knowledge from the
writings of classic authors concerning the ritual of the

"THE LAND OF DEMETER" 253
worship of Demeter, and it is safe to say that Chris
tian priests have added little to that ritual, have taken
little from it, and to-day religious ceremonies prac
tised by the farming communities of Sicily are essen
tially the same as they were twenty-five centuries ago,
with the exception that Christian saints have usurped
the honors and dignities of pagan deities. On the first
Sunday of October the grain which is intended to be
sown is taken to the church, where it is blessed by the
priest. The sacks containing this grain must be tied
with a thread *of flax gathered during a year of great
abundance; if this is not done, it is believed the follow
ing harvest will be scant and bad. The Sicilian who
goes to the fields to sow makes the sign of the cross,
and the land when prepared to receive the seed is
blessed by the priest, vvho makes over it the sign of the
cross, and sprinkles holy water upon the harrowed fields.
The origin of all these ceremonies is to be sought for
in the rites observed in the worship of Demeter, whose
most magnificent temples anciently stood on the sum
mit of the mountain of Enna.
We did not visit the shores of Lake Pergusa,
whence Aidoneus (Pluto) carried away Persephone
(Proserpine), and w'hich lies about two miles and a
half to the south of Castrogiovanni. Little remains
to remind the traveller of the former beauty of the
place, and we were loath to dispel the illusion that
it still is worthy of the description the poets give of
it. We prefer to think of it as Ovid paints it: "A
spot at the bottom of a shady vale watered by the
plenteous spray of a stream that falls from wooded
heights ; where nature decks herself in all her varied
hues, where the ground is beauteous, carpeted with

2 54 PICTURESQUE SICILY
flowers of many tints." So we turned back from the
very border of the sacred precinct which Milton de
scribes as : "that fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpine, gathering flowers.
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world.''

XXIX
THE PLAIN OF CATANIA
" L' Usurajo " — A Sicilian Shylock — The Rival Cities — Valley
of the Chrysas — Distant Hill Cities — " Faithless Sperlinga "
— Hercules — St. Philip of Agira — .^Etna — Catania.
Not even our passion for fine landscapes could
overcome our repugnance to the dirt and squalor of
Castrogiovanni, and we determined to continue our
journey to Catania by a train which was advertised to
take its departure about four o'clock in the afternoon.
At the station Castrogiovanni-Calascibetta we waited
two long, dreary hours, and during all that time it
rained in torrents.
A well-to-do-looking old man who was lounging
about the waiting-room, mistaking us for subjects of
Emperor William, addressed us in German, and we
learned that he was a native of Venice, an ex-Aus
trian soldier who had served in Mexico under the
luckless Maximilian. He had enlisted during " the
Regeneration " in the army of Victor Emanuel, and
had entered Rome, in 1870, with Garibaldi. He told
us that the Italian government gives no pension to
ex-Austrian soldiers, but in lieu thereof those Vene
tians who fought under Garibaldi receive a lump sum
of fifteen hundred lire.
With his fifteen hundred lire our old Venetian had

256 PICTURESQUE SICILY
bought land near Castrogiovanni, from which he re
ceived rental. For nine years he had served as a
keeper in the madhouse at Palermo and had managed
to save money, although the salary was not large.
This we could well believe, for he was a shrewd old
fellow and appeared to be well off. Our Sicilian guide
said to us in English : " When a soldo leaves his fin
gers it is after it has been polished " — a formula in
tended to convey the idea that coin did not easily
escape from the grip of the canny, saving old man.
He was the only prosperous-looking and hopeful per
son we had seen that day, and our guide confidently
asserted, "He is a usurer!" That this was the case
was proved when we asked the old chap if he would
not like to return to Venice. " Venice is better than
Castrogiovanni, but I have land and some people owe
me money, and I can get no cash to take away with me."
Undoubtedly he was one of a large class of thrifty
people to be found in all parts of Sicily who make
trifling advances to lessees of small farms to enable
them to buy seed and cultivate the land. The usu-
raji frequently charge forty or fifty per cent, for the
use of the sums they lend to their miserable neigh
bors. The most common transaction of this sort is
the making of a loan, say of sixty lire, on a note or
other writing signed in the presence of two friends of
the lender, the borrower agreeing to pay half a lira a
day until he has paid one hundred lire. From this it
can be readily learned that in Sicily small capitalists
get large returns on their investments. If the bor
rower pays the daily interest agreed upon, in two hun
dred days he will have discharged his debt of sixty
lire and will also have paid forty lire additional to the

.ETNA, FROM HARBOR OF CATANIA

THE PLAIN OF CATANIA 257
usurer, who thus receives sixty-six and two-thirds per
cent, for the use of his money for two months. At
this rate the usurer can treble his original capital in
two years, and it will not be long before he is counted
among the rich men of his town ; while the miserable
contadino, who " pays through the nose," is barely
able to keep the wolf from the door of the ruined
cabin he calls his home. When the usurer and the
tax-gatherer get through with the luckless wight, he
is so stripped and squeezed dry that it would have
been better if he had not attempted to plant or raise
a crop. Indeed, in many instances, it would be better
for him if he had never been born !
Castrogiovanni is eighty -three miles distant from
Palermo and sixty- eight miles from Catania. From
the station Castrogiovanni-Calascibetta the railway de
scends to the east, traversing the plain of Catania to
the Strait of Messina. Shortly after we resumed our
journey the rain ceased and sunlight broke through
the clouds that still hung over the mountains, on the
summits of which stand the two confronting rival
towns. We use the words " rival towns " advisedly,
for it is said that the inhabitants of these two neigh
boring communities cherish resentments inherited
from their ancestors who lived in the days when
rival nations occupied the two citadels, when, for in
stance, the Moors were still in possession of Castrogi
ovanni and the Normans were masters of Calasci
betta. The two cities took different sides during the
civil wars of the fourteenth century, and for ages the
valley which separates them has been the scene of
many a vendetta, the origin of which none of the con
tending parties can clearly elucidate.
17

258 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Beyond Leonforte, a town of ten or twelve thou
sand souls, the railway descends into the valley of the
Dittaino, anciently known as Chrysas, which flows
from the hills about Nicosia. The latter curious town,
situated high in the mountains, is inhabited by a peo
ple who speak a Lombard dialect, which testifies to
their descent from the mercenaries who accompanied
Roger in his first Sicilian campaign. This mention of
the Norman count reminds us that at Rocca di Sarno,
near Nicosia, Serlon, the younger brother of Roger
and Robert Guiscard, died figthing at the head of his
knights. He it was who led the successful charge into
Palermo when the capital of Sicily was stormed and
captured by the all-conquering Normans in the year
1072 A.D.
From Nicosia a road leads to Sperlinga, two thou
sand six hundred feet above the sea, a town that, alone
of all Sicilian towns, sided with the French during the
war of the Sicilian Vespers. For six hundred years
the people of Sperlinga have been taunted with the
saying, " That which pleased all Sicily displeased Sper
linga." Beyond the " faithless town " the road climbs
higher into the mountains to Gangi, the ancient En-
guium, a Phoenician colony, where was the celebrated
temple of the " Matres Magnse," or " The Cretan Moth
ers," said to have been despoiled by Verres. Cicero,
however, tells us that it was the Temple of Cybele that
Verres desecrated, and characterizes this act as one
of the greatest atrocities committed by the praetor.
" He stole six breastplates and helmets of brass of Co
rinthian workmanship, and some huge ewers wrought
with exquisite skill, and had his own name inscribed
upon them. ... He left nothing in that most holy

THE PLAIN OF CATANIA 259
temple except the traces of the religion he had tram
pled on and the name of Publius Scipio, who had
adorned the fane."
Beyond Gangi are two towns, already mentioned
as visible from Cefalu — Petralia di Sopra and Petralia
di Sotto, seated more than three thousand three
hundred feet above the sea, and, beyond them,
Polizzi, founded by the Normans, to which, on ac
count of the lavishness of its inhabitants in the mat
ter of entertaining him, Emperor Frederick II. gave
the title of " La Generosa." From Polizzi, past Cal-
tavuturo, the road winds through the valley of II
Fiume Grande downward to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
This highway over the mountains, from the plain of
Catania to Termini, about sixty-five miles in length,
deserves particular mention, seeing that it was the
favorite route of the Carthaginians, and, after them,
of the Arabs, when these " men of the East " invaded
the fertile lands of eastern Sicily.
Down the valley of the Dittaino the railway con
tinues to the station Assaro-Valguarnera, which takes
its name from two towns, Assaro to the north, Val-
guarnera to the south, equally distant from the line.
Assorus was an old Sicel town, near which, in times
past, large quantities of alabaster were quarried.
Through the territories of Assorum flows the Chrysas,
which Cicero tells us "was regarded as a god whom the
people most reverently worshipped. The Temple of
Chrysas is in the fields near the road which goes from
Assorum to Enna, and in it there is an image of Chry
sas exquisitely made of marble." " Verres did not
dare to beg that statue of the Assorians on account of
the extraordinary sanctity of the temple, so he in-

26o PICTURESQUE SICILY
trusts the business to Tlepolemus and Hiero, who,
having prepared an armed body of men, come by
night and break in the doors of the temple, but the
keepers of the shrine and the guardians hear them in
time, and a trumpet gives the signal of alarm well
known to all the neighborhood, and men flock in from
the country, and nothing was taken from the temple
of Chrysas except one very diminutive image of brass."
Continuing onward towards Catania the train ar
rives at Agira, a town of about seven thousand peo
ple, occupying the ancient site of Agyrium, one. of
the chief settlements of the Siculi, and celebrated as
the place where divine honors were first paid to Her
cules, where Diodorus Siculus was born, and where
St. Philip (who drove out the demons, as the early
Christians called the pagan gods which haunted the
fane of Hercules) established himself. He built a
church to the Madonna on the site of the Temple of
Hercules. In the crypt of Real Batia, a church in the
lower part of the town, is the tomb of St. Philip, sup
posed to contain those remaining portions of his body
that had not already been distributed as relics to other
shrines, and near this church is a cave once occupied
as a cell by the hermit-apostle.
To the east of Agira is Catenanuova, the station for
Centuripe, formerly called Centorbi, an ancient hill city
of the Sicels. The great rock on which the city stands
rises abruptly from the plain, five miles to the north
of the railway, but the houses of Centuripe do not
stand upon a table or plateau, as they seem to do when
the traveUer beholds the town from the window of the
train, but are placed on a group of peaks and ridges
formed by deep ravines and gorges in the rock. The

THE PLAIN OF CATANIA 261
distant city was transfigured by sunset, its white
houses, suffused with the pink glow of the clouds, pre
sented a charming contrast to the rich copper color of
the rock, and, far beyond the city, towering ten thou
sand feet to heaven, stood .(Etna, the snows upon its
peak glistening white, while lower down they reflected
the ruddy and golden hues of the sky. High above
the plain on the slopes of " the pillar of heaven, the
nourisher of snow," we could see other golden cities
— Adern6, ancient Hadranum, the city of the " Fire
God," and Patern6, the Sicel town of Hybla Minor,
overlooking the valley of the Simetus and many other
villages and hamlets — glowing in all the tints of ame
thyst, onyx, and opal. It was a spectacle of unearthly
splendor, one that will never fade from memory. The
" Mountain of Mountains " dominated all space — in
truth, it seemed to stand between earth and heaven,
like Atlas holding the upper and lower worlds apart.
" Full half the height of heaven's blue
That monstrous shadow overflew.''
All day long, from far to the westward of Castro
giovanni, where we first caught sight of it, we had
beheld the wonderful pyramid, snow-capped, uplifted
so grandly above the earth, and we realized that, were
there nothing else wonderful to see in all Sicily, the
sight of .iEtna was nobler, more inspiring, than the
view of all the other mountains the traveller may
behold in years of wandering.

XXX
CATANIA
" Under .iEtna " — La Via Lincoln — " II Duomo " — Tomb of Bel
lini—Elephant of Heliodorus — Feast of Sant' Agata —
" The World that is Never at Rest."
The situation of Catania at the northern base of
the great volcano suggested to its Greek founders an
appropriate name for their city. Kara A'ltvtj^, con
tracted to Katana, signifies " Under .Eltna," and the
modern name, Catania, preserves the sound and sense
of the old appellation. There is reason to believe that
fourteen hundred years before the beginning of the
Christian era there was a Sicel settlement on the site
afterwards occupied by the Greek city, which was
founded in the year 729 B.C. Be that as it may, Ka
tana (or, as it is more commonly spelled by Greek au
thors, Katane), rapidly increased in size and importance,
and for a time disputed with Syracuse for the primacy
of the Siceliot cities. A century after its foundation
the games held at Katane attracted to its palaestra the
most celebrated of Greek athletes; Charondas gave
his laws to the commune ; Stesichorus, born at Hime
ra, but a citizen of Katane, recited his verses in the
theatre ; scientific men came from Syracuse to study
the phenomena of ^tna ; Andronas charmed the mul
titude with his flute-playing and taught the art of pan-

CATANIA 263
tomime and dancing to music. The history of Ka
tane during the days of Grecian rule in Trinacria is
for the most part a story of wars waged against the
Syracusans, who attempted to bring the smaller city
in subjection under them. Katane was never held
by the Carthaginians, but, in time, the all-conquering
Romans governed there. Then, in the fulness of
time, came the Saracens, who were in turn driven
away by the Normans, when Benal-Themanh, Emir
of Catania, betrayed his countrymen and gave aid and
comfort to Count Roger during his first Sicilian expe
dition. The age of the Normans was a grand and
splendid epoch in the history of Catania; King Roger
built there a noble cathedral and brought back from
Constantinople the relics of Sant' Agata, the protec
tress of the city, which had been carried away by
George Maniaces. Nevertheless, there is little to in
terest the traveller in the city. True, there are to be
seen in Catania the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre
and of a Greek theatre ; slight remains of baths, of a
necropolis, of a nymphaeum, an aqueduct, wells, a
forum, a curia, a gymnasium, etc.; but our explora
tions of these antiquities satisfied us that little was to
be gained by visiting excavations deep down under
the lava that covers the wreck of ancient Katane.
During our stay in the city we found exceUent ac
commodation at the Hotel Grande Bretagne, situated
on La Via Lincoln, the principal street of the city, called
after the late President of the United States. This
street, like La Via Lincoln in Palermo and other Si
cilian cities, was named by the Marquis di Rudini,
now (i89'7) Prime-minister of King Humbert, a states
man who not alone in the honor he has paid to the

264 picturesque SICILY
Great Emancipator, but in many other ways, has de
monstrated his feelings of friendliness for the United
States. The Cathedral of Sant' Agata, built by King Roger
in 1091 A.D., was badly wrecked by the earthquake of
1169, and in 1693 the remains of the original buUding
were thrown down by the trembling of the earth. In
the uninteresting modern edifice are the monuments
of certain of the kings of Sicily, and other miscellane
ous royalties too numerous to mention. In the apse
is a chapel sacred to Sant' Agata, where is a beautiful
altar containing the relics of that saint. A silver-gilt
statue, covered with precious stones, contains the head
of the holy martyr. The crown on the head of this
image is said to be the gift of Richard Coeur de
Lion, who passed through Catania on his way to
the Holy Land ; and on the finger of the saint is a
ring, the present of the Queen of Italy, Margarita di
Savoia, who visited Catania in 1882. But more inter
esting than the tombs of dead and forgotten kings or
the relics of saints is the monument erected, against
the second pillar to the right of the nave as you enter
the edifice, in memory of Vincenzo Bellini, the great
composer, author of many well -known operas. Be
neath a simple round arch is placed the sarcophagus
containing the ashes of the gentle musician. Above
this is a bas-relief of two angels bearing the soul of
the artist to paradise. At the head of the sarcophagus
stands the genius of rnusic, her lyre, with broken
strings, lying at her feet. On the front of the sarcoph
agus, instead of the customary lettered epitaph, are
carved the first bars of the charming aria by the
maestro :

CATANIA 265
"Ah! non credea mirarti,
Si presto estinto fiore."
BeUini, a native of Catania, died in Paris in 1876;
ten years later his remains were carefully exhumed
from a grave in Pfere Lachaise and transported to Ca
tania, where they were re-entombed in the cathedral. A
tablet marks the house in which Bellini was born, and
in La Piazza Stesicoro there stands a statue of him sur
rounded by allegorical figures of his four great operas,
"Norma," "II Pirata," "La Sonnambula," and "I Puri-
tani." A theatre, one of the finest in Italy, a public
square, a villa enclosed in a beautiful garden, all bear
his name. The Catanians, like other Sicilians (notably
the Palermitans), are passionately fond of music, and
therefore cherish the memory of their great fellow-
citizen, as well as that of Pacini, whose works are now
little known, in honor of whom, however, a prominent
promenade of Catania has been named and a monu
ment installed in one of the city squares.
In the middle of La Piazza del Duomo is the "Foun
tain of the Elephant," a large marble basin, in the
centre of which stands a pedestal carved with repre
sentations of the river -gods Simeto and Amenano.
Surmounting the pedestal is an elephant of lava, and
on the back of the elephant stands an obelisk of si
enite, with tusks of white marble. Certain local guides
assert that the elephant is of prodigious antiquity, pre
tending that it was carved, by whom they do not state,
years before the beginning of the Trojan War. It is
of much later origin, and may be confidently attributed
to Heliodorus, the magician, so called, who, when con
demned to death by Constantine V., fled from Byzan-

266 picturesque sicily
tium through the air to Catania (as Daedalus flew
from Crete to Sicania). HeUodorus " turned Jew,
practised black art, and became a manufacturer of
idols," to the great scandal of the Church and Bishop
Leo, of Catania, himself a worker of wonders, and
therefore surnamed Thaumaturgus. Heliodorus was
laid by the heels by Bishop Leo and burned for her
esy, either by being thrown into the crater of .(Etna
or in a furnace especially built for his cremation.
Of the Egyptian obelisk so strangely placed on the
back of the lava elephant. Freeman surmises " that
Agathocles had an Egyptian wife, Theoxena, who, it
has been guessed, was the step-daughter of the first
Ptolemy. Agathocles may have received an obelisk
as part of her dowry, and he may have set it up at
Catania. At any rate, the work of the Egyptian is
there, mounted on what passes for the work of the
convert to the creed of the Hebrew."
Although Catania is not as interesting nor as grand
a city as Palermo, it is, nevertheless, a bright and busy
place, modern in all its aspects, at least so far as its
streets and buildings are concerned. But it is just in
Catania that old manners and customs are most strict
ly preserved. The inhabitants, and not the most ig
norant of them, are devoted to the worship of Sant'
Agata, as we discovered on the day after our arrival
in the city, the first day of the festa of the martyr-
saint. In the evening the city was briUiantly iUumi
nated, and a vast torchlight procession, composed of
all classes of citizens, clerics and laymen, bearing the
silver statue of the protectress of the city, advanced
along the streets from church to church. About nine
o'clock La Via Lincoln was almost as bright as it had

CATANIA 267
been at sunset, thousands upon thousands of candles
were lighted, every window was illuminated, from all
the balconies there flared countless torches, and on the
roofs of the houses bengal-lights of all colors were
burning fiercely, while the street, from curb to curb,
blazed like a river of molten lava. Fireworks were
"let off " in all the public squares and in front of the
churches, bells were ringing incessantly, cannon were
fired, and the spectators of all this glory kept up a
mighty shouting, yelling, and whistling that defy
description. After a long wait the people in the mid
dle of the street made way for the procession, which
advanced at a snail's pace. Leading the pageant
there came several hundred citizens, robed in white
(or, to be more exact, wearing what looked like white
night-gowns), all bearing candles in their hands. Be
hind these there was borne the image of Sant' Agata
on its pedestal, the latter, with the statue, weighing
several tons. This enormous weight was carried for
ward no more than ten yards at a time, although
borne aloft by three hundred or more bearers, all sorts
and conditions' of men, who placed their shoulders be
neath two enormous beam.s, fifty or sixty feet in
length, fastened to the sides of the pedestal. Not
m.ore than thirty feet were the three hundred men
able to carry the shrine and image without stopping
to rest, and when they were utterly exhausted their
places were taken by other bearers, who marched be
fore and behind the statue. For one whole day these
white-robed citizens, of whom there must have been
many hundreds, had been engaged in the great labor
of carrying the saint from church to church, and for
two days longer was the strange procession to find its

268 picturesque SICILY
way about the streets, until all the principal churches
in the city had been visited by the simulacrum of the
saint. By the courtesy of Professor Annibale Ricco, As
tronomer Royal of the University of Catania, we were
enabled to visit one of the most interesting sights of
the city — ^namely, the Astronomical Observatory, and
the " Terrestrial and Vulcanological Laboratory " con
nected with that institution. Professor Ricco invited
us to visit the vaults, in which are to be seen geo-
dynamic apparatus, instruments of precision which,
during every second of time, record with marvellous
accuracy the condition of the earth's stability or
instability. In the neighborhood of such a disturbing
element as Mount .iEtna the earth frequently trembles
and is much disturbed.
When we had descended into the bowels of the
earth, and stood in darkness while Professor Ricco
was preparing to illuminate his subterranean work
shop, we were unable to prevent our imagination from
playing tricks upon our reason. We should not
have been surprised had our " guide, philosopher, and
friend " who had conducted us " ad inferos," as the
Cumean Sybil led faltering .iEneas down into the
kingdom of mighty Dis, suddenly turned to us apd
said, " Permit me to present you to my friend En-
celadus, the owner of these sub-^tnean premises."
Indeed, we should not have wondered greatly had he
proposed to usher us into the smithy of Vulcan him
self. When the door which shut out the upper world
had been closed, we were awed by the silence, the
utter stillness of the place, the listening blackness.
When lamps were lighted we discovered, in one of

CATANIA 269
a series of cave-like chambers (vaults that might have
served for dungeons of' the Inqui.sition), a weU which,
for aught we knew, dropped down to the realms of
Aidoneus. Suspended in this pit were pendulums,
and around it, on circular stone tables securely found
ed upon and in the native rock, were curious appara
tus, more delicate in structure than the tiniest chro
nometer, all protected from the dustless, dead, calm
air of the vaults by inverted glass globes and cases.
So dainty were some of these instruments, so exactly
and precisely adjusted were all their parts, that it had
been possible to give them the necessary firm and
immobile resting-place only by penetrating the strata
of rock downward for one hundred feet, until absolute
bed-rock had been reached. These little dials, record
ing-machines, pendulums, gauges, were mounted on
a foundation as deeply laid and firmly built as the
foundations of the piers of Brooklyn Bridge.
On one rock - table are eight of the most deUcate
seismographs of different systems; they record the
faintest tremor of the earth occasioned by internal
natural forces. So sensitive are some of these instru
ments that the heat of the body of an observer
standing near them will cause the steel of which they
are made to expand and thus disturb their nice ad
justment. These seismographs are connected on an
electrical circuit, which, being made or broken, sets in
motion other instruments to record, on blackened pa
per prepared for the purpose, the duration, force, and
direction of the oscillations of the earth. Of the
eight seismographs we shall describe that one which
seemed to us most curious : around a framework of
brass, resembling a table-caster without bottles, was a

270 picturesque SICILY
row of needles, small rods of steel, balanced so exactly
on end that a shock a thousand times imperceptible
(if we may use the term) to the most sensitive of
human nerves will cause the needles to fall outward
from the brass form, to be caught by a wire, and thus
establish an electrical circuit. The electricity sets in
motion a delicate machine which carries a sheet of
paper ruled in minute squares, under the point of a
suspended needle ; the latter, by its swaying, measures
the horizontal dimensions and direction of the im
pulse, and a clock-work arrangement records the dura
tion of the seismic disturbance.
In one corner of the chamber is a pendulum seismo
graph of almost infinite precision and accuracy, that,
surprising to relate, renders appreciable to the human
vision (by means of microscopic lenses of high power)
the slightest seismic disturbances. When Professor
Ricco had illuminated the interior of a perpendicular
tube, into which we looked through the eye-piece of a
microscope of great power, we saw, reflected in a tiny
mirror, a field of white light, across which there fell
what appeared to be the semi-transparent shadow of
the filmiest spider-web. This shadow was oscillating
synchronously with the beating of our hearts, which,
owing to the excitement under which we labored, as
we gazed at the marvellous spectacle, seemed to
thump against our ribs. The shadow moved back
and forth at right angles to its length, in a slightly
wavering, fluttering line, oscillating through a space
equal to from ten to twenty times its diameter, in di
rections which, had we been looking at a map, would
have given us northeast and southwest. We have to
confess that we were strangely moved, awe-stricken, as

CATANIA 271
we peered into the microscope, and beheld on a little
white diagram the almost imperceptible tell-tale film,
which was set in motion and kept swinging to and fro
by the trembling of the earth on which we live, move,
and have our being. It was almost impossible to real
ize that we beheld an earthquake, and we turned to
Professor Ricco and expressed our astonishment. He
smiled and said, " The earth is never at rest ; it always
trembles." He then explained that the seismic waves, the effect
of which we beheld in the microscope, were produced
from northeast to southwest, and that the oscillations
measured the five - thousandth part of an inch. Our
heart-beats recorded the duration of an oscillation.
What food for imagination and wonder in the fact
" The earth is never at rest ; it always trembles !"

