152 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



large farm-house in ruins. Yet this edifice, which 

 the humblest citizen of our own day would have 

 despised as a country house, was, nevertheless, the 

 favourite sojourn of the Norman kings, who repaired 

 to it to recruit from the fatigues of war. It still 

 bears its original significant name of Delizie. A very 

 cursory examination of this building shows that if 

 the rude warriors who inhabited it knew how to 

 secure the aid of the "fine arts to do honour to a 

 religion whose indulgence they were often obliged 

 to invoke, they gave themselves very little trouble 

 about decoration when their personal comforts alone 

 were concerned. Facing this ancient palace is a 

 low opening in the side of the mountain, supported 

 by a double arch, which forms the entrance into a 

 grotto enclosing a large basin, from whence there 

 flows a brook of fresh water. This limpid stream, 

 which fertilises all the adjoining district, is named, in 

 accordance with a genuine Sicilian hyperbole, the 

 Mare dolce. This grotto was formerly enclosed in 

 the limits of the palace grounds, and no doubt served 

 as a bathing hall for the valiant conquerors of 

 Sicily. 



We were obliged to leave our carriage soon after 

 we had passed this fresh-water sea, and to climb the 

 mound of debris which is deposited at the base of 

 Mont Griffon e. An enclosed path led us between 

 fields of cactus to the entrance of the grotto of San- 

 Ciro, an irregular excavation, forty or fifty feet in 

 depth, and from twenty to thirty feet in height, 

 whose naked walls still show traces of the tools 

 employed by the workmen who first excavated it. 



