en it was Motya, it was the most
important of them all. The sea extends right and left till it is lost in
the haze which so commonly obscures a Sicilian horizon.

The road goes more and more inland and, still rising, diverges from the
shorter road taken by the old horse bus and passes through Paparella.
Presently the mountain shuts out Trapani and the sea, and then the
country lying inland about the base of the mountain comes into view
bounded by a distant amphitheatre and, as the road completes the circuit
of the mountain, and still rising joins the other shorter road at the
Trapani gate of the town, the sea comes into sight again, with the
horizon high above Trapani and the promontory of Capo S. Vito bounding it
on the right.

This mountain, formerly world-renowned as Mount Eryx, and still often
called Monte Erice, is now Monte S. Giuliano and gives its name both to
the town on the top and to the comune of which that town is the chief
place. The highest point of the town is towards the east of the
mountain-top, and here are several towers, some belonging to the
Castello, a Norman fortress, and others to Le Torri, the summer residence
of Count Pepoli. On the north, east and south sides of the summit the
mountain is precipitous, but towards the west it slopes from the towers
through a public garden called the Balio, and then through a maze of
narrow, winding streets, down to the Trapani gate. The normal population
of the town is about 4000, but in the summer and autumn this is largely
increased, inasmuch as the great heat of Trapani and the low country
drives as many as can afford it to live on the summit where it is seldom
too hot.

The rest of the comune lies dotted about on the plain at the foot of the
mountain and consists of a dozen small villages, all visible from the
summit. These have mostly grown up within the last hundred years or so
as colonies from the chief town, for when the country was less secure the
women and children were left within the town walls while the men went
down to work in the fields and to fish in the sea, returning for Sundays
and festas, and gradually, as it became possible, settlements were formed
below to which the women and children could safely be moved. Custonaci,
however, one of the villages of the comune, did not spring up in this way
and is of older date than the others.

The peculiar charm of the mountain cannot be fully realized unless one
visits it at all seasons and i