30 CELEBRATION OF HARVEST-HOME. high spirits, with unshaken nerves, and held with me a long argument upon auricular confession, before he went to bed. During our residence at Girgenti we instituted an excavation in an ancient cemetery, of vast extent, below mount Camicus, where, although we penetrated into several sepulchres, unopened before, we were much disappointed in our search after antiquities; we discovered only a few common lamps and funereal vessels, most of them broken, and lying buried in a fine greasy mould, with which the tombs were partly filled these receptacles were generally constructed of large square stones, in the form of parallelograms, about seven feet long, four broad, and three deep. At a much less expence than our excavation cost, we purchased a large box full of antique pottery, from the peasants, who brought them to the convent, from whom we also procured several ancient coins, with the impress of an eagle, a hare, a crab, or an ear of corn, denoting the various produce of the Agrigentine territory. In the beginning of June, we bid adieu to our hospitable Dominicans, and proceeded towards the interior of the island, with the intention of visiting Castro Giovanni, anciently called Enna, the supposed capital of the kingdom of Ceres. Our journey was enlivened by joyous songs and choruses of the country-people, now finishing their harvest, and celebrating the season with festive mirth and bands of music: we frequently observed long trains of both sexes, with garlands of flowers, following their coryphæus or leader, whose solo verse was repeated by the rest in chorus, and which was interrupted only for the purpose of casting a few jeers and harmless jests at the casual passenger. Sometimes also a Madonna, decked in ribbons, or a pasteboard saint, accompanied their processions. The features and complexion of these peasants seemed to denote in general a Saracenic origin, but amongst them is still observed that remarkable contour and expression of countenance, called Grecian, which is so beautifully pourtrayed upon the ancient Sicilian coins: like all the nations of southern Europe, ARRIVAL AT CASTRO GIOVANNI. 31 they are fervently addicted to music, which entering into their amusements and employments, and almost all the acts of life, seems to cheer and console their labour, as it agreeably employs the hours of relaxation its beneficial influence tends to preserve them from the overwhelming gloom of superstition, the ferocity of barbarism, and the commotions of popular phrensy; and though the guitar of the peasant and his Doric flute be not calculated to excite the sublimer passions, yet their tender and pathetic tones impart taste and feeling to his mind, and supply such a source of consolation under the unequal dispensations of an oppressive constitution, as almost to compensate for the absence of liberty itself. On the second day, at noon, we began to ascend a lofty mountain, upon whose spacious summit, the highest inhabited ground in Sicily, stands Castro Giovanni, as near as possible in the centre of the island*. Its great elevation gives it so delightful a temperature during the violent heats of summer, that many foreigners and Sicilian families retire thither in that season. The town has a very singular and picturesque appearance, being every where intersected with deep valleys or ravines, whose sides are literally honey-combed with Saracenic caves, some of which have two or three apartments, and are still inhabited by the poorer classes. From the rocks gush out, as in days of old, perennial streams and crystal fountains, amidst a vast profusion of shrubs, creepers, and wild flowers; whilst the fine cypress groves and gardens of the convents form a shade impervious to the sun. One quarter in this town is inhabited by a settlement of Greeks, who retain their native dialect, though corrupted by a strange intermixture of barbarisms. On the second day of our sojourn here, a novel scene, at least for Sicily, took place; this was the election of a member of parliament: * Hence called by Cicero "Umbilicus Siciliæ." In his concise and beautiful description of Enna, the modern traveller will still recognise the chief features of the place. "Enna-est loco præcelso atque edito: quo in summo est æquata agri planities, & aquæ perennes: tota vero ab omni aditu circumcisa atque diremta est: quam circa lacus lucique sunt plurimi, et lectissimi flores omni tempore it was conducted as quietly as that of a parish clerk in England. Our cicerone was a very obliging priest, named Padre Alessio, who conducted us to the cathedral, an antique Norman building, with a curiously carved roof, and containing some fine paintings by Paladino; to the house of one of the canons, who possesses an interesting collection, and from thence to the east end of the great plain, where he pointed out to our notice the platform of the temple of Ceres, on the very edge of a tremendous precipice, probably 2000 feet in perpendicular height, in view of the whole dominion over which she reigned *. Here we first beheld the gigantic Etna, that " pillar of the heavens," as the Grecian poet calls it, towering aloft into the region of mid-air. From this spot also is seen, to great advantage, the beautiful circular lake, where, as the poet sings, "Proserpine gathering flowers, Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis Its dark surrounding woods are vanished from this fair field of Enna, together with those flowers whose powerful odour was able to deprive dogs of their scent in the pursuit of game; yet the blessings of Ceres still remain, and the corn yields a fifty-fold