Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/455

Rh from their love of music, I know not. Frequently also you see a throng gathered round a man with the timbola, or some other game of chance, for play is a chief enjoyment of both great and small in Palermo.

We have visited many private palaces in Palermo, as well as the celebrated pleasure castles and villas, La Favorita, La Grazia, La Bagaria and many others. There are no works of art of a high character there, but great splendor in mosaics and other ornaments, also a good deal that is very peculiar and curious.

The villas of Palermo, and their natural beauty, their views of the bays, of the mountains and, parks, have reminded me of the dreams of my childhood about fairy-castles and gardens. From the greater number of these villas, however, the inhabitants have fled to other countries, or to the other world. Life, the creative and the powerful, flows now in other directions. Palermo is bright as yet with the past, whilst it glances onward, waiting for a new, an approaching life.

The want of unity and independent power has made the people of Sicily, for centuries, a ball to be played with by foreign powers, has made them dependent on foreign rulers whom they obey without loving, and it has made them what they are at the present time. But is this to last always? Will it never become dependent upon its better self alone, become a people as independent and noble as its land is rich and beautiful?

And now, farewell for this time, beautiful Palermo, thou princess, thou rose amongst the cities of southern