Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/426

400 The soil is better mixed, and lighter, than any we have hitherto seen, in consequence of its containing some sand. Leaving Salemi about fifteen miles to our right, we came upon hills of gypsum, lying on the limestone. The soil appears, as we proceed, to be better and more richly compounded. In the distance you catch a peep of the Western sea. In the foreground the country is everywhere hilly. We found the fig-trees just budding; but what most excited our delight and wonder were endless masses of flowers, which had encroached on the broad road, and flourish in large, variegated patches. Closely bordering on each other, the several sorts, nevertheless, keep themselves apart, and recur at regular intervals,—the most beautiful convolvuluses, hibiscuses, and mallows, various kinds of trefoil, here and there the garlic, and the galega-gestrauche. On horseback you may ride through this varied tapestry by following the numberless and ever-crossing narrow paths which run through it. Here and there you see, feeding, fine red-brown cattle, very clean-limbed, and with short horns of an extremely elegant form.

The mountains to the northeast stand all in a line. A single peak, Cuniglione, rises boldly from the midst of them. The gravelly hills have but few streams: very little rain seems to fall here; we did not find a single gully giving evidence of having ever overflowed.

In the night I met with a singular incident. Quite worn out, we had thrown ourselves on our beds in anything but a very elegant room. In the middle of the night I saw above me a most agreeable phenomenon,—a star, brighter, I think, than I ever saw one before. Just, however, as I began to take courage at a sight which was of good omen, my patron star suddenly disappeared, and left me in darkness again. At daybreak I at last discovered the cause of the marvel: there was a hole in the roof, and at the moment of my vision one of the brightest stars must have been