a, here assumes the colour, rivals the
compactness, sustains the polish, of jasper, of agate, and of marble;
indeed it sometimes surpasses, in beautiful veinage, the finest and
rarest Marmorean specimens. You would hardly distinguish some of it,
worked into jazza or vase, from _rosso antico_ itself. A very old and
rusty armoury may, as here, be seen any where; but a row of
formidable shark skulls, taken along the coast, and some in the very
port of Catania, are rarities on which the _ciceroni_ like to
prelect, being furnished with many a story of bathers curtailed by
them, and secure a large portion of attention, especially if you were
just thinking of a dip. A rather fine collection of bronzes has been
made from excavations in the neighbourhood, which, indeed, must
always promise to reward research. A figure of Mercury, two and a
half feet high, and so exactly similar to that of John of Bologna,
that his one seemed an absolute plagiarism, particularly attracted
our attention on that account. The great Italian artist, however, had
been dead one hundred and fifty years before this bronze was dug up.
Next in importance to the bronzes, we esteem the collection of
Sicilian, or Graeco-Sicilian vases, though inferior in number and
selectness to those of the Vatican, or Museo-Borbonico. There is also
some ancient sculpture, and some pretty mosaic. Of this composition
is a bathfloor, where a family of Cupids, in the centre of the
pavement, welcome you with a _utere feliciter_, (may it do you good.)
Round the border, a circle of the personified _"months"_ is
artistically chained together, each bearing his _Greek_ name, for
fear of a mistake--names not half so good as Sheridan's translation
of the Revolutionary calendar--snowy, flowy, blowy--showery, flowery,
bowery--moppy, croppy, poppy--breezy, sneezy, freezy. In Catania, we
find no lack of coins, nor of sharp-eyed dealers, who know pretty
generally their value throughout Europe; but, in order to be quite
sure of the price _current,_ ask double what they take from one
another, and judge, by your abatement of it, of the state of the
market elsewhere. Now mind, sir, when they present you the most
impudent forgeries, you are not to get into a passion; but, glancing
from the object to the vender, quietly insinuate your want of
_absolute_ conviction in a _"che vi pare di questa moneta."_ He now
looks at it again, and takes a squint at _you;_ and supposing you
smell a rat, probably r