Volume 2 — CHAPTER XII.

A wedding party.—​Strange ignorance of the Sicilians.—​The tavern at Giardini.—​Ruins of Taormina.—​Remarkable theatre.—​Cities on mountain-tops.—​Cliffs covered with goats.—​Odd fashion of dressing infants.—​Sicilian husbandry.—​A squall in the straits.—​Arrival at Messina.

As I approached a little village, I overtook a wedding party going home from church. They were all mounted on asses, and were accompanied by the priest, a fat little round-faced, pleasant-looking fellow, with a three-cornered hat. The bride was a blowzy, hoydenish country girl, all bedizened out in tawdry finery, simpering and giggling to every one, and apparently full of spirits. The bridegroom was a sheepish-looking peasant, who appeared to feel very awkward in his new situation. All the rest of the company were full of fun and jollity, and very readily entered into conversation with me. At first they took me for an Englishman, but when they learnt that I had come from the New World, they stared in utter astonishment: they had never seen an American before, and always imagined we were all Indians or blacks. They invited me to accompany them, and partake of their entertainment, which I agreed to very willingly. I went along with them to the house, where we found more company already assembled, and great numbers of ragged children trooping about to stare at the show. The house was a small, one-story building, and I was afraid they would find it a difficult matter to accommodate so many guests. But presently benches were brought and placed in front of the house, under the shade of the olive trees, and we sat down in the open air. The fare consisted of bread, olives, kid’s flesh, green fennel, fruit and red wine. The old priest was the most jolly and talkative of the whole company, and I may add that he ate and drank as much as any three of them. He sat by my side, and asked me a hundred questions about America: whether the people were Christians, whether they dressed in clothes like civilized people, or wore the skins of wild beasts, whether they did not eat one another, and many more things equally extravagant.

My readers may think it hardly possible that such ignorance can be found in a person pretending to superior knowledge; but instances of the same kind came under my observation so frequently during my travels, that at last they ceased to excite any surprise. It must be borne in mind that the country in which I was travelling is not, like the United States, full of roads, in which crowds of people are continually hurrying backwards and forwards; and full of newspapers and books, which are constantly circulating through the country, and carrying knowledge to the remotest village in the Union. There are but two or three roads, deserving of the name, in the whole island of Sicily, and hardly such a thing as a newspaper. Very few books are printed here, and general knowledge, even among the better sort of people, is very scanty.

Being in a hurry to proceed on my journey, I could not wait till the close of the entertainment, but mounted my mule just as the company had struck up a dance. I travelled till sunset, when I reached a little fishing town called Giardini, romantically situated under the brow of a high hill, with the sea at the foot. I found a snug little tavern in a street which ran along the shore, where I put up for the night. The host was a simple, good-natured old man, in a red cap, and his house was quite comfortable, though small for a tavern. From my chamber window I had a grand prospect of the sea, which came rolling in with a beautiful surf directly under my feet. High rocky hills, with a castle and heaps of ancient ruins, rose up over me close at hand; and far off across the water, the eye rested upon the dark blue mountains of Calabria.

Early the next morning I climbed up the hill over the town to visit the ruins of an ancient city called Taormina, which formerly stood there. I was struck with the beautiful situation of the theatre, which is still in tolerable preservation, although upwards of two thousand years old. This edifice looks directly towards Mount Ætna; so that the spectators always had the magnificent picture of the mountain as a background to the scenery of the stage. It is certainly the grandest situation in the world for such a building. Other ruins abound in the place, but I have not time to describe them. The hill on which this city stood is so steep of ascent that no wheel carriage can go up, though asses and mules climb up and down tolerably well. I remarked that almost all ancient cities in this country were built on the tops of hills and mountains, difficult of access, showing that these communities sprung up in barbarous times, when every town feared the hostilities of its neighbors, and the sea-coasts were perpetually liable to be plundered by pirates. As civilization advanced, the population descended into the plains.

