Diversions In Sicily

SELINUNTE
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE BRIGADIER AND THE 3
LOTTERY

CASTELLINARIA

II. PEPPINO 29
III. THE PROFESSOR 41
IV. THE WINE-SHIP 52

CATANIA

V. MICHELLE AND THE 77
PRINCESS OF BIZERTA

TRAPANI

VI. FERRAU AND ANGELICA 97
VII. THE DEATH OF 113
BRADAMANTE

MOUNT ERYX

VIII. MONTE SAN GIULIANO 131
IX. THE MADONNA AND THE 149
PERSONAGGI
X. THE UNIVERSAL DELUGE 166
XI. THE RETURN 181

CUSTONACI

XII. FAITH AND 189
SUPERSTITION

CALATAFIMI

XIII. THE PRODIGAL SON AND 213
THE ARTS

PALERMO

XIV. SAMSON 235
XV. THE CONVERSION OF THE 254
EMPEROR CONSTANTINE

CASTELLINARIA

XVI. A GREAT ACTOR 279
XVII. SUPPER WITH THE 290
PLAYERS
XVIII. A YOUNG CRITIC 304
XIX. BRANCACCIA 317
SELINUNTE


CHAPTER I--THE BRIGADIER AND THE LOTTERY


One wet Saturday evening in May I found myself at Castelvetrano
consulting Angelo, the guide, about the weather. His opinion was that it
would clear up during the night; I said that if it did we would go to
Selinunte, and this confirmed his view; so, on the understanding that
there was to be no rain, I appointed him padrone of the expedition and
promised to acquiesce in all his arrangements.

He was quite right; Sunday morning was brilliantly fine, and at about
8.30 we started. He began by showing me his purchases; he had been out
early, marketing, and his basket contained fresh tunny, the first of the
season, veal, salame, dried fish, bread and oranges, but no wine; he said
we should find that at the locanda, where they would cook the tunny and
the veal for us.

Cicciu, our driver, was one of those queer creatures one sometimes meets
in Italy. At first I took him to be of feeble intellect, for when I
spoke to him or merely looked at him, he shut up his eyes, showed his
teeth and covered his face all over with grinning wrinkles; but on
knowing him better, I found he was really extremely intelligent and
perfectly good. He was about sixteen, but would have passed for twenty.
His general appearance was grey, the actual colour of his face, hands and
clothes being powdered out of sight by the dust which held all together
like a transparent glaze over a painting. He drove us along between
flowery fields of cistus until the temples of Selinunte came in sight,
then down to the Marinella, a handful of houses on the shore under the
low cliff. We drew up at the locanda which distinguished itself by
displaying over the door, in a five-ounce medicine bottle, a sample of a
cloudy, canary-coloured fluid to advertise the wine Angelo had spoken of,
and the forlorn bunch of five or six faded sprigs of camomile which hung
on the same hook constituted the bush. We left our basket with
instructions and drove off to inspect the acropolis and the ruins,
returning in about an hour and a half.

The locanda was an immense, cavernous room divided into front and back by
a partition about seven feet high with an opening in the middle. There
was no regular window, but we were only a few feet from the sea which
reflected the sunshine through the open door and up into the arched roof
and illuminated the front part.