52 
A GIRA THROUGH SICILY. 
In due time we reached the locanda , at San Nicolosi, 
where we enjoyed a good wash and a dinner that did great 
honor to the padrone. We called again upon Senor Gem- 
mellero, to give in our experience; and, having satisfactorily 
acquitted ourselves in the way of buono manos to the guides 
and domestics, we set out toward evening for Catania. This 
time my old charger acquitted himself to the admiration of 
the entire community, local and migratory, between San Ni- 
colosi and Catania. Falling asleep at the very first step, he 
dropped his head between his fore legs and his tail between 
his hind legs, and, thus comfortably indifferent to public 
opinion, jogged on at so sleepy a pace that it was a miracle 
how we ever reached Catania. Such indeed was the force 
of example, and the striking pictorial effect of both horse and 
rider, that the venerable muleteer—a fat old gentleman of 
fifty, who rode behind—fell into a fit of musing, from which he 
gradually fell into a pleasant doze, and from the doze he fell 
into a profound sleep ; then he swayed from one side to the 
other, and bobbed down in front and bobbed back again, and 
then started out of horrible dreams; and nodded again, and 
fell asleep again as hard as ever ; and at last, as I had prophe¬ 
sied from the beginning, fell off* his mule. Down in the dust 
he lay for as much as two minutes in a state of mute aston¬ 
ishment. “ Sacramento /” said he, getting up and shaking 
the dust off, as soon as he found that no bones were broken ; 
“ Accidenta , Donna Maria , Santa Sophia And, climbing 
up again on the mule, he belabored the unfortunate animal 
with such vigor and good will that it danced Sicilian waltzes 
all the rest of the way into Catania. 
