THE COASTS OF SICILY. 241 



traces of the usages of modern civilisation seem as 

 yet to have penetrated, and where one does not even 

 meet with anything like the posadas of Spain, the 

 stranger receives, it is true, the hospitality of an 

 ancient form of manners, but it is with the under- 

 standing that it shall be acknowledged by some 

 equivalent or other. He who entertains looks for a 

 return for his hospitality, and he is apt to take it in 

 very bad part if his guest should in this particular 

 deviate from the ordinary usage. We had occasion 

 to appreciate this condition of things on our de- 

 parture from Favignana. Having set forth with 

 the idea that travelling in Sicily would be very 

 much the same thing as travelling in France, we 

 had neglected to provide ourselves with such articles 

 as might appropriately be offered as parting gifts. 

 At Torre dell' Isola and at Castellamare we had 

 managed very well in acquitting ourselves of all 

 obligation through the simple payment of money, 

 which had been received without the slightest 

 scruple both by Padre Antonino and by Artese's 

 friend, but we dared not attempt a similar mode of 

 acknowledgment in the case of the Signori of Favig- 

 nana. We left them, therefore, with purely verbal 

 thanks ; and, at the moment at which we were 

 bidding him adieu, the Signor Georgio found it 

 impossible to conceal the vexation he felt in per- 

 ceiving that our gratitude was expressed in mere 

 words. We took care, however, on a future occasion 

 to prove to him that his guests had neither been 

 forgetful nor ungrateful recipients of his attentions. 

 The obliging hospitality of our Favignana friends 

 VOL. I. B 



