Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

Fantasy Football Challenge - Library of Books for Football Fanatics

Fantasy Football Challenge presents
Young Knights of the Empire

66 of 87

lead them against their enemies once more. He had nearly persuaded them to come out on the war-path, when Burnham, the American scout, made his way into the secret part of the cave and shot the supposed god while he was preaching murder. * * * * * CARTS IN SICILY. A curious thing that strikes you in Sicily is the kind of cart and harness used by the country people. [Illustration: A SICILIAN PAINTED CART AND DECORATED HARNESS.] The cart is a light, two-wheeled affair of an ordinary kind, but every inch of it inside and out as far as the ends of the shafts and down the spokes of the wheels, is painted in gaudy colours, for the most part yellow, blue, red, and green. Pictures of incidents in Bible history, of the war against the Turks in Tripoli, of ballet dancers, etc., are to be seen on most of these carts, while on others ornamental patterns only are painted. Then the harness of the horse is of a very gaudy kind when new, but being largely made up of cheap gold braid and coloured cloth, it soon fades and looks tawdry. * * * * * A MUSICAL SADDLE. In place of a bit there is a steel noseband on the horse's bridle by which he is driven and guided, and instead of the ordinary pad on the horse's back, a great ornamental brass affair is used. Years ago I bought one of these pads and brought it home as a curiosity. A friend met me as I was bringing it along, and said: "Hullo! what on earth is this? Surely it must be some sort of musical instrument. Look here! I am getting up a concert; you _must_ bring your instrument and play it there. Will you?" Of course, I always like to oblige a friend, and I did not like to disappoint this one, so I meekly promised. I chose a beautiful piece of high-class music, and got the orchestra to practise it over as accompaniment to my instrument, the "sellura." I tuned it by winding the brass flags which adorn it. I fingered the knobs up and down the front of it as if they were the notes; the big projections on either side I pulled as if to alter the tone. And the music? Well, I got that out of a comb and paper affixed to the back, and into which I sang. But, mixed up with the other instruments, it sounded all right, and I got lots of applause and lots of questions afterwards as to where you could buy these wonderful organs, and how long did it take one to learn to play them, and so on! * * * * * TAORMINA. Six hundred feet up on a mountain spur overhanging the sea stands the little town of Taormina. Long ago it was chosen as a beauty spot by the Romans and Greeks, and here they had their villas and baths and theatre. The theatre stands to this day, in ruins, it is true, but sufficiently whole to show what an ancient theatre was like. One can sit in the upper circle and look down upon the "pit" and "orchestra," and the marble pillars and wall which formed the back of the stage in those days in place of scenery. But an earthquake has thrown down the greater part of the back wall, and has thereby opened up a beautiful view of the coast of blue water and white sand far below, and of the purple slopes and snowy crest of Mount Etna above--a scene such as no scene painter could have equalled. [Illustration: THE THEATRE AT TAORMINA.] Among the quaint and ancient buildings of the town stand the old monastery and church of San Domenico. The monastery is now the chief hotel, and with the splendid view from its windows and its pretty gardens makes a charming place to stay at in this most charming spot. * * * * * NAPLES. - VESUVIUS. Naples is a city lying around a great bay on the Italian coast, and behind it, about ten miles distant, rises the double-peaked mountain, Vesuvius. Vesuvius is, as you know, a volcano and a thin cloud of smoke is always coming out of it. When I visited Naples a few years ago, the mountain was shaped like this: [Illustration: ] Now it is like this [Illustration: ] It lost its peak in one night, and I was there the night that it happened. I was sleeping peacefully in my hotel, when I was awakened in the middle of the night by heavy bangings, and it at once occurred to me

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