AND LOWER. EGYPT. 43 



cian, who was then alive. Fazello, who has written 

 a history of Sicily*, and other authors, have made 

 mention of the giants who are supposed to have 

 inhabited this island, and of their skeletons disco- 

 veied in the trenches which they dig in certain 

 places. There is nothing in the museum at Pa- 

 lermo which has any relation to men of extraor- 

 nary stature : I wished to enter into conversation 

 with my conductor on this subject ; but it was 

 impossible for us to understand each other, from 

 the extreme difference of our manner of pronoun- 

 cing the Latiu language, which I was under the 

 necessity of employing, not being sufficiently 

 master of the Italian. Among the whole number 

 of intelligent persons whom I have had an oppor- 

 tunity of consulting, I never found one who had 

 the slightest idea of ever having seen the remains 

 of a giant, or had heard it affirmed that such a 

 thing existed in all Sicily. 



The fields of the environs are very pleasant. The 

 Bagar'ia^ in particular, a canton three leagues from 

 the city, is remarkable for the beauty of its plains, 

 the variety of its culture, the fertility of its soil, 

 and the numerous rural retreats with which it is 

 decorated. The road which leads to it is bordered 

 with aloes and the Indian fig. There it is we see 

 a shameful monument raised by a prince Palagoni 



* Thomas Fazelli Decades, de Rebus Siculis. Catania, 1 749. 



to 



