A few sentences in Chapter XIII have been taken from a pamphlet I wrote and had printed for private circulation in 1904, entitled: Diary of a Journey through North Italy to Sicily in the spring of 1903, undertaken for the purpose of leaving the MSS. of three books by Samuel Butler at Varallo-Sesia, Aci-Reale and Trapani.
It would be impossible to enumerate and thank all the many friends who, with the courtesy and patience that never desert a
Sicilian, have given me information, explanation and assistance. Among them are two, however, to whom, and to whose families, I desire to give my special thanks, namely: Cavaliere Uffiziale Giovanni Grasso, of the Teatro Macchiavelli, Catania; and Signor Achille Greco, of the Marionette Theatre, in the Piazza Nuova, Palermo.
Signor Greco wrote to me recently that, for Rosina’s riddle in his episode of the masks in Samson, he had dipped in the stream of children’s games current to-day in Palermo; he did not appear to know that Plato had dipped in his own Athenian stream for the riddle quoted by Glaucon towards the end of the fifth book of the Republic. The riddles are similar not because Rosina had read the dialogue, nor because Glaucon had seen the play, but because the two streams flowed as one until Greek colonists took their folk-lore with them into Sicily before Plato was born.
| CONTENTS | ||
| SELINUNTE | ||
| chapter | page | |
| I. | The Brigadier and the Lottery | [3] |
| CASTELLINARIA | ||
| II. | Peppino | [29] |
| III. | The Professor | [41] |
| IV. | The Wine-ship | [52] |
| CATANIA | ||
| V. | Michelle and the Princess of Bizerta | [77] |
| TRAPANI | ||
| VI. | Ferraù and Angelica | [97] |
| VII. | The Death of Bradamante | [113] |
| MOUNT ERYX | ||
| VIII. | Monte san Giuliano | [131] |
| IX. | The Madonna and the Personaggi | [149] |
| X. | The Universal Deluge | [166] |
| XI. | The Return | [181] |
| CUSTONACI | ||
| XII. | Faith and Superstition | [189] |
| CALATAFIMI | ||
| XIII. | The Prodigal Son and the Arts | [213] |
| PALERMO | ||
| XIV. | Samson | [235] |
| XV. | The Conversion of the Emperor Constantine | [254] |
| CASTELLINARIA | ||
| XVI. | A Great Actor | [279] |
| XVII. | Supper with the Players | [290] |
| 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.