m
their disliking the sea, for we never saw so _many_ as at _Pesaro_, on
the Adriatic;--no insect, then, is more _volage_, or uncertain as to
place, than the firefly. The only poisonous _reptile_ of Sicily is the
_viper_, of which there seem to be several varieties. A beautiful blue
thrush (_Turdus cyaneus_), a great _talker_, much prized, and
_high-priced_ too, when he has been taught to speak, is found in the
rocky clefts about Syracuse. The heat and brilliancy of the sunshine
render it extremely difficult, we are told, to preserve collections in
natural history. All the water drunk here is _rain water_. The butter,
fruit, and vegetables of Syracuse are, in the month of May at least,
bad, very bad; but its _Muscat_ wine, its _Hybla_ honey, and its fish,
are all of superior quality.

The honey of that hill needs not our praise,

----"quae nectareis vocat ad certamen
Hymetton,
Audax Hybla, favis."

For ourselves, after tasting the confection of the Attic as well as of
the Sicilian bee, we know not which is the greater artist, or which
operates on the finer material; but the _best_ honey in Europe, in our
opinion, comes from the apiaries of Narbonne.

A CONSULTATION.

We had given advice, and were preparing to go, when another candidate
comes forward, and, with suitable gesticulation, _so_ placed his hands
that we could not help saying, "Liver, eh?" "_Eccelenza_, si!" "Dopo una
febbre?" "_Illustrissimo_, si!"--Folk now beginning to wink approvingly
at our sagacity, we were looking exceeding grave, when a pair of
Sicilian eyes set in a female head put us quite out by evidently taking
us for a conjurer, and so setting at once our ethics, our pathology, and
our Italian dictionary at fault. Still the surgeon congratulates the
room on the "_lumi_" brought to it by the strange doctor, approves of
the prescription, and corroborates our opinion that the "Signore _Don
Jacomo_" _Somebody_ was the incontestable possessor of a "_flogose
chronica del fegato!_" We now said we must go; and _two_ children ran
for our hat, the man with the liver kisses our hand, others seize our
coat-skirts, and the guide, Jack Robertson, carries the mace and leads
the way, and puts himself at the head of the procession homewards; and
glad were we to escape the embarrassment of curtsies and courtesies, to
which we are unused, and far too extravagant ones to admit of reply.
Come! the best of fees is a poor man's gratitude; but fro