XXXI
^TNA
Homer, Virgil, Dante — Ascent to Nicolosi — Monti Rossi —
Eruption of i886 — "I Santarelli " — Veil of Sant' Agata.
It has been said that Vesuvius compared to ^Etna
is " a mere pocket volcano, for which space might be
found upon the flank of the greater mountain." Seen
from the mole enclosing the harbor of Catania, .iEtna,
ten thousand eight hundred feet in height, lifts itself
in the foreground ; its slopes begin in the streets of
the city; its dome, limned against the northern sky,
dominates land and sea.
Strange it is that Homer, who lays the scene of one
of the adventures of Odysseus at its eastern base,
does not refer to the volcanic nature of the " Moun
tain of the Cyclops." Virgil gives a graphic descrip
tion of the volcano, "vomiting in the air frightful
clouds of smoke, of bitumen, burning cinders, and
balls of fire, which fly as high as to the stars " ; and
Ovid describes Typhoeus (other writers maintain that
it was Enceladus), " who lies imprisoned deep down
beneath the vast island of Trinacria, his right hand
placed under Pelorus, his left hand beneath Pachynus,
his legs pressed down by Lilybaeum, while .iEtna bears
down his head." Thus imprisoned the Titan " vom
its flame from his raging mouth, struggling to throw

' A PASSION flower "

^TNA 273
off the earth, and to roll away cities and huge moun
tains from off" his body." When the monster thus be
stirs himself " the earth trembles, the King of the
Shades is himself in dread lest it may be opened, the
ground be parted with a wide chasm, and the day let
in to affright the trembling ghosts."
It was Dante who first thought to destroy the pop
ular belief in the supernatural nature of the phenom
ena of Mount ^tna, asserting that burning sulphur,
not the struggles of a vast immortal, caused the con
vulsions of the mountain :
"E la bella Trinacria, che caliga
Tra Pachino e Peloro, sopra '1 golfo
Che riceve da Euro maggior briga,
Non per Tifeo, ma per nascente solfo."
The earliest account of an eruption of Mount .iEt
na is given by Pindar, who describes the catastrophe
of 476 B.C., and we have the stories of more than
eighty eruptions which have taken place since Pindar's
day, down to the .year 1892, when the volcano last
threatened to destroy certain of the towns lying on
its sides and at its feet. The Greeks named the vol
cano A'lTvri, "The Burning Mountain"; the Saracens
called it Gibel-Huthmet, Hunthamet, or Djebel Nar,
" The Mountain of Fire." The Nornians knew it by
the name Monte Gibello, repeating the word for
mountain in Latin and Arabic, ultimately softened
and contracted to Mongibello. Catanians and other
SicUians who live within sight of ^tna ordinarily
speak of it as " La Montagna."
Early in the morning of a June-like day in Febru
ary we left our albergo in La Via Lincoln, turned

274 PICTURESQUE SICILY
into La Strada Stesicoro Etnea, and there before us,
in the north, stood .iEtna, closing the vista formed
by the row of buildings on each side of the thor
oughfare. From the end of the strada we ascended
through orange and olive groves, orchards, and gar
dens, crossing La Regione Piedemontana, the lowest
of the three zones that girdle Mongibello, a won
derfully fertile district, not surpassed in luxuriance
even by II Conco d' Oro of Palermo. The fecun
dity of the soil is due to the disintegration of lava,
which, having overflowed the land many centuries ago,
has been turned to dust, and now enriches the earth,
compensating in some measure for the misery occa
sioned to forgotten generations of mankind. We
passed many villas, the country-seats of the Catanian
gentry, charming spots in which to spend the hot
weather in the midst of gardens, in a delightful coun
try overlooking the city, with grand views of the sea
and plain. As we mount higher and higher the pano
rama increased in grandeur and interest, the air be
came more exhilarating ; the breezes, nevertheless,
were soft and balmy, bringing with them the freshness
of the sea, the odor of almond blossoms. From
Torre del Grifo, a pleasant hamlet seated nearly
one thousand eight hundred feet above sea-level, at
the lower edge of "la regione boschiva," the wood
ed belt, the middle zone of .iEtna, we traverse the
burned and barren surface of the lava streams of 1537,
and see, to the right of us, the stream of 1408, and to
the left the great river of 1669. A most desolate-look
ing country, black and fire-worn, stripped of greenery,
except patches of genesta .iEtnensis and of cacti here
and there, showing their weird, distorted shapes against

^TNA 275
the masses of lava. The genesta (broom-brush), which
is indigenous to the forest belt, is the first plant to
grow upon the lava beds, but it does not make its
appearance until many centuries after volcanic erup
tions have taken place, not until the lava has been
slowly disintegrated and mixed with the dust of vege
table mould deposited by the winds. A district cov
ered by a lava flow is lost to agriculture for not less
than three centuries. The road winds wearily across
these burned places, and long before Nicolosi was
reached we tired of the sight of the dreary waste
land, the stunted plants, and were tormented, more
over, by dense clouds of dust that rose upon every
breeze, eddying and circling along the mountain-side.
About two hours after our departure from Catania
we arrived at the town of Nicolosi, a small village with
two thousand seven hundred inhabitants, lying two
thousand three hundred feet above the level of the
sea. All its houses are of one story and lightly con
structed, many of them with wooden roofs, for the
men who build them live in constant dread of earth
quakes, fearing to erect substantial walls that may be
thrown down at any time, to crush out the lives of
their wives and little ones. Nicolosi boasts of two
hotels, but we saw no dwelling in which we should
care to pass a night. There is nothing to interest one
in the place. The town owes its local celebrity to
the fact that travellers make it their point of depart
ure when starting on excursions to the summit of
^tna. It stands in the channel down which burning
torrents have flowed from the heights towards Ca
tania, has often been destroyed by earthquakes, and
from time to time partly buried under streams of lava.

276 PICTURESQUE SICILY
In the one public room of the Hotel dell' ^tna,
while awaiting a guide for whom a message had been
sent to conduct us to Monti Rossi, we amused our
selves by looking over the pages of the old registers,
in which are recorded the names of many travellers
who have made the ascent to the summit during the
past sixty years. In the first volume of the series, on
one of the first pages, we found a name that is always
mentioned with reverence by Italians, who know by
heart the story of the " Regeneration " of their native
land, a name dear to liberty -loving people all the
world over — W. E. Gladstone. The signature was
penned in 1838, when the writer, then in the full vigor
of youth, doubtless looked upon the ascent of ^tna
as a pleasant jaunt to be taken merrily by a stal
wart climber, sound in body and possessed of a
steady head. Of all the many accounts we have
read of the ascent to the summit of the volcano,
Mr. Gladstone's is by far the most graphic and inter
esting. Upon the arrival of our guide, a good-natured fel
low, Carmelo by name, we proceeded along the main
street of Nicolosi for two or three hundred yards, and
came to the treeless, houseless mountain -side. A
strong breeze raised dense clouds of pulverized lava,
which pricked our faces and almost blinded us as we
made our way across heaps of ashes and scoriae, in
which we sank ankle - deep at every step. All the
Country is one vast ash-pit. There is hardly a square
yard of grass growing anywhere within a half-mile of
the town, and only a few bushes of genesta, and per
haps a dozen stunted trees tossing their misshapen
branches in the air.

iETNA 277
The twin cones of Monti Rossi are more than one
thousand feet in height, and consist of fine cinders,
such as are drawn from the fire-boxes of locomotive
engines. With little aid from imagination one may
readily fancy that these " montagnuoli " are the ash-
heaps of Vulcan's smithy. From the top of Monti
Rossi a truly stupendous panorama is to be obtained.
Far above towers the summit of .iEtna, rising from
" la regione deserta," the highest of the three ^t-
nean zones, seemingly as lofty as it appeared to us at
Catania, although we had ascended more than one-
quarter of the distance from base to summit. Below,
at the foot of the mountain, lies Catania, between the
sea and the vast plain ; beyond the latter, miles and
miles away, rises a blue line of hUls, a spur of the cen
tral mountains of Sicily projected southwesterly tow
ards Cape Pachynus. From the base of .iEtna the east
ern shore of. Sicily extends southward in a succession of
curving beaches to where, almost beyond sight, a long
neck of lowland stretches into the Ionian Sea, and in
the misty distance we behold the mirage of the hills
of Hybla, between which and the sea lies the ancient
city of Syracuse.
To the east of Monti Rossi the lava flow of 1669
can be traced from far up the side of .iEtna down the
slope to Catania, an elongated, irregular claw, which
grasps the earth like the tentacle of an unimaginably
huge polypus. The dead and lustreless lava is, how
ever, margined round by intensely green plantations
that were not overwhelmed by the stream of liquid
fire. Beyond the stream of 1669 we can trace the
flow of 1886 from its source, the crater of Monte
GemeUaro, four thousand seven hundred feet above

278 PICTURESQUE SICILY
the level of the sea, down to Gli Altarelli di Nicolosi,
a distance of about four miles.
Shortly before noon of May 18, 1886, an immense
column of smoke, followed by cinders and stones, was
ejected from the crater at the summit of ^tna. On
the morning of the 19th severe shocks of earthquake
were felt, and about four miles above Nicolosi a
new crater was formed in the mountain - side, from
which arose condensing vapors, flames, and incandes
cent stones. From the base of this crater there flowed
a mass of lava four hundred feet in width, which de
scended in the direction of Nicolosi with an initial
velocity of fifty or sixty yards per hour. The heav
ens were obscured by clouds of smoke, the sun was
turned to blood. The people of Catania, and of all
the cities on the south side of .iEtna, were driven fran
tic with terror, and in all the churches services con
tinued without interruption night and day. Thou
sands of people formed processions, headed by priests
who bore the sacred relics of St. Anthony of Padua
and San Antonio " I Santarelli," " The Little Saints
of Nicolosi." These patron saints of the country-side
are the Christian successors of Emantius and Criton,
or Amphinomus and Anapius, " The Pious Brethren,"
of whom the legend is told (by Pausanius, Strabo,
Claudian, Ausonius, and others) how, during an erup
tion, they carried off their father and mother on their
backs, and how the lava torrents turned aside at the
"Pious Field" to leave them unhurt. The relics of
I Santarelli were placed in " Gh AltareUi di Nicolosi,"
a small chapel on the mountain-side, a few rods above
the town, and the lava, which during the first days
of the eruption travelled at the rate of fifty or sixty

/ETNA 279
yards an hour, decreased its rate of daily advance to
twenty, to ten, to five, to two yards per hour. The
flow of the molten mass was nevertheless irresistible ;
where in the morning had been green fields and vine
yards, or plantations of " fichi d' India," at noon or in
the evening were masses of smoking, semi-liquid lava,
the flow of which no power at command of mankind
could arrest.
I Santarelli having been able to accomplish nothing
against the lava which constantly advanced ("avendo
fatto fiasco contro la lava che incalzava sempre "), the
people of Nicolosi in their desperation sent messengers
to Catania to beseech the archbishop to ascend the
mountain and "exhibit" the veil of Sant' Agata ("il
solo talismano che poteva salvare Nicolosi da ulteriore
rovina "), the only talisman that could save Nicolosi
from utter ruin. The archbishop, consenting to make
the experiment, travelled up the mountain in his state
carriage drawn by two white horses, taking with him
two priests who bore a reliquary containing the rem
nant of the veil of the virgin Agatha, the holy Chris
tian martyr. It was hoped that the white linen frag
ment preserved in the ark of the saint in the cathedral
of Catania would reproduce the miracle of 1669.
Reaching Nicolosi, the archbishop, attended by his
priests, and followed at a distance by a crowd of hys
terical people, advanced to Gli Altarelli, bearing the
sacred veil. On the 24th of May, six days after the
beginning of the eruption, the lava, advancing at the
rate of about four hundred yards a day, threatened to
overwhelm the chapel ; on the 27th of May it almost
touched the walls of Gli Altarelli. After the exhibi
tion of the veil, and, as the people of Nicolosi beheve.

28o PICTURESQUE SICILY
as a result of the exhibition, the stream of lava divid
ed, one branch precipitating itself into a valley to the
east, the other, continuing down the side of .iEtna to
the west of Gli AltareUi, advanced in a direct line to
Nicolosi. Then, although the images of I Santarelli
were exposed from the roofs of the churches in Nico
losi, although the veil of Sant' Agata had been daily
borne in procession in front of the advancing lava ;
although in the churches prayers and petitions were
ceaselessly offered up, the people, losing faith in the
virtue of the veil of Sant' Agata, and in the power of
St. Anthony and San Antonio, abandoned all hope.
On the 31st of May the order was given to aban
don Nicolosi ; a cordon of troops was formed to pre
vent the inhabitants who had already deserted their
houses from returning to save what little property
they had left behind. The town had been stripped
of everything of any value, even of its window-frames
and the floors of the houses. At the moment of
greatest terror the frenzied multitudes took heart of
grace, for on the morning of the 2d of June the great
crater at the summit of .iEtna ceased to emit smoke
and cinders, and there was to be seen rising into the
clear SicUian sky the light pennant of steam which
usually hovers over the mountain-top when the vol
cano " banks " its fires. The lava had ceased flowing
from Monte GemeUaro. It had stopped within three
hundred and thirty yards of Nicolosi ; it stood in a
wall thirty feet high around Gli Altarelli. It is need
less to say that the people of Nicolosi, the majority
of the people of Catania, and, in fact, of Sicily at
large, believe that the flow of lava was arrested by
¦the miraculous intervention of Sant' Agata.

FOUNTAIN OF ARETHUSA. SYRACUSE

.ETNA 281
If the Sicilians are a superstitious people the rea
son for their creduhty is not far to seek. According to
a census taken in 1880, 85.72 per cent, of the people
of the province of Catania are " analfabeti "* — that
is to say, of the 563,457 inhabitants, 482,983 are not
only unable to read, but it is doubtful if any of them
know one letter from another. These figures speak
for themselves. " Sicily is not of to-day !" The man
ners and customs of the mass of the people are me
diaeval, their ignorance is that of the " dark ages," the
ages of superstition.
We did not ascend higher upon /Etna than to the
town of Nicolosi. The ascent of the mountain is never
made in winter-time ; indeed, we were informed that
it is impossible to reach the summit of the volcano
until after the middle of May, and sometimes not
until early in July. The snow which covers the upper
heights of the mountain is rarely frozen hard enough
to afford secure footing for pedestrians, and during
the early spring months the upper part of the moun
tain is covered with melting snows, through which it
would be impossible for even the most thoroughly
trained alpinist to make his way.
As the view from the summit of ^tna is one of
the most magnificent prospects to be obtained any
where in all the world, it was with great regret we
learned of the impossibility of making the ascent
when "la regione deserta" lies buried beneath vast
banks and fields of snow. We felt that in some meas
ure our Sicilian experiences must remain incomplete,
the window in Aladdin's tower unfinished, until, at a
* Chiesi. Sicilia, p. 386.

282 PICTURESQUE SICILY
more convenient season, we should return to Nicolosi,
thence to climb to the summit of MongibeUo (" the
Mountain of Mountains ") and behold
" The charr'd, blacken'd, melancholy waste.
Crowned by the awful peak, /Sltna's great mouth.
Round which the sullen vapour rolls."*
* Matthew Arnold.

XXXII
SYRACUSE
"Fields of the Lsestrygones" — Lago di Lentini — Leontinoi —
Augusta—" The Town of Honey "—Promontory of Thap
sus — First Impressions of Syracuse.
From Catania the railway to Syracuse, leaving the
sea-shore, runs inland to Biocca, traversing the Piano
di Catania ("The Fields of the Laestrygones "), the
anthropophagi, who, led on by their king, Antiphas,
attacked Ulysses and his companions. The whole
extent of this plain of Catania, also known as the
Plain of Lentini, which Cicero tells us was " the most
fertile part of Sicily," is to-day rich and productive,
yielding abundant harvests. On the southern border
of the Piano di Catania the train reaches the shore of 11
Lago di Lentini, one of the " three wonders of Sicily "
("le tre meraviglie di Sicilia"), which, according to a
local saying, are " un monte, un ponte, ed un fonte "
— that is to say, Mount .iEtna, the Bridge of Daedalus,
and the Lake of Lentini, which, during the winter
rains, has a circumference of about thirteen miles,
shrinking to half that size in summer. It did not
exist in ancient times, and it is to be hoped that at
no distant day the marshy, unwholesome slough will
be drained of its stagnant waters, which breed in
fection.

284 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Eighteen miles from Catania we pass the town of
Lentini, which stands on the site of Leontinoi, said to
have been the capital city of Laestrygones, and in
habited by SicuU long before the coming of the Hel
lenes. Leontinoi was the birthplace of Gorgias the
orator, the master of Alcibiades, but in the time of
the Romans it had lost its importance and was, as
Cicero tells us, " most miserable and lifeless." It fell
into the hands of the Saracens in 847 A.D. In the
Middle Ages it was often besieged, and finally was
utterly destroyed by the earthquake in 1693.
From the shores of II Lago di Lentini the railway
approaches the sea-coast and passes Augusta, built in
1229 A.D. by the Emperor Frederick II. , who peo
pled it from Centuripe, which " The Wonder qf the
World " razed to the ground to punish its inhabitants
for their sedition. In 1286 William I'Estendard, one
of the barons of Charles of Anjou, sacked the town,
butchered its inhabitants, leaving not a living soul in
the place, which for years remained desolate. During
the War of the Vespers Augusta was taken and re
taken by the contending armies, and in 1360, during
the civil wars of the fourteenth century, it was demol
ished bythe people of Catania and Syracuse. In 155 1
it was burned by the Turks, and was finally utterly
destroyed by the earthquake of 1639, when more than
one-third of its iphabitants were buried beneath the
ruins of their dwellings. At sea, in front of it, in
1676, Duquesne, the admiral of Louis XIV., defeated
the Dutch fleet commanded by De Ruyter, who died
of his wounds in the Castle of Syracuse, and since
that time the town of Augusta has been of no im
portance to the world at large. The railway also

SYRACUSE 285
passes the almost undiscoverable ruins of Megara-
Hyblaea, famed for its honey, which rivalled that of
Hymettus in aromatic flavor. In the midst of a wide
plain, between the mountain and the sea, near Priolo,
we beheld a ruined monument, supposed to be the
trophy erected by Marcellus to commemorate his
capture of Syracuse in the year 212 B.C. From Priolo
onward the railway skirts the Bay of Trogilus, where
the fleet of Marcellus lay during the siege of Syra
cuse, crosses the rounded top of the peninsula of
Magnisi (the ancient promontory of Thapsus), and, at
fifty-four miles from Catania, reaches Syracuse, or, as
the name is spelled by Sicilian cartographers, Siracusa.
As we stood on the platform of a newly erected
railway station and beheld the commonplace modern
town, it was difficult to realize that we had actually
arrived at a city which, in ages past, rivalled Athens
and Rome in size, in wealth, and in population. We
were not impressed by the antiquity of anything we saw,
nor did Syracuse in any way resemble any of the other
Sicilian cities we had visited. It was not a hill city,
like Mpnte San Giuliano, Girgenti, or Castrogiovanni ;
it was not a city lying at the base of a mountain, like
Catania or Trapani, nor at the foot of cliffs, like Ce
falii, nor on the margin of a vast and beautiful plain,
like Palermo. The silver-gray city stands upon what
is now a peninsula, once an island and formerly called
Ortygia (" Quail Island "), surrounded by the deep-
blue water of its two harbors. Syracuse has no acrop
olis, no long range of temples, no dome and spires,
no towers and minarets. As seen from a distance it
exhibits no architectural relics of Greek, Roman, Sara
cen, or Norman times. It does not lie in the midst

286 PICTURESQUE SICILY
of grand and imposing scenery ; low, encircling hills
cut off all view of the inland.
Undoubtedly the first impression of Syracuse is dis
appointing, as is the first view of Rome when the
traveller arrives at " The Eternal City " and gains his
first idea of it from the piazza in front of the railway
station. Nevertheless, it is impossible to behold Syra
cuse unmoved ; it interests one strangely, appeals to
the imagination, and awakens " Memory with all her
busy train."
We behold Ortygia, and know it to be the site of
the city founded by Archias near the fountain of
Arethusa more than twenty-six centuries ago. We
behold the harbor where the great sea-fight took
place, when Greek met Greek in the tug -of -war so
marvellously described by Thucydides ; we recall the
names of Gelon, of Hieron, of Dionysius, of Dion, of
Timoleon, Archimedes, Marcellus, St. Paul, Maniaces,
among others ; and we have read the words of Cicero :
" Syracuse is the greatest of the Greek cities and the
most beautiful of all. It is so, O judges, by its situa
tion, which is strongly fortified, and which is, on every
side by which you can approach it, whether by sea or
land, most beautiful to behold."
Whoever arrives at Syracuse, after visiting other
places in Sicily — Catania, Palermo, the "hill towns,"
and the cities in the western part of the island — cannot
fail to be struck by the fact that there is little resem
blance between the people of Sicily at large and the
people one sees in and about Syracuse. It is not in
the slightest degree an exaggeration to say that the
men, women, and children we saw about the railway
station, the work - people employed there, the crowd

SYRACUSE 287
of idlers of all classes who had gathered to witness
the arrival of the train, were as distinctly Greek in
type, in cast of features, as are the people of Castro
giovanni or Caltanisetta, for instance — Saracen in type,
in complexion, and countenance. At Catania and on
.iEtna we had noticed the predominating Italian, Ca
labrian type of face, in Cefalti we had discovered
traces of Tunisian and Norman blood ; but the inhabi
tants of Syracuse are distinctly not Italian, not Sara
cenic; and while we beheld many with blue eyes, light
hair, and ruddy complexions, the majority of the peo
ple were of the Greek cast of features, not Albanian, as
at Piana dei Greci, but if we may apply the term to a
degenerate race, classic Greek. The Sicilians have
been described as " a mixed race," the descendants of
the Greeks and Saracens who have intermarried. No
doubt this generalization is, to a certain extent, ac
curate as to the average Sicilian. At Palermo and in
the central and western parts of the island the Sara
cenic characteristics prevail and are most noticeable ;
at Syracuse the distinctly Greek type is particularly
to be remarked.
We did not tarry long at the station, but were
promptly rescued from a mob of public porters and
cab - drivers by the conductor of the omnibus of
" Casa Politi," and immediately set out for the al
bergo which had been recommended to us as the
most comfortable and best -ordered of the hotels of
Syracuse. As we proceeded to the isthmus which
connects the peninsula of Ortygia with the mainland,
we asked ourselves many times, " What has become
of ancient Syracuse? What has become of the five
cities once included within the great walls ?" Scarce-

288 PICTURESQUE SICILY
ly one stone stands upon another of all the temples,
dwellings, and public edifices of that part of the an
cient city over the ruins of which we are making
our way. Scarcely a mound or heap of rubbish serves
to show where formerly stood that one of the five
cities known as Neapolis. Even its ruins have per
ished, and the magnificent " new city," so often
destroyed by its enemies, so often rebuilt by its in
habitants, to be destroyed and again rebuilt, has final
ly been reduced to dust and the dust swept into the
sea or spread far and wide upon the plain by vary
ing winds. The stone of which ancient Syracuse was
built is soft and readily disintegrated ; rain, sunshine,
heat and cold, breeze and tempest, the sirocco, " the
petulant, soft wind of the South," fret and corrode the
masonry, crumbling it to fine powder ; and the splen
did edifices of Syracuse, its crown of towers, its su
perb monuments, the temples of its gods, all have
vanished. Such is the impression that haunts the
mind as one approaches the series of bridges and
causeways that lead from the mainland to Ortygia,
the site of Syracuse to-day, as it was the site of the
town of Archias. The great city has become a small
town again, having dwindled to its original limits and
" sunk far below Palermo, Messina, Catania, in mod
ern importance."*
And the traveller may well ask, " Where is Syra
cuse?" — once the greatest of European cities, whose
recorded history equals in bulk the recorded history
of Athens, the champion of Europe against Africa, as
Athens was the champion of Europe against Asia. If
* E. A. Freeman. Macmillan's Magazine, May, 1879.