increase in the vicinity are many valuable mines, producing sulphur, coal, marcasite, copper, gold in small quantities, and rock-salt in great abundance, of a beautiful violet colour. Pliny mentions the peculiar tint of this salt at Centorbi, in the neighbourhood of Enna‡. This impregnable mountain was the retreat or citadel of Eunus and the revolted slaves This temple was founded, as well as another of the same goddess, in his own capital, by Gelo, the illustrious tyrant of Syracuse: that valiant and patriotic prince, after having saved his country from its foreign enemies, seems to have been aware that an attention to agriculture was the best foundation of its future security and prosperity. The remains of this temple, which time and barbarism had spared, seem to have been destroyed by an unfortunate fall of the cliff on which they stood. "Ejus porro minima atque indigna hodie spectantur vestigia: nam cum præcipiti loco staret, temporis processu cum montis visceribus in præceps collapsum est."- Fazzello, Decad. prior, lib. ix. + Cicero makes a neat allusion to this fabulous incident, in his severe invective against the infamous Verres. "Hic dolor erat tantus, ut Verres, alter orcus, venisse Ennam, et non Proserpinam asportasse, sed ipsam abripuisse cererem videretur." Nat. Hist. 1. xxxi. c. 7. ANCIENT CASTLE CONVERTED INTO A GAOL. '33 in the first servile war; and here they defied, for several years, the whole force of Rome, and defeated three prætorian armies before they were subdued. No site could have been better adapted for their purpose.. The last object of curiosity we inspected, was the shell of a large castle built by Frederic II. King of Sicily. Having ascended the chief tower, which has been converted into a prison, to enjoy the -extensive view from its summit, we were induced, by a confused clamour of voices and clanking of chains below, to peep through the holes of the floor on which we stood: our eyes met a crowd of felons, murderers, and assassins of the worst description, some lying prostrate on the ground, others drinking, many playing at cards or dice, and uttering the most horrid blasphemies and imprecations. It was a group fit for the terrific scenes of Udoipho! I have before adverted to the reform which is imperiously called for in the interior arrangement of prisons, and the administration of Sicilian justice, each of which is turned into a frightful source of that guilt which they are devised to correct. As a gaol delivery never takes place, these receptacles are crowded to excess with wretches of the most abandoned character; and as no classification is thought of, what places do they become to receive the suspected or innocent person, or even him who has but just commenced the career of crime! The noxious effluvia which he breathes, the manacles with which he is shackled, the want of air and exercise, the contagion of filth and disease, are slight miseries in com-parison with that moral contamination, that familiarity with guilt, to which he is exposed! If he escape, he is let out upon the community fit for the commission of the greatest enormities; if he be retaken, and condemned, he is still able to defraud society of that exemplary punishment due to his crimes, and to remain in confinement for the corruption of his incarcerated companions: if his money fails, he will perhaps suffer when his faults are forgotten, and his fate is likely to excite pity rather than indignation. VOL. I. F An affair took place during our own residence in Palermo which so strongly illustrates this subject, that I cannot forbear to mention it. The trade of baker being a monopoly under Government, an arbitrary price is fixed at the public ovens for the very staff of life. This price had for a long time been so excessive, and so disproportionate to an abundant harvest, that the lower classes joining this to their other causes of discontent, rose simultaneously in open rebellion, pulled down or burned several houses, with the adjoining ovens, and sacrificed some lives to their ungoverned fury: perhaps nothing but the presence of an English garrison with its artillery preserved the capital at this time from the sword and flames. On the third day of the riot, a preconcerted scheme had nearly taken effect, which would probably have been accompanied with such a scene of horror, before any remedy could have been applied. Two companies of a Neapolitan regiment, stationed opposite the public prison, observed the great doors gently open, and several persons drawing back, as if alarmed at the presence of the soldiers: presently a general tumult was observed through the grated windows of the building, to which a dead silence succeeded in a few minutes afterwards the doors grated on their hinges, and the whole body of felons, in a fit of desperation, endeavoured to force their way out: they were received, however, by such a steady and destructive fire from the Neapolitans, that the foremost fell dead, or wounded, and the rest, intimidated, retreated hastily into their cells; a constant discharge of musketry was then kept up through the doors and windows till the British artillery arrived. According to the best information, the number of these miscreants was about eleven hundred, many of whom had lived in confinement from ten to twenty years since their capital condemnation, and some were so affected with the tædium of life, for want of all employment, manual, moral, or religious, that they were anxious for death as a relief: they of course entered without reserve into the plans of the rioters, who supplied them with instruments to file off their irons, : |