I chose a beautiful piece of high-class music, and got the orchestra to practise it over as accompaniment to my instrument, the "sellura." I tuned it by winding the brass flags which adorn it.
I fingered the knobs up and down the front of it as if they were the notes; the big projections on either side I pulled as if to alter the tone.
And the music? Well, I got that out of a comb and paper affixed to the back, and into which I sang.
But, mixed up with the other instruments, it sounded all right, and I got lots of applause and lots of questions afterwards as to where you could buy these wonderful organs, and how long did it take one to learn to play them, and so on!
* * * * *
TAORMINA.
Six hundred feet up on a mountain spur overhanging the sea stands the little town of Taormina.
Long ago it was chosen as a beauty spot by the Romans and Greeks, and here they had their villas and baths and theatre.
The theatre stands to this day, in ruins, it is true, but sufficiently whole to show what an ancient theatre was like.
One can sit in the upper circle and look down upon the "pit" and "orchestra," and the marble pillars and wall which formed the back of the stage in those days in place of scenery.