VOYAGES AND TRAVELS IN SARDINIA, SICILY, MALTA, &c. IN 1811.

BY JOHN GALT.

HAVING staid a few days at Girgenti, I proceeded across the mountains to Palermo in a letica, the only kind of carriage suitable to the country roads of Sicily. It is in the form of a coach, and carried between two mules in the style of a sedan chair.

The country between Girgenti and Palermo is what a painter would probably call, very beautiful, and a young lady, romantic. It is, however, really often savage, seldom pleasant, and altogether such as only necessity should lead me to pass again. But in many places one cannot avoid observing the liberality of || nature to Sicily. The soil here and there, where the torrents from the mountains bad || worn out channels, appeared to be not less than twenty or thirty feet in depth. The fields, from which the harvest had just been removed, bore scarcely any traces of tillage. The Sicilian husbandry utensils are still in a rude state; the native fertility of the land is never properly excited; and the thinness of the stubble on the fields shewed that the produce had been seanty.

In the village where I rested for the night my guard procured me a miserable lodging in a little wine shop, but more comfortable, as be assured me, than I should have found at the inn, where the mules and letica were stabled.

Soon after leaving this village, we entered the great road to Palermo. I was equally pleased and surprised at the number of welldressed peasants whom I met returning from the market, and the prosperous appearance of the country. The vineyards in many places were in excellent order; the inclosures, though formed of that cumbrous shrub the prickly pear, were decently enough kept; and neat little country houses were interspersed among the fields.

After leaving the mountains, and coming down upon the level between them and the the approach to Palermo is uncommonly delightful. The city, crowned with numerous domes, appears scarcely inferior to the idea

sea,

which one is apt to conceive from the descriptions of Brydon. It stands at the junction of several valleys, and the surrounding mountains are finely picturesque; the sea also adds to the charms of the view. The surface is frequently enlivened by numerous vessels and fishing-boats, scattered over it to the utmost range of the sight.

All the descriptions that I have seen of the capital of Sicily are rather defective than incorrect. Only the finest things are brought into the picture; the great masses of mean and slovenly objects, which every where offend the eye in the original, are excluded by the prejudices of the taste of travellers. Palerme, notwithstanding the number and architectural magnificence of its palaces and churches, has an air of tawdry want, such as cannot be distinctly described. Poverty seems really to be the ordinary condition of the people from the top to the bottom. The ground stories of the noble edifices in the Via Toledo, as well as in the other great streets, would never have been converted into shops and coffee-houses, could the Princes and Dukes above-stairs have easily done otherwise.

It is the custom here for tradesmen of all sorts to carry on their respective employments in the open air. The number, in particular, of shoemakers and tailors at work in the Via Toledo is inconceivable. Indeed the crowd of persons in the streets is much beyond any thing that I have elsewhere seen; certainly much greater than in London. But, considering the extent of the city, only four miles within the circumference of the walls, it is impossible to be believed that the population is so great as the Sicilians allege. They talk of three hundred thousand inhabitants; a number, notwithstanding that the people swelter by dozens together in very small apartments, not to be credited. The population of Palermo may be equal to that of Dublin.

It appears to me, that it is not only the practice of the Sicilian tradesmen to work in the streets, but that particular streets in Pa

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lermo are, in some degree, appropriated to certain occupations: not that each trade exclusively attaches itself to any one part of the town, but, generally speaking, it has a local situation, where it may be considered as predominant. The Via Toledo seems to be the grand emporium of all the professions dependant on fashion. Another street is almost entirely occupied with brasiers; and there is perhaps not a more noisy spot in all Europe. In a third street I observed a number of female children, in almost every house, employed in tambouring and embroidering muslin.

The college of the Jesuits in the Via Toledo, is the finest building in Palermo. It may not occupy so much ground as Christ Church in Oxford, or Trinity in Cambridge, but in architecture it excels them; and it is adorned with more costly ornaments. The stairs and galleries are spacious. The steps of all the former are made of large single blocks of marble, and the walls of the latter are hung with pictures and portraits, several of which are said to be very good.

Among the extraordinary things in the frame of the society of this country, may be reckoned the exemption of articles of luxury from taxation. Neither carriages, horses, nor houses, are subject to assessment. Even foreign wines in Palermo are rated at little more than the wines of the island. But all those necessaries, of which the labourer requires as many and as much as the nobleman, constitute the means of the revenue. Here the monopolies of bread, fish, oil, &c. are annually farmed; and the privilege of selling ice, which in Palermo is as much an article of necessity as porter is in London, is disposed of in the same manner. It is hardly possible to imagine a fact more strikingly illustrative of the contempt with which the people of this island are regarded.

carrying a basket, it is full of Indian figs. Every ass that is seen coming into the city in the morning is loaded with Indian figs. Every peasant that is seen in the evening counting his copper money on a stone, is reckoning the produce of his Indian figs If any article be bad, it said not to be worth an Indian fig; and there is nothing in the world better than an Indian fig. It is the only luxury that the poor enjoy; and, like all other luxuries, it is exempt from taxation.

