To facilitate the approach to these sacred relics, the pious and grateful Palermotans, after immense labour, constructed on the face of the mountain a road which is nearly perpendicular, and very dangerous. This, however, by no means operates as a check to the devotion of the hundreds who seek the protection and patronage of the saints.
In the vault beneath the chapel, which has long been the resting-place for her bones, there was an inscription, which differs from the monkish legend. It states her to be the daughter of Count Sinibaldus, who lived at the period when the irruptions of the Saracens were so frequent in Italy, and that Rosalia first retired to a cave on Mount Quesquina, in order to preserve herself from the disciples of Mohammed, and afterwards to Mount Pelegrino, where she died a nun.
The bones of this Saint are now annually carried about the City in a large silver box; and, according to popular belief, she has, several times since her discovery, saved the Sicilians from the plague. Long before the celebration of the festival she becomes the subject of general conversation, and excites the greatest interest. Her triumphal car is made of very great height, and drawn through the principal streets by a number of caparisoned mules, preceded by dragoons with trumpets. On the lower part of the conveyance is an orchestra, and above it is a small temple, in the interior of which are figures of different saints, and, on the top of all, a large statue of San Rosalia. Every side of the carriage is decorated with flowers; and during the ceremony the streets are crowded with people, and the windows, to all of which are balconies, are filled with ladies. At night there is an illumination.
The amusements at this Palermo rejoicing vary each day. One night the Flora gardens are illuminated, on another one of the streets, and, in the day-time, horse-races. The latter, from their peculiarities, are worthy of notice. The horses start from the bottom of the principal street, near the Porto Felice, and run to the Porto Nuovo. They have no riders, but have small bladders fixed on their backs, in which are inserted sharp spikes, serving by the motion to urge them on. The prizes run for are generally small, consisting of from ten to fifteen ounces in dollars, fastened to a board; and the horse that wins is led in procession, with the prize before him.
The illumination of the Madre Chiesa, which is the cathedral church of Palermo, excites the admiration of all travellers. It is here where the box containing the bones of St. Rosalia is deposited. The last ceremony is a grand procession, in which the silver box is carried by the principal citizen. Immense crowds endeavour to get near it to touch it, for they consider it a remedy for all evils.
The approach of the festival produces general joy and happiness; and the people are so attached to the memory of the Saint, that it is supposed that any attempt to suppress her commemoration would be attended with the most serious consequences.
Christmas Day at the Diggings.
Gold is now every man’s business. The earth is yielding it by the hand-full and spade-full. Already nearly fifty millions sterling have been raised by the rude exertions of a part of the population who might have been starving upon six-shillings a-week, in delving and ditching. And it is a wonderful sight to see thousands upon thousands of brisk, brawny, and sturdy men, in their shirt-sleeves washing the productive earth, and rocking the gold to rest in their own pockets—the finest of all kinds of cradling. Boys and girls too even lend their aid. The boys are trained in the digging, and the girls in the washing—the boys find the “pockets” as they are called, and the girls make purses for it. Along the banks of the various creeks, it is delightful to see the throng of men and boys, and girls and women, busy with tin dishes and cradles, making their ounces and half-ounces of “pure, bright, slippery gold” in a-day.