JOUENEY TO CATANIA. 
29 
of attraction here is a very ancient church, in which may he 
seen some of the finest mosaic in Sicily, and a court contain¬ 
ing two hundred double columns, each different from the 
other. Among the pictures in mosaic is a representation of 
St. Paul in the act of pulling the devil out of somebody’s 
mouth; to which one of the reverend padres pointed with a 
grim smile of triumph. I believe he suspected that I had 
something of the kind in me that could he extracted by hard 
pulling ; but I gave him a couple of carl ini, which seemed to 
afford him as much satisfaction as if he had extracted an en¬ 
tire nest of devils. 
After a stay of four days, I took my post in a rumbling old 
diligence for Catania, on the southeastern side of the island. 
The distance is a hundred and seventy Sicilian miles from 
Palermo. It was late at night when we started; for you must 
know that diligences in Sicily always make it a point to start 
at the most unseasonable hours. The pleasure of the trip was 
in no degree enhanced by the information, confidentially con¬ 
veyed to us by the conductor, when we asked him why we 
had a guard, that on the trip from Catania, just three days 
before, the diligence had been robbed ; that the mountains 
were infested with banditti, and we might consider ourselves 
fortunate if we reached Catania without broken heads. 1 
had heard so much of the robbers in Italy, who were always 
somewhere else, that I had no great faith in those of Sicily ; 
but, inasmuch as all parties united in terrible stories of the 
bad character of the Sicilians, I thought there might be suffi¬ 
cient truth in it to be a little cautious ; so, having a very 
slim purse, I put it in my boots, and slept comfortably for 
the night—us much so at least as a person can when he has 
to hang on outside on the driver’s seat, for want of one in the 
interior. It was a bright moonlight night, and we jogged on 
pleasantly enough, up hill and down hill, and over rugged 
roads, and through dark, low, dirty-looking villages, till day¬ 
light broke, and the sun rose over the barren mountains with 
a refreshing warmth. That sun was welcomed most heartily 
by the whole company, for the mountain air had chilled us 
throughout; and I am not sure but it would have found us 
