DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6094#0201
178 A TOUR THROUGH
pigeons, which breed there in great abun-
dance. The innermost parts of this cavern
are so very dismal and gloomy, that our
landlord told us some people had lost their
senses from having advanced too far, ima-
gining they saw devils and the spirits of
the damned; for it is still very generally
believed here, that ./Etna is the mouth of
hell.
We found a degree of wildness and fe-
rocity in the inhabitants of this mountain,
that I have not observed any where else.
It put me in mind of an observation the
Padre della Torre (the historiographer of
mount Vesuvius) told me he had often made
in the confines of Naples; that in the
places where the air is most impregnated
with sulphur and hot exhalations, the peo-
ple were always most wicked and vicious.
Whatever truth there may be in the obser-
vation, the people about Nicolosi at least
seem to confirm it. The whole village
ssocked
pigeons, which breed there in great abun-
dance. The innermost parts of this cavern
are so very dismal and gloomy, that our
landlord told us some people had lost their
senses from having advanced too far, ima-
gining they saw devils and the spirits of
the damned; for it is still very generally
believed here, that ./Etna is the mouth of
hell.
We found a degree of wildness and fe-
rocity in the inhabitants of this mountain,
that I have not observed any where else.
It put me in mind of an observation the
Padre della Torre (the historiographer of
mount Vesuvius) told me he had often made
in the confines of Naples; that in the
places where the air is most impregnated
with sulphur and hot exhalations, the peo-
ple were always most wicked and vicious.
Whatever truth there may be in the obser-
vation, the people about Nicolosi at least
seem to confirm it. The whole village
ssocked