VENUS LANDOLINA. SYRACUSE

SYRACUSE 289
the Athenians successfully opposed the Persians, so
did the Syracusans successfully oppose the Carthagin
ians ; when Athens led the Hellenic hosts at Salamis,
Syracuse stood in the front van of the Siceliots at the
battle of Himera. It is impossible to estimate what
would have been the condition of modern Europe had
the Sicilian champions of civilization and philosophy
been overwhelmed by the hordes of barbarism and
Oriental mysticism.
Syracuse in Grecian times is said by various authori
ties to have contained, at different times, from five
hundred thousand to .a million, or even a million and
a half, of inhabitants. The modern town has a popu
lation, according to the last census, of twenty- three
thousand six hundred souls. For a thousand years
Syracuse has played but an insignificant part in his-
toi-y. Its greatness had passed away long before it
was burned to the ground by the Saracens, who, estab
lishing their government at Palermo, slighted the an
cient capital of the island ; and as, during the days of
the Saracens, Syracuse was neglected, so in the days
of the Normans other cities — Palermo, Messina, Cata
nia — were preferred before it. Therefore, when the
traveller begins his study of the modern history of
the town, he finds few facts of historical importance
in any of the chronicles that have been written during
the past ten centuries to engage his thought or awaken
his interest. Indeed, since the year 878 A.D., when
Syracuse, after a siege of nine months, was taken by
the Saracens, its inhabitants put to the sword, and the
city burned to the ground, there has been little to re
cord concerning the once " famous city of cities," ex
cept that in the year 1085 A.D., Roger the Norman,
19

290 PICTURESQUE SICILY
having driven out the Moslems, rescued the enslaved
Christians, overturned the power of Islam, and set up
anew the cross over the church in which St. Paul
preached more than a millennium before, when "the
great apostle to the Gentiles" tarried for three days
at Syracuse on his journey from Melita to Rhegium
and Puteoli.

XXXIII
ORTYGIA
Fountain of Arethusa — Temple of Minerva — Temple of Diana
— Castello Maniace — Great Harbor — Athenian Expedition
— Its Destruction by Gylippus — Death of Nicias.
Ovid sings of the metamorphosis of Arethusa, but
does not say that Alpheus followed Arethusa to Or
tygia. The Greeks of Syracuse would have it so, al
though an older tradition than their myth tells how
the Phoenicians, finding the fountain surrounded with
willows, gave it the name of Alphaga, " the stream of
the willows," or Arith, " the river." When the fol
lowers of Archias arrived in the island, which they
called Ortygia, they fancied that the names Alphaga
and Alpheus, similar in sound, were the same in mean
ing. In this way grew the romantic tale of the pas
sion of the river-god Alpheus for the nymph Arethu
sa, and the descendants of Archias maintained that he
had been commanded by the oracle of Delphi to cross
the sea and found a colony of Corinthians " in that
island where the River Alpheus mixes his waves with
the fair Arethusa." This story was accepted by the
Siceliots. Even Pausanias, who regards the story as a
mere fable, does not dispute the fact that the two riv
ers, sinking into the earth, crossed beneath the sea, but
he declares he is at a loss to explain the phenomenon

292 PICTURESQUE SICILY
and the mystery of the oracle. In old Greece and in
Sicily it was not unusual for rivers to disappear into
the earth and arise again from the nether world ; there
fore it required but little stretch of imagination for
Greeks or Siceliots to give credence to the tale of
Arethusa and Alpheus. And so it came about that a
legend growing out of the local worship of Diana in
Elis was carried to Sicily to explain a local wonder
of Syracuse.
Leaving our albergo, which looks east over the Io
nian Sea, we found our way, wanderingly, across Or
tygia, to the shore of the Great Harbor, where we dis
covered the historic spring flowing into a semicircular
basin, surrounded by picturesque masses of papyrus.
In these later years the fountain has been enclosed
with marble walls, and thus preserved from defilement
and profanation. The sacred waters, rising from an
opening in the rock, form a goodly stream, which finds
its way into the Great Harbor but a few yards dis
tant. In like manner was the spring enclosed in the
time of Cicero. He tells us that in the island of Or
tygia " is a fountain of Sweetwater, the name of which
is Arethusa, of incredible flow, very full of fish, which
would be entirely overwhelmed by the sea were not
its waters protected from the waves by a rampart and
a wall of stone." .iEons ago Arethusa and her nymphs
haunted the fountain and bathed in the limpid water,
which in these last times has been rescued from dese
cration, of which there was much need, seeing that for
many years the spring was used as the public wash-
place of the city.
In the heart of Ortygia, facing La Piazza del Duo
mo, and flanked by La Piazza Minerva, stands the

ORTYGIA 293
Cathedral of Syracuse, dedicated to Santa Maria del
Piliero — " Saint Mary of the Pillar" — so called because
the Christian church occupies the site of a Greek tem
ple, the peristyle of which is incorporated with the
cathedral walls. The temples of Syracuse do not
stand revealed in all their ruined beauty, like the tem
ples of Girgenti or the temple of Segesta — one 'has to
search for them ; nevertheless, there are three of these
monuments of ancient times built in the days of the
Commonwealth or of the Tyrants. Two of them are to
be found in Ortygia, and one without the city, near the
banks of the River Anapo. The temple (now the ca
thedral) was built in the sixth century B.C. By some
authorities it is said to have been consecrated to Mi
nerva, but Cicero, in his oration against Verres, states
that the sumptuous Temple of Minerva, which was
robbed of its costly treasures by the Roman praetor,
stood at the southeastern extremity of the island. It
is possible that the edifice in question was a shrine of
Diana; the fact that it stands near the spring of Are
thusa, " the nymph beloved of Dian," lends color to
this supposition, although Freeman states that the
temple was originally consecrated to Minerva. Be
this as it may, certain it is that the early Christians,
the descendants of the men who had listened to the
preaching of the Apostle Paul, transformed the pagan
temple into a Christian sanctuary by incorporating
the columns and entablature with the enclosing
walls, which were erected nearly a thousand years
later than the foundation. The temple was one hun
dred and eighty feet in length and seventy -two in
width. It had six fluted Doric columns in each
portico, and fourteen on each side, but all of them are

294 PICTURESQUE SICILY
now deeply embedded in the walls of the modern ca
thedral. On the north side, next La Piazza Minerva, the
columns support a portion of the ancient entablature,
but the cornice and the guttae are gone, and the tri
glyphs uphold Saracenic battlements. The latter bear
witness to the fact that the pagan temple, having
been transformed into a Christian church, was, in
turn, changed into a mosque, and only after many
years reconsecrated to the use of Christian worship
pers. The interior contains little of interest to arch-
Eeologists, few remains of Greek architecture ; the
walls of the cella were pierced with arches, and by
filling up the spaces between the columns in the peri
style on each side with solid masonry Christian archi
tects formed the nave and aisles of the metropolitan
church. Standing in the silence of the venerable sanctuary,
it was wonderful to think that in this very place men
have worshipped for more than twenty-four centuries.
It may be that here Gelon, the two Hieros, yEschylus,
Pindar, Gylippus, Dionysius, Plato, Timoleon, Agath
ocles, Archimedes, consulted the oracles of their gods.
This same temple was more than four hundred years
old when Marcellus forbade his soldiers to plunder
it ; from it Verres stole away innumerable price
less works of art ; the Apostle Paul may have passed
before its portico, accompanied perhaps by Marcian,
whom Peter sent from Antioch to preach to the Syr
acusans. Here Belisarius may have worshipped, and
Constantius. In 878 A.D. came the Saracens, who
turned the Christian church into a mosque, from the
roof of which, for two hundred years, muezzins called

ORTYGIA 295
" the faithful " to their prayers. Finally, in 1087,
came the Normans, who restored the sanctuary to
the keeping of Christian priests ; and since then, down
to the present day, within its walls, men and women
have worshipped at the shrine of Mary the Madonna.
In II Vico di San Paulo, near II Duomo, are to be
found the ruins of one other temple, consisting of a
number of Doric columns standing half their height
below the present level of the city streets. These
relics are all that is left of a temple of Diana, or, as is
more likely, of Apollo, for a badly mutilated inscrip
tion on the highest step of the stylobate indicates that
the ancient fane was dedicated to the great god of
the Siceliots. This structure was of unusual length,
being flanked by at least nineteen, or perhaps twenty,
columns on each side; it was seventy -one feet in
width, but as part of the stylobate lies buried be
neath the modern buildings it is impossible to deter
mine the original dimensions.
In the Museum of Syracuse is a statue of Venus
Anadyomene, discovered in 1804 by the Marchese
Landolina in the Bonavia Gardens. The proportions
of the statue are a little larger than life, and although
the head and right arm are wanting, it is a most pre
cious relic of Greek art. The shoulders, the chest,
the back, the hips, are superbly modelled, and it
would be difficult to imagine a figure more admirably
posed and executed. The Venus of Syracuse, or Lando
lina, by some authorities said to be that Venus Callip-
yge which was modelled in Athens for Heliogabalus
and by him presented to the citizens of Syracuse, is a
perfect expression of mature womanly beauty of form;
and, although not possessing the stately grace of the

296 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Venus of Milo, is nevertheless truer to human nat
ure. Less affected in pose than the Venus de' Medici,
she appeals to the artistic sense by the unstudied
charm of her attitude and the promise it gives of
lissome freedom of action did she but choose to
move. Ortygia, towards its southern limits, narrows to a
long point, on the end of which stands Castello Mani
ace, rebuilt in 1038 A.D. by George Maniaces, after he
had reconquered Syracuse from the Saracens. Little
has been written about this Byzantine soldier, the
last catapan of the Greeks, who attempted, with the
aid of the Normans under William of the Iron Arm,
to restore Sicily to the sway of the Emperors of the
East ; but at Syracuse his memory is perpetuated in
the name of a street leading from La Piazza del
Duomo to the Castello, and by the CasteUo itself.
The latter, however, does not exhibit the designs or
method of construction employed by Byzantine build
ers of Maniaces' day. The oldest parts of the pres
ent buildings are of the thirteenth rather than of the
eleventh century, and were doubtless erected during
the time of the Emperor Frederick II. The castle
stands as a monument to the name and fame of a
great soldier; nor are the Syracusans of to-day un
mindful of the man worthy to be named with Gelon
and with Timoleon, " deliverer of the city." We ex
amined with interest a marble gateway said to have
been constructed by order of Maniaces, and above
which he placed " two ancient Greek rams carved in
bronze, that bleated with the wind." The bronzes"
have disappeared from the Gate of Maniaces; one
only is known to be in existence, and that we had

ORTYGIA 297
seen in the museum at Palermo. The great portal of
the castle, a gloomy, frowning structure of unorna
mented arches, with a round tower on each side,
shows the deep groove of an ancient portcullis and
the fittings of a drawbridge, recalling the appurte
nances of the mediaeval castles of Germany and other
Northern lands. The roof of the main tower of this
castle commands the most comprehensive view of
Ortygia and of the surrounding land and sea. Stand
ing here we could readily imagine that in ancient
times, in the days of Timoleon, who men said "was
favored by the -gods wherever he went " — Timoleon,
the man worthiest of fame in the story of ancient
Sicily, who having destroyed the power of the ty
rants, and annihilated the army of the Carthaginians
in the battle by the River Crimisus, raised Syracuse
to the highest point of her greatness and grandeur;
we could well believe that in those old days the Great
Harbor of Syracuse presented a magnificent spectacle
when viewed from the sea-walls of Ortygia. Upon its
surface, which in the sunlight shines like a mirror of
steel, floated hundreds upon hundreds of vessels, the
navies of Syracuse, Sicilian ships, Greek, Phoenician,
and Roman merchantmen, exhibiting a forest of masts,
a network of cordage, sails of all colors, while count
less small boats plied between the ships and the land
ing-places. In those days the water-front of Syracuse
extended along the Great Harbor from the point of
Ortygia for neariy three miles, following the bending
.shore to the mouth of the Anapo ; so that it was weU
said that " the harbor did not surround the city, but
the city the harbor." In the days of Timoleon the
seaport Syracuse was equalled in importance and

298 PICTURESQUE SICILY
wealth by no other city in the world, not even Ath
ens or Corinth excepted, and its ancient harbor was
the marvel of the nations. Protected from all the
winds, it afforded safe anchorage for multitudes of
vessels ; around its .shores were the famous arsenals,
ship-yards, and careening-places, where thousands of
slaves — carpenters, shipwrights, sail-makers — equipped
the fleets built of timber cut from the sides of /Etna
and the great central forests of Sicily, rigging them
with cordage of hemp grown on the table-lands, and
fitting them with sails of canvas woven of flax grown
on the borders of the great plains of Catania and
Noto. Who can picture to the mind the tremendous activ
ity and life of this city of Timoleon, a city said to
have contained more than a million inhabitants, the
metropolis of the Siceliots, or imagine the spectacle
presented to the gaze of thousands of spectators upon
that day sacred to Hercules, more than twenty-three
centuries ago, when Greek met Greek in a naval com
bat which, if not the greatest and most momentous in
its results of all sea-fights, has nevertheless been de
scribed as no other combat has ever been described,
by the master historian of ancient and modern times.
Present on the scene of action, we aided imagina
tion by studying the story of the engagement, as it is
told by Thucydides, appreciating as never before the
realism of his superb word-painting. The prose epic
excites the imagination, stirs the heart, and conjures
up mind-pictures of the throng of onlookers that lined
the shore of the Great Harbor when the crews of two
hundred ships of war contended for the mastery of
the civilized world.

ORTYGIA 299
Think of that combat to the death ! The gladia
tors — ninety thousand men, and such men ! — Athen
ians and Spartans; the amphitheatre a land-locked
bay, from the contracted limits of which there was no
escape save through the narrow entrance between the
rocks of Ortygia on the north and the reefs of Plem-
myrium on the south ; the spectators a million inhabi
tants of Syracuse, the city that had excited the envy
and braved the wrath of Athens ; more than forty
thousand Ionian Greeks, in mad desperation, agoniz
ing to reach the open sea ; as many Dorian Greeks,
daring all things, scorning death in their determina
tion utterly to destroy their enemies there and on
that very day.
It is true the Athenian ships outnumbered the
Syracusan, but the latter had the advantage in the
fact that almost all the shores of the harbor were
open to them, while the Athenians were confined to
the small space within the walls of their encampment.
When the Athenian ships, in their last desperate effort
to break the blockade, sailed straight for the bar at
the mouth of the harbor,* the Syracusans attacked
them on all sides. The fight was desperate ; the
Athenians were broken in spirit, and, although there
were nearly fifty thousand of them, every one of whom
fought most courageously, they did not behave as men
assured of victory, as did the soldiers under Gylippus.
" When the Athenians came up to the bar, in the
first rush with which they charged they got the better
of the ships posted at it, and endeavored to break
the fastenings. Afterwards, when the Syracusans and
* The Great Harbor was but three miles in diameter and the en
trance but thirteen hundred yards in width.

300 PICTURESQUE SICILY
their aUies bore down upon them from aU quarters,
the battle was going on no longer at the bar alone,
but over all the harbor also ; and an obstinate fight it
was, such as no previous combat had been, for the
greatest eagerness in the attack was exhibited by the
seamen on both sides ; indeed, every ons, whatever
the duty assigned to him, made every effort, to the
end that he might himself, in each case, appear the
best man. After the battle had been obstinately dis
puted, and many ships and men destroyed on both
sides, the Syracusans and their allies, having gained
the victory, took up their wrecks and dead and sailed
away to the city and erected a trophy. The A.,then-
ians, who in the extent of their present misery did not
so much as think of the dead or the wreck of their
ships, returned to their camp," to march thence to
meet their doom on the banks of the Assinorus.
The Syracusans sullied their honor by the hideous
cruelty which they practised on the remnant of the
armies of Nicias and Demosthenes, whom they left to
die of thirst and starvation in the quarries of Acra-
dina. Nicias is to be pitied by all brave hearts. He
opposed the unrighteous ambitions of his country
men, but was too good a soldier, too patriotic an
Athenian, to refuse to serve his nativd land when
chosen to lead her army and navy in the field and
upon the sea. When, finaUy, he was compeUed to
surrender his army he besought Gylippus to spare the
lives of his soldiers, and passed to his death with sub
lime courage, "least of all Greeks of my time,"
exclaims Thucydides, " deserving to meet such mis
fortunes on account of his devoted, attention to the
practice of every virtue."

XXXIV
ACRAD INA
Names of Streets — " The City of Wild Pear - Trees " — Santa
Lucia — The Apostle Paul — La Latomia dei Cappuccini,
"The Gethsemane of a Nation."
Mythology and history, pagan and Christian biog
raphy, have been drawn upon to provide names forthe
streets and public places of Syracuse. The " Inner
- City," modern Syracuse, is traversed lengthwise by
two irregular, crooked thoroughfares. La Via Dione
(so named after the mother of Venus), beginning at
" The Prisons," extends south to La Piazza Archi-
mede, intersects II Corso Vittorio Emanuele, beyond
which its prolongation is called La Via Roma. Par
allel to La Via Dione, La Via Cavour extends north
and south, intersects II Corso, crosses La Piazza del
Duomo, beyond which it changes its name to La Via
Maniace. La Via Gelone recalls the days of " the
deliverer " of Syracuse, Gelon, " who enlarged the
city at the expense of the older cities of Trinacria " ;
II Passeggio Aretusa awakens fancies of the age of
fable; La Via Principessa Margarita brings one's
thoughts back to the present times ; La Piazza Savon
arola, La Via Garibaldi, and La Piazza Minerva give
the traveller some slight hint of the changeful chron
icles of Syracuse. These names, with many others of

302 PICTURESQUE SICILY
no less historical import, recall the history of three
thousand years, the annals of the town that sleeps
where once the magnificent city stirred itself in the
fulness of its life and power.
Ortygia offered an ideal site for a great commercial
city, and from the days of its foundation by Archias
and his band -of adventurers Syracuse increased in
size and population with marvellous rapidity. In
seventy years the city was powerful enough to estab
lish many colonies in Sicily, Acrai, Casmanai, Helo-
rum, Netum, Enna, among others. When the metropo
lis, " the mother city of Ortygia," became too sinall
to contain its inhabitants, it spread to the mainland
and occupied the open space extending from the
isthmus and the Two Harbors to the foot of the hills.
In time all the seaward part of the promontory of
Thapsus was covered by the dwellings and public edi
fices of a new precinct known as Acradina, so called
from the wild pear-trees that grew among the rocks
and crags. Later there were annexed two additional
suburbs, Tyche on the northern angle, and Neapolis at
the southern corner of Acradina ; and, finally, when
Syracuse attained its greatest dimensions, in the time
of Dionysius I., the houses spread over Epipolae, and
a large part of the plateau of Thapsus was included
within the city walls. At this time Syracuse embraced
within its limits five great cities, Ortygia (known as
the "Inner City"), Acradina, Tyche, Neapolis, and
Epipolae. The four last-named precincts, collective
ly known as the " Outer City," were enclosed by a
continuous wall, i8o stadia, or 22 English miles, in
circumference. Different authorities variously esti
mate the total population of Syracuse during the

ACRADINA 303
fourth century B.C. at from eight hundred thousand
to one million five hundred thousand souls. Great,
indeed, must have been the city that drove the Car
thaginians from its territories, destroyed the army and
navy of Athens, and, for three years, successfully de
fied all assaults of the Romans under Marcellus.
From the day of its capture by the Romans, Syra
cuse declined in size, in wealth, in commercial and
political importance, and, sinking to the level of a
provincial town, gradually lost her social and political
supremacy, and thereafter made no great figure in the
history of the world. When the Saracens captured
Syracuse, in 878 A.D., all its buildings were burned to
the ground, and all its inhabitants were either put to
the sword, or carried off into slavery by their conquer
ors. Since that time, now more than a thousand
years ago, Acradina, Neapolis, Tyche, and Epipolae
have lain in ruin, and no attempt has ever been made
to rebuild them. Only Ortygia, " the mother city,"
has preserved the name of Syracuse from death, but
in the place of a city of a million or more inhabitants
there remains to-day but a small town of a few thou
sand souls.
Beginning our explorations of Acradina, the second
city of the Syracusan pentapolis, we crossed from Or
tygia to the mainland, traversed the ancient necropo
lis, and arrived at an open circular space where three
roads meet. Taking that one leading to the east, be
tween the Little Harbor, the sea-shore, and the cliffs
of Acradina, we passed a solitary column of red mar
ble (all that remains above ground of what was proba
bly the ancient Agora of Syracuse), and came to the
so-called house of Agathocles, from which a narrow

304 PICTURESQUE SICILY
lane leads north from the sea-shore to La Chiesa di
Santa Lucia. This edifice was erected in the elev
enth century on the spot where the patron saint of
Syracuse is said to have been crueUy put to death.
We entered the old church, which, in itself, is in no
way noteworthy, and found a painting of the burial of
Santa Lucia, by Caravaggio, the granite column to
which she was bound during her flagellation, and a
marble statue of her, said to be by Bernini. But none
of all these things interested us ; Caravaggio, if in
deed the picture is by him, has not painted the
maiden as beautiful or charming as we were willing to
imagine her to have been, and it was difficult to per
suade ourselves that Bernini's chisel had shaped the
marble effigy, which certainly is a very mediocre work
of art.
Not far from the Church of Santa Lucia stands the
small sanctuary of San Giovanni. Of the original
building, founded in 1182 A.D., but little remains, save
a beautiful doorway, and over the west portal a Goth
ic wheel-window, finely carved. The church is not in
teresting in itself, but is nevertheless worthy of a visit,
for the legend runs that what is now the crypt was,
in very early Christian days, the Chapel of San Mar
cian, in which the Apostle Paul is alleged to have
preached while he tarried " for three days at Syra
cuse." In this crypt are the remains of old frescos
and an ancient tomb, alleged to be that of San Mar
cian ; but of the visit of the great Apo.stle to the Gen
tiles there are no reminders nor evidences of any sort.
It is, however, not at all improbable that St. Paul did,
indeed, minister in this suburban chapel, where the
fathers of the Church of Syracuse were wont to meet

ACRADINA 305
in a solitary place outside of the city walls to worship
the " strange, new God," the unknown God of whom
the apostle preached to the men of Athens.
Returning to the Church of Santa Lucia, we con
tinued along the shore, made a long ascent to the lev
el plateau of Acradina, and at the southeastern angle
of the cliffs found an old monastery of the Capuchins,
near which are the remains of extensive walls recently
excavated, probably the foundations of a Temple of
Ceres. At the eastern side of the monastery, we en
tered a gateway and followed a narrow cart - track
scarped in the front of perpendicular cliffs, passing
between a wall of natural limestone rock, all over
grown with vines, and a hedge-row of myrtle, laurel,
roses, honeysuckle, aloes, and cacti. The road led
down into a vast quarry a hundred feet in depth, at
the bottom of which we found ourselves in an un
imaginable, indescribable place, a vast subterranean
labyrinth, a series of halls and galleries of narrow
chambers and wide amphitheatres, of which the roofs
seemed to have been removed by some mysterious
agency, leaving the immeasurable excavations open to
the air of heaven. Thus exposed to sunshine and to
rain,. the soil that now covers the bottom of the quar
ry has sent up bewildering varieties of greenery, and
the naked cliffs are masked and draped with garlands
of vines and masses of hanging shrubbery. In this
sunken garden, enclosed by waUs a hundred feet in
height, aU vegetation flourishes in wild luxuriance; no
wind blows rudely to mar the fresh beauty of buds
and blossoms, no sweeping gale prematurely strips the
trees and shrubbery of their ripened fruit or mature
leafage. Protected from tempests, nourished by vege-

306 PICTURESQUE SICILY
table mould, orange and lemon trees stand straight
and fair to see, pomegranates and aU kinds of fruits
ripen and drop from the unshaken branches; wild fig-
trees grow in the fissures of the cliffs, old olives firmly
root themselves amid fallen bowlders, and ivy, wista
ria, bougainvillea festoon the towering walls. Every
where are roses and lentisk, lilacs — a world of beauti
ful flowers — and the acanthus, loved by the Corinthian
ancestors of the men who quarried the living rock to
build them houses and temples for the gods, grows
rank under foot. And all this greenery is set off "by
a background of golden-gray limestone, white-shining
in the sunlight; in the early morning and at evening
tinted with the hues of Sicilian amber, " dolce color
d' oriental berillo." Beautiful as it is to-day, this gar
den was the "Gethsemane of a nation." In ancient
times, when La Latomia was but an unsightly laby
rinth, where no green thing grew on the naked, inhos
pitable rock, seven thousand Athenians, the remnant
of the army of Nicias, were shut up in this horrid
prison-house and left to die of their wounds, to fall a
prey to disease. Tormented by thirst, by hunger, by
heat, and by cold, poisoned by infection bred from
the putrefying corpses of their companions, " th,e pu
pils of Socrates, the admirers of Euripides, the orators
of Pnyx, the athletes of the Lyceum, lovers and com
rades and philosophers died here like dogs, and the
dames of Syracuse stood, doubtless, on those parapets
above and looked upon them like wild beasts. How
often, pining in those great, glaring pits, which were
not then curtained by ivy nor canopied by the olive-
trees, must the Athenians . . . have watched the dawn
walk forth fire -footed from the edge of those bare

ACRADINA 307
crags, or the stars glide from east to west across the
narrow space of sky. How they must have envied
the far flight of the hawk and swallow, sighing, ' O
that I too had the wings of a bird.' The weary eyes,
turned upward, found no change or respite, save that
which the frost of night brought to the fire of day, and
the burning sun to the pitiless, cold constellations." *
Thucydides tells us that for seventy days the sev
en thousand Athenians lived in these pits, crowded
together, where they were treated with great cruelty,
receiving, each of them, daily, no more than a cotyle
(about half an English pint) of water, and two of
corn. In their torment the miserable captives suf
fered " all the other miseries which it was likely that
men thrown into such a place would suffer, there being
no misfortune nor agony that did not fall to their lot."
"Some of the captives are said to have won their
release and freedom by repeating the verses of Eurip
ides, at whose feet they flung themselves when they
arrived at length in their native Athens."
A few were sold into slavery, but the majority died
in their captivity, and at last there remained no rem
nant of the most splendid armament of Athens but
heaps of corpses, putrefying bodies of dead men.
La Latomia dei Cappuccini is many acres in ex
tent, and as we threaded the windings of the endless
labyrinth it was easy to fancy that we wandered
amid natural scenery, at the bottom of wooded
chasms, overhung by cliffs and crags ; it seemed im
possible that such vast excavations could have been
hewn from the living rock, even by a multitude of
* T. A. Symonds. Italian Sketches.

