those waters, return and
drink once more.

And what of those other and less heroic figures--the brigadier and his
guards gambling among the ruins of Selinunte, the ingenious French
gentleman classifying the procession at Calatafimi, Micio buying his
story-books and chocolate at Castellinaria, and many another whom I
should like to think you will some day meet, palely wandering up and down
these pages?

To pursue the subject might disincline you ever to take leave of the
world of the unborn, whereas I am desirous of making your acquaintance as
soon as possible. Let me, then, rather assure you that life is not all
marionettes and metaphysics, and that I know of no reason why you should
not at once enter upon an existence as real as that enjoyed by your dear
father or your beautiful mother--it would be unbecoming in a son to
expect more. Castellinaria is waiting to welcome you. You could not
have a more delightful birthplace than your native town, or more charming
compatriots than your fellow-townspeople. Only resemble your parents,
and you will never regret having hastened the day when I shall be
entitled to sign myself

Your affectionate Godfather,
HENRY FESTING JONES.

NOTE

Chapters VIII-XI have been enlarged and re-written since August, 1903,
when they appeared as _A Festa on Mount Eryx_ in _The Monthly Review_. I
have to thank Mr. John Murray for kindly giving me permission to reprint
them here.

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
ch