46 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



this charming road, and on reaching the summit 

 it becomes unbounded. Numerous inscriptions 

 catch the eye every step you take : they contain 

 most of them only a play of words, what the Ita- 

 lians call concettis. This one meets you on enter- 

 ing the road ; Ut facilius. — Et quo facilius, eo citius* 

 A vast church, reared by William the Good, con- 

 stitutes the principal merit of Montreale ; it is com- 

 pletely incrusted with mosaic work, and the grand 

 altar is of massy silver of exquisite workmanship. 



Among the remarkable objects in the vicinity of 

 Palermo pointed out to strangers, they fail not to 

 singularize a convent of capuchins at a small dis- 

 tance from town, the beautiful gardens of which 

 serve as a public walk. You are shewn, under the 

 fabric, a vault divided into four great galleries, into 

 which the light is admitted by windows cut out at 

 the top of each extremity. In this vault are pre- 

 served, not in flesh, but in skin and bone, all the 

 capuchins who have died in the convent since its 

 foundation, as well as the bodies of several persons 

 from the city. There are here private tombs be- 

 longing to opulent families, who, even after anni- 

 hilation*, disdain to be confounded with thevulgar 

 part of mankind. It is said, trat in order to secure 

 the preservation of those bodies, they are prepared 



* Our author is a thorough convert to the modern French 

 republican creed. — H. H. 



by 



