LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE
OF
POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.
DECEMBER, 1877.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by J. B. Lippincott& Co., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Transcriber's notes: Minor typos have been corrected. Table of contents has beengenerated for HTML version.
Contents
A MONTH IN SICILY.
"FOR PERCIVAL."
CAPTURED BY COSSACKS.
A PORTRAIT.
"GOD'S POOR."
DAYS OF MY YOUTH.
A LAW UNTO HERSELF.
OUIDA'S NOVELS.
A KENTUCKY DUEL.
FOLK-LORE OF THE SOUTHERN NEGROES.
SELIM.
ENGLISH DOMESTICS AND THEIR WAYS.
OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
LITERATURE OF THE DAY.
BOOKS RECEIVED.
A MONTH IN SICILY.
FIRST PAPER.
LA FAVORITA.Early on the morning of the first of February we stood on the deck of thesteamer for Palermo, watching the sun rise over the water. Far away in thesouth the blue edge of the sea began to grow bluer with the rising of thedistant land. A fresh breeze blew from the shore—not a pleasant feature inFebruary weather at home, but suggesting comparisons with the warmestmorning of a New England May. With the swift advance of the steamer the[Pg 650]blue line in the south rapidly rose above the level of the sea into thedefinite shape of a rugged mountain-range: gradually the blueness ofdistance changed to rich shades of brown and red on the jagged, treelesssummits, and to deepest green where long orange-farms border the bases ofthe mountains.
Who has not longed to see Sicily? Every one who loves poetry, romance orthe history of ancient civilization must often turn in thought to thisbeautiful and famous Mediterranean island. To the most ancient poets it wasa mysterious land, where dwelt the monster Charybdis and the bloodyLæstrigones; where Ulysses met the Cyclops; where the immortal gods wagedbattles with the giant sons of Earth, and bound Enceladus in his eternalprison. No doubt it was the terrific natural phenomena of Sicily—theearthquakes and the outbursts of Etna—which rendered it so much a land ofhorrors to the early Greek imagination. But in that far-distant age it wasnot only the terrors of the place that had worked upon the imaginativeGreeks: the almost tropical luxuriance of the country, the unrivalledscenery, the brilliancy of the sky, made it a fitti