In Palermo the population has exceeded the increase of houses, and, in consequence, it is exceedingly difficult to find an empty habitation. In the year 1809 the demand was greater than had ever before been known, and was attended in many instances with much inconvenience. Persons who had given notice of removal, not being able to find houses, refused to quit at the term; and landlords, ia order to avail themselves of the augmented value of their property, attempted to oblige the tenants either to remove or to pay a higher rent. This excited much conversation; and, as the Sicilians have a great deal to say on all subjects, their noise and clamour at length reached the ears of Government, and it was thought expedient to order that no person in the possession of a house should, for that term, be forced to quit, nor any increase take place in the rate of rents. This sudden influx of inhabitants in Palermo is supposed to be owing to Neapolitan and other Continental emigrants.

The buildings erected during the early part of the last century are on a more magnificent scale than those recently constructed. The style, if I may use the expression, was then more spacious, and the interior ornaments more splendid. The walls and cielings of the apartments in the new houses are either stained with simple colours, or painted in imitaThe quantity of Indian figs, or prickly pears, tion of paper hangings, while the doors and as they are sometimes called, consumed in pannelling are commonly plain. But in the Sicily, is almost incredible. In every part of old houses, the walls are hung with satin and the country you meet with plantations of In- tapestry, the doors are gilded, and the pannels dian figs. In every village, stalls are seen are often covered with mirrors or pictures. covered with Indian figs. At every corner of This alteration in the style of domestic accomevery street in Palermo, are piles of Indiau || modation, might lead one to conclude that figs. If a Sicilian be observed eating any Palermo had fallen from its ancient opulence. thing, it is certainly Indian figs. If he be "But the falling off, in point of state and shew,

steeple were deranged. The servants in the hotel, being acquainted with our way of reckoning the hours, never found any difficulty in understanding my orders or inquiries which respected time, and they always answered according to our practice. I know not how long I might have continued in this staté of ignorance and error, had not I overheard a gentlemen observe jocularly that it was noon to-day at the seventeenth hour. This expression excited my attention; and, after I got home, and had thrown myself upon a sofa, I began to ruminate upon it. "Was it a scrip

may be owing to the introduction of a taste for more comfort and convenience. The residence of the nobility in the capital, during the reign of the present King, has diffused among the tradesmen so much wealth, that a middle class has begun to arise here; while the fashionable competitions of the nobility in their entertainments has impaired their inheritance, and forced them to incur debts which no longer permit them to maintain the splendour of their ancestors. If, therefore, no palaces be now building, but many falling into ruin, changes may be observed going on which more thas compensate this disadvan-tural mode of expression?" No: "for the tage. The suburbs of Palermo begin to indicate something like the formation of that comfortable middle class, which is the pre eminent boast and distinction of England. The Palermitans are certainly greatly addicted to cards and billiards. The number of gaming-houses adapted to all ranks and degrees is astonishing. So general and habitual, indeed, is the passion for play, that it manifests itself in situations where, previously, one should not expect to meet with it; it is the rul ing passion of the Sicilians. In going one morning to the Tribunal of Justice, Isaw a groupe of card-players sitting on the landing place of the staircase, earnestly occupied with their game, although the bustle around them was as great as that of the Royal Exchange of London at high change time. On the Marina, when the weather will not permit the boats to put to sea, I have frequently seen the fishermen at cards; nor is it unusual to observe bands of idle boys sitting on the steps of the church doors engaged in the same spendthrift Occupation.