308 PICTURESQUE SICILY
toiling slaves. Unimaginably, indescribably beautiful
is this sunken garden, which the men of to-day call La
Selva — " the wild woods."
From the tangle of vegetation which covers the
bottom of the quarries, great trees lift their branches
sixty or eighty feet into the still air, but do not over
top the surrounding walls, which in many places have
been undermined where enormous caves and cham
bers are hoUowed in the rock. From the face of the
cliffs vast masses of limestone, detached by time and
earthquakes, have fallen and lie heaped in grand con
fusion, and many huge, fantastical shapes of rock rise
island-like amid a sea of vegetation. In one of the
grandest amphitheatres there stands up an enormous
body of rock, in shape like the bow of a ship, more
than ninety feet in height, and near this is a monu
ment bearing this inscription:
A GIUSEPPI MAZZINI
Perche tra noi sia durabilmente onorata
La memoria d' un grande uomo,
Pongono riverenti questa lapide,
Gli operai della Societa Archimede.
5 MDCCCLXXH.
Beautiful as. it is in all its aspects and at all hours,
this rock -walled paradise is, nevertheless, an unholy
place, and many grim tales of murder and suicide
haunt about its crags and pitfalls. In 1894, on New-
year's Day — of all the days in the year — a little boy
who had stolen three lire, and thferefore dreaded pun-
i-shment, dashed himself from the top of the cliffs to
the rocks eighty or ninety feet below. MarveUous
to relate, he was not killed, nor mortally wounded.

ACRADINA 309
" Perhaps," said our Sicilian guide, " he called to Santa
Lucia as he was falling. She has worked many mir
acles more difficult to perform than the saving of the
life of a wicked boy." Nearby where the would-be
suicide was found, maimed, but stiU alive, are the
graves of five self-murderers, who were buried where
they fell and lie in nameless sepulchres. Here, too, is
the tomb of " Richard' Reynall, Esq., British Vice-
Consul to Syracuse, who departed this life September
16, 1838 A.D." It ,is said that the Englishman was
killed in a duel by an antagonist, who, having pro
voked the quarrel, chose weapons in the use of which
he himself was expert, but which the Englishman
knew not how to wield. An inscription carved on the
wall of rock marks the place of burial of " William
K. Nicholson, Midshipman in the Navy of the United
States of America, who was cut off from society in
the bloom of life and health on the i8th day of Sep-
temper, 1804 A.D.; et anno cetatis 18." We made dili
gent inquiries, hoping to learn something more of the
history of our young countryman, who, dying in a
foreign land, was laid to rest in this unconsecrated
spot ; but could find no record of his burial, and were
obliged to be content with an explanation vouchsafed
by our cicerone :
" Perhaps the young Americano was buried in La
Latomia for the reason that, years ago, the bodies of
heretics were not allowed to be interred in the pubUc
cemetery." Not far from the entrance of La Latomia dei Cap
puccini are the catacombs — " Grotte di San Giovan
ni " — said by different authorities to have been built
by the Greeks, the Romans, or the Saracens. Little is

3IO PICTURESQUE SICILY
known of them except that they were used as burial-
places, and that they extend for miles in all direc
tions into the heart of the limestone rock of Acra
dina. Countless streets and galleries connect spacious
circular and vaulted rooms surrounded by niches and
alcoves in which the dead were entombed. It is said
that there were more than three hundred and sixty of
these circular apartments, and, according to tradition,
the catacombs extended as far as to the River Sebe-
tos, if not indeed as far as to Catania. If this in
credible statement be true, the tunnelling of the
modern world is as nothing compared to the long
excavations of the catacombs of Syracuse.
The hill-sides above the Little Harbor, between the
catacombs and Neapolis, are covered with the ruins of
ancient tombs and niches cut in the rock to receive
funereal urns, and from the heaps of debris rise the
remains of two Doric pillars said to mark the tombs
of Timoleon and Archimedes. There is no trust
worthy authority for assuming that the two great
men lie buried here ; it is improbable that the so-
called tomb of Archimedes is that monument which
Cicero says he found " covered with brushwood and
overrun with brambles, so that it was utterly un
known to the Syracusans, who even denied its exist
ence," therefore there is little reason to believe that
the Roman quaestor was justified in boasting that
"the noblest city of Greece, which was once also the
most learned, would have remained in ignorance of
the monument of her most distinguished citizen, un
less she had learned of it from a man of Arpinum."*
* Tusculum Disputations, V., 23.

xxxv
NEAPOLIS
New Syracuse— Roman Amphitheatre— Grand Altar of Hieron
— La Latomia del Paradiso — The Ear of Dionysius — The
Bath of Venus — Greek Theatre — Timoleon.
So far our explorations had been confined within
the limits of Acradina, the oldest ofthe four cities on
the mainland. On the foUowing day we again found
our way to the open space on the isthmus connecting
Ortygia with the necropolis ; and, taking that road
which leads directly north from the site of the ancient
Agora, we began our explorations of Neapolis, the
third of the five cities of the pentapolis. Crossing a
meadow we pass by the remains of a Roman reservoir
and come to the Roman amphitheatre built in the
time of Augustus.
In general plan the amphitheatre of Syracuse is
like all Roman amphitheatres. The arena, in the
middle of which is a vast cistern, or " naumachia," is
surrounded by a wall seven feet in height, with a cor
nice inscribed with the names of distinguished and
privileged persons who once occupied the seats in the
lower tiers. Beneath the first tier of sedilia is a
vaulted corridor, from which eight gates open into
the arena, to give entrance to wild beasts and gladi
ators. Of the seats on the eastern side, the two lower

312 PICTURESQUE SICILY
tiers, which were he wrf from the solid rock, only remain ;
those on the western .side of the amphitheatre have
almost entirely disappeared, while of the upper tiers
hardly a vestige remains. This monumental edifice
bears witness to the degradation of the Greek citizens
of Syracuse, who, when they had been corrupted by
the bloody spectacles in which the Romans delighted,
no longer took pleasure in the dramas and comedies
of the Greek poets. Syracuse, like her metropolis,
Corinth, when both had fallen to the level of Roman
provincial towns, became the rival of Capua in the
magnificence of her gladiatorial shows. And we may
well believe that the debased creatures who frequented
the amphitheatre rarely visited the theatre where the
plays of Sophocles, Euripides, .iEschylus, and Aris
tophanes were performed, preferring to look upon the
combats of man with man, or man with beast, taking
delight in fouler and more cruel spectacles.
About one hundred yards beyond the amphithea
tre is the Grand Altar of Hiero II. , a vast platform
(six hundred and forty -five feet in length and sev
enty-five feet in width) where, in the days of Syracu
san magnificence, were annually offered four hundred
and fifty oxen, to commemorate the expulsion of the
tyrant Thrasybulus. An attempt has been made to
rid the masonry of the amphitheatre and altar of the
weeds and shrubbery, with which until recently both
were overgrown. This care may serve to protect the
masonry from, further deterioration, but it certainly
robs the ancient relics of much of their picturesque
beauty, leaving them gaunt and gray in undisguised
ruin. Opposite the Grand Altar is the entrance to La

NEAPOLIS 3 1 3
Latomia del Paradiso, which, although not nearly so
large as La Latomia dei Cappuccini, is in some re
spects, more remarkable and picturesque. These quar
ries are many acres in extent, of irregular form, and
on two sides the walls have; been scarped, forming
caverns, the roofs of which are upheld by enormous
columns left standing for the purpose. Some of the
hall-like excavations are a hundred feet in length, al
most as wide, and thirty, forty, and even fifty or sixty
feet in height. The largest of them is used to-day as
a rope-walk, where we saw men and women in quaint,
ragged costumes busily employed making cordage,
using implements of the same old fashion that served
the purpose of the ancients.
Adjoining La Latomia del Paradiso, or, rather, on
its western border, is " L' Orecchio di Dionisio," an
immense grotto fancied to resemble the human ear in
form, which was cut, in the shape of the letter S, for
2IO feet into the limestone rock and 74 feet in height,
contracting from the 35 feet in width at its entrance
to 15 feet at its inner extremity. The roof of the cav
ern is lofty and pointed, its walls are perfectly smooth,
and, whether by accident or design, it possesses won
derful acoustic properties, and is haunted by a mar
vellous echo.
At one side of the entrance of the Ear of Dionysius
grows ivy, of what age it is impossible to tell. The
trunk of the vine is six inches in diameter, and its
branches are like the boughs of a great ilex. A
hundred feet or more they climb, to the top of the
cliffs; then, creeping far and wide along the verge of
the precipice, form a cornice and a frieze of living
green over the arched portal of the cave.

314 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Standing at the opening of the grotto, prompted
by our guide, we repeated in chorus the formula by
which neophytes summon the spirit which presides
within the mysterious precincts — "Permesso, Dioni
sio !" And our words came back to us, not once, but
countless times ; were shouted back to us, spoken,
whispered, shouted again and again, until we fancied
we had awakened, not Dionysius, but a thousand imps
that mocked at us. From the trumpet-like mouth of
the cavern came a thousand words for every one that
we had spoken. It was impossible to believe that
two words had provoked so multitudinous a reply.
When, finally, the last whisper had died away, our
guide shouted the words, " Enter, you are welcome,"
and it seemed to us as if a regiment repeated the in
vitation. When a bow was drawn across a violin we
could fancy that the stringed instruments of twenty
orchestras were being tuned ; when we clapped our
hands there came back a round of applause. A single
word provoked a hundred in reply, Dionysius, in his
volubility, aping Xanthippe, wife of Socrates; and when
we tore a piece of paper the sound was distinctly
echoed, not once, but twice.
It is said that the famous tyrant of Syracuse con
structed this cavern on the borders of the quarry used
by him as a prison in which to confine those unfortu
nate beings who disagreed with him concerning mat
ters of foreign or domestic politics and such members
of his own household as disputed his authority. He
devised the shape of it, and endowed it with its acous
tic properties, so that he might hear the words of
discontented captives and be forewarned if they con
spired against him. In the roof, at the far end of the

NEAPOLIS 3 1 5
grotto, is a little chamber, where Dionysius sat listen
ing to the words and whispers of his captives. We
ascended to this station of the eavesdropping tyrant,
and although we were more than two hundred feet
from our guide, who remained at the entrance of " The
Ear," we were able to converse with him in ordinary
tones, having no difficulty in understanding every
word he uttered.
As a matter of fact, there is no authority for the
statement that the grotto was constructed by Diony
sius or in his time. This story is now said to have origi
nated in the fertile imagination of the artist Caravag
gio, who spent much time in Syracuse, where he was
employed to decorate and embellish certain churches.
Indeed, it is not possible to prove that the grotto was
designedly constructed by any man, and we may
reasonably assume that, when it had been made, for
some purpose now unguessed, it was found to be pos
sessed of a remarkable echo, just as the Whispering
Gallery of St. Paul's, when completed, was found to
possess acoustic properties not imagined by Sir Chris
topher Wren when he was building the dome of the
cathedral. Near La Latomia del Paradiso and L' Orecchio di
Dionisio is La Latomia di Santa Venere, one of the
smaUest of the many ancient quarries of Syracuse. It
is by far the most exquisitely beautiful of them all.
Its depths have been transformed by Baron Targia
into a delightful garden, where grow all kinds of fair
and dainty plants and flowers in such bewildering va
riety that it would be impossible, even for a learned
botanist, to make a catalogue of them, unless he de
voted many days to that delightful occupation. We

3l6 PICTURESQUE SICILY
visited this bower of Venus in February, and, even
then, found it surpassingly beautiful ; but when we
entered it one April morning shortly after sunrise,
and beheld it in all the glory of spring-time, we won
dered if Venus had indeed deserted the enchanted
place. Descending from the barren plateau, we ar
rived at the Bath of Venus, a small grotto at one side
of La Latomia, at the bottom of a cliff, the face of
which was hidden by vines and ferns. In front of the
bath was a bed of roses. Beard of Jove (large flowers
with magenta petals and golden calices), forget-me-
nots, pinks, and carnations. Everywhere were orange
and lemon trees in full bloom, and here and there ap
peared pomegranate blossoms of fiery crimson. Ivy
draped all the upper walls, and flowering wistaria
reaching from the branches of dead trees to the face
of the cliff, climbed and climbed a hundred feet to
the top. On each side wide-spreading bougainvillea,
a mass of pink and peach-color, hung in garlands and
wreaths, so that when we stood at the base of the cliff
and looked upward it seemed as if we beheld a cata
ract of flowers, a Niagara of blossoms.
Over the opening to the Bath of Venus was this
inscription :
" Come r antica tradizione rimembra
Qui Venere bagno le belle membra."
In the midst of La Latomia is a plantation of roses ;
to describe it as a bed of roses would give no idea of
its size and tangled luxuriance, nor of the varieties of
plants of which it was composed. There were in full
bloom certainly thirty or forty specimens of wild and
cultivated roses — white, pink, yellow, and crimson —

NEAPOLIS 317
sweetbrier, delicate tea and moss roses, many standard
and dwarf varieties; and in, the centre an old olive-
tree covered by climbing white roses produced the
effect of a fountain of flowers. The gardener who
accompanied us cut for us not a few choice buds, not
a handful of roses, but literally a double armful, with
long stems, each containing twenty or thirty buds and
flowers. These he gave to la signora, notwithstanding
the fact that a price had been set upon his wares by
the noble owner of the grounds, as we knew from
reading the following inscription displayed on an or
namental sign-board :
" Quella rosa, O gentil visitatrice,
Onde sospiri, a te toccar non lice.
Per un bacio il padrone ama cambriarla.
Questo e il suo prezzo, di se vuoi comprarla."
Which may be freely translated as follows :
" This rose, O gentle visitress, for which you sigh
You must not touch ;
Its price ? One kiss (if you will buy).
Paid to its owner. Will you give so much?"
To the eastward of the stone quarries, within the
limits of ancient Neapolis, are the ruins of the Greek
theatre erected in the fifth century B.C., the third
largest structure of its kind, those of Miletus and Me
galopolis only exceeding it in dimensions. The audi
torium, about five hundred feet in diameter, contained
seats in sixty - one tiers for the accommodation of
twenty-four thousand auditors. Forty-six of the tiers
are still visible, but the other fifteen, which were built
above the solid rock out of which the lower tiers were

3l8 PICTURESQUE SICILY
carved, have disappeared. The sedilia were arranged
in nine cunei, intersected by a broad and a narrow
" praecinctio," on the cornice of which are stiU to be
read various Greek in.scriptions, recording the names
of the Olympian Jupiter, of King Hieron, Basilissas
Philistides, Basilissas Nereides, etc. The auditorium
is semicircular in shape, is cut into the face of the
natural rock cliffs, and opens to the south, disclosing,
now that the scena has disappeared, a wonderful view
of the Great Harbor, the city on Ortygia, and the
promontory of Plemmyrium.
While the date of the construction of the theatre
is not certainly known, it is more than likely that it
was completed, if not begun, by Gelon. Gelon was
succeeded by his brother Hieron in the government
of Syracuse, and the latter, the munificent patron of
art and literature, invited Simonides, Bacchylides,
Epicharmus, and iEschylus to reside at his court.
Pindar also visited Hieron, and there can be but little
doubt that from the stage of the new theatre the
poets recited their odes and hymns. It is not im
probable that /Eschylus gave on this same stage
representations of his tragedies for the delectation of
Hieron and the Syracusans. But of all grand specta
cles, of all gala days, that celebration was grandest, and
that day most notable, when Syracuse, freed by the
great endeavors of Timoleon, held high festival in his
honor. We can imagine the theatre packed from
chorus to the loftiest row of sedilia, until not a foot
of standing-room was left unoccupied ; the stage is set
for a representation of a tragedy of /Eschylus ; but
the thoughts of the Syracusans are not busy with the
preparations for the enactment of a drama ; their eyes

NEAPOLIS 319
wander from the scena, they evidently expect some
grand personage. At last, blind old Timoleon is led
into the auditorium — Timoleon, the saviour of the city,
the father of the people, the first and best -beloved
citizen of the state, the man worthiest of fame, who
thought it enough to deliver others, and who sought
nothing for himself. Having been invited by " all
Syracuse " to be present, he has been conveyed in
a carriage from his country-seat to the theatre, fol
lowed by a dancing, singing, shouting multitude of
people, who paid heroic honors to " The Deliverer."
We can imagine the enthusiasm of the audience as
thousands upon thousands of free citizens leap to
their feet to shout a tremendous, delirious welcome
to the blind old man who is led to the seat of honor.
And surely no people ever welcomed a grander old
man than he, who, " like Caesar, could say ' Veni,
vidi, vici,' and who could further add ' vixi. ' " Timo
leon, the most powerful man of his time, who, when
he had restored his adopted country to freedom and
prosperity, knew how to put away from him the
temptation of absolute rule, preferring to dwell as a
simple citizen among the people he had saved, pass
ing his honored old age on his well-tilled farm, be
loved, revered by all his countrymen.

XXXVI
EPIPOL/E AND THE ANAPO
Castle of Euryalos — Athenian Siege of Syracuse — Capture of
the City by Marcellus — Up the Anapo — Papyrus — Foun
tain of Cyane — Modern Naiads.
It is an interesting journey and a long one from
the Castle of Maniaces, at the southern extremity of
Ortygia, to Fort Euryalos, from one end of ancient
Syracuse to the other, a distance of more than four
miles by the footpath along the southern edge of
Epipolae, or more than five and a half miles by the
carriage road which winds along at the base of the
cliffs that rise above the valley of the Anapo.
Fort Euryalos stands at the western extremity of
Epipolae, at an afigle of the walls of Dionysius I., who
employed sixty thousand men and six thousand teams
of oxen for two months in building the wonderful line
of fortifications with which he surrounded the five cit
ies. It is true that before the days of Dionysius there
was a fort on Epipolae ; the Athenians under Nicias
occupied it when they first landed on Thapsus, but
Dionysius greatly enlarged and strengthened it, exca
vating numerous passages, all of which communicated
with a great, central, open court, where the garrison
could resort when driven from the outworks. There
are also countless galleries hewn in_ the solid , rock,

EPIPOL/E AND THE ANAPO 32 1
through which the soldiers found their way to outly
ing towers and parapets, and there are still to be seen
stations where catapults and other engines of offensive
and defensive warfare were mounted on the walls.
The fortress is surrounded by a dry moat or fosse,
from which diverge many interconnected, subterranean
passages, which were used as exits for infantry and
cavalry to the plain of Thapsus.
When the army commanded by Nicias began the
investment of Syracuse, Euryalos was an isolated fort ;
having taken it by surprise, the Athenians intrenched
themselves securely within it, before undertaking the
construction of that part of the military wall which
extended from the Great Harbor to the heights of
Epipolae, where they built an outpost known as " The
Circle." The Syracusans did not vigorously oppose the
erection of the Athenian wall from the Great Harbor
to the Circle ; but, after the arrival of Gylippus, when
Nicias began to build from the Circle down to the
Bay of Trogilus, the Spartan commander prevented
him, by building outward from Acradina a counter-
wall, which, extending along the ridge of Epipolae,
intersected the proposed line of the Athenian wall,
and continued onward in the direction of Fort Eury
alos. Traces of the wall and counter -wall are dis
coverable in various places, and there are extensive
remains of the walls of Dionysius divergent from
Euryalos and cresting the cliffs of Epipols. Of won
derful extent were the fortifications erected from
time to time by different builders on the triangular
plateau of Epipolae, and the ruins of them confirm all
statements that have been made concerning their
soUdity and strength.

322 PICTURESQUE SICILY
When MarceUus besieged the city he was held at
bay for nearly three years by the machinations of
Archimedes and the desperate courage of the Syra
cusans ; but Marcellus was a persistent man and he
waited patiently for the opportunity which presently
came to him. During the celebration of a three days'
feast of Diana, the great goddess of the Syracusans,
the people of the pentapolis, thinking themselves
secure within their mighty walls, gave themselves
over, after the manner of Belshazzar and the Baby
lonians, to revelry and drunkenness. The Romans
did not seem to be pressing the siege ; the engines of
Archimedes were idle. This was Marcellus's oppor
tunity. The Roman soldiers, having found a weak
spot in the defence, scaled the wall and slaughtered
the drunken guards where they slept. Then Roman
trumpets sounded the charge, and the warriors of
Marcellus, rushing in, took possession of the whole
open ground of Epipolae.
The story runs that when the Roman general en
tered Syracuse in triumph, he sent for Archimedes,
who was engaged in the solution of a mathematical
problem. The sage asked to be allowed to finish his
work before obeying the command of the Roman gen
eral. A soldier, misunderstanding his words, drew his
s'word and killed him. So perished mathematicorum
princeps — supremum SicilicB ornamentum ; so passed
also the glory of ancient Syracuse, which had been
for centuries an independent, a ruling city, the great
est city of Sicily and Europe. The sceptre departed
from her, and for more than a thousand years the
" City of Cities " remained a provincial town under
the dominion of mighty Rome.

