A FAIRY TALE OF ETNA.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 August 1923, Page 4

A FAIRY TALE OF ETNA.

(fly (I. Will'd Price',. JiTXA, Sicily. Seismologists and vulcnnologists and earthquake experts, oi' whom half-a-do/.en luive arrived at Etna with complicated instruments for investigating its recent activity, will give you a complete scientific explanation of this eruption, with satisfying details about pressures and temperatures and periodicity. but the peasants who have spent ali their lives on the volcano know better.

looming down the other day from a

near view oi the new crater, I overlook" oil the lower slopes an old until of the mountain driving what appeared to be a perambulating haystack. As one drew closer the diminutive to: in of a donkey became discernible, almost concealed beneath the middle of the bay and supplying ils motive power. While we were still liilv yards awav

my guide began to engage the old man in conversation, using the ordinary tone that moiinlain-folk seem to be able lo hear at distances where town-dwell-ers would liariiy understand a .shout. The aged Sicilian, who bad a complexion like an old suit-ease, ceased the sturdy wallops and thrusts under the tad of the haystack with which be had been trying to .stimulate bis unseen donkey, in order Lo ask anxiously what was going on up at the crater. The gasps of "Santa Maria!” and

” Madonna Vergino!” with which lie listened to the guide’s story seemed to show such emotion that I asked him if he were not a I raid to spend all his days on lho slop.-s of Etna, with ils wicked history of dll recorded eruptions and

earlhi|imkes. oi which one, only Id years ago. killed SO, (HID of the inhabitants of .Messina in thirty seconds?

lie replied that he was. per Dio! but that the soil was so rich there that you made :> hotter living than in any other part of Sicily. Nevertheless, it was a terrible thing, he said, “the venvenero of the giants.”

"What giants f” I asked, whereupon lie bream-,- somewhai confused, looked shamefacedly at the guide, ami sank into silence. Ai this point I produced ao Italian cigar, of a kind I should In -hate to smoke myself, hut which I have often found potent fur opening up tiie conversation of I lie natives. The old man of ih,- mountain lighted ii with as mm It relish as a oily magnate starting a Corolla Corolla, and lien told me this legend of Etna which those peasant islanders prohaldv yet believe in their hearts— a legend which niii't have eotne down t,> them from Creek mythology through all the domination.. of lie-mails, Oot!,s, Arab~. Normans, Spaniards, and IVeui-b to which they have lu-en in turn subjected. V. !n-n ihe present Sicilians first mi del-look the conquest oi the island, in the ag" of the gods, la- «nid. it was very different front what b i- now. It- i idle, oi ta m s ware a race of ginnis who Were Ibe ili'-cendaiu - of me-a! liam-e.s between the gods and woman kind. These Cyclopean power, ol .•>ii• 1 1 y op- I po-i-l ,i stout resistance to tie invalids, hut gradually tbet to re ov.-mtiite. and (lie lasi survivors round refuge on j the motiitUtia oi Etna, then -epararen by a channel from the ro-i oi the island. Hero the Sicilians deliberately starved t bent out. Tito giants oven ate ail the lives on the mouniain I--fore s rendering, and lln it their leader went down to the edge of the narrow strait and call--I across to the Sicilians, of’ .•rtng m seive them as slaves ii their liv. s might he spared. Hat the Sicilians were mist rust fill oi the got id heha viour i f ■da y. .. it t if. •! high, so they refused I i lisle-. Then the leader of the giants, in the fury o| despair, -wore an oath that for t -i lltou-atal years the Sicilians should stilfet flit- their cruelty, and c:dliter op the powers o: his -divine origin he stampi.il upon the ground, Instantly 11:e last of Hie giants disappear-'.I. tlie • hurst into jlaltle ~ud 0.,0i<0. • a'-d ihe lit si Sicilian oM-i !i junke uni: d Etna witii the rest" of the island. Ever since that time, said the old man. Sicily In; . I. mi the vie! im oi the mi'n"o ol ihe giant-. and will ho h Hilt gir'lls- (lid one.. In,. hole i, C.U tain," he add. d. reassure i by my re-.pyct lid hearing ,u i,;-. 0,f.. stone I lillills for men ai least dll 1, ,-l ] high have he.-,, f-aia.l.” I Ui 111 ee-Oi | III!, that tile amis of f; c- - I'll, lull- of tin oldest tow lis i I ca-iks, With their shoulders. and tliai moiling | listen, ,| ;1 h. •anted pm-les-or. who explained the eruption by movements of "magma” sixty thousand tel l below the surface of I lie earl it. ww u ehme t i |. a incredulity.