I Hardly Ventured To Enter Them, Thinking That The Interior Was Of A Piece With The Exterior, And Was Consequently Astonished At Seeing Not Only Good Beds, Chairs, And Tables, But Very Often Elegant Little Altars Adorned With Flowers.

The inmates, too, were far from being badly dressed, and the linen hung out before many of these hovels struck me as superior to much that I had seen at the windows of some of the most elegant houses situated in the principal streets of the towns of Sicily.

A very good idea of the manners and customs of the people may be easily obtained by strolling, on Sundays and fete days, near Polanka, and visiting the eating-houses.

I will introduce my reader to one of these places. In one corner, on the ground, burns a fierce fire, surrounded by innumerable pots and pans, between which are wooden spits with beef and pork, simmering and roasting in the most enticing manner. An ungainly wooden framework, with a long broad plank on it, occupies the middle of the room, and is covered with a cloth whose original colour it would be an impossibility to determine. This is the table at which the guests sit. During the dinner itself the old patriarchal customs are observed, with this difference, that not only do all the guests eat out of one dish, but that all the eatables are served up in one, and one only. Beans and rice, potatoes and roast beef, Paradise apples and onions, etc., etc., lie quietly side by side, and are devoured in the deepest silence.

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