I had often heard that the ass was a strong-backed animal, but I never had stronger evidence of the fact than upon this journey. As I was jogging along the road towards noon, I espied a figure coming towards me with the strangest movements that ever I witnessed. It had the appearance of a man, but he moved in so awkward a manner, shambling and toddling onward by jerks and hitches, that I knew not what to make of the sight. When he came nearer, I discovered that it was an enormous long-legged fellow, astride of a little dwarfish donkey, not bigger than a two-year-old calf. The beast was so much smaller than the man, that I did not observe him till he was very near. The fellow’s legs were so long that he was obliged to hold them up behind him to keep his feet from dragging on the ground. The poor little donkey tottered and staggered under his enormous load, and seemed ready to stumble every moment. I stopped the man, and asked him if he was not afraid of breaking the back of his beast. He appeared quite astonished at the question, and replied that an ass’s back was a thing that never broke; at least, he had never heard of such an accident. I told him he was much better able to carry the ass than the ass was to carry him; on which he burst into a broad laugh, gave the donkey a bang with his cudgel, and trotted on.
Now and then the road crossed the bed of a mountain torrent, caused by the heavy rains which fall on the regions above. When the rains are violent, the waters pour down these beds with such impetuosity as to sweep everything before them, and stop all travelling upon the roads. Sometimes a river is thus formed half a mile in width, which continues full, as long as the rains last. In dry weather nothing is left but beds of coarse gravel and stones, with small streams of water trickling through them. It is impossible to build bridges over these torrents, as the waters often rise to an extraordinary height, and rush with such force that nothing could stand against them.
I met very few wheel carriages of any description. Regular stage-coaches, I believe, are unknown, and most of the travellers I passed were either on foot, or mounted on mules and asses. Carts and wagons, too, are uncommon; almost everything being transported on the backs of these animals. The few vehicles that I saw were of the most rude and clumsy make, and their harness nothing but a slovenly snarl of old ropes. I could not help wishing the inhabitants of this fine country were blessed with a little Yankee smartness and industry.
CHAPTER XII.
A wedding party.—Strange ignorance of the Sicilians.—The tavern at Giardini.—Ruins of Taormina.—Remarkable theatre.—Cities on mountain-tops.—Cliffs covered with goats.—Odd fashion of dressing infants.—Sicilian husbandry.—A squall in the straits.—Arrival at Messina.
As I approached a little village, I overtook a wedding party going home from church. They were all mounted on asses, and were accompanied by the priest, a fat little round-faced, pleasant-looking fellow, with a three-cornered hat. The bride was a blowzy, hoydenish country girl, all bedizened out in tawdry finery, simpering and giggling to every one, and apparently full of spirits. The bridegroom was a sheepish-looking peasant, who appeared to feel very awkward in his new situation. All the rest of the company were full of fun and jollity, and very readily entered into conversation with me. At first they took me for an Englishman, but when they learnt that I had come from the New World, they stared in utter astonishment: they had never seen an American before, and always imagined we were all Indians or blacks. They invited me to accompany them, and partake of their entertainment, which I agreed to very willingly. I went along with them to the house, where we found more company already assembled, and great numbers of ragged children trooping about to stare at the show. The house was a small, one-story building, and I was afraid they would find it a difficult matter to accommodate so many guests. But presently benches were brought and placed in front of the house, under the shade of the olive trees, and we sat down in the open air. The fare consisted of bread, olives, kid’s flesh, green fennel, fruit and red wine. The old priest was the most jolly and talkative of the whole company, and I may add that he ate and drank as much as any three of them. He sat by my side, and asked me a hundred questions about America: whether the people were Christians, whether they dressed in clothes like civilized people, or wore the skins of wild beasts, whether they did not eat one another, and many more things equally extravagant.
My readers may think it hardly possible that such ignorance can be found in a person pretending to superior knowledge; but instances of the same kind came under my observation so frequently during my travels, that at last they ceased to excite any surprise. It must be borne in mind that the country in which I was travelling is not, like the United States, full of roads, in which crowds of people are continually hurrying backwards and forwards; and full of newspapers and books, which are constantly circulating through the country, and carrying knowledge to the remotest village in the Union. There are but two or three roads, deserving of the name, in the whole island of Sicily, and hardly such a thing as a newspaper. Very few books are printed here, and general knowledge, even among the better sort of people, is very scanty.
Being in a hurry to proceed on my journey, I could not wait till the close of the entertainment, but mounted my mule just as the company had struck up a dance. I travelled till sunset, when I reached a little fishing town called Giardini, romantically situated under the brow of a high hill, with the sea at the foot. I found a snug little tavern in a street which ran along the shore, where I put up for the night. The host was a simple, good-natured old man, in a red cap, and his house was quite comfortable, though small for a tavern. From my chamber window I had a grand prospect of the sea, which came rolling in with a beautiful surf directly under my feet. High rocky hills, with a castle and heaps of ancient ruins, rose up over me close at hand; and far off across the water, the eye rested upon the dark blue mountains of Calabria.
Early the next morning I climbed up the hill over the town to visit the ruins of an ancient city called Taormina, which formerly stood there. I was struck with the beautiful situation of the theatre, which is still in tolerable preservation, although upwards of two thousand years old. This edifice looks directly towards Mount Ætna; so that the spectators always had the magnificent picture of the mountain as a background to the scenery of the stage. It is certainly the grandest situation in the world for such a building. Other ruins abound in the place, but I have not time to describe them. The hill on which this city stood is so steep of ascent that no wheel carriage can go up, though asses and mules climb up and down tolerably well. I remarked that almost all ancient cities in this country were built on the tops of hills and mountains, difficult of access, showing that these communities
sprung up in barbarous times, when every town feared the hostilities of its neighbors, and the sea-coasts were perpetually liable to be plundered by pirates. As civilization advanced, the population descended into the plains.
After breakfast, I continued my journey toward Messina. The country still presented the same beautiful and picturesque scenery. Groves, gardens, orchards and fresh green pastures greeted the eye in every direction. Numerous towns and villages were seen perched on the tops of almost inaccessible mountains; town above town and castle above castle, mounting into the air. Sometimes the road passed under high rocky crags, where I saw herds of goats hanging over my head and clambering among the dizzy precipices. Often the tinkling of a bell aloft caused me to gaze upwards, when I beheld numbers of these adventurous animals sticking against the rocks like flies on the side of a house, and seeming ready to fall on my head every moment. The fields were full of laborers at work, ploughing and hoeing. They all wore white cotton caps, and a group of them at a distance looked like a flock of geese. These white caps afford a better defence against the sun than a covering of any other color. The sun here is very powerful, and a sun-stroke is dreaded more than any other accident from the weather.