Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/245

184. And if electricity does not exert a direct influence over hurricanes, why do we not observe in whirlwinds (trombe) luminous masses, smoke, and jets of flame, in short, a smell of sulphur, and a hailstorm?

A worthy friend of mine, P. Raffaele of Tito, formerly Provincial of the Franciscan Friars, communicated to me some phenomena of still greater singularity. He told me that animals in general, but especially pigs, (a circumstance also observed by some in Potenza,) manifested marks of suffering and increasing uneasiness, for ten days previous to the earthquake. There were three hogs in a sty, close to the convent kitchen, and after supper, hearing an unusual grunting, he went out to see what was wrong, and found them rabidly excited, biting each other like dogs. The explanation given by philosophers of similar events is notorious; Virgil's, in the First Book of the Georgics, may suffice for all. On the evening of the 16th, at three o'clock, Italian time, my friend standing at the window of his room, which looked to the west, saw a great belt of fire and smoke, with a globe in the centre. This sight alarmed him, by recalling to his mind the fire and thunder of Sinai, when God gave the law to Moses. He pointed out the meteor to some of the fathers, who also observed it, and predicted some impending disaster. He says that the second shock was first vertical, and afterwards undulating, and rotatory. The air also was in motion, and as luminous as a lanthorn. Fiery meteors were observed all through the night, and some persons living in the country asserted that they saw a column of fire.

Dr. D. Raffaele Salvia told me that globes of fire were observed to fall upon the church, and that its destruction was attributed to them. Many heard an explosion previously to the earthquake, which was frequently repeated on a subsequent day. Father Raffaele relates, that at the moment of the catastrophe, entire families were carried by the wind (aeremoto) into the street, in their beds, and some from one house to another unhurt. He named, in particular, Pasquale Gatta and family, a son of Maronziello, and one Giuseppe Giannotti, who, together with his wife, was whirled from house to house, falling in the street, thirty paces from his own dwelling. However, the woman was killed. He mentions similar