ETNA AND THE SICILIANS

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 January 1929, Page 10

ETNA AND THE SICILIANS

ITALY’S GREATEST VOLCANO

An old Italian author wrote “To those who have seen Etna, Vesuvius is a pocket volcano.” The enormous mass of Etna, known locally as Mongibcllo, “mountain of mountains,” with its mighty mass surmounted by a smoking cone, has impressed itself on Mediterranean coast dwellers from the earliest times (writes J. A. Douglas in the “Manchester Guardian”). Visible for over 100 miles in frequent times of eruption, it is small wonder that it was regarded by the ancients as the main outlet of hell. The rumblings of the mountain were associated with the groans of the damned. In more modern times, in the days of the Tudors, the superstitious locals believed that the Devil bore off Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn for the special purpose of imprisoning them in the mighty crater. The truth of this is solmenly affirmed in an old Sicilian chronicle.

The first eruption described in history was that of 475 B.C. In 396 B.C. the flow of lava reached the sea, as it threatens to do now. This has happened at least half a dozen times since the birth of Christ, the worst eruption being that of 1689, when the port of Catania was overwhelmed.

Mild eruptions of Etna have in the past been welcomed as serving as a safety-valve, and as protecting Sicily from earthquakes of magnitude, such as the Messina earthquake of 190 S. An Italiah scientist who has spent much time on Etna informed the writer that in his opinion the mountain-top is hollow, and the effect of a collapse on a huge scale is not easy to estimate. There is, however, reason to hope that the sinking-in process will take phic< gradually. It is almost certain that long Etna will suffer a shrink-

age of its height of .10,875 feet, just as th.) smaller volcano Vesuvius is said to have shrunk from over 5,000 feet to 13.890 in comparatively recent times. As late as 1906 Vesuvius was 4,200 feet in height. It is of interest to rote that Etna was ascended in 1838 by Mr Gladstone, wiio has left an interesting account of the expedition. He wrote eloquently of the wonderful view from the summit, and remarks on the known fact that objects below seem near to the observer because viewed from a rarer atmosphere. A friend of the writer stated recently that he had a clear view of Etna from the summit, of Trapani, 160 miles distant, at the western end of Sicily. Mr Gladstone was struck by the hellish j.rpcct of (he crater, and the apparent .?• bottomless pit with hot, sulphurous fumes. When the grey streams oi

va flow down the slopes of the mountain the lava docs not cool quickiy. A year after a small eruption in 1911 the writer and some friends, trying to take a short cut across a lava field on the lower slopes, were driven hack by the heat underfoot, and a slick driven into the ground was scorched. It is often asked why the inhabitants stay there, and avhy these dangerous mountain slopes bear a considerable population. Though the Etnacan villages are in some cases squalid, the country between is part of the Garden of the Lord. The destroying lava,

when cooled, is a great fertilising agent. The most fertile vines, the richest fruit trees flourish just below the barren slopes of the mountain. The Sicilian also is a born optimist, and his optimism is encouraged by the firm belief in most cases.that he is under the special protection of the Virgin and of his particular saint. He is also of a cheerful temperament, as a rule, but by no means frivolous, save in some cases at festas. He loves his local music and the tinkle of the little songs sung to the guitar. Some English people are in the

habit of talking about the indolent Italian and the lazy Sicilian. The fact is that, among the peasant class, and also in the case of engineers’ labourers, the Italians and Sicilians are among the most industrious people on earth. When his work is done he “loves to lie in the sun,” and the Sicilian, at such times, can look lazier than any people I know. It is a fine art with him. His vineyards, his wonderful and largely increasing orange and lemon groves—a growing source of Sicilian wealth —and the care bestowed on his other crops refute the charge of laziness. The people generally are simple and amiable. I remember being driven to a distant station by a peasant. About half-way the

horse refused to go on, the intelligent animal thinking he had come far enough from home. The driver flogged the horse until 1 advised him to try kinder measures. The peasant then knelt down in front of the horse in the dust, and prayed earnestly to Santa Maria di Carmelo to give the horse a better soul. This prayer was in strange contrast to his previous language to the horse. On this occasioh prayer prevailed; the horse went on soberly and well to the journey’s end. Possibly the equine conscience was smitten.