We walked through olive and almond groves to the Temple of Juno,
standing lonely and grand on the edge of a precipice. Lavender
morning-glories, blue iris, yellow daisies, grow about the broad steps.
After the desolate ruins we had seen, this looked, in comparison, almost
a complete building. We climbed the stair to the roof; against the
gray-green of the olives, the emerald of the almond trees, the
flower-gemmed grass, the rich amber color of the colonnade glowed dull
in the sunlight.
“It’s more like Pæstum than anything else,” said Patsy, “only I do not
find the roses of Pæstum that bloom twice in the year. Will a bit of
myrtle do as well?”
The Temple of Concord, even better preserved than the Juno, is the most
admired. The site of the Juno is more picturesque; the staircase to the
roof gives an extraordinary sense of nearness to the time when this was
a living place of worship, not a dead ruin.
At the Cathedral of Girgenti instead of being made much of, we were made
to feel that we were in the way--they were preparing for the services of
Passion Week--no time for _forestieri_, a resolute monk gave us to
understand;--we managed to steal a look at a lovely marble sarcophagus,
with scenes from the tragic story of Hippolytus carved in high relief.
We went to the Museum, a neglected dreamy place with a few real
treasures: an archaic marble statue of Apollo, very lovely, with the
fixed Æginetan smile; a gold belt, three thousand years old, with a
buckle exactly like one I wore.
“The Signori are Americans?” A handsome old man, poring over a big book,
looked up at us, as he asked the question of the attendant. The man
whispered something in his ear; then the old gentleman closed the book
and came to greet us with his faraway smile.
“That grand and majestic country, America, is not egotistical,” he
explained when he had welcomed us to Girgenti. “What vibrant sympathy
it has shown our country! We are egotists, it is the curse of our
people; but I revere America most, for the wondrous new science that has
come from there.” He beckoned us to look at his big book; an Italian
translation of a vulgar work on spiritualism, illustrated with cheap
spirit photographs.
“The last thing I should have expected to find in Agrigentum!” sighed
Patsy.
“You have some knowledge of spiritismo?” said the stranger.
“Oh yes, we know all about it!” Patsy assured him.
“Last night I paced up and down the room for twenty minutes with the
great Sesostris--it was his wish to talk with me, the medium, a
wonderful woman, ascertained.”
“How did Sesostris look?”
“Majestical! He was dressed all in white; though not so tall as I, he
has a noble bearing.”
“What did he say?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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