fore with the miraculous
preservation of the colouring. What these experts thought about the date
of the original painting is known only to themselves. We need not
suppose that they agreed--that would have been indeed a miracle and quite
a fresh departure for a picture with a reputation earned in a different
branch of thaumaturgy. It does not much matter, however, what they
thought, for experts in matters of art are the victims of such cast-iron
prejudices that if once they fancy they see the influence of Leonardo da
Vinci in a picture and take it into their heads that it comes from
Piedmont, it will be found the most difficult thing in the world to
persuade them that it really was painted in Egypt more than 1000 years
before Giotto.

We shall probably not be far wrong if we assume that something like the
processions of the Personaggi, involving the display of the most
beautiful men and women that could be found, took place on the mountain
in heathen times as part of the cult of the goddess and that, as a
compromise, they were not abolished but accommodated to Christian usages.

Giuseppe Pitre, in his _Feste Patronali in Sicilia_, gives an account of
the procession on the mountain held in 1752. We are to suppose that the
wickedness of the good people of Eryx had attained to such monstrous
proportions that the whole universe, incited thereto by observing the
anger of God against them, took up arms in the cause of justice. The
Madonna di Custonaci, however, intervened and saved her chosen people.
It began with the Wrath of God, personified by a warrior armed with
thunderbolts and lightning and setting forth to destroy the mountain.
Then came the Angry Heavens, the Benignant Moon, Mars and Mercury ready
to avenge the outrages done to God; Jove grasping a thunderbolt and about
to hurl it against the comune, Venus anxious to overthrow the city, and
Saturn whetting his golden scythe. The Sun is obscured, the Four Winds
blow terribly, the Four Elements assist in the work of desolation, the
Four Seasons threaten misery and affliction. Mount Eryx being convinced
by this display that it is in a great danger, the Genius of the city
appears next, bearing in his hand a figure of the Madonna di Custonaci.
He calls to his assistance Divine Counsel, Devotion, Beneficence and
Piety, and the procession closes with the Guardian Angel.

It must have been a magnificent spectacle. Many clouds have rested on
Mount Eryx since 1752 an