30 
A GIRA THROUGH SICILY. 
frozen stiff, had it not been that at each post we were roused 
into a fit of honest indignation at the inordinate demands of 
the postillions, hostlers, and guards. The postillions charged 
us half a cariin for driving us ; the hostlers charged half a 
carlin for putting the horses in ; the guards robbed us of half 
a carlin for preventing us from being robbed; and the beggars 
begged the loose change from us, because they were in want 
of money, and thought they had a legitimate right to be paid 
for wanting it. Little boys begged as a matter of amuse¬ 
ment and education; old women and old men begged, whether 
they were in need of funds or not, as a matter of example to 
the rising generation; and after one party of beggars had 
chased us from the bottom of a hill up to the top, and done 
their very best in the way of hopping on crutches (which they 
only made use of for the occasion), there was another party 
ready to begin the moment we stopped, without the slightest 
reference to the labors of the first party, and when they were 
done w r e were chased to the bottom of the hill by a third 
party, and so on to the end of our journey. 
But the real beggars are tame and reasonable in their de¬ 
mands compared with the soldiers, postillions, and conductors 
who have charge of the diligence. With them it is a matter 
of right to fleece every unfortunate gentleman who places 
himself in their power. They live on him. He is meat and 
drink to them. His pockets are their pockets. He is a sort 
of gold mine into which they are continually digging. They 
explore him ; they find out how many precious veins he has; 
and they insert their picks and shovels wherever the dust 
glimmers, and root it out with surprising perseverance. By 
the time he reaches the end of his journey he is dug clean 
out, and they turn their attention to other mines. 
Let me warn the traveler who thinks of making the tour 
of Sicily, not to delude himself with the idea that when he 
pays for a seat in the diligence, or a seat outside of it, that he 
is done paying—that the owners thereof consider themselves 
under the slightest obligation to take him to his place of des¬ 
tination. You simply pay for the use of a foot or a foot and 
a half of cushion (according to your breadth of beam), and the 
