Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-27


of glistening ripples as tiny, shiny an
slumberous as though but echoing tn
dreamful songs Of sirens inviting to a have
OF endless sleep.
High upon a hill seven miles TO the south
west OF Valetta stands Citta Vecchia. tn
walled capital Of the island before GRAM
Master John de Yalette built the splendi
city which now crowns Mount Sceberras
At the beginning of the Christian era it con
tanned the house of the ..chief man of tn
island, who so courleonsly entertained
the shipwrecked Paul. It's Cathe
oral of st. Paul had its traditional origil
| during the three months residence of tn
| apostle, as Publius is said to have given
portion of his own palace as a site for thu
first church and to have ofieiated in it a.
Malta's first bishop.
That was long time ago; but the anti
quated character of the city draws one
kindly to these old and loved traditions
Seen from distance, its mighty walls
cum brouS structures. fat roofs, vast pal
aces and immense domes, rising like some
far and fanciful mountains of dream bull
cubes, pillars, arches ana Gaping domes
render it the most impressive structure
perspective il. Europe. When Valetta was
built the former grandeur of Citta Vecchis
departed. BY and by the great mansions
| were transformed into seminaries, monas.
taries and converts, and thus they remain.
Its tremendous walls shut in few others
than monks, religious students, nuns and
novitiates. The great statue of Juno, queen
of all the gods who presided over marriage,
which is embedded in the main gateway,
seems strangely out of place as the escutch-
con of city Of religious recluses.
The buildings are massive, ashen colored
| by time, and strangely silent. The streets
| are narrow. shadowful and still. The
| great dungeons beneath the huge Santa
rum, once the palace of the Giurati, or the
three magistrates Of the city, are no more
palpable with silence than arc these high
walled narrow streets. No sound is heard
| save the changing of bells as the call to end
less devotions. Then the thoroughfates
are suddenly filed with bowed and dark
robed figures for a moment, and again as
suddenly become lifeless, dark ard still
The catacombs beneath Citta Vecchia and
the prehistoric rock-hewh tombs of Mnaidra
are almost a welcome relief from tie so-s
lemnity and solemn shades of this oldspiace
The passages and chambers of the cata-
combs are lacking mural decoration, but
they are OF the same character as those at
Syracuse and are much larger than any sim
gle examples to be found at Rome They
are hewn out of the soft stratum of the
upper limestone on which Citta Vecchia
stands. You reