ons by a
copious supply of soap-suds, and now he became the tonsor only, and
declares against the mode in which we have our hair cut: "They have cut
your hair, Signor, _a condannato_--nobody adopts the toilette of the
guillotine now; it should have been left to grow in front _a la Plutus_,
or have been long at the sides _a la Nazarene_, which is the mode most
of our Sicilian gentlemen prefer." We were about to rise, wash, and
depart, but an impediment is offered by the artist. "_Non l'ho_
raffinato _ancora, Signor, bisogna_ raffinarlo _un poco_!" and before we
could arrive at the occult meaning of _raffinare_, his fingers were
exploring very technically and very disagreeably the whole surface over
which his razor had travelled, and a number of supplementary scrapings
were only stopped by an impatient _basta_ of the victim. _Still_ he was
unwilling to part with us. _Would_ we like, now that we are on the spot,
to _lose a few ounces of blood_ before he takes a stranger in hand, (who
is waiting for the one or other operation;) and, as we most positively
declined, he turned to the latter to ask him whether he was come for his
"_piccolo salassio di sei oncie_." "_Gia_!" said Signor Antonio, taking
off his coat, and sitting down with as much _sangfroid_ as if he were
going to take his breakfast. "Can you shave _me_?" asks a third party,
standing at the door. "_Adesso_," after I have _bled_ this gentleman.
Such are all the _interiors_ where _Salassatore_ is written over the
door; they bleed and they shave indifferently, and doing either, talk of
the last _take_ of _thunny_, the _opera_ that has been or is to be, and
the meagre skimmings of their permitted newspaper, _which_ begins
probably with the advertisement of a church ceremony, and ends always
with a charade--for our subscribers!!

CHURCHES.

The clergy are wealthy, the bishop's salary is 18,000 scudi, and many of
the convents are very opulent; but there is scarcely one of the churches
which you care to visit twice. Most of them are disgraced by vulgar
ornaments, in which respect they surpass even the worst specimens at
Naples! Gilt stucco, cut and stamped into flowery compartments, shows
off like a huge twelfth cake! but the _Matrice_ or _Duomo_, and the
Saracenic _Chapel of the Palazzo Reale_, and the cathedral of
_Monreale_, four miles beyond the town, are noble exceptions; these in
their several ways are all interesting, both within and without. The old
Siculo-No