EPIPOL/E AND THE ANAPO 323
There is a wonderful view from the Castle of Eury
alos. From its ruined battlements the traveller may
study to advantage the topography of Syracuse and
the surrounding country. To the east the foreground
is occupied by the barren, ruin-heaped table-land of
Epipolse, the entire surface of which has been cut and
carved, stripped of the square blocks used in building
the walls and fortifications of the five cities. The
serrated lines of cliffs diverging from Euryalos to the
east and southeast form a right -angle triangle, of
which the cliffs of Acradina are the base. On the
northeastern corner of the plateau adjoining Acradina
are the ruins of Tyche, and on the southwestern cor
ner (also adjoining Acradina) are the remains of Ne
apolis. Beyond the cliffs of Acradina extends the
blue expanse of the Ionian Sea. Sixty-five miles in
the north, across the Bay of Thapsus, beyond the
promontory of San Croce and the Bay of Catania,
./Etna uplifts its pyramid, and to the right of the
Mountain of Mountains the coast of Sicily extends
northeastwardly along the Strait of Messina in a suc
cession of promontories, the nearest of which. Mount
Taurus, shows in front of the dim outline of hills that
look down upon Scylla and Charybdis. In the north
east, across the Ionian Sea, stand the front ranks of
the Aspromonte Mountains, and behind them, at the
verge of vision, showing faintly like the shadow of
clouds, there are suggestions of the sky-line of the
Apennines of Calabria. To the west, beyond the
Valley of Anapo, rise the hills about Floridia and
the foot-hills of the Sierras of Erei, which extend to
Enna, in the heart of Sicily. Down in the valley of the
Anapo, on the shore of the Great Harbor, the site of

324 PICTURESQUE SICILY
the Athenian camp is discoverable, and the eye rang
ing over the round expanse of water rests on Ortygia
and explores the shore of the promontory of Plemmy
rium beyond. On the southwest rise the hills whence
flows the River Asinarus, on the banks of which Nicias
and his seven thousand laid down their arms ; and far
beyond these in blue silhouette appears the misty
outline of Cape Passaro, lifting its broad head and
flanks above the purple African Sea. The whole east
ern coast of Sicily from Charybdis, over against Scylla,
to Pachynus — a distance of one hundred and ten miles
— is in full view from our outlook on the ruins of
Euryalos, and sight and imagination never weary of
the contemplation of so magnificent a panorama.
One delicious morning we took passage in a barca
navigated by four rowers and a steersman, crossed the
Great Harbor, passing close by the site of the Athe
nian camp, now a marshy, reed - grown expanse of
shore, and, avoiding with difficulty the sand-pits and
shallow waters at its mouth, entered the River Anapo,
to begin our explorations of the most celebrated of
Sicilian streams.
The Anapo rises in the Eraian Mountains, and, after
flowing for twenty -five miles, at first through pictu
resque ravines, then across the plain to which it gives
its name, empties into the Great Harbor of Syracuse.
We experienced great difficulty in ascending the
stream, owing to the narrowness and shaUowness of
its bed, but the February rains had raised the water
in the channel, and we were able to pole our barca to
Ponte Grande, where the road to Noto crosses the
Anapo. Passing under this modern structure, we pro
ceeded for half a mUe, and came to the remains of an

EPIPOL/E AND THE ANAPO 325
ancient bridge, where the stream is crossed by La
Via Helorina. Here the Athenians, in their first skir
mish with the soldiers of Gylippus, drove back their
enemies, and, fording the river, continued their retreat
to the hills of Floridia. At this point we left our
boat, and after a walk of ten minutes ascended a knoll
fifty or sixty feet above the sea, on which we found
the ruins of the Temple of the Olympian Jupiter. Of
this grand edifice — first mentioned in history in 493
B.C., when Hippocrates, the tyrant of Gela, pitched his
camp near it when he came to besiege Syracuse— but
little remains. Two badly mutilated, broken columns
are all the relics of the shrine which Gelon enriched
with a mantle of gold captured from the Carthagin
ians at Himera. This same mantle was worn by the
god whose statue Cicero describes as one of the three
most beautiful in the world. Dionysius robbed the
Olympian Jupiter of his cloak, saying that as it was
" too cold for winter and too heavy for summer use,
the god would be more comfortable during both sea
sons in a cloak of wool."
We remained long, haunting the old ruins, wonder
ing at the utter desolation of the plain, so often the
camping- ground of armies, admiring the charming
view of distant Syracuse, the living town on Ortygia,
and the four dead cities on the heights. Returning
to our boat, we resumed our explorations, following
the winding channel through the Palude Pantano
(Palus Lysimaleia), the pestilential malaria of which
has destroyed multitudes of warriors who, in times
past, besieged Syracuse. A mile from the mouth of
" the great stream," as Theocritus calls the water
course that to-day deserves no grander name than

326 PICTURESQUE SICILY
brook, we came to where the clear waters of Cyane
mingle with the tawny floods of the Anapo, and,
leaving the latter, ascended the former stream, now
known as Fiume Pisma. The Cyane is a wayward water
course, which wanders to and fro, hngering long amid
meadows and orchards. Its banks are beautified by
masses of papyrus, " the plant of the NUe," which only
along the margin of this stream and by the fountain
of Arethusa in Ortygia is still to be found anywhere in
Europe growing in its natural beauty.
We advanced but slowly because of the sudden turns
and wanderings of the river, and our progress was im
peded by masses of floating ranunculuses and water-
cresses, which choked the channel. Nevertheless,
rowing, poling, sometimes towing the boat, as they
waded the shallow places, our boatmen won their
way up-stream, and, where the tangle of papyrus ren
dered it impossible to use a tow-line, boatmen and pas
sengers, grasping the tough reeds, slowly but surely ad
vanced against the current. Behind the papyrus which
overhangs the bank are dense plantations of cane,
reeds, and flags, alternating with open meadow-lands,
on the margin of which red Sicilian cattle stood knee-
deep in water to gaze curiou.sly at us as we passed.
And where the land had been drained are wheat-fields,
vineyards, orchards, and groves of ancient olive-trees,
planted in the days of the Saracens.
The banks of the Cyane are most picturesque and
finely colored ; the green papyrus stalks, crowned with
golden tassels, show against a background of yellow
cane. Almond-trees fill the air with the sweetness of
their blossoms, and the green turf is covered with a
snow of petals. Everywhere there are flowers, es-

EPIPOL/E AND THE ANAPO 327
pecially such as flourish by sweet waters and love the
borders of clear, flowing streams. The waves of the
Cyane are wonderfully clear and transparent, so pellu
cid that when we looked down into them it was impos
sible to guess the depth of the stream, which seemed
to possess the mysterious power of magnifying all ob
jects immersed in it ; the deepest pools, reflecting heav
en, shone with the blue of the Alpine gentian. The
great charm of the river, however, is the papyrus, the
sight of which carried our thoughts back to the days
of King Hieron II. , " the ally of Rome, the friend of
the Egyptian Ptolemies," who, to please his dearly
beloved wife, Philistis (whose beautiful profile is to
be seen on old coins of Syracuse), brought the parent
plants from the River Nile, or, as it is not improbable,
received them as a gift from one of the Ptolemies to
embellish a garden for his queen on the banks of the >
Cyane. There is no vestige of the bowers and ornaments of
the garden of Philistis ; four of the five cities of Syra
cuse lie in ruin ; the ruins themselves have perished ;
the gods have forsaken the temples where Hieron and
his queen worshipped, but the Cyane still flows onward
to the sea, and, uplifted in the morning light, reflected
in the blue depths of the stream, we beheld the
Egyptian plant, the gift of a Ptolemy to a Greek king,
flourishing as in the beginning of history, when it grew
on the banks of the ancient Nile.*
When our passage was barred by the densest
growths we had yet beheld, we forced our boat on-
* There is no papyrus of natural growth to be found, to-day, in Egypt.
The plants to be seen growing in the fountains of Cairo were trans
planted from the Botanical Gardens of Amsterdam, in Holland.

328 PICTURESQUE SICILY
ward beneath bending masses of papyrus that touched
crowns across the stream, and found ourselves floating
on a beautiful circular fountain, named in honor of the
nymph who, under the form of a lovely maiden, was
wooed and wedded by the river - god Anapus. We
seemed to float in the air ; the pool was so wonder
fuUy transparent we could behold fish swimming in
its depths, and pebbles lying at its bottom, thirty or
forty feet below. We were enchanted by the loveli
ness of La Pisma, "the dark -blue spring, the mirror
of Cyane," as Ovid tells us, of all Sicilian nymphs
most beautiful, who, when Pluto was carrying off Pros
erpine, attempted to arrest the flight of cruel Dis, and
was changed by him into a fountain, which sprang
from an opening to the infernal world. In ancient
times the Syracusans held an annual festival in hon
or of Persephone on the banks of this same fountain,
and near it are the ruins said to mark the place where
anciently there was a shrine to Cyane. Cicero tells
us that in this pool bulls were immersed before be
ing sacrificed in honor of Hercules, who, to refresh
himself, bathed in the clear water as he passed by
driving the herds of Geryones. One of the marvels
of the fountain is the deep azure of its waters ; not
even in the grotto of Capri are the waves more in
tensely blue.
Suddenly the silence of the place was broken and
our privacy invaded by a crowd of shouting boys,
who, all unbidden, disrobed and leaped into the pool,
where they disported themselves, diving and swim
ming for long distances under water. When they
dived to the bottom of the pool the azure water
transformed them, so that they resembled figures

EPIPOL/E AND THE ANAPO 329
carved from lapis lazuli. When they came up from
the depths they assured us that they were " dying of
hunger." Two dark-eyed maids, appearing at the edge
of the pool, peeped shyly at us, a^id then disappeared
behind the papyrus, where we heard them laughing
and splashing in the water. Presently we beheld them
swimming in the transparent water of the pool, where
they were in their element and as much at home
as " nixies " or very youthful naiads. They swam
round and round our boat, begging for soldi and
" qualche cosa per mangiare " ; were most importu
nate, were not to be denied, nor were they to be
warned or shamed away. Playing naiad cannot be an
agreeable pastime in the month of February even in
Sicily. The poor nixies, if that is the name of the
little people who preside over fountains now that the
naiads have departed and Pan is dead, turned blue
with cold. Their little teeth chattered, and when it
seemed possible that they might drown we paid into*
the dripping, benumbed hand of each of them what
ever it may have been, and softly entreated them to
be gone. They swam to the margin of the fountain
and disappeared into a bower of tangled papyrus.
Truly, if we had not indeed beheld Cyane, we could
not say that even in these prosaic modern days, naiads
do not haunt the once sacred spring, and we should
not have marvelled greatly had our boatmen told us
that from the rocky shores of Old Plemmyrium, which
we beheld rising in the south across the Great Har
bor, we could
" Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea.
And hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."

XXXVII
THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS
Portus Ulyssis — Polyphemus the Cyclops — "The Columbus
of Sicily" — New Naxos — Tauromenion — A Portentous
Sunset.
The railway from Catania to Messina extends
along the Strait of Messina close to the water's
edge. Three miles to the northward of Catania our
train skirted the shore of the Bay of L' Ognina,
said to be the Portus Ulyssis, a harbor, according to
Virgil, sheltered from all the winds of heaven, afford
ing ample anchorage for many ships, but near /Etna,
which threatens with many thunderings at any mo
ment to overwhelm the fleets with horrid ruin. On
the beach of this land-locked haven /Eneas encoun
tered Archimenides, the miserable sailor abandoned
to his fate what time Ulysses and his companions
fled from the wrath of Polyphemus. On the heights
overlooking the bay was the cave in which Ulysses
and his companions were confined by the Cyclops.
By the shore of L' Ognina, long before the coming
of Ulysses, the nymph Galatea was wooed and won
by Acis, the shepherd - boy, the successful rival of
Polyphemus. The latter had seen, and in his uncouth
fashion had made love to, the fair daughter of Nereus,
and having surprised Galatea and Acis in their bower,

THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS 33 1
the monster tore great rocks from the side of ./Etna,
and, hurling them, crushed and killed the dainty shep
herd. Galatea was inconsolable for the loss of her
lover, and her heart-rending grief so touched the
gods that they took pity on her and changed the
blood of Acis into a limpid stream, thereafter to be
called by his name, the waters of which anciently
nourished the Catanian fields. For this reason, in
Katana there were to be seen temples and shrines
of Galatea, who was no less honored than Ceres her
self. The fires of /Etna long ago drank up the sacred
river, and to-day the pleasant land where the nymph
and the shepherd wandered hand in hand is hidden
fathoms deep beneath the lava flow of 1380 A.D.
Ulysses avenged the murder of Acis when he blinded
Polyphemus by putting out the Cyclops' solitary eye,
preparatory to escaping with his companions from the
cavern under the bellies of the Cyclops' sheep, when,
in the morning, they were driven afield.
The name of Acis is perpetuated to-day in Aci Cas
tello and Aci Reale (" the castle and land of Acis").
Aci Castello, seated on a lofty isolated rock, is a med
iaeval fortress, of which a deed of gift was made in
1296 by the Bishop of Catania to Ruggiero di Loria,
Grand Admiral of the kingdom of Sicily when that
sea-king abandoned the cause of the Aragonese and
lent his mighty aid to the Angevins. This act of
treachery was celebrated as a great and glorious deed
by the chroniclers of the bishop's court, but later his
torians have labored in vain to save the name of
Loria from the dishonor that tarnishes the fame and
blackens the name of a traitor. Between Aci Castello
and Punta dei Mulini (anciently called Cape Xiphonius)

332 PICTURESQUE SICILY
there rises from the sea at a distance of a few hun
dred yards from shore a group of seven small islets,
known as the " Faraglioni deUa Trezza " or " Scogli
de' Ciclopi " — Scopuli Cyclopum. Of odd shapes and of
bizarre formation are these rocks, which the blinded
monster hurled at the ships of Ulysses when the son
of Laertes, newly escaped from the cavern in which
the Cyclops " dammed up his flocks," was piloting his
vessel to the open sea. " The top he tore
From off the huge rock, and so right a throw
Made at our ship, that just before the prow
It overflew and fell, missed mast and all
Exceeding little ; but about the fall.
So fierce a wave it raised that back it bore
Our ship so far, it almost touched the shore."
Then, when Ulysses taunted Polyphemus with his
blindness and impotency, one other rock,
" In size more amplified
Than first, he ravished to him, and implied,
A dismal strength in it, when, whirl'd about,
He sent it after us."
The installation of two of the seven rocks of Cy
clops in their present position is thus accounted for.
Of the five others Homer makes no mention. AU of
them, like the crags of Aci Castello, are composed of
basaltic columns, plutonic crystallizations. That the
huge fragments of rock were thrown from ^tna by
some superhuman force there seems to be little reason
to doubt. Concerning /Etna, its fire and smoke, its
throes and convulsions. Homer maintains unbroken
silence ; nevertheless, he must be a very prosaic and

THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS 333
sceptical person who will lightly cast doubt upon the
story of Ulysses and Polyphemus merely for the sake
of establishing a more or less probable geological
theory. The largest of the Scogli de' Ciclopi, pre
sumably that one which Polyphemus hurled into the
sea when making his second shot at the " dog-faced "
hero's ship, measures two hundred and twenty feet in
height and more than two thousand feet in circumfer
ence. It is used to-day as a station of the Hydrograph-
ic Institute of Italy, and whatever may be the truth
concerning its original installation, its present exact
situation has been as accurately determined by almost
indefinitely repeated geodetic observations as that of
any other dot upon the map of the world.
Beyond Aci Reale the town of Giarre lies upon the
slopes of /Etna high above the sea, and the country
round was anciently famed for its chestnut-trees of
almost unimaginable height and girth. The mon
strous sequoias of the Yosemite Valley, the giant eu
calypti of Australia, might be hidden away in a
grove ofthe famous " castagni," under the branches
of one of which — " II Castagno dei Cento Cavalli " —
Giovanna I. of Naples, with her entire suite, found
refuge during a tempest. Beyond Giarre the Valley
ofthe Alcantara divides/Etna from the Monti Pelori-
tani. Near the mouth of the Alcantara (Arabic, El-
kan-tarah), the Acesino of the Greeks, on the curving
neck of Capo Schisto, Theocles, the Columbus of
Sicily, founded in the eleventh Olympiad (73.5 B.C.)
the city of Naxos, the first Greek settlement in Sicily,
one year before the arrival of Archias at Ortygia,
where he built the city afterwards called Syracuse.
At Naxos, as Thucydides tells us, Theocles built an

334 PICTURESQUE SICILY
altar to Apollo Archegetes (the Founder and Begin
ner), the first monument of Greek civilization erected
in Trinacria. So much for Thucydides, but Sicilian
scholars of to-day usually find warrant for asserting
and maintaining that when Theocles set up in Naxos
his shrine of Apollo the Founder, there already existed
in Sicily — had existed, in fact, for more than one or
two centuries at least — one temple at Selinus, temples
of Vulcan and Hercules at Acragas, a temple of Diana
on Ortygia, and a temple of Ceres at Enna, and pro
bably many more in other parts of Sicily. Certain
Sicilian archaeologists resent the statements of Greek
historians to the effect that when Theocles arrived in
Trinacria he found a race of barbarian troglodytes.
Signor Chiesi, who has written by far the best descrip
tive work on Sicily, laughs to scorn the assertion of
the German Schneegans that the ancient Siculi, shut
up in their island, removed from contact with the civ
ilized world, were savages of the Stone Age, whereas
the Greeks, the Phoenicians, and the Egyptians were
in every sense of the word highly civilized peoples.
Signor Chiesi agrees with Herr Schneegans so far as
the Phoenicians and the Egyptians are concerned, but
as for the Greeks, never and again never ("mai e poi
mai "). Were there not countless temples in Trin
acria, he asks, centuries before Theocles landed with
his fellow -pirates upon the shore near the city that
probably was possessed of temples and shrines ages
before one stone of Athens was laid upon another?
We shall not foUow the two scholars into the mazes
of their argument. The question seems little likely
to be settled definitely, and we shall probably never
know for certain whether there was a man called The-

THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS 335
ocles, or whether he founded the city, or captured one
ready made (whereof its Sicilian name stands in the
shade), and called it after his adopted country, the
island of Naxos. But who can assure us that there
ever lived such a man as Lud, or whether he actually
founded the town he named after himself, the city we
of to-day call London ?
Not a trace, not a vestige remains of Naxos. Aban
doned shortly after its foundation by Theocles and
his followers, the city fell into ruin, Dionysius de
stroyed it utterly, and the Naxians disappeared from
history and ceased to be.
A mile beyond the sand-dunes which cover the site
of the city of Theocles we came to the station of
Giardini-Taormina. Giardiniy the port and emporium
of Taormina, lies between the foot of Monte Tauro
and the bay to which the town gives its name.
In i860 Garibaldi and his One Thousand, their
Sicilian campaign gloriously ended, embarked from
this little seaport to win new triumphs at Reggio, at
Naples, and at Volturno. It is a happy dramatic co
incidence that from the town whence Garibaldi sailed
on his expedition for the liberation of Italy, there,
more than twenty-five centuries earlier, Timoleon set
foot on shore when he arrived in Sicily for the pur
pose of freeing the people from the yoke of their ty
rants. At that little town, snuggling under the cliffs
of Monte Tauro, close by the sea, the paths of these
two heroes crossed — two men so strikingly alike in
heart and soul, in honest purpose, in courage, and in
truthfulness; two soldiers who, inspired by the same
lofty ambitions, had devoted their transcendent abili
ties to the cause of Sicilian freedom: — Timoleon, " the

336 PICTURESQUE SICILY
Deliverer"; Garibaldi, "the Liberator"; the two grand
est names in the Sicilian annals of thirty centuries.
Nearly four hundred feet above the sea the ancient
town of Taormina occupies a narrow platform be
tween a precipice and the cliffs of a giant rock on the
top of which are to be seen the ruins of a Saracenic-
Norman castle. Looking up from Giardini, Taormina
seems to be but one long street, a row of houses totter
ing on the verge of perpendicular cliffs, with their backs
to Monte Tauro. This street follows the irregular
outline of the face of the crags, winding for more than
a mile from the Greek theatre to the picturesque
ruined tower of the Palazzo Giampoli. The road from
Giardini to Taormina ascends the steeps of a beetling
promontory, making many bends and zigzags, crossing
and recrossing the seaward face of the rock. From
every turn of the road grand views are to be obtained
of the Strait of Messina, north towards Scylla and
Charybdis, south past the rocks of the Cyclops, and
for miles and miles onward to Syracuse and Cape
Pachynus — a panorama of the whole length of the
eastern coast of Sicily. Across the strait the As
promonte mountains lift their superb outlines in the
east. We had reached Giardini in the afternoon shortly
before sunset, and as we journeyed up to Taormina
we beheld a series of marvellous pictures that do not
fade from memory. When we had almost gained the
summit, having ridden for some minutes with our
backs to the setting sun, we turned sharply to the
west, where the road doubled an elbow on the steep
face of the hill. The spectacle presented to our- as
tonished gaze set our hearts beating. There was re-

THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS 337
vealed so magnificent a vision of earth, sea, and sky
that one almost feared to look upon it. Thirty miles
away the snow-crowned summit of /Etna uplifted it
self immeasurably towards heaven. The contour of the
mountains was limned against the sky as if etched in
radiant gold. Below this shining outline the vast bulk
of the pyramid showed in violet, deepening down
ward to royal purple. Hitherward the valley of the
Alcantara lay beneath a dense, deep shadow as black
as velvet, and yet, like velvet, reflecting a faint, mys
terious sheen of light. High above /Etna the heavens
were as blue as sapphire, but in the far west transpar
ently golden. The crests of the mountains and the
tops of the hills confronting /Etna and facing the set
ting sun caught and held wonderful hues of orange,
pink, and rose -colored light, the glories ofthe dying
day. Far to the south, even to the limits of sight, the
sea lay in mysterious amethystine shadows — "the pur
ple sea " of Homer and the ancient poets ; the sun, ap
parently, unimaginably increased in size by compari
son with the bulk of earthly things, was setting ; the
great golden orb dropped imperceptibly until its
lower hmb seemed almost to touch the rounded sum
mit of the cone of ^Etna. For a moment it floated
just above, then stood round and fair, seemingly bal
anced upon the apex of the wonderful pyramid ;
slowly the shining globe sank behind the dome, and
impenetrable shadow rushed down the steeps and hid
the hither worid in the blackness of night. Now we
could see with distinctness a plume of smoke drifting
on the wind from the mouth of the crater, glowing
brilliant, fiery red, as if lighted by the glare of volcanic
fiames. A light mist driven by the west wind rolled

338 PICTURESQUE SICILY
up from the farther side of the mountain and, curling
in fantastic wreaths, crested the sky-line of the summit.
Like the plume of smoke, these mists seemed to catch
the reflections of a stupendous conflagration, and the
beholder might well imagine that the volcano was in
active eruption, that all its far side was a mass of boil
ing, seething lava, emitting blood-red flames. It was,
indeed, a stupendous spectacle ; the contadini in the
vineyards paused in their work ; and women, leaving
their dwellings, came into the open to gaze in awe at
the phenomenon as they told their beads ; men crossed
themselves, and a group of children near the place
where we passed ceased playing and ran to their homes
as if to seek refuge from the terror that was in the
sky. Intense, unbroken silence held all the air and
added to the mystery of the visitation, and it was a
blessed relief to the strained senses when a church bell
began tolling for vespers. The portent lasted but a
few moments, and as the mimic fires of /Etna and the
conflagration of the heavens began to pale, we passed
beneath the arch of an ancient gateway and entered
the town of Taormina.