One of the most puzzling things to an English stranger in Sicily is the mode of reckoning time. I was several days in Palermo before I understood it, or indeed suspected that it differed from ours, having either never heard, or forgetton, that the Italian mode of computing was different from that of the rest of Europe. Sometimes the public clock in the Piazza Marina, where I staid, pronounced the hours with much audible distinctness, and there was little differeuce between it and my watch; but it was in general so incoherent, that I began to think that the intellects of the

Jews reckoned from the watches of the night-What can it mean?"-At this interesting moment, the waiter happening to come into the room, was, just as he entered, asked by some one in the passage, "what o'clock it then was?"-"Twenty-one and a half," answered he. "Twenty-one and a half o'clock," echoed I: "why this is still more mysterious." I immediately started upright, and began to examine the waiter on the subject. The result was a most satisfactory explanation of the whole mystery, and an ample vindication of the steeple from the suspicion that I enter tained of its sanity. The Sicilians, it seems, begin to reckon their time from sun-set, an hour after which is one of the o'clock; in consequence, as the declination of the sun alters, the time by the clock at which it is noon also changes. Part of my error as to the public clock had arisen, I found, in consequence of its superior endowments, for it told quarters as well as the hours, and the hours only by balf dozens.

The appearance of the Italian Theatre, and the interior arrangement, I think superior to ours. The boxes are snug little lodges, suitable for many purposes, as well as of seeing the performance on the stage. There is no gallery. But the pit is divided into two departments. The back division being at a lower rate, answers the purpose of a gallery equally well, and is more easily kept in order. Disturbances, indeed, are not likely to occur in the Theatres of Palermo; for the benches are subdivided into a certain number of seats each, and on paying the price at the door, a ticket, with the number of the bench and the

two customs does, in the smallest degree, infringe public liberty; on the contrary, by securing justice to individuals, they promote it.

It is somewhat remarkable, that the gesticulation on the stage of Palermo is more moderate than ours: it is, at the same time, much more emphatic. The Sicilians, indeed, excel in this respect; and even in the streets, one sometimes sees an unstudied display of this tacit oratory equal to some of our best premeditated exhibitions.

The apparatus of the Palermian stage is not for an instant to be compared to that of the smallest of the London houses, either in point of magnificence or of variety. But in some other things it is not inferior; for though the dresses are less splendid, and the scenery less various, the dramas are got up with much minuteness and propriety of decoration.

A great part of the audience in the pit generally consists of the Officers of the Guards and the Garrison, and some of the knacky little ones carry gimblets in their pockets, which they screw into the back of the seats before them, to serve as pegs for their hats.lian Nobles I have uniformly received but one

Females are not allowed to come into the pit; and, instead of the women that annoy one so much in the London houses with Nice oranges, and a bill of the play," the servants of the company in the boxes attend their masters or mistresses with ices, &c. and one person has a monoply of the sale of refreshments in the pit.

Of the character and condition of the Sici

opinion. The time of by far the greater number is spent in the pursuit of amusement, and of any other object than the public good. The most of them are in debt, and the incomes of but few are adequate to their wants: many are in a sate of absolute beggary.

One evening, as I happened to be returning home, I fell in with a procession of monks and soldiers, bearing an image of St. Francis; and not having seen any thing of the kind before, I went with the crowd into a church towards which the procession was moving. While reckoning the number of the friars as they entered, and having reached one hundred and seventy, all excellent subjects for soldiers, a well-dressed gentleman came up to me, and, bowing, pointed to some of the ornaments as objects worthy of a stranger's curiosity; but perceiving me shy of entering into conversation with him, and the procession entering the church at the same time, he walked or was

In the Theatres of Palermo there are two excellent customs for the public, the authors, and the performers. When a new piece is to be brought ouf, the Court generally goes to the Theatre, and, by its presence, insures a fair hearing to the performance. An actor, before the sovereign, rarely has presumption enough to sloven over his part, and conspirators are restrained ia their designs, whether they be against the author or the public. The practice of applauding, by clapping the hands, is here as vehemently in use as with us; but singers are not obliged to repeat their songs at the will of ten or a dozen obstrepe-forced by the current of the crowd away. rous encorers. When the applause continues so long and general as distinctly to show the wish of the audience, the Lord Mayor of the city, as we should call him, or the magistrate next in rank to him, when he happens not to be present, gives a sign to the actor, and the song is repeated. Certainly neither of these No. XXIX. Vol. V.-N. S.

The idol being placed near the high altar, the crowd began to chaunt a hymn. As they all fell on their knees, and my tight prejudices and small clothes would not permit me to do the same, I turned into one of the side chapels, and, leaning against the railing of the altar, began to speculate on the spectacle beM

Mistaking my silence and astonishment, he pulled out his watch, and, placing it in my haud, entreated me to give him some money. As I had no disposition to become a pawnbroker, I returned it with some expressions of surprise, aud took out my purse with the intention of giving it to him, for it only con tained two or three small pieces. But here all the solemnity of the adventure ter-painted to resemble brick, to the great disminated: He snatched it out of my haud, and, emptying the contents into his own, returned it; and, wishing me good night, ran into the gateway.