We went to view the palace of Prince Fascello:  the proprietor appears, however, seldom to reside here, for every thing wears an air of neglect.  Two halls in this building are worthy of notice; the walls of the smaller one are covered with figures and ornaments, beautifully carved in wood, with pieces of mirror glass placed between them.  The vaulted ceiling is also decorated with mirrors, some of which are unfortunately already broken.

The walls of the larger hall are completely lined with the finest Sicilian marble.  Above the cornices the marble has been covered with thin glass, which gives it a peculiar appearance of polish.  The immense ceiling of the great hall is vaulted like that of the smaller one, and completely covered with mirrors, all of them in good preservation.  Both apartments, but particularly the large one, are said to have a magical effect when lighted up with tapers.

I spent a Sunday in Palermo, and was much pleased at seeing the peasants in their festive garb, in which, however, I could discover nothing handsome; nor, indeed, any thing peculiar, save the long pendent nightcaps.  The men wear jackets and breeches, and have the before-mentioned caps on their heads; the dress of the women is a spencer, a petticoat, and a kerchief of white or coloured linen round the head and neck.

The common people appeared to be neither cleanly nor wealthy.  The rich are dressed according to the fashions of London, Paris, and Vienna.

In all the Sicilian towns I found the mob more boisterous and impudent than in the East, and frequently it was my lot to witness most diabolical quarrels and fights.  It is necessary to be much more on one’s guard against theft and roguery among these people than among the Arabs and Bedouins.  Now I acknowledge how falsely I had judged the poor denizens of the East when I took them for the most thievish of tribes.  The people here and at Naples were far worse than they.  I was doubly pained on making this discovery, from the fact that I saw more fasting and praying, and more clergymen in these countries than any where else.  To judge from appearances, I should have taken the Sicilians and Neapolitans for the most pious people in the world.  But their behaviour towards strangers is rude in the extreme.  Never had I been so impudently stared out of countenance as in these Sicilian towns:  fingers were pointed at me amidst roars of laughter; the boys even ran after me and jeered at me—­and all because I wore a round straw hat.  In Messina I threw this article away, and dressed according to the fashion which prevails here and in my own country; but still the gaping did not cease.  In Palermo it was not only the street boys who stood still to gaze at me, the grandees also did me the same honour, whether I drove or walked.  I once asked a lady the reason of this, and requested to know if my appearance was calculated either to give offence or to excite ridicule;