XXXVIII
TAORMINA
Snow-flakes and Almond Blossoms — Mola — Teatro Greco —
Isola Bella — Castello Alessio — /Etna — Garibaldi Modelled
in Snow.
During the night of our arrival at Taormina it
began snowing, and stormed incessantly for forty-
eight hours. The front windows of our apartment in
the Hotel Timeo opened to the south, looking towards
/Etna, but view there was none save of drifting, fall
ing veils and wreaths of white that filled all the air.
We did not suffer from the cold, because, in addition
to the blankets on our beds, we made use of our
travelling-rugs, and under these we slept at night, or,
wrapped in them, sat while indoors during the day.
Ih the evening, when the air nipped shrewdly and our
wraps hardly sufficed to keep us warm, the cameriera,
a buxom, jovial lass with brilliant large eyes, teeth of
wonderful whiteness, a smUe as sunny as mid-summer,
and a most comforting laugh, brought into our cham
ber two scaldaraji (deep copper platters containing
a few handfuls of smouldering charcoal). These she
placed between our feet, and, gathering our phylac
teries carefully about them, made us as snug as snug
could be. Thus swaddled, we sat for hours like chil
dren taking a make -beUeve sleigh -ride without the

340 PICTURESQUE SICILY
accompaniment of bells and all the snow falling out-
of-doors. So we passed the evening pleasantly until
bedtime, and then forgot in happy slumbers the storm
that raged outside.
As it began, so the snow cea.sed to fall, in the night,
and when the sun arose on the morning of the third
day a brilliant, sparkling light glorified the white dome
of /Etna and rendered the sea and shore resplendent
beyond imagination. With intent to behold the grand
prospect to be had from the hills above Taormina, we
were early abroad, and, taking our way to Mola, fol
lowed a narrow bridle-path which led us through al
mond orchards, all sweetly blooming, untouched of
frost, although the blossoms were covered with snow.
Up the mountain-side we climbed over a paved cause
way that zigzagged back and forth across the side of
the huge rock on the brow of which sits the giant
Castle of Mola. Up these same heights Dionysius of
Syracuse climbed one winter's night, B.C. 304, to capt
ure the castle preliminary to assaulting the town, and
down this same steep hill - side he rolled when the
towhspeople drove him from their walls. But Diony
sius had many lives, and, fighting, ran away to live
and fight another day, when Mola had cause to rue
the hour she refused his first advances.
After an hour of steady scrambling over the rocky
highway, rendered slippery by the melting snow, we
came to the only gate of Mola, more thah two thou
sand feet above the sea, and, entering beneath its mas
sive archway, found ourselves in a most curious med
iaeval piazza, on the side of which stands a large
church having a curious portal with a round arch
resting on pUasters of red marble. We saw a Greek

taormina 341
inscription imbedded in the masonry and tried, but in
vain, to decipher the time-worn words. Opposite the
church were stone settles, with their backs against the
parapet of a semicircular bastion, the face of which
dropped perpendicularly to the foot of the rock. On
these seats, basking in the sunlight, sat a company of
old men, who kept their backs to the morning sun,
warming themselves. Piteous old men ! Shrivelled
and shrunken, feeble, decrepit, world-worn wrecks of
humanity were these ancient citizens of the mountain
town. Their eyes blinked painfully, teased by the
dazzling snow reflections, their numbed hands trem
bled as they grasped their staves or held their cappotti
muffled about their palsied bodies. Fully fifty of
them there were, all doubled and crooked by the
weight of years, fifty hopeless, helpless paupers, "sans
teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans — everything." One
could readily imagine that the Fates had forgotten
them, leaving them in their hopelessness to drag out
in bitter torment what was left to them of superflu
ous, miserable life. Around these human wrecks
strayed a crowd of children, silent, inactive, joyless,
numbed and stiffened by the unaccustomed cold of
the past few days of snow and storm. Fancy the
wretchedness of the old and feeble, of the sick, of
the children, confined for days in comfortless cabins,
tomb -like, fireless rooms, without glass in the win
dows, with earthen floors and stone walls; fancy the
misery of all these helpless ones during the cruel, cold,
and driving fury of the February gale that scourged
them all those bitter days while we, well clothed,
muffled in our wraps and blankets, had found it diffi
cult to keep warm even in our beds in the well-built,

342 PICTURESQUE SICILY
well -furnished Hotel Timeo. The people of Mola
crawled about like benumbed bees, seeking the sun
niest nooks where they might warm their chilled and
sluggish blood. The sufferings they had endured for
three days had been too intense to be lightly forgotten,
and the dreary folk were not able to put away melan
choly thoughts, to smile, to enjoy the sweetness of
the glorious morning. They cowered in the sunlight,
a ragged, starved, and pinched concourse of woe-be
gone humanity. Within five minutes after our arrival
in the town we were surrounded by a limping, hob
bling, hungry crowd of beggars, who so beset us, ac
companying our every footstep, that we shortened our
stay in Mola, anxious to be gone from a scene of mis
ery and distress. We visited the castle, where we had
hoped to enjoy a magnificent prospect, but even the
grandest panoramas made little impression upon our
minds ; our thoughts were filled with sad imaginings,
conjured up by the sight of the host of miserable fel
low-beings that waited for us at the castle gate.
Ah ! what a land of delight would Sicily be were
it not for the multitude of unutterably wretched be
ings that haunt the fairest scenes like ghosts from the
nether world visiting the glimpses of Paradise ! " Sici
ly is the smile of God " ; in that wonderland all nature
is magnificent, lavish, prodigal, but the people of this
earthly paradise suffer the agonies of Tantalus, whUe
Tisiphone, with her fearful sisters,
" Sits on the threshold day and night
With eyes that know no sleep."
Descending by the same way by which we came, in
less than half the time it took to make the ascent, we

taormina 343
found our way to the Greek theatre of Taormina, ex
cavated twenty-three centuries ago, from the northern
face of that spur of Monte Tauro which projects bold
ly from the main mountain.
The vast semicircular auditorium of step-like seats
opening towards the south upon a grand and en
chanting panorama of the Ionian Sea, the east coast
of Sicily, and the pyramid of /Etna, is three hundred
and thirty-six feet in diameter and encloses an orches
tra one hundred and thirty feet in width. The whole
interior of the theatre was originally veneered with
heavy plates of marble, many of which were stolen
away by the Dukes of Santo Stefano to embellish
their palaces. The descendants of these despoilers
studiously circulated the report that the marble had
been removed by Saracen infidels in their rage for
destroying all monuments of the glorious past ; but
the Saracens, in this instance, were the dukes them
selves, and their act of vandalism recalls the pasquin
ade : " What the barbarians left the Barberini carried
away." The Romans enlarged and restored the old
structure that had fallen into ruin and retouched the
original decorations, but their work, when compared
with that of the Greeks, is in very doubtful taste.
Where the latter built with smooth, chiselled blocks
of stone the former used bricks, which gives to their
additions and restorations a tawdry and vulgar appear
ance. The scena is the most important part of the
theatre still remaining. Of all existing Greek stages
that of Taormina is the only one, except the stage in
the theatre in Pamphylia, that retains its original form,
exhibiting the details of its construction. It remains
to-day in an almost perfect state of preservation, so

344 PICTURESQUE SICILY
far, at least, as its ground-plan is concerned. It is safe
to say that in order to gain an adequate idea of the
construction and arrangement of an ancient Greek
theatre, one has but to visit Syracuse, Segesta, and
Taormina, for the details that are wanting in any one
of the three structures are to be found in one of the
other two. The back of the scena presents the appear
ance of a grand portico with enriched columns, and in
the wall are niches where were placed the statues of
gods and heroes. The actors performed in front of
this portico on a proscenium of moderate width ex
tending forward to the orchestra. Two lateral and
one central door gave entrance from a corridor that
enclosed the stage, and to the right and left were
dressing and waiting rooms of great size, with lofty,
arched ceilings, the latter testifying to their Roman
origin. The Romans also enclosed the Greek auditor
ium with two grand galleries, thus doubling its seat
ing capacity, which is said to have been sufficient to
accommodate forty thousand people. The inner one
of the two galleries was supported on forty-five col
umns, corresponding to as many pilasters surmounting
a wainscoting pierced with thirty-six niches for the re
ception of statues. From the inner gallery downward
graduated rows of seats arranged in nine cunei and
approached by ten flights of steps carved in the rock
extended to the platea behind the orchestra and
chorus. The two upper galleries were accessible only
by stairs leading from the outside of the enclosing
semicircular wall of the theatre.
The superb proportions, the massive construction,
the architectural beauty of the Greek portion of the
edifice awakened admiration forthe artistic and poetic

BADIA VECCHIA. TAORMINA

taormina 345
genius of an era and a race that produced this monu
ment of a once living and glorious civilization. As
we gazed in silent wonderment at this work of the
ancients we were not oppressed by the feeling of awe
that overcomes the visitor to the Colosseum at Rome,
that stupendous monument of the brute force of the
subjugators of the world. We were enchanted by the
artistic inspirations of the place, and felt the calm,
pure influence of a race of men that before all else
loved art and worshipped beauty in spirit and in truth.
The Colosseum awakened thoughts of bloody con
tests, gladiatorial shows, ferocious tragedies, orgies,
hecatombs of human beings thrown to wild beasts or
delivered to the rage of brutal executioners who set
rivers of blood flowing "to make a Roman holiday"
for a superlatively cruel people. In the Greek theatre,
looking out upon the calm splendors of the sea, upon
the wonderful prospect of far-reaching coasts, upon
snow-crowned /Etna smoking with eternal fires, our
thoughts turned to the triumphs of /Eschylus, Soph
ocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, who in this self-same
place, ages and ages ago, took tribute of tears and
laughter, ruling the hearts and minds of countless
multitudes. Here Timaeus of Tauromenion recited
his annals ; here also were chanted the songs of Ste
sichorus of Himera, and the noble verses of the Grand
Old Man of Chios, who first of all sang the wonders
of this Land of the Cyclops.
Marvellous prospect ! Seated in the auditorium of
the ancient theatre of Taormina, one looks across the
stage, out between Corinthian columns and broken
Roman arches, a fit frame for an inspiring picture,
upon a glorious landscape of sea, of shore, of hill and

346 PICTURESQUE SICILY
valley, of /Etna standing between the earth and sky.
What sweeping coast-lines and sky-lines of mountains !
What color ! Violet distances, purple mountains, am
ethystine sea, gold of reaped fields, dark green of or
ange groves, silver of olive-trees and almond blossoms,
glistening snows of the Pillar of Heaven, and over all
the wonderful, deep, lustrous blue of the Sicilian sky.
On the plateau behind the theatre we found a nu
merous party of young men and boys engaged in roll
ing the soft, damp snow into cylinders resembling the
frustum of a column of marble. Four of these drums
the lads placed end on end, one* above the other, rais
ing a shaft about seven feet in height. This they
quickly shaped with their hands into the form of a
man wrapped in a toga, or long cloak, which fell from
the shoulders of the figure in by no means ungraceful
folds to the ground. Then one of the elder lads,
mounted upon the shoulders of two others, roughly
modelled a bust and head surmounted by a visorless
cap. The sculptor gave place to another and younger
lad, the genius of the party, who skilfuUy brought out
a resemblance to Garibaldi in the rough, and, working
dexterously with his fingers and a piece of stick, de
veloped the resemblance until, without exaggeration,
we may say we beheld a striking likeness of " The
Liberator." The beard, the nose, the eyes, and the
ears, the well-known cap, all were so skilfully de
signed that no one familiar even in a slight degree
with the features, form, and favorite attitude of Gari
baldi could for one moment doubt the verisimihtude
of the snow statue. So delighted were we with the
remarkable work of these young artists born and bred
that we clapped our hands and shouted " Bravissimil"

taormina 347
The boys modestly doffed their caps and stood ex
pectant as we slowly examined their work. We asked
one of them if they attended an art school : he smiled
and pleasantly informed us that he and his compan
ions were apprentices to tradesmen in Taormina, to
carpenters, upholsterers, and the like, and that they
had only amused themselves in modelling a statue of
" The Grand Soldier"
" Had you a portrait, a sketch, a photograph, from
which to copy so cleverly the details of the likeness?"
we asked.
" Niente, signore — all Sicilian boys have the picture
of Garibaldi in their hearts," said one of the youths,
as he took off his cap and bowed gravely towards the
statue. Presently one of the brightest - eyed of the group
asked if I Signori were not Americani. Answered in
the affirmative, he asked if Garibaldi was celebrated
in America. We told him yes, and that in our own
city there was a statue of Garibaldi, whom Americans
honored as one of the noblest men of all times. The
boys were wonderfully pleased, and when one of them
struck up Garibaldi's Hymn the whole company sang
with great spirit as it marched round and round the
snow figure. By-and-by the lads crowded around us
to ask innumerable questions about America, the ques
tions revealing their lack of knowledge of the country
and its people. They listened patiently to our answers,
straining their ears and minds to understand our bad
Italian. One of them, the principal spokesman, in
formed us that in two or three years when he had be
come a man he intended to go to America, where, he
said, " there is much work, much pay, and plenty of

348 PICTURESQUE SICILY
money for everybody." Instantly there was a cry :
" Anche io ! Anche io ! — I also, I also am going to
America; I am strong; there is much work to do in
America and much money."
Was it strange that we could not resist the tempta
tion to invite these brave fellows to accompany us to
the hotel, there to drink " un poco di vino " to the
memory of Garibaldi. And they came, a dozen or
more, and when the glasses were filled with wine and
water, we gave as our " brindisi " " Garibaldi." This
toast they drank with many cheers, but each lad in
obedience to the word of him who seemed to be their
leader, the young artist who had put the finishing
touch to the statue, kept half a glass of wine. Then
the toast-master, removing his hat, in a loud voice pro
nounced the word " America !" and the glasses were
drained to the last drop. A small cake apiece com
pleted the happiness of the members of this interest
ing company, and with many hearty hand-shakes they
took leave of us and marched up the street leading to
the Greek theatre, shouting "Viva 1' America!" and
singing Garibaldi's Hymn.

XXXIX
FAREWELL TO SICILY
Spellbound — Messina — Scylla and Charybdis — In the Grasp
of Charybdis — Messina to Naples — The Rocks of the Sirens.
The wonders of Taormina attracted us indescrib
ably ; the genius of the place beguiled us into forget
fulness of the fleeting hours, and charmed away all
thought of setting forth on further wanderings. Ev
ery evening we planned to depart for Messina, our
last Sicilian journey ; every morning we wandered
away to lose ourselves in the almond orchards on the
hill-side below the Hotel Timeo, or turned our steps
to the old Greek theatre, thence once more to gaze
at the marvellous prospect^of /Etna and the Ionian
Sea. Not until two weeks after our arrival at Taor
mina (we had intended staying there but two days)
did we break the spell that bound us and prepare to
take our departure. But, like unwilhng school-boys
returning after their holidays to their books, we were
loath to leave the most fascinating country-side we
had beheld in all Sicily. Truly, we were sad at heart
when we took our places in the compartment of the
railway carriage that was to bear us from the wonder
land where we had dwelt in great content and happi
ness for so short a time.
The engine gave an unearthly shriek as it dashed

350 PICTURESQUE SICILY
away from Giardini and plunged into a tunnel under
the foot of Monte Tauro, shutting out in the twin
kling of an eye all view of the landscapes we loved to
look upon. When we came again into the sunlight,
looking seaward, we beheld Isola Bella, the dainty sea
girt garden whence we had rowed one lovely after
noon, across the bay to the blue-and-green grottos,
which, although not so renowned, are nevertheless as
wonderful and as weirdly picturesque as those of Capri.
Rounding the sea-face of a promontory, we came in
sight of the great crags of Capo Alessio surmounted
by its castle, one of the noblest ruins in Sicily, and of
all most grandly placed. For a few moments we be
held high above us the rock -rooted Norman keep,
rose -colored and golden in the afternoon sun, and
then the train rushed into the blackness of a tunnel a
thousand feet below the foundation-stones of Ales-
sio's towers and battlements.
From Giardini northward, for thirty miles, the rail
way skirts the shores of the Strait of Messina, which
narrows and narrows, crowding in between the moun
tains of Sicily on the west and the Calabrian Apen
nines on the east. At one moment the train whirled
along narrow ledges hewn in the wall of cliffs over
hanging the sea; at the next, dashed through tun
nels, or crossed bridges thrown boldly over deep and
gloomy caflons down which, in winter and during
summer rains, rush the incalculable, irresistible floods
discharged into the sea by countless "fiumare." These
fiumare are to be distinguished from the " fiumi " of
Sicily ; the latter are constant streams, increasing or
diminishing their flow in proportion to the volume of
rainfall, but nevertheless sending at all times and sea-

FAREWELL TO SICILY 351
sons a more or less rapid or sluggish current across
the lowlands seaward. The fiumare, on the other
hand, run dry when they have drained the mountain
sides, and their channels, parched by the hot sun, re
semble ruined giant highways rather than the beds of
water-courses. Most interesting is all the land along
the shores of the Strait of Messina ; the mountains,
rising precipitously from the sea, are cleft and riven
by fiumare ; on the intervening heights, and especial
ly on the verge of promontories, are ruins of old
castles of Saracen, of Norman days — of older times,
when Romans fortified every headland, every coign of
vantage, against the attack of enemies who time and
time again, invading Sicily, attempted to take pos
session of the " Key to the Mediterranean." The
general trend of the eastern shore-line of Sicily, from
Messina to Syracuse, is slightly concave, suggesting the
appropriate simile "the unstrung bow of Ulysses."
This configuration brings the whole coast into view
from both ends of the bow and from intermediate
capes and promontories projecting into the sea. The
grandeur of the scenery may readily be imagined
when the height of the mountains on each side of
Fretum Siculum, as the strait was anciently called, is
borne in mind. The Calabrian Apennines, on the east,
uplift their peaks between seven and eight thousand
feet above the sea, the Montes Pelorides rise on the
west to almost equal heights.
Opposite Galati we beheld across the shining waters
the seaport Reggio, ancient Rhegium, where St. Paul
landed on his voyage from Syracuse to Puteoli ; and,
a little to the north of Reggio, and opposite Treme-
stiere, tower the loftiest, peaks of the Calabrian Moun-

352 PICTURESQUE SICILY
tains that rise from the " Toe of the Italian Boot."
Owing to the outline of its shores and tidal move
ments of its waters, there is almost always a strong
current setting north or south, according to the pre
vailing wind, through the Strait of Messina, even now
one of the great water highways of the world, which
hourly presents a busy scene of great interest to those
who take delight in watching the manoeuvring of
countless ships, fleets of coasters and fishing-vessels.
We had lingered so long at Taormina that we were
able to devote but a few hours to sight-seeing in Mes
sina — " Messina la Nobile," as it has been called for
many centuries. But we had inquired diligently con
cerning what guide-books call " the attractions, feat
ures, and places of interest " in and about the city,
had studied carefully many books of travel, from all
of which we learned that, while Messina occupies, per
haps, the most ancient site of all Sicilian cities, it con
tains but a few remains of antiquity, still fewer relics
of mediaeval days, and almost no objects of contem
poraneous interest. Owing to its position, exposed in
all ages to countless sieges, assaults, land and sea at
tacks, bombardments, conflagrations, and earthquakes,
Messina of the Greeks, of the Romans, of the Byzan
tines, of the Saracens and Normans — in a word, Mes
sina of the past, has disappeared utterly from the face
of the earth. Even as late as 1848 the Neapolitan
soldiers of King Bomba ruthlessly obliterated the few
remaining relics of ancient days which had escaped
the unimaginable destruction wrought by time and
weather, by natural convulsions, but principally by
hosts of enemies during ages of incessant warfare, un
til the citadels, monuments, churches, convents, pub-

CASIELLO S, ALESSIC

castello S, ALESSIO

FAREWELL TO SICILY 353
he buildings, and private houses of Messina were re
duced to an indescribable mass of rujns. On these
ruins has risen a new city, modern Messina, recon
structed since 1848 — a handsome, well-built town of
about seventy thousand inhabitants, the seat of an
archbishopric and of a university, and second in com
mercial importance to Palermo alone of aU Sicilian
cities. The houses of Messina extend along the shore
for the distance of one and a half miles, occupying a
narrow strip of land between the water and the hills.
On the slopes above the town are vineyards and olive
groves, orchards and gardens, and all the rounded
heights are crowned with fortresses and the connect
ing crests with lines of fortifications.
" II Porto di Messina," the grand harbor, about four
miles in circumference, is enclosed by " II Braccio di
San Ramieri," a low sand spit, which extends into the
sea in the form of a sickle, recalling the fact that the
founders of the city (Greek pirates from Cumae) called
it " Zancle " (The Sickle). II Corso Vittorio Emanuele,
" La Marina," which curves along the margin of II
Porto, is flanked by an imposing row of three -story
buildings, once the palaces of nobility, but now trans
formed, many of them, into warehouses, which at cer
tain seasons are literally packed with boxes of oranges
and lemons. At the time of our visit to La Marina
these fruits seemed to be as common and plentiful as
coals on the docks and wharves at Newcastle.
Promptly on our arrival at Messina we were driven
to " La Matrice," the cathedral founded by Count
Roger in 1098, but we found little of the Norman
structure remaining save the portals of the fagade,
which are enriched with wonderful stone carvings, the
23

354 PICTURESQUE SICILY
pulpit of sculptured marble, an alto - riUevo of Saint
Jerome by Gagini, and a few badly preserved landscapes
in " tarsia " on the backs of the seats of the choir. Of
the twelfth -century mosaics, for which this cathedral
is justly celebrated, we saw nothing, as they were
screened by canvases, behind which workmen were
busy making certain restorations deemed necessary
for their preservation. Upon the altars in some of
the chapels we noticed sundry cheap tinsel votive
offerings of pious sailors who had escaped the dangers
of the sea, as they believed, through the intercession
of the saint, or of the Madonna, to whom the shrine
was dedicated. We examined curiously some of these
gifts — models of ships, rough sketches of tempest-
tossed vessels — and we recalled the fact that in the
ancient temples of Neptune, one of which stood on
Cape Pharos, near the city, and from which twenty-
six columns of granite were brought to embellish this
same Christian cathedral of Messina, Greek and Ro
man mariners had hung upon the altars of the sea-
gods similar offerings to testify their gratitude to the
divinities who had rescued their supplicants from " in
satiate Charybdis and the wrath of Scylla." Strange
importations from a pagan temple of material and
ceremony to embellish and sanctify a Christian church !
As in the days of Neptune, so now in the " Day of
the Son of Man," the question, " Where, then, are the
mariners who vowed but were not saved?" remains
unanswered — unanswerable.
/Eneas himself could not have wished for fairer
skies or smoother seas than favored us when the
Calabria steamed out of II Porto di Messina. Seven
and a half miles away and dead ahead we beheld the

FAREWELL TO SICILY 355
rock of Scylla shining brightly in the sunlight, on
the Calabrian side of the channel, so plain a mark
that it would indeed go hard with us if we were not
able to shun its teeth and fangs. But we remembered
that Charybdis lay in wait for us half a point off our
port bow, and there was no teUing what a little care
less twist of the helm might do if, in avoiding the
danger we plainly saw on our right hand, we timor
ously gave Scylla too wide a berth, and so fell into
the tangled currents on our left.
There is little trouble in locating Scylla. Even at
night or during thick weather the rock, which in
Homer's time was " a roaring and voracious chimera
of the sea, a beautiful virgin above, a monster with
wolf's body and dolphin's tail below," is easily to be
recognized and as easily to be avoided. It stands
boldly out from the precipitous coast, which trends
northeast from the narrowest part of the Strait of Mes
sina, a lofty, rounded promontory on which is seated
an ancient castle frowning down upon the town that
lies at its southeastern base. Flowing close by the
foot of the rock is a tide-rip, or eddy, sometimes digni
fied by the title "The Whirlpool of Scylla"; and
evidence is not wanting to prove that the whirlpool —
not the rock — was the terror of mariners in classic
days. We shall provoke no argument on this point,
but merely indicate that the doubt as to the identity
of Scylla arises from the fact that the advocates of
the whirlpool theory translate the words " in Scyl-,
lam," occurring in the well-known line " Incidis in
Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim," " into Scylla,"
while those who maintain the rock theory insist that
the true meaning is " upon Scylla." A similar con-

356 PICTURESQUE SICILY
fusion of ideas exists regarding Charybdis, so that of
only one thing we moderns may well be sure — to wit,
that Charybdis is not, and never has been, a rock, as
most classical dictionaries and encyclopaedias would
have us believe. Charybdis is a current which sweeps
along the shore of Cape Faro, off the point of which
there is a whirlpool that, even to-day, is considered
dangerous to sailing-vessels. But the name Charybdis
is also applied to a circular current which ebbs and
flows at the point of the Sickle of Messina, seven and
a half miles from Cape Faro. This latter-mentioned
whirlpool is called "II Garofano " (The Carnation), ow
ing to its form and the appearance of its waves, which
rise and spread in widening circles like the petals of
that flower. But most to be feared is that whirlpool
of Charybdis at the point of Cape Faro, where " The
Strait" is no more than thirty -six hundred yards in
width — that is to say, from Faro, in Sicily, southeast-
wardly across the water to the fishing village of Can-
nitello, in Calabria. We were given an exhibition of
the force and eccentricity of this strenuous tide-rip
when, mindful of the warning of Ovid (" medio tutis-
simus ihis"), we ran the gantlet of Scylla and Charyb
dis (which feat of seamanship we had little difficulty
in performing, as Scylla is but a little more than three
and a half miles distant from Faro, about five points
to the south of east) ; and so escaped from the narrow
confines of the Strait of Messina into the widening
expanse of the Tyrrhenian Sea. As the Calabria,
keeping close to the point of Cape Faro, crossed an
imaginary line drawn between the Sicilian Sands and
the Rock of ScyUa, we noticed a large schooner be
calmed within two hundred yards of the crescent sand-

FAREWELL TO SICILY 357
spit, that forms what American and Dutch sailors call
" the point of the hook." There was not a breath of
air stirring, and the little craft was drifting rapidly
with the current that would inevitably carry her, and
in a very few moments, upon the sands in front of the
light-house on the Cape. Her crew had seen the dan
ger that threatened them, and people on shore were
signalling frantically, shouting, gesticulating, running
up and down the beach in a state of great excitement,
expecting the stranding of the apparently hopeless
vessel. The great depth of water under her keel pre
cluded the possibUity of bringing the schooner to an
chor, and there were no tugs in sight. But the crew
were equal to the emergency. Two boats, with tow-
lines made fast in their stern sheets, were promptly
got away, and these joined by a larger boat from
shore, and all directed by the master of the schooner,
were pulled to a distance of a hundred yards ahead of
the vessel obliquely from the line of her drift until
they reached the calm water outside of the sweeping
current. Rowing lustily, the oarsmen in the three
boats checked the set of the schooner towards the
sands, and she slowly, almost imperceptibly, swung
out of danger, just grazing the point of the hook with
her rudder-post as she slipped from the grasp of " en
gulfing Charybdis."
Interested in watching the manoeuvres of the en
dangered schooner, we entirely forgot our own imag
inary peril and without special wonder passed safely
into the open sea north of Cape Faro, from which
foreland we laid our course to the Rocks of the Sirens,
at the entrance to the Bay of Naples.

