American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1877-12-15
The Mummies of Palermo.

A merry monk led us down a long
fight of steps into the tombs. The
long, low narrow halls were Joined one
to another by passages at the extreme
ends. 1t seemed as if we walked a mile
or more up one hall and down another,
until we we were quite at a loss to find
our way back to the steps by which we
had entered On both sides of these
halls lay heaps of boxes, piled one
above another, five or six deep. Some
of these boxes had windows in the sides,
q single pane of glass; some were all
of glass, like showcases. Within them
lay the bodies of the late residents of
quently exhibited their cGrteS de Uisite
in gilt frame on the outside of their
showcases. One man held his photo
graph in his white gloved hand, so that
you could see it readily; and there he
lay, with a waxed mustache and a
pair of staring glass eyes, white neck
tie and plumpers, fondly regarding the
counterfeit presentment of the swell
he was, and smiling at life's fleeing
show as one might smile who considers
himself beautiful forever. The first
families of Palermo, when they perish,
are carefully anointed with balsams and
decently buried. In year or two they
are resurrected by contract and exam
ined. The well preserved are arrayed
more or less gorgeously and hung on a
nail to dry. The doubtful cases are al
lowed to rest in their collins, but they
may still receive the gaze of the curious
through a skylight or a shOw-window,
so they have not died in vain. Rows of
stuffed children sat in little chairs,
awaiting the last trump, and gathering
more dust than is becoming. Virgins
were crowned with silver-gilt crowns as
high as a section of stovepipe, and still
they looked not happy. Young men
smiled with a sad stage smile that came
back to me long after had fled from the
place, and chilled me to the marrow. Old
men had dropped away into the corners of
their cases and looked bored even in
death. The walls were lined with these
mummies, all ticketed and labeled, all
classified and festooned along from arch
to arch, devilishly decorative, and, as
we went to and fro, not knowing wheth-
er to laugh or weep, large cat sported
among the bodies, and from time to
time ceased purring and arching her
neck, as she sprang at fly on the cheek
of some old acquaintance, or played
with the skirts of lady in blue satin,
with wreath of large yellow roses tilt
ing over one eye. We were asked to
kindly take hold of the tongue of a monk,
just within arms reach, which was like
a bit of leather, and that member had
ceased to wag for more than hundred
years. This is indeed deaths victory,
when one is held up to everlasting de-
rision, and the embarrassment of such
an exposition as this is the graves I'M
dying sting.-Sicily Correspondence
San Francisco Chronicle:
IT is now said that Sitting Bulls
name is Ton-ton-qua-na, which means
the Buffalo-Looking- at-the-Sun. The
setting sun seems to have strange at
traction to buffaloes on the plains. The
whole herd stop and gaze at it, while
the old bulls sit upon their launches
like dogs, and watch it until it sinks
from sight. When a young brave, Sit
ting Bull always killed his buffalo while
the sitting bulls were looking at the set
ting sun, and thus got the name of Ton
ton-qua-na, or Buffalo-Looking- at-the
Sun.