After breakfast, I continued my journey toward Messina. The country still presented the same beautiful and picturesque scenery. Groves, gardens, orchards and fresh green pastures greeted the eye in every direction. Numerous towns and villages were seen perched on the tops of almost inaccessible mountains; town above town and castle above castle, mounting into the air. Sometimes the road passed under high rocky crags, where I saw herds of goats hanging over my head and clambering among the dizzy precipices. Often the tinkling of a bell aloft caused me to gaze upwards, when I beheld numbers of these adventurous animals sticking against the rocks like flies on the side of a house, and seeming ready to fall on my head every moment. The fields were full of laborers at work, ploughing and hoeing. They all wore white cotton caps, and a group of them at a distance looked like a flock of geese. These white caps afford a better defence against the sun than a covering of any other color. The sun here is very powerful, and a sun-stroke is dreaded more than any other accident from the weather.

In one of the fields I saw a countryman ploughing, while his little infant child lay under a tree; the mother, I suppose, had run off to gossip. Nothing can look more droll than one of these little things in swaddling-clothes. They wind long bandages of cloth tightly round the child from head to foot, so that it looks very like an Egyptian mummy, without being able to kick, wince, or sprawl, but may be rolled about like a stick of wood. This little fellow was stuck up against a tree, as stiff as a turkey skewered and spitted for roasting, his eyes rolling upward to the sky, and winking like a toad in the sunshine. I could not help bursting into a roar of laughter at the sight. The man stopped his oxen and looked round, intending, as I thought, to give me some rude greeting; but seeing me so convulsed with merriment, he joined in, and laughed as heartily as I did. I asked him if the children did not suffer from this tight swathing. He said no, but, on the contrary, they were very fond of it. I told him I doubted this very strongly; but he assured me the children never complained of it, and that was proof enough. I afterwards found this practice was common throughout all Italy.

I did not see a cow during the whole journey; horses too were of rare occurrence. The country people hardly ever own these animals; but, instead of them, use goats and asses, which are much cheaper. Pasturage for cows and horses is expensive; but the goats can clamber among the rocks and nibble the herbage that grows beyond the reach of man. The asses feed upon thistles, and any sort of coarse vegetation. The multitude of these animals makes the landscape look exceedingly picturesque to the eyes of an American. Nothing can be more diverting than the frolics and caperings of the little kids, as they gallop round their mothers while feeding. The young donkeys look very comically; they are ragged, scraggy and wild, and I have been many times startled by their uncouth appearance when I have met with them browsing among the lonely mouldering ruins. If it were not for their long ears, they might be taken for young lions.

I continued to pass rich cultivated fields and immense groves of olives. About the middle of the afternoon I came in sight of a wide extent of the coast of Calabria on the opposite side of the straits. The land was black, craggy and mountainous, with steep and rugged chasms. Nearly opposite, I could discern the white walls of Reggio. The sky, which had hitherto been clear and serene, now became obscured, and dark clouds gathered in the north-east. Presently I observed great heavy, spongy masses of cloud rolling down the Calabrian mountains toward the sea, looking very ragged and wild. I judged that a squall was about to burst upon us, for this narrow strait, hemmed in by mountains on each side, is particularly subject to sudden and violent gusts. The sky continued to grow blacker, and presently the wind came down the strait with a most furious blast, lashing the sea up into a perfect foam. There were twelve or fifteen vessels in sight, standing up the strait, when the squall came on. Among them were a Neapolitan sloop of war and an English merchant brig. The rest were small vessels with latine sails. All except the Englishman took in sail at the first appearance of the squall; they were familiar with these parts, and knew what was coming. The Englishman, thinking there could be no danger, kept all his canvass spread, when, in an instant, the blast struck him with such force that both masts snapped off like pipe-stems, and the vessel lay a mere hulk on the water. A heavy shower of rain came pouring down the next moment, which drove me into a house for shelter, and when the sky cleared up, there were no vessels to be seen. I continued my journey, and just after sunset arrived at Messina.

(To be continued.)

There is sense in truth, and truth in virtue.

A friend should bear his friend’s infirmities.