AND LOWER EGYP'l. 47 



by being gradually dried before a slow fire, so as to 

 consume the flesh without greatly injuring the 

 skin. When perfectly dry, they are invested with 

 the capuchin habit, and placed upright on tablets 

 disposed, step above step, along the sides of the 

 vault ; the head, the arms, and the feet are left 

 naked. A preservation like this is horrid. The 

 skin discoloured, dry, and as if it had been tanned, 

 nay torn in some places, is glewed close to the bone. 

 It is easy to imagine, from the different grimaces 

 of this numerous assemblage of fleshless figures, 

 rendered still more frightful by a long beard on the 

 chin, what a hideous spectacle this must exhibit ; 

 and whoever has seen a capuchin alive, may form 

 an idea of this singular repository of dead friars. 



But let us quit this lugubrious mansion, in which 

 man makes vain efforts to escape the destruction 

 that awaits him, and direct our looks to the smiling 

 and animated picture presented in the various pro- 

 ductions of the highly privileged soil of Sicily. 

 Warmed by the heat of a genial sky, and by sub- 

 terranean fires, the earth yields to almost every 

 species of culture *, Whether she clothes herself 

 in the most beautiful green, whether she teems with 



In the garden of the Archbishop of Palermo there were 

 in the open ground several banana plants (Musa parad'uiaca, 

 Lin.) which bare flowers and fruits. 



the 