APPENDIX

LA MAFIA
Some Sicilian scholars write the word with one "f " (Mafia),
others with two (Maffia)., Giuseppe Alonghi, for instance,
prefers the latter, Giuseppe Pitrfe the former orthography.
Beyond Sicily the word is commonly spelled Mafi&a. There
is a Tuscan word " Maffia " (a synonym of " miseria " —
i. e., misery, distress) ; but Pitrfe denies that the Sicilian
word is derived from, or bears any relation to, the Tuscan
" Mafiia." Roquefort, in his Glossaire de la Langue Ro
mane, attempts to prove that Mafia is derivable from Maufe
— Maufais — e. g., le dieu mauvais ; i. e., le diable. Other
writers, seeking the root of the word in the Arabic, pretend
that Mafia is derived from Mk-ifir, the name of an Arab
tribe anciently settled at Palermo. Pitre asserts that Mafia,
a word little known prior to i860, is used to describe an
idea or thing peculiar to Palermo or western Sicily. He
states that in II Borgo, a district of Palermo, the word
Mafia, with its derivatives, formerly implied beauty, grace,
perfection, excellence of an especial type. A handsome girl
of the people, conscious of her good looks, showily dressed,
stylish, striking, "stunning," was said "to have mafia,"
"to be mafiusa," "mafiusedda." The house of a citizen
of II Borgo, strongly built, well furnished and arranged,

360 APPENDIX
was spoken of as " una casa mafiusCjdda," or " ammafiata."
An object of domestic use of evident superior quality was
described aS "mafiusa." Often in Palermo to-day one hears
the street-cry "Arance-mafiuse" — "fine oranges" — etc.
The word Mafia, used in its original sense with reference
to a man, formerly implied more than mere physical at
tractions — viz., " the consciousness of being a mari, and
acting a man's part," displaying true courage as distin
guished from boldness, bravado, arrogance, truculence. " A
man of mafia " — " mafiusu " (or, as the Italians write it,
" mafioso ") — did not necessarily inspire fear, because few
men were more polite, mote mannerly, than the Mafiusi of
old days. Since i860 the word Mafia has received a new
interpretation. It no longer possesses the significance orig
inally given to it by the denizens of II Borgo di Palermo.
In 1863 Giuseppe Ri'zzoto, a playwriter of Palermo, wrote
and acted' in a, melodrama representing certain phases of
life in the great prison of Palermo. Rizzoto at first called
his play (which originally consisted of two acts) " I Mafiusi
della Vicaria," which may be- translated "The Heroes of
the Penitentiary." Having scored a wonderful and instan
taneous success in his dual role of playwriter and actor,
Rizzoto added two acts to his play and reproduced it under
the title " I Mafiusi," a melpdrama which ha^ kept the boards
for thirty years, having been performed more than three
thousand tiilies in the principal cities of Sicily and Italy.
In time the naraes and the deeds of I Mafiusi of the prison
of Palermo became Ijnown to all classes of Italians, and in
this way the words Mafia and Mafioso insinuated themselves
into the common speech of Italy. Mafia is to be found in
none of the older standard Italian dictionaries ; it is, how
ever, beginning to be recognized by lexicographers, who
accord it a line in their latest editions. So much we can
say concerning the word Mafia, its orthoepy, its orthography,
and its etymology ; but when we come to deal with La Mafia,

MESSLNA CATHEDRAL

APPENDIX 361
the thing, the idea — in Mr. Rudyard Kipling's phrase, " that
is another story."
That a definite and satisfactory answer to the inquiry.
What is La Mafia ? is wanting, may be due to the fact re
corded by Giuseppe Alonghi, that " It is dangerous for
Sicilians to occupy themselves too earnestly with the study
of this question." With other writers Alonghi holds that
La Mafia is not a sect or cult, nor yet an association having
rules, regulations, or by-laws ; that II Mafioso is not neces
sarily a brigand, a robber, or a highwayman. Pitrfe describes
II Mafioso simply as " a man of courage and self-reliqnce, of
action," " Che non porta mosche sul naso" ("Who does not
allow flies to sit on his nose ") ; but this definition falls far
short of the modern purport and significance of the word.
La Mafia is the consciousness of one's own importance
and power ; an exaggerated conceit of one's own individ
uality, in the sense of being superior to moral, social, or
political law, sole arbiter of all questions concerning one's
relations to other individuals or to society at large. Hence
the intolerance of II Mafioso of all authority, his contempt
for law, his lack of respect for the opinions of others, his
truculent defiance of all authority save that of his own in
dividual judgment, his refusal to appeal to law to establish
his rights. If he is offended he declines to have recourse
to the ordinary channels of justice, he refuses to go to law.
If he does so, it is held to be a proof of his weakness (" de-
bolezza "), and is, moreover, an offence against the unwrit
ten code of La Mafia known as " Omertk." La Mafia is a
phase of Sicilian society ; it is not a compact organization
of individuals bourtd together by oaths, a secret society of
members who recognize one another by grips and pass
words. It is a state of social immorality tadtly acquiesced
in by an indefinite number of Sicilians, who order their
living, regulate their thinking, according to a code of ethics
called " Omertk."

362 APPENDIX
According to Bonfadini, La Mafia is a development and
perfecting of individual influence, enhancing every possi
bility for evil-doing. It is the expression of the brutal in
stinct of self-preservation on the part of all individuals who
wish to live, not by labor, but by violence, crime, and in
timidation. Franchetti describes it as the survival of a med
iaeval sentiment which brings about a union of persons of
all ranks and classes, of all professions, of all kinds, who,
without apparent reason for constant and regular associa
tion, find themselves always reuniting to promote their
common interests, to nullify the operations of law and jus
tice, and to set at naught the authority of government.
This " mediaeval sentiment " operates most powerfully upon
the minds of men who believe themselves able to order
their own affairs independently of equity and law. La Ma
fia, therefore, may be said to be a conspiracy of the strong
and masterful against the weak and fearful.
Only a small minority of Sicilians are veritable Mafiosi,
but this masterful, active minority, inspired by the spirit of
evil, "having OmertS, in their hearts," terrorize the unor
ganized, timorous, passive majority, the peaceable citizens
who go in fear they know not of what evils, and, knowing
the impotence of law to protect them, are disposed to shield
the criminal rather than to deliver him up to justice, choos
ing to perjure themselves in order to acquit a Mafioso who
has injured them rather than, by testifying against him, to
run the risk of falling victims to his vengeance.
The Mafiosi, who have their so-called code of honor (as
have the believers in the code of the Duello), disregard
social law, and, accepting Omertk, are guided by its teach
ings, and by it regulate their lives and adjust their rela
tions to their fellow-men. In the opinion of the Mafioso,
Omerta lifts him above all law, and imposes upon him the
obligation to settle all controversies by force and violence,
or, if he himself is not powerful enough to accomplish his

APPENDIX 363
purpose, by appeal to the most powerful representative of
Omertk in his district. This appeal of the less to the
more powerful creates the distinction between " alta" and
" bassa " Mafia, high and low Mafia ; " the Mafia in yellow
gloves " and " the Mafia in caps," two classes of Mafiosi,
the protectors and the protected, patrons and clients.
Members of the alta Mafia settle their difficulties with
the sword, the' bassa Mafia with knives, and no member of
the Mafia, high or low, considers himself completely satis
fied if the adjustment has not been brought about by
other means than by an appeal to social law. Mafiosi have
no respect for law ; they are a law unto themselves, and be
lieve that " tra la legge e la Mafia, la piu temibile non h la
prima " — " between law and La Mafia, the first is not the
most to be feared."
Sicilian scholars are not of one mind concerning the ety
mology of Omertk, but the weight of authority is in favor
of the definition " manliness,'' " to play the man," " to be
serious, earnest, strong," or, as the Sicilians say, "to have
blood in the veins." Omertk, from Omu (Sicilian), Uomo
(Italian) a man.
Omertk, the code of ethics of La Mafia, consists of popu
lar sayings, proverbs, apothegms, expressed generally in " il
gergo Mafioso," a variable, inorganic vernacular or slang
that resembles " the patter " of the English swell-mob or of
American " crooks." The purport and intent of Omertk is
to awaken and keep alive and active in the minds of those
whose natural criminal tendencies fit them to be the in
struments of La Mafia sentiments that encourage every
Mafioso to make himself independent of law and soci
ety, e. g. :
" La furca b pri lu poviru, la giustizia pri lu fissu."
(" The gallows for the poor, justice for the fool.")
This and many other proverbs express the contempt of
La Mafia for law. That a Mafioso should always be on

364 APPENDIX
his guard and go armed is a theory inculcated by many
proverbs ; e. g.:
" Scupetta e mugghieri nun si 'mprestano."
(" Never lend your gun or your wife.")
It will be noted that "gun " is raentioned first, as the
more important article of the two. A favorite threat of the
Mafiosi is :
" Si moru mi drivocu, si carapu t' allampu."
(" If I die I shaU be buried, if I live I shall kill you ")
(" t' allarapu," i. e., snuff you out suddenly like a larap).
Oraerta also teaches the uselessness — the absurdity, in
fact — of investigating crime or attempting to discover a
criminal :
" Quannu cc'e lu mortu, bisogna pinsari a lu vivu."
(" When a man is dead, it is better to think of the living.")
The most commonly used of all the proverbs of Omerta is :
" Sangu lava sangu."
(" Blood washes blood.")
Above all, Omertk inculcates the duty of silence. SicUians
find wit and wisdora in many proverbs the moral of all of
which is that " in the presence of the law silence is a
duty." " Beir arti parrari picca."
(" To speak little is a fine art.")
" Cui parra si cunfessa, e cui fa detta paga."
(" Who speaks confesses, and he who makes debts pays.")
" La vucca fe traditura di lu cori."
(" The voice is traitor to the heart.")
" L' omu chi parra assai, nun dici nenti."
("The man who talks enough says nothing.")
" L' omu chi parra picca h sapienti."
("The man who talks little is wise.")
" La tistimunianza fe bona 'nsina chi nun nbci a lu pros-
simu." (" Testimony is good if it doesn't hurt the next one'.")

APPENDIX 365
" Zoccu nun ti apparteni nfe mali nfe bene."
(" Of that which does not concern you, say neither good
nor evil.")
Moreover, the following fable is famUiar to all Sicilians :
" Once upon a time Speaking and Eating requested King
Solomon to decide which of thera should control the Mouth,
and Soloraon decided that Eating, not Speaking, should
control the Mouth of Man, lest Speaking be the ruin of the
Man. Since then the less a Man talks the better he has
prospered." Silence and mystery are, therefore, the foundations of
Omertk. Unless he keep sOent, a Mafioso cannot be a
man (1' omu) as the word is defined by Omertk. He
must be silent if he wishes to remain hidden from the eyes
of justice. If he talks about others he contracts debts
that he will most certainly be called upon to pay to the
uttermost. If he has never talked he need not fear that any
one will testify against him in his time of trouble. Any
man who has the art of keeping silent, who believes that
he can protect himself against all other men, who scorns to
appeal to law for protection, who is the law to himself,
such a man has Omertk in his heart, and is said to be a
Mafioso. Now, this thing OmertS,, this so-called code of La Mafia,
prevails in Sicily, is respected throughout the island, to a
less degree, it is true, in the eastern than in the western
parts. If it be a survival of a raediaeval sentiment, as
Franchetti holds it to be, the fact that it is most powerful
to-day in those districts where the Saracens ruled longest
and most absolutely would seem to prove that Omertk is' a
relic of the lawlessness which characterized Moslem rule in
Sicily. Crimes are comraitted in the most daring manner, and
rarely, if ever, are the authorities able to discover the au
thors of them. Nobody denounces the raalefactors, al-

366 APPENDIX
though they may be well known ; nobody will give evidence
against the criminals if they are arrested on suspicion.
Not even the wounded victim of an assault, who may be
dying of his wounds, can be induced to break silence. "He
dies and raakes no sign," or, if he should recover, and be
strong enough and bold enough, he makes an early oppor
tunity to wreak his vengeance upon the authors of his in
juries. If he is not strong enough nor bold enough to deal
with his enemies he suffers and reraains silent. Frequently
it happens that in the first moraents after the commission
of a crime the police have succeeded in obtaining some
clue to the perpetrators of it frora a witness, who, in the
police court, at an unguarded raoment, or laboring under
great exciteraent, denounces the crirainals ; but at the jury
trial this sarae witness denies what he has previously said,
withdraws his accusations, and the crirainal escapes pun
ishment. The whole fabric of La Mafia rests on murder. The the
ory of Omertk is that the assassin is always, if not actually
present, lurking near, and prepared to act his part And
there is no department of social life in which this mysterious
power, the power that is greater than law, the power that is
greater than government, La Mafia, does not prevail.
All brigands are Mafiosi, but all Mafiosi are not brig
ands. It would be a great mistake to suppose that La Ma
fia confines itself to the commission of acts of brigandage
and assassination.
When one reads the tales of "brigantaggio," one can
weU believe that life in Sicily at the present time is in many
respects simUar to life on " the Border " during the first hun
dred years after the union of Scotland and England, " except
that the crimes of the Sicilian oudaws are unredeemed by
any touch of generosity, chivalry, or manly feehng of any
kind." * * T. Adolphus Trollope.

APPENDIX 367
Brigandage is the most violent demonstration of La
Mafia; it is that manifestation of Omertk of which foreign
ers naturally hear most, but, so far as the Sicilians are con
cerned, brigandage is by no means the worst feature of the
general lawlessness ; it is the phase of La Mafia that it will
be easiest to suppress. Of all the evils that afflict Sicily it
wUl be the first to disappear when the island is properly
policed ; it is rapidly disappearing, owing to the vigorous
and wise policy now pursued by the government at Rome.
The most potent for evil (" prepotente "), the cleverest
cheat (" farabutto "), the most daring villain (" facinoroso "),
the raost truculent bully— in a word, the ablest Mafioso in
a district — is known as Capo Mafioso, and this superlative
malefactor rules despotically until a stronger than he kiUs
him or usurps his authority. Every Capo Mafioso seeks to
secure as his partisans the assassins and malefactors of his
district ; he invites alliances with the Capi Mafiosi of other
districts, and these allies make common cause against all
enemies so long, and only so long, as their joint interests
are subserved by their unholy league. La Mafia of a district
(" Combriccola," an asserablage of evil-disposed persons)
is known to Italian law as " associazione di malfattori," or
"associazione a delinquere.'' Such associations are com
posed to a certain extent of the upper classes ("gentiluo-
raini"), and alraost without exception of the lower classes
¦("plebi"), or, as they are known in Sicily, the "galantuo-
mini" and " picciuotti." The members of the alta Mafia
rarely stoop to the commission of vulgar crimes. They are
powerful, are rich, or have established their reputation as
insolent, fearless, cruel bravos ; and they have but to hint at
the violence they wish to see coraraitted, and their retainers,
their clients, of the Mafia bassa, stand ready to act, to
raurder, to rob, abduct, burn, if the patron do but so much
as wink his eye or nod his head. In certain localities the
organization of La Mafia is more or less perfect, compos-

368 APPENDIX
ing a criminal society which in "il gergo Mafioso" is
known as "la cosca" (the leaf); a group of such societies
is called " la cacocciula " (carciofo — i. e., artichoke ) ; but La
Mafia is not a compact association, and so far as Sicily at
large is concerned there is no general organization of Ma
fiosi. Nevertheless, La Mafia is a complex social phenom
enon which manifests itself in as many ways as there are
crimes against God and human-kind. It infects and afflicts
the whole social and political life of Sicily. It is admitted
to exist, it, is accepted as a raatter of course, and it involves
all classes of society, it pervades every department of life.
As in other lands, in every coraraunity, there are evil-
rainded persons, so in each town and village, and in every
country district of Sicily, there raay be said to be Mafiosi,
who, without formal organization, consort together for the
furtherance of common interests. When it serves their pur
pose they act in concert in defiance of law and order ; their
interests changed and clashing, they quarrel araong them
selves, and by their vendettas throw the coramunity into dis
order, while they murder and corarait outrages without let
or hindrance. La Mafia operates with knife, with gun,
with dagger, with halter, with fire, and with poison. It
sequestrates people, whora it holds for ransora ; it tyrannizes
over honest people by the terror of its name. It enters into
affairs of all kinds ; it busies itself to secure verdicts in
the courts in favor of its friends, and to secure the con
demnation of its eneraies ; it terrorizes witnesses on the
stand and closes their mouths, or compels them, by the
silent, unspoken threat of its existence, to corarait perjury.
It is said that in tiraes past it even dared to coerce the
judiciary. Judges on the bench feared to deliver just ver
dicts with the vengeance of La Mafia hanging over their
heads like the sword of Damocles.
The condition of affairs implied by the existence of La
Mafia is not peculiar to Sicily ; the name La Mafia is sim-

CARVED PORTAL. MESSINA CATHEDRAL

APPENDIX 369
ply a SicUian name for a condition of society that has pre
vaUed in all countries in their progress from barbarism to
civilization, when those countries have reached an epoch in
their history similar to that through which Sicily is passing
at the present time. If Sicily to - day lingers under the
shadow of mediaeval barbarism, it is because SicUy has re
raained stationary while the rest of the civilized world has
advanced. " Sicily is not of to-day." She presents to the
study of the world a state of society for the analogue of
which, in England, we should probably have to cry back to
the tirae of Henry VII. or Henry VIIL, when England was
passing frora beneath the yoke of feudalisra and entering
upon a new and higher national life. In Gerraany a similar
condition of things existed in the years that followed the
disasters of the Thirty Years' War ; and France presented a
similar picture of semi-barbarism, of social disorder, during
the fifty years that preceded the French Revolution.
It is not true, as is sometimes alleged, that under the
reign of the Bourbons there was less crime in Sicily ; it is
not true that the thing called La Mafia was unknown prior
to i860. ,In the days of the Bourbons brigandage was a
monopoly, the profits of which were enjoyed by the govern
ment itself; the greatest Mafiosi in the island were the gov
ernraent officials, the most desperate bravos were the police.
Of the causes that have brought about a state of society
frora which La Mafia, with its code of ethics, Oraertk, em
anates as naturally as malaria emanates from a noisorae
swamp, it is not our purpose here and now to speak, but
we are convinced that La Mafia and Omertk are not the
causes of the disorder and misery that prevail in Sicily
to-day ; they are but two symptoms of a social disease that,
unless its progress is checked, will slowly but surely wear
away the life of a brave but unhappy people. Of one
thing we may be assured — the present government of Italy,
under Marquis di Rudini, himself a Sicilian, is wisely ap-

370 APPENDIX
plying the remedies which will, if persisted in, crush the
power of La Mafia, eradicate Omertk, and, finally, establish
a reign of law and order in an island that had been bar
barized by centuries of infamous misgovernment.
Note. — The foregoing account of La Mafia and Omerti has been
compiled from so many books, pamphlets, periodicals, etc., that it has
been impossible in every instance to credit to their authors the various
statements it contains. My object has been to cast a little light upon
a subject concerning which much matter has been given to the press
that is, to say the least, ill considered, if not entirely sensational. W. A. P.

BRIGANDAGE
Guy de Maupassant, treating of brigandage in Sicily in
the year 1890, unhesitatingly informs the travelling public
that if it is in search of " blows of poniards " and " arres
tations " it had better look for thera in Paris or in London
and not waste its time in Sicily. He moreover utterly dis^
credits the stories current in his and other countries of the
outrages on persons and property alleged to have been com
mitted by Sicilian highwaymen, and dismisses the subject
as arbitrarily as Theodore de Banville has settled the ques
tion of " poetical license." " II n'y en a pas 1" So of brigands
in SicUy, Guy de Maupassant would have us believe that
" there are none."
Rend Bazin, who visited Sicily in 1893, asserts without
fear of contradiction that there are no brigands in Sicily. " II
n'existe plus de brigands en Sicile." SicUians wUl tell you
that the idea that Sicily is infested by " briganti " is ridicu
lous. They admit, however, that " brigantaggio " is rife in
Calabria and Sardina, but not in Sicily. On the other hand,

APPENDIX 371
Calabrians and Sardinians assure you that if you are look
ing for brigands you raust go to Sicily.
It is not to be disputed that the brigand of classic tiraes,
the brigand of roraance and Italian opera, is no longer to
be found in SicUy. The fascinating villains, the popular
heroes, the Francatrippas, Pasquale Brunos, Schiavorris,
Luigi Vampas, Beppe Mastrillos — the picturesque cavalieri
who, in the Sicilian phrase, "gave theraselves to the cam
pagna " in the good old days, arrayed in velveteens and
gold lace, with plumes, proudly nodding in their hats, who
climbed mountains with the graceful agility of the chamois or
moufflon — the dainty gentry whose feet were encased in
kidskin boots, whose arms glistened with silver and inlaid
gold, have disappeared, and of them it may with truth be
said in the words of Rend Bazin, " ils n'existent plus." But
that there are ruffians, highwaymen, horse - thieves, and
assassins in Sicily may be readily gathered from the story
of certain members of La Banda Maurina — that is to say,
" The Brigands of Santo Mauro Castelverde, in the Province
of Palermo."
Santo Mauro has for raany years borne an infamous repu
tation as a resort of a band of desperadoes who oppressed
by their presence the neighborhood of their chosen en-
carapraent in the fastnesses of the Madonian mountains,
where they were wont to assemble. This band of miscre
ants murdered peaceable citizens, terrorized peasants and
proprietors alike, harried the country, coraraitting rapine and
arson, assaulted innocent men and women — and, untU late
ly, with impunity. Nor did these " bravi " hesitate to turn
their knives against their own associates, committing mur
ders on all occasions upon the slightest provocation, or
upon no provocation, at times apparently inspired solely by
the delight it gave them to shed human blood.
Shortly before we arrived in Sicily Giuseppe Leonardo
and Giovanni Botindari (ringleaders), and eight other mem-

372 APPENDIX
bers of the band, were arrested and safely lodged in prison.
Their trial, which lasted a month, was held in the Assize
Court of Palermo, and, as we were frequently present during
its progress, we learned the story of the criminals at the bar.
Botindari, who pleaded "not guUty " to thirty -two in
dictments for manslaughter, attempted to extenuate his
guilt by attributing his first crirae to " fate." He asserted
that he was the victim of a train of circumstances over
which he had no control, and insisted that therefore he was
morally innocent of all subsequent delinquencies, as he had
no alternative but to continue to live, as he was doomed by
social law to live after his first offence, as a thief and an as
sassin. He testified that he was born of respectable parents,
who sent him to school until he was thirteen years of age.
His parents died, and he began life as a macaroni-maker.
At nineteen he married, and lived happily with his wife and
children until he was twenty-five, when he fell a victim to
the "fatality" that wrecked his life and utterly changed his
career. Family troubles drove him to corarait murder ; he
attempted to assassinate his brother - in - law, and, fearing
the vengeance of the wounded man's famUy, fled to the
mountains — "gave himself to the campagna." From that
time he admitted he became an habitual criminal, and was
thenceforward known as " Botindari the Brigand." For all
his subsequent career of crime, he argued, he was not to
blame; " he was a victira of fate, of circumstances over which
he had no control." He reiterated that formula as if he
had found in it a balm for his troubled conscience.
Botindari's chief associate in crime was Giuseppe Leo
nardo, whose first offence (committed while he was a boy)
was the attempted murder of his cousin, with whom he had
a falling out about family raatters. Giuseppe went to the
house where his cousin was staying, called him out, and
fired a gun-shot at him, but missed him. In this way Giu
seppe Leonardo " gave himself to the campagna."

APPENDIX 373
The most sensational, although by no means the most
tragical, of all the exploits of La Banda Maurina was the
abduction and attempted assassination of Baron Spitalieri,
and its daylight attack on the castle of his aunt, the Bar
oness Ciancio. It was for this crime that the prisoners were
arraigned as above related.
It was known that the baroness, padronessa of the man
or of Santo Torado and other contiguous properties, received
the rentals from her lands on August 20. On that day
Baron Spitalieri went with his son Felice to Poira, the
country-seat of the baroness. The next morning the baron
left the castle, accompanied by several workmen, for the
purpose of showing them where to build a water conduit.
In a ravine near the castle he perceived some horses fully
caparisoned. At the same time he descried a nuraber of
armed men lurking in the underbrush. He did not at first
believe that they were brigands, as, up to that moment,
brigandage was not known in his country-side, and he had
been accustomed to go about alone.
" Are you the Baron SpitaUeri ?" asked one of the brig
ands. The baron replied " I am," and was immediately
surrounded ; his companions tried to escape. One of the
brigands said : " Do not be afraid ; we do not want to take
your life. We want money." He was taken to the castle,
and one of the band delivered a letter directed to the bar
oness, in which 50,000 lire was demanded for the baron's
ransora. Another of the brigands insisted that the " sum
ought to be 500,000 lire." Just at that moment II Baro-
nello Felice (the little baron) came running out of the door,
having a gun in his hand. The brigands fired at him, and
at the people who came to the castle windows. One of the
shots grazed the head of II Baronello, burning his hair.
A brigand assured the baron that they would kill "any one
who appeared in uniform or bearing arras." The life of
young Spitalieri was spared by Candino, who that day, act-

374 APPENDIX
ing as chief brigand, would not permit any outrage to be
perpetrated on the baron, on his son, or on his aunt the
baroness. The band, however, wounded a servant with a
knife, upon which Candino exclairaed, with an oath, " He
who to-day spills a drop of human blood will have to reckon
with me !" Quiet being restored, the baron's ransom —
50,000 lire — was paid to the brigands by the chaplain to
the baroness, and the baron was released. The brigands
departed, but soon returned and " with a flourish of arms,"
invaded all the apartments of the castle, smashing the fur
niture and ornaments. They found several boxes full of coin
and bank-bills; these the robbers emptied, taking in all
about 250,000 lire. The baron testified " that the brigands
literally stuffed themselves with bank-bUls, and one carried
off with him a sack of coin on his shoulder.'' When the
castle was looted the band finaUy departed, all save one of
the brigands, who returned to restore a gold watch, saying
" We do not want trinkets ; they are too compromising."
Nine months after the assault on the castle of La Baron-
ella, Botindari was captured by the carabinieri, after a desper
ate fight lasting five hours, during which the brigand chief
defended himself, stationed on the top of a high cliff in the
mountains. Thereafter Leonardo also fell into the hands
of the police, and later still the carabinieri laid certain other
members of La Banda Maurina by the heels after a hot
fight, which lasted an hour, during which Rinaldi, a particu
larly ferocious bandit, was killed in the conflict with the
public forces. Others of the brigands escaped, but tbe
carabinieri had broken up La Banda Maurina by capturing
eight of its members, killing others, and driving the remain
ing few from their accustomed lurking-places.
While the captured brigands were in prison awaiting their
trial, the fugitive members of La Banda Maurina made their
appearance in July, 1894, in the province of Messina. The
presence of the brigands in their neighborhood alarmed the

APPENDIX

375

citizens of Cesaro, a little town near Troina, and Francesco
Leanza, a farmer, determined to rid the country of the des-
perati. Leanza is a man of gigandc stature, a wonderful
shot, of whom Giomale di Sicilia asserts that " he can hit a
soldo piece with a bullet fired from his gun while his horse
is galloping at full speed." Be this as it may, Leanza, his
three sons, and two campieri (farm hands) succeeded in
steahng up close to five brigands seated around their camp-
fire, roasting the flesh of a cow they had stolen from a
herdsman of Pozzillo. At a signal from Leanza he and his
companions opened fire, and five "famosi maurini" were
killed. A sixth brigand, who had been acting as vedette,
hearing the reports of the guns, ran towards the camp-fire
and was promptly shot, dropping dead in his tracks.
It is the boast of the people of the province of Messina
that a brigand cannot set foot in their territory and live,
and Leanza and his men had vindicated the good name of
their native province. What wonder, then, that the six men
of Cesaro became the heroes of the hour, and were greatly
honored not only in their own town, but in all parts of the
island. For the " brillantissimo servizio " rendered to
their province and to the people of Sicily, Leanza, his three
sons, and his two campieri were given a reward of 25,000
lire, to be divided among them. By the death of the six
brigands La Banda Maurina was finally broken up — the
most redoubtable of its raerabers were dead or in prison
or had fled the country.
During the trial of Botindari, Leonardo, and their capt
ured associates, the prisoners were defended by sorae of
the ablest lawyers at the Sicilian bar. Botindari had the
services of seven advocates and counsellors of distinction
and ability. Leonardo was defended by three of the ablest
lawyers in Palermo. All the others had counsel, either
through retainer or through assignment by the court.
On the bench in the court-room, the ancient refectory of

376 APPENDIX
the Convent of San Francesco, sat three of the ablest and
most distinguished judges of the Italian courts. The jury
was carefully chosen, and the trial was conducted with a
solemnity and an impressiveness that would have become
the highest of English or American tribunals. The large
crowd of spectators attending each session was orderly,
intensely interested, but remarkably respectful in demeanor,
and the verdict of the jury (which reraained in deliberation
for six hours) was received by all law - abiding, patriotic
Sicilians with the greatest satisfaction. Exact and even
justice was meted out by the court and jury to as brutal a
gang of malefactors as ever infested any country in the
world. It must be remembered that the death penalty has
been abolished in Italy ; a fact that the many victiras of
La Banda Maurina stUl living undoubtedly deplore. Bo
tindari and Leonardo were sentenced to hard labor, in
solitary confineraent, for life. Others of the band received
rainor sentences, and two old men were discharged, as
there was no evidence that they had ever participated in
any crime, and they could not be held responsible in law
for the misdeeds of a younger generation of their fam
ilies. In relating the story of Botindari, Leonardo, and their
fellows in crime, it has been atterapted to set forth an un-
sensational description of brigandage as it exists in Sicily
to-day, to state facts as they are, to demonstrate that there
is not the slightest color of romance, of poetical glamour,
to be found in the records of the crimes perpetrated by the
brigands of a country where brigands are supposed to be
popular heroes of the hour, and where all such villains are
alleged " to go unwhipped of justice."
That such a state of affairs exists to-day in Sicily is to
be accounted for by the fact that " SicUy is not of to-day."
To appreciate and understand the present social conditions
of Sicily, we must employ the moral criteria of generations

APPENDIX 377
that have long since passed away from countries where
brigandage does not exist.
Sicily lies under the shadow of a dark cloud. " There is
no darkness but ignorance," and the ignorance of four-
fifths of the Sicihans is that of mediaeval times. " Is it the
fault of the islanders that they are poor ? Is it the fault of
the peasantry that they cannot read ; of the small landed
proprietors that they comprehend nothing of modern obli
gations? In a word, can we reproach Sicily for not being
civUized ? What chance has she had to become civilized ?" *
For ninety generations Sicily has been plundered by all
comers. Barely one generation has passed away since she
became free. What progress along the road of civilization
did the Anglo - Saxon race raake in one generation ? In
Doctor Johnson's time the Highlanders of Scotland were
more uncivilized, more barbarous, than are to-day the in
habitants of the wild mountain valley of Sicily. Brigand
age is a natural outgrowth of social conditions existing to
day in Sicily; soldiers and policemen can but repress it;
the school-masters will, in time, eradicate the evil.
While we are not willing to affirm with MM. Guy de
Maupassant and Rene Bazin that brigandage does not
exist in Sicily at the present time, we nevertheless have
no hesitation in stating that it is simply absurd for travel
lers to be deterred from visiting the wonderful island by
the fear that they may be captured, carried off to the
mountains, and held for ransom by Sicilian brigands. The
lurking-places of these " cavalieri d' industria " are few and
far between, and are not traversed by the main lines of
travel ; moreover, all places possessed of historical or gen
eral interest to the travelling public do not lie in what may be
called " the dangerous districts," and may be visited in per
fect safety at all times. We speak from personal experience.
* Le 'Vicomte Combes de Lestrade. La Sicile sous la Mon
archic de Savoie.

378 APPENDIX

THE SICILIAN QUESTION
" Sicily is the Ireland of Italy." In these words Italian,
German, and French writers of books on SicUy sum up their
statements of the " Sicilian Question." Sicihans insist that
the wrongs which accrue from the maladministration of
their public affairs by the Italian government are, in their
nature, " similar to the wrongs from which Ireland has suf
fered so many centuries under English rule." Some Ital
ians raaintain that the political and social disorders — La
Mafia, brigandage, etc. — which blight the prosperity of
Sicily are engendered by the sarae feeling of discontent
which provokes the Irish to hatred of all things EngHsh ;
while others adrait the misgovernment of the island. No
doubt there are two sides to the SicUian question, as there
are two sides to the Irish question. We have not space or
time to discuss the problem which is engaging the atten
tion and taxing the thought of Italian and Sicilian states
men, political economists, journalists, and pamphleteers ; a
problem which, whatever may be said of it, seems to bear
the same relation to Italian politics that the Irish question,
at present apparently in abeyance, has borne for so many
years to the politics of Great Britain. The fact remains that
just as there is an Irish question, so there is a Sicilian question.
M. le Vicorate Combes de Lestrade, in the opening
chapter of his valuable book. La Sicile sous la Monarchic
de Savoie, exclaims : " La Sicile, I'ile fortunde, le paradis
d'Europe, est devenue I'lrlande de I'ltalie. Aucune lamen
tation n'dquivaudrait k la tristesse de ce mot, couramment
employe. Des misferes de I'lrlande, des exactions qu'elle
a subies, est nde la question Irlandaise. La question Sici-
lienne est moins coraplexe encore, sinon plus aisde a x€-
soudre."

APPENDIX 379
"What is this everlasting Sicilian question?" asks Pas
quale VUlari, and, despairing of an answer to his inquiry, he
adds, " The more one studies it, the more one writes about
it, the more do one's ideas become clouded." True it is
that for many years Sicily has been afflicted by a deep-
seated and seemingly incurable social disorder, due to
many causes, but primarily to the miserable condition of
the commercial and laboring classes. The Sicilians them
selves are not agreed as to the source of their misfortunes.
They view the question from different stand-points, discuss
the results of endless investigations, dissent in their opin
ions as to the origin of the evils, and, presenting many op
posing theories concerning the value of suggested rera
edies, oppose facts with facts, words with words, engage in
endless arguments, apparently to no practical purpose.
According to some theories the unhappy state of the
plain people of Sicily, who from time to time manifest their
discontent with the existing order of affairs in passionate
protests, is due to a mad socialistic propaganda which has
inflamed the minds of the usually peaceful contadini. Ac
cording to others, socialism has nothing to do with the
matter. Others assert that the unhappy state of the coun
try is the inevitable, necessary, logical consequence of the
cruel treatment of the laboring classes by the proprietors of
the large estates ("proprietarijlatifondisti"). Others again,
maintaining that this theory is a calumny, seek to prove
that the Sicilian contadini are no worse off than the peas
antry in certain districts of continental Italy, where lati-
fondi (large estates) do not exist. Many students of the
question, while admitting that the condition of the people
is most deplorable, lay the blame entirely upon the Italian
government, which, they allege, misgoverns Sicily, imposing
oppressive taxes, while refusing to legislate in the interest
of the suffering masses.
While it may be truly said that no two of the innumera-

380 APPENDIX
ble publicists who have studiously investigated the Sicilian
question are agreed as to the true origin of the disorders
that afflict the island, it may with equal truth be said that
all of them are unanimous in declaring that the " land
laws " lie close to the root of the evil, if indeed they are
not the prirae causes of the misery and discontent — and of
the lawlessness, as demonstrated in the rule of La Mafia
and the prevalence of brigandage — that characterize the
social condition of Sicily to-day.
Two forras of agriculture prevail in Sicily : first, " coltura
intensiva" — i.e., the cultivation of small farms, vineyards,
and plantations of orange, lemon, almond, carruba, and
sumach ; secondly, " coltura estensiva " — i. c, the cultiva
tion of vast estates, pasture-lands, grain-fields. La coltura
intensiva prevails around .^tna, along the sea -shore from
Catania to Messina and frora Messina to Palermo, a littoral
region famed for its fertility. The inhabitants of this re
gion enjoy a greater degree of prosperity than the inhabi
tants of the other parts of the island where la coltura es
tensiva prevails. Vast pasture-lands and grain-fields occupy
three-quarters of the land of Sicily, and in these regions,
given over to latifondi, the traveller raay journey for miles
without seeing a house or even a tree. The phenoraenon
of the Sicilian latifondi is the natural consequence and
result of certain conditions of climate, soil — above all, of
peculiar social conditions of a belated civilization. The soil
of the latifondi is rich ; lightly scraped by a rude plough,
such as Virgil describes, and sparingly fertUized, it returns to
the husbandman eight times the araount of the seed sown, a
greater increase than is taken from the deeply ploughed,
well-fertUized fields of Tuscany. But the rainfall of Sicily
is inadequate, the country-side is houseless, there are few
wells, the air is unhealthy, the towns are few and far be
tween, there are not many roads, and these are bad, and
owing to the disordered state of society, there is little public

APPENDIX 381
security of persons or property. The inevitable result of
this condition of affairs is that small proprietors are not
able to cultivate sraall holdings profitably ; therefore, and
for raany other reasons, they make way for the great pro
prietors, who monopolize the land to the detriment of so
ciety at large.
The Sicilian latifondi are to a great extent held by the
descendants ofthe feudal barons, or by wealthy capitalists,
who, while drawing the revenues from them, rarely visit
their estates, preferring to intrust the manageraent to ga-
bellotti. These middle-men, relieving the proprietors of all
care and responsibility, provide the capital to work the
lands, pay the taxes, and return to the lords of the land a
certain fixed rental at stated periods. The disadvantages
of this system are apparent. The gabellotto, who rents the
land for a short period, is interested only in getting as large
and iraraediate a return as possible, and rarely improves the
property. Therefore, from year to year there is a notice
able degeneration in the fertility of the lands and in the
condition of the betterments. In raany cases the gabel
lotto, imitating the proprietor, sublets the estate to a su- ¦
gabellotto, who divides the estate into small parcels, which
he in turn sublets to borgesi (sraall farraers). In the social
scale the borgesi are but a grade higher than the giornalieri
(day-laborers). The su-gabellotti, in subletting to the bor
gesi, usually raake one or two forms of contracts, respec
tively known as " terrageria " and " metateria." According
to the first the borgese agrees to give to the su-gabellotto
three, four, or five "salme" of grain for each " salma " of
land. If the su-gabellotto does the ploughing and sowing
at his own cost, he receives more grain for each acre culti
vated, and this amount of grain the borgese has to pay at
the threshing floor, be the season good or bad. According
to the contract known as metateria, the borgese is bound
to pay to the su-gabellotto two-thirds of the crop, or, very

382 APPENDIX
frequently, two-thirds of the crop plus the seed which has
been advanced by the su-gabellotto. These are the two
forras of " contratti colonici " (farming contracts) that pre
vail in Sicily. Certain other deductions are made from
the small share of the crop set aside for the borgese ; for
instance, he has to pay " il dritto di messa," a measure of
corn to the priest who visits the fields to say mass and
bless the harvests ; " U dritto sfrido," that is, the waste of
seed ; " il dritto di cuccia," the macaroni given to the cam
pieri who guard the crops from robbers. Many other ex
tortions (" angherie ") are said to be practised by the middle
men whereby the borgesi are wronged and stripped of
what little profit they may have hoped to gain when they
contracted with the su-gabellotti to tUl the land on shares.
Is it any wonder that as the borgese is treated by his supe
rior, the su-gabellotto, in like manner does the latter treat his
inferiors, the giornalieri, who work for hira ? It is also
readily to be understood that when a large proprietor has
taken his rental from the gabellotto, and the gabellotto has
exacted his dues from the su-gabellotto, and the latter has
claimed his rights from the borgese, little remains for the
miserable devil who does the work in the fields. Surely
the day -laborer is the victim of a vicious system of land
laws, in the making of which he has no voice, and which he
is powerless to mend or end.
Is it any wonder that such a system of land tenure breeds
usury in all its most objectionable forms ? Sicily swarms
with usuriaj (usurers) who, taking advantage of the neces
sities of giornalieri and borgesi, lend their money never at
less than twenty, generally at thirty-three and one-third per
cent, very frequently at fifty per cent., and not infrequently
at more exorbitant rates of interest.
" Usury is the undying worm ever gnawing at the heart
of the poor in a society founded upon land laws that raake
the latifondi not only possible, but inevitable." More than

APPENDIX 383
any other class, the borgesi find themselves in thraldom to
the usurer At the end of the harvest season, after he has
paid " la semenza," " i terragri," " i terraggiulo," " le anghe
rie," " i soccorso," etc., in addition to the rent exacted by
his over-lords, they have yet to settle with the usurer That
done, the luckless wights return to their miserable homes
after months of hard labor with empty hands, thankful, in
deed, if they have not to leave their ploughs and their oxen
as security for small sums loaned to them by the same
usurers to enable them to eke out existence untfl harvest-
time comes round again.
The facts stated above sufficiently account for the hatred
of the borgesi and laboring classes for the galantuomini
(the proprietors), and, above all, for the usurers — that is to
say, capitalists, great and small. As these same capitalists
are able to control — and do control — municipal politics, and
to a great degree have hitherto controlled the politics of the
island, filling all offices with their appointees, the hatred
of the lower classes for the " classi dirigenti " (governing
classes) is also readily to be iraagined.
This " odio di classi " (hatred of the raasses for the class
es, the poor for the rich) is admitted by Sonino, Franchet
ti, Bonfadini, Damiani, Colajanni — in fact, by every econo-
raist who has made a study of the Sicilian question. Since
the great proprietors sublet their lands to raiddle-raen, and
rarely, if ever, visit their estates, preferring to live in Mes
sina or Palermo, and even as far away as Rome, Madrid,
London, the contadini never see, and therefore do not know,
the "padroni dei fondi" (the lords of the land), and, re
senting the oppression and exactions to which they are
subjected by the agents of the proprietor, his bailiffs, stew
ards, factors, and the whole host of his hangers on and
under-strappers, they learn to hate the absent landlord, be
lieving him to be the author of aU their miseries. So long has
this system of land tenure oppressed the contadini, so sue-

384 APPENDIX
cessfully have the landlords resisted all atterapts to reform
it, that to hate the g-alantuomini and all his congeners,
clients, and retainers, has becorae a fixed habit of thought
with the contadini ; until the oppressed peasant, feeding
fat his animosity, nursing his rancor, stands ready to join
in the cry (if one reckless comrade but dare to raise it),
"Ammazza! Ammazza ! Abbasso i galantuomini ! Morte a
li capeddi !"¦* — a cry that has been heard in Sicily during the
past five years ; a cry as terrible as that which was raised
in France a century ago, " Les aristocrates k la lanterne !"
One of the ablest of Sicilian statesmen asserts that
Sicily is constantly in a condition of latent revolution,
and prophesies : " Either the government will have cour
age to reform radically all that has been for so many
years demanding reformation or the people will completely
overturn and demolish all social and political landmarks."
Fortunately for Sicily, there is now a government at
Rome which has addressed itself resolutely to the solution
of the SicUian question. Already great progress has been
made, certainly, in pacifying the island, a certain measure
of "home rule" has been granted to the SicUians, and we
venture the prediction that if the Marquis di Rudini per
severes in his determination to deal with the Sicihans in
the spirit of justice which he has hitherto exhibited, and is
not mischievously and unreasonably opposed by the Si
cilians theraselves, he will be instruraental in raising Sicily
from her fallen condition, and in leading his countrymen
to the beginnings of the paths of peace and prosperity.
Surely no statesman since the days of Abraham Lincoln
has been intrusted with a nobler task than that which en
gages the thought and inspires the wisdom of the present
prime-minister of Italy.
¦* " Murder ! Murder ! Down with the aristocrats ! Death to the
hats !" — i. e., those who wear hats, and not the caps of the plebs.

IMPORTANT WORKS OF TRAVEL
AND DESCRIPTION

Venezuela. A Land Where It's Always Summer. By WILLIAM
Eleroy Curtis. With a Colored Map. Post Svo, Cloth, $i 25.
The Capitals of Spanish America. By William Elebov
Curtis. With a Colored Map and many Illustrations. Svo,
Cloth, $3 50.
The Spanish = American Republics. By Theodore Child.
Illustrated. Large Svo, Cloth, $3 50.
From the Black Sea through Persia and India. Written
and Illustrated by Edwin Lord Weeks. Svo, Cloth, Uncut
Edges and Gilt Top, $3 50.
Three Gringos in Venezuela and Central America. By
Richard Harding Davis. Illustrated. Post Svo, Cloth, $1 50.
Notes in Japan. Written and Illustrated by Alfred Parsons.
Crown Svo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top, $3 00.
The 'Warwickshire Avon. Notes by A. T. Quiller-Couch.
Illustrations by Alfred Parsons. Crown Svo, Half Leather,
Uncut Edges and Gilt Top, $2 00. (In a Box.)
Pony Tracks. Written and Illustrated by Frederic Reming
ton. Svo, Cloth, $3 00.
On Sno-W'Shoes to the Barren Grounds. Twenty -eight
Hundred Miles after Musk-Oxen and Wood-Bison. By Caspar
Whitney. Profusely Illustrated. Svo, Cloth, S3 50.
A Sporting Pilgrimage. Studies in English Sport, Past and
Present. By Caspar Whitney. Illustrated. Svo, Cloth, S3 50.
Dixie; or, Southern Scenes and Sketches. By Julian Ralph.
Illustrated. Svo, Cloth, $2 50.
Mentone, Cairo, and Corfu. By Constance Fenimore
WOOLSON. Illustrated. Post Svo, Cloth, $1 75.
The Praise of Paris. By Theodore Child. Illustrated. Svo,
Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top, $2 50.
The Danube, from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. By F. D.
Millet. Illustrated by the Author and Alfred Parsons.
Crown Bvo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top, $2 50.

important works of travel and description
London. By Walter Besant. With 130 Illustrations. Crown
Svo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top, $3 00.
Italian Gardens. By Charles A. Platt. Illustrated. Svo,
Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top, I5 00. (In a Box.)
Sketching Rambles in Holland. By George H. Boughton,
A. R.A. Illustrated by the Author and Edwin A. Abbey. Svo,
Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top, $5 00.
White Man's Africa. By Poultney Bigelow. Illustrated by
R. Caton Woodville and from Photographs. Post Svo, Cloth,
%2 50.
The Borderland of Czar and Kaiser. By Poultney Bige
low. Illustrated. Post Svo, Cloth, $2 00.
Literary Landmarks of London. By Laurence Hutton.
With Many Portraits. Post Svo, Cloth, $1 75.
Literary Landmarks of Edinburgh. By Laurence Hutton.
Illustrated. Post Svo, Cloth, $1 00.
Literary Landmarks of Jerusalem. By Laurence Hutton.
Illustrated. Post Svo, Cloth, 75 cents.
Literary Landmarks of Venice. By Laurence Hutton.
Illustrated. Post Svo, Cloth, |i 00.
Literary Landmarks of Florence. By Laurence Hutton.
Illustrated. Post Svo, Cloth, |i 00.
Literary Landmarks of Rome. By Laurence Hutton.
Illustrated. Post Svo, Cloth, $1 00.
Our Italy. (Southern California.) By Charles Dudley War
ner. Illustrated. Square Svo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt
Top, $2 50.
Their Pilgrimage. By Charles Dudley Warner. Illustrated.
Post Svo, Half Leather, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top, $2 00.
On Canada's Frontier. By Julian Ralph. Illustrated. 8vo,
Cloth, $2 50.
Our Great West. By Julian Ralph. Illustrated. Svo, Cloth,
$2 50. 
NEW YORK AND LONDON:
HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers

3 9002 00961 8423