ns--burthens almost incredible. In the vicinity of
AEtna I met a woman walking down the road knitting: on her head was a large
mass of lava weighing at least thirty pounds, and on the top of this lay a
small hammer. Being puzzled to know why the woman carried such a piece of
lava where lava was so abundant, I inquired 'the wherefore' of Luigi, our
guide. He answered that as she wished to knit, and not having pockets, she
had taken that plan to carry the little hammer conveniently. That piece of
stone, which would break our necks to carry, was evidently to her no more
than a heavy hat would be to us. It may be thought that I draw a sorry
picture of these poor Islanders; but I would have it understood that on
the side of Messina, and some other parts, there is apparently a little
more civilization; but they are an oppressed and degraded peasantry;
ignorant, superstitious, filthy, and condemned to live on the coarsest
food. They are as the beasts that perish, driven by necessity to sow that
which they may not reap. How applicable are the words of ADDISON:

'How has kind Heaven adorn'd the happy land
And scattered blessings with a wasteful hand!
But what avails her unexhausted stores,
Her blooming mountains and her sunny shores,
With all the gifts that heaven and earth impart,
The smiles of nature and the charms of art,
While proud oppression in her valleys reigns,
And tyranny usurps her happy plains?
The poor inhabitant beholds in vain
The reddening orange and the swelling grain:
Joyless he sees the growing oils and wines,
And in the myrtle's fragrant shade repines:
Starves, in the midst of nature's bounty curst,
And in the loaded vineyard dies of thirst.'

But the Sicilians are _naturally_ a gay, light-hearted people, like the
Greeks, their forefathers; and if the cloud which now rests upon them were
removed, and we have reason to think it is lifting, they would be as
bright and sunny as their own skies. The women of the better classes wear
the black mantilla when they venture into the streets, which they seldom
do, except to attend mass or the confessional. This robe is extremely
elegant, as it is worn, but it requires an adept to adjust it gracefully.
It covers the whole person from head to foot; in parts drawn closely to
the form, in others falling in free folds. But for its color, I should
admire it much: it seems such an incongruity for a young and beautiful
female to be habited in wha