Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 edition. Excerpt: ... one after the other, like a feu de joie, the instant the priest has said the benediction. A greater gun is often put in the middle or end, according to the fancy of different churches. One night at Catania I heard a drum and two clarionets, followed by a rabble, shouting and throwing up squibs and fireworks. 'What is this?' 'Per la gloria della Vergine.' ' Della Vergine? ' ' Signer, si, della immaculate.' When I reached Syracuse, it was the first of thirteen days' festa in honour of Santa Lucia. 600 ' maschi' were let off in the piazza. As the Sicilian gentry are great sportsmen, they send their steeds to face the battery, for if they stand this they will not easily flinch from a gun. So the groom rides up, and the town boys stand behind with whips and switches to prevent a retreat. As they stand a good chance of a kick, and hope to see the grooms thrown, they are never tired of this sport. The horse rears and plunges his nose in the smoke, with the noisy mob behind, and I could not help thinking what religious associations the lads must acquire in regard to ' maschi.' From Lentini to MelilJi. I had a letter to the vicar, a brother-member of the Geronian Society. His invitation to sleep there was such as I did not choose to accept. The room I got (for inn there was none) was a queer place, and everything to be begged and borrowed but the bed. Next day I found that a crater discovered by the priest was a circular valley cut out of limestone strata, with three veins of volcanic rock through them. I must write to Dr. Gemellaro, for if he publishes this in the transactions of a Society at the foot of Etna, it will be a joke against them they will never get over. Went to Sortino, to see grottoes of Pentalica, where a vast population once...
