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                      SICILY IN SHADOW AND IN SUN

                       Books on Italy and Spain

                            _By_ MAUD HOWE


     ROMA BEATA. Letters from the Eternal City. With illustrations from
     drawings by JOHN ELLIOTT and from photographs. 8vo. In box. $2.50
     _net_. _Popular Illustrated Edition._ Crown 8vo. In box. $1.50
     _net_.

     TWO IN ITALY. _Popular Illustrated Edition._ With six full-page
     drawings by JOHN ELLIOTT. Crown 8vo. In box. $1.50 _net_.

     SUN AND SHADOW IN SPAIN. With four plates in color and other
     illustrations. 8vo. In box. $3.00 _net_.

     SICILY IN SHADOW AND IN SUN. With twelve pictures from original
     drawings and numerous illustrations from photographs taken by JOHN
     ELLIOTT. 8vo. In box. $3.00 _net_.


                   LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., Publishers
                       34 BEACON STREET, BOSTON

          [Illustration: THE TELL TALE TOWER. _Frontispiece._

           The clock stopped at the hour of the earthquake.]




                           SICILY IN SHADOW
                              AND IN SUN

                        THE EARTHQUAKE AND THE
                         AMERICAN RELIEF WORK

                                  BY

                               MAUD HOWE

                AUTHOR OF “ROMA BEATA,” “SUN AND SHADOW
                    IN SPAIN,” “TWO IN ITALY,” ETC.

                     _With numerous illustrations_

              _Including pictures from photographs taken
                  in Sicily and original drawings by_

                             JOHN ELLIOTT


                                BOSTON
                      LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
                                 1910

                          _Copyright, 1910_,

                    BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

                         _All rights reserved_


                      Published, November, 1910.



                          _LOUIS E. CROSSCUP_
                               _Printer_
                       _Boston, Mass., U. S. A._



                                  TO
                         MRS. LLOYD C. GRISCOM




FOREWORD


Sicily, the “Four Corners” of that little ancient world that was bounded
on the west by the Pillars of Hercules, is to southern Europe what
Britain is to northern Europe, Chief of Isles, universal Cross-roads.
Sicily lies nearer both to Africa and to Europe than any other
Mediterranean island, and is the true connecting link between East and
West. Battle-ground of contending races and creeds, it has been soaked
over and over again in the blood of the strong men who fought each other
for its possession. There has never been a Sicilian nation. Perhaps that
is the reason the story of the island is so hard to follow, it’s all
snarled up with the history of first one, then another nation. The most
obvious way of learning something about Sicily is to read what
historians have to say about it; a pleasanter way is to listen to what
the poets from Homer to Goethe have sung of it, paying special heed to
Theocritus--he knew Sicily better than anybody else before his time or
since! Then there’s the geologist’s story--you can’t spare that; it’s
the key to all the rest. The best way of all is to go to Sicily, and
there fit together what little bits of knowledge you have or can lay
your hands upon,--scraps of history, poetry, geology. You will be
surprised how well the different parts of the picture-puzzle, now
knocking about loose in your mind, will fit together, and what a good
picture, once put together, they will give you of Sicily.

When a child in the nursery, you learned the story of the earliest time!
How Kronos threw down his scythe, and it sank into the earth and made
the harbor of Messina. (The geologists hint that the wonderful round,
land-locked harbor is the crater of a sunken volcano, but you and I
cling to the legend of Kronos.) In that golden age of childhood, you
learned the story of the burning mountain, Etna, and went wandering
through the purple fields of Sicily with Demeter, seeking her lost
daughter, Persephone. You raced with Ulysses and his men from the angry
Cyclops down to that lovely shore, put out to sea with them, and felt
the boat whirled from its course and twisted like a leaf in the
whirlpool current of Charybdis. When you left the nursery for the
schoolroom, you learned the names of the succeeding nations that have
ruled Sicily, every one of whom has left some enduring trace of their
presence. As you cross from the mainland of Italy to this Sicily, you
can, if you will use your memory and imagination, see in fancy the hosts
who have crossed before you, eager, as you are, to make this jewel of
the south their own.

First of all, look for the Sicans; some say they are of the same
pre-Aryan race as the Basques. After the Sicans come the Sikels. They
are Latins, people we feel quite at home with; their coming marks the
time when the age of fable ends and history begins. Next come the
Phoenicians, the great traders of the world, bringing the rich gift of
commerce. They set up their trading stations near the coasts, as they
did in Spain, and bartered with the natives--a peaceful people--as they
bartered with the Iberians of the Peninsula. The real fighting began
when the Greeks came, bringing their great gift of Art. Sicily now
became part of Magna Graecia, and rose to its apogee of power and glory.
Syracuse was the chief of the Greek cities of Sicily. The Greek rulers
were called Tyrants. They were great rulers indeed; the greatest of
them, Dionysius, ruled 406 B.C.