From three such ropes as these a cable is formed in precisely the same manner, the three being fixed to three revolving hooks at one end, and one at the other, and a travelling top being used to regulate and harden the twist. In the twisting process it is natural that the rope should gradually shorten as it is formed; provision is made for this shortening in the arrangement of the apparatus. The wheels to which the three strands are fixed on three separate hooks is a fixture at one end of the walk, but the other ends of the strands are fastened to a moveable sledge, which is so weighted as to travel gradually up the walk just as fast as the rope diminishes in length. [Illustration] San Rosalia. Who has not heard the curious history of San Rosalia, the saint of Palermo, whose name is prefixed to this article? She was, according to the legend, the daughter of William the Good, who reigned in the year 1159. At the age of fifteen she retired to Monte Pelegrino, in order to spend the remainder of her life in religious solitude; and a period of nearly five hundred years elapsed without her ever being heard of. In 1624, a plague, which threatened to depopulate the capital, raged at Palermo. A hermit, whose name is not given in the legend, dreamed that the bones of the saint were on the top of Mount Pelegrino, and that, if they were carried in procession round the walls of the city, the plague would cease. After prayers and supplications, he induced a number of persons to go in procession to the top of the mountain, where the remains of Rosalia were found in a cave. Some say that the body was fresh, and looked as if she had died at the age of fifteen, while others assert that there were only the bones. Which account is the true one Peter Parley does not pretend to inquire; but one thing is certain, that they were carried round the city walls, and the plague greatly ceased. This was accounted as a miracle, and churches were built to her honor. A chapel was erected on the top of the mountain were she was found, and priests appointed to perform divine service. [Illustration] To facilitate the approach to these sacred relics, the pious and grateful Palermotans, after immense labour, constructed on the face of the mountain a road which is nearly perpendicular, and very dangerous. This, however, by no means operates as a check to the devotion of the hundreds who seek the protection and patronage of the saints. In the vault beneath the chapel, which has long been the resting-place for her bones, there was an inscription, which differs from the monkish legend. It states her to be the daughter of Count Sinibaldus, who lived at the period when the irruptions of the Saracens were so frequent in Italy, and that Rosalia first retired to a cave on Mount Quesquina, in order to preserve herself from the disciples of Mohammed, and afterwards to Mount Pelegrino, where she died a nun.