of the
Observatory, who stated that an aerolite had fallen out of the profundity
of space and that it had not been ascertained where it had struck our
planet.

As no one had gone to the Teatro Sicilia on Monday the marionettes were
thrown a day late and the programme arranged for the Monday was remanded
to the Tuesday, like a festa. I half feared I might be prevented again
from seeing it because some friends from England arrived in Catania for
the night and I did not know whether they would care to go. They were,
however, much interested when I made the proposal. We were rather late,
and missed the Last Supper, arriving just before the curtain rose on the
garden. It was a beautiful scene. Christ was kneeling at a rock in the
background, the disciples were sleeping in the foreground and the wings
were hidden by branches of real trees. An angel descended with a cup
from which the principal figure drank. When the angel had departed there
was a pause--the lights changed and through the silence we heard the
tramp, tramp of approaching people; soldiers came on preceded by Judas,
who betrayed his Master with a kiss, Peter cut off Malchus's right ear,
the Nazarene was taken and the curtain fell.

WEDNESDAY

Turiddu came in the morning and we conducted my friends round the town.
We went to the shop where the old Swiss watchmaker sells the amber of
which Brancaccia's necklace is made; we went to the market, where we ate
a prickly pear, just to see what it was like, and the man politely
refused payment because we were foreigners; in the market also we bought
bergamot snuff-boxes; we then showed them the port, where they bought
crockery, and the Villa Bellini, where they took photographs; after which
we went back to the albergo, where we had luncheon. Then we accompanied
them to the station and saw them off for Taormina. Turiddu was as
pleased as anyone, he liked making the acquaintance of his compare's
English friends and they thought him a delightful boy. Strictly speaking
they were not English; the two ladies were Inglesi Americane, which
Turiddu said he understood because his mother had acted in the Argentina
and, though South America is not North America, it appeared pedantic to
insist on the distinction. The two gentlemen, again, were really Inglesi
Irlandesi, and here also we were in trouble because he mistook Irlandesi
for Olandesi and thought they were what we should call Boers.

After they had gone I w