The Portland daily press., 1881-02-12

[For the Press.l
Visit To An Oracle

men going thither down Broadway, up the
Strand, and through the Palais Royal. But
all these routes are tediously long compared
with a drive to "La'yo FAuernt. Al
though, possibly, one is not, to-day, so sure
of the sulphurous part of his destination as
he would have been had he sinned with
Lucullus over his mullet or been hidden to
one of "the mulberry faced Dictator's Or
gies," at Baie. For surely it is as pleasant
a route as need be to drive out from Naples
when the sun is firing with opal the blue
waters of the bay, when the blush of morning
is on the sea; to be whirled quickly by the
Villa Reale's panorama of shadowy light
and lighted shade; to catch the inspiriting
beat of the horses hoofs striking their
"Quadrupedante putrem"-on the road that
leads to Posillipo and the tomb of him
who has slept near two thousand years
since rendering their cadences into musical
dactyls. One scene in the regal romance of
antiquity began below you-on the sea there
as the western hill is gained. 1t was when
these dancing waters were broken into foam
as the fleets of Rome sailed away for Acti-
um's fatal shore to fight for the ambition of
two men and the love of one woman
"As for thee, star-eyed Egyptian.
Glorious sorceress of the Nile.
Light my way to darkness Stygian
With the splendor of thy smile."
spoke Mark Antony, en- route, in his turn,
for the shades of Avernus. The triere mes
of Grecian explorers, the ships of Aneas,
the prows of Carthage, the Moorish galleys
and Roman, may be the centres of your
thoughts, from which may radiate later rem
iniscences of Moorish pirates, and the allied
sluadrons which gathered around Sebasta-
pool, duringthe half hour that you ride in
sight of the Mediterranean. You can, in
deed, scarcely catalogue its suggestions be-
fore Puzzuoli is reached. 1t is possible that
arrived here, sheer WEAKNESS of ruins will
cause you to neglect its ampitheatre where
''on sands by the storms never shaken,"
twenty-four thousand spectators in the old
en- days, listened to the cry, "Habet! Ha-
bet!" aud sealed death or saved life with
the reversal of thumb. The same ennai
may be unbroken at sight of the empty baths
of ancient beauty, and the ruins of the tenn
pie of Jupiter Serapis half buried in water.
But you will certainly leave the carriage long
enough to walk up to the crater of Solfatu-
ra, and tremble over a veritable He'll on its
quaking crest. At least we had the interest
to do so. This old crater seems sort of
Siamese twin of Vesuvius, bound to him by
some subterranean connection. Else why
should Vessuvius hush himself when Sofia
tura thunders, and, when he has finished,
Immediately burst in an avalanche of flame
and ashes over painted Pompeii, and rock
hewn Herculaneum? Besides you have
heard of green cone of mountain which
during Solfatura's last eruption rose up in
night-ne de peVer, through Lake Avernus,
and which you must see later on your ride
And then tourists believe that eggs cooked
in hot lava are fit for an epicurean; but as
suming that you are stoic-aud have
cooked them on Vesuvius-this reason for
any interest in the mountain fails. We were
not stoics, but we had breakfasted. Such
are the attractions of Solfatura. Coming
back to the carriage the wheels roll on again.
Whittier? Well, first to Cuma and the lake.
Then to Bai@ if the day is long enough.
Between the whiffs of the cigar somebody
asks, ''Why are we going to Cuma any
how?'
'Why?' quoth our historical member
because we desire to 60 to the founda-
tion of things. You recollect that Cumean
colony founded Naples
swell, is that all? Unroll us some histo-
ry, won't you?"
ooh, Pll unpack.myself with pleasure-and
despatch. Behind that event no one knows
its exact origin, though Virgil calls its
shores Eub@an, from its supposed settle
ment by colony from Eubaa Misenum
was its harbor. Pozzuoli another COLONY,
Cuma had hard fight of it with the Etrus-
cans and Samintes. The former invaded it
FIVE hundred years before the Christian era.
The latter conquered it, and slew all the
men but politely spared its women. 1t grew
up with the Roman state, and was admitted
to the Roman franchise about the year 300.
Later it stagnated and the Latins speak of
quieta and vacua Cuma. When the old
Gothic kings were driven from Italy it was
here they made their last stand. The cit
adel on the rock over the Sibyl's cave-which
by the way we are going especially to see
was famous for its seiges, Narses went into
this cave toundermine the citadel. Then in
the 9th century the Saracens burned the
town. In the 18th its own offspring, Naples.
destroyed it, Are these facts enough?''
"For what's itnoted OF useful now?' asked
our rStatistician.
81 should say for its traffic in modern
relics, its grotto and its bust" was the
repy.
81 want to know about the Sibyl, "put
in the fair member, "Who was she?
Was she very beautiful, and really Sbyl?'
According to the old legends'' answered
the historical member, "the Sibyls were fe-
males inspired by heaven. As Virgil puts it
she was-"magnam cui mentem aninaunaque
Detius inspirat oates, aperitque .futura."
They lived in various parts of the ancient
world and as many as ten are spoken of.
The name Of this one was Deiphobe, and
she was daughter of Glaucus, a sea-god.
She was, also, a very beautiful and accom-
plished Sibyl, so much so that Apollo offered
to grant her whatever she would ask of him.
She desired to live as many years as she
held grains Of sand in her hands. Unfortu-
nately she forgot that as age comes beauty
fades, and did not ask to retain the bloom of
her youth. When Eneas came into italy
she was seven hunderd years old and far
frombeautiful. That is, suppose her man.
ners were good but she was rather withered.
You can fancy that six hundred years later
for she held ninteen hundred grains of sand
in her hand--she might become nothing but
voice. Indeed this. according to the le
gend, was to be her fate. With Eneas she
went, WHITTIER we are going) usque adj Or
c''un, don't like to angli icise it.'
"And shall we see the very cavern where
she lived?" continued the fair member,
"Yes and the way by which she and Eneas
descended. have my pocket Virgil. Shall I
take him out and let him give his own ac-
count OF their travels in the other world?'
And our historical member entertained us
with so much of the sixth book ofthe Eneid
as might fill up the REMAINING mart of our