A correspondent of the _Athenæum_, in a letter, dated Naples, January 3rd, 1847, mentions another very striking phenomenon. He was standing on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean, accompanied by an Italian friend. The air was perfectly tranquil, and yet in a moment he felt himself grasped and encircled, as it were, by an unseen and irresistible power, and, in spite of his struggles, he felt himself sailing through the air at a balloon speed. After a few moments of his aërial travelling, he was pitched halfway down the cliff into the centre of an empty lime-kiln, not far from the sea. Nor was he alone; there was another heavy fall; for his friend stood opposite him. As they were encircled by a force, equal at all points, though the shock was violent, they fell on their feet, but sank directly to the ground, and there sat gazing at one another, unable either to move or speak. Happily, no bones were broken; but so severe were the internal injuries experienced, as to confine them to their beds for some time, and they expect the internal effects of their involuntary and dangerous voyage to remain for a considerable time. As the population of the coasts of the Mediterranean are exceedingly ignorant and superstitious, it is not surprising that the people in the neighbourhood said that the Shal’ombre, the evil spirits, in the lime-kiln, must have drawn the travellers in; and attributed their deliverance to the intercession of the souls in purgatory for the acts of charity they had performed! To avoid any calamities, which the mariners of Naples generally attribute to demoniacal influence, they resort to the practice of witchcraft. Few are the barks that venture to the coral fishery, or the coasting-trade, without having a magician on board. Persons of this class, however, who practise the art supposed to be required at sea, or who even reveal it to others, cannot receive absolution from an ordinary confessor. It is comprehended under the head of “malaficia,” one of the reserved sins to be found in the printed list of directions appended to every confessional in Italy.