ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD TO SYRACUSE. 63 
a jacket with red cloth embroidery and small tails, and a pair 
of top-boots, big enough to bury him in when he dies. 
From Lentini to Syracuse the distance by the public road 
is twenty-four miles, making the entire distance from Catania 
forty-four miles. After leaving the valley of the Simeto, the 
country becomes barren and rugged, and there is very little 
to attract the attention of the traveler. What the appear¬ 
ance of the country may be in spring I had no means of as¬ 
certaining ; but certainly a more desolate picture of poverty 
and barrenness I never saw than it presents in the month of 
October. Naked hills of parched earth and bleak rocks ; a 
few miserable vineyards, either entirely without fencing, or 
surrounded by ragged hedges of prickly pear ; villages rudely 
built of stone, without shade or comfort, and in a wretched 
state of ruin ; an occasional mule with a load, driven by a 
man of beard and rags ; a gang of beggars, as voracious as a 
pack of wild beasts ; here and there a half-naked and with¬ 
ered woman, with the rough features of a man, scratching 
the ground with a hoe, or tottering under a heavy burden, 
while her husband lies basking in the sun ; litters of dirty chil¬ 
dren rooting in the mud, without covering of any kind—these 
are the sights that one sees on the road to the ancient City 
of the Sun, the abode of gods whose shrines no longer burn. 
In a few hours from Lentini we had a good view of the 
Cape St. Croce and the town of Agosta. Giovanni Power, 
whose “ Guida di Sicilia” I have now before me, says of 
Agosta that it is supposed to have risen out of the ruins of 
Megara, and Megara from those of the little Keybla. It was 
there, according to Herodotus, that the people were sold at 
auction, in the time of Gelon. 
From an eminence, as we approached Syracuse, we had a 
very pretty view of Ortigia, the only inhabited part of the 
ancient city. It is built on an island connected to the main 
land by a long pier and a bridge, and strongly fortified by 
high walls, forts, and castles. 
The number of gates, bridges, fortified arches, and vaulted 
passages through which one is driven before he can fairly 
consider himself within the walls of Ortigia quite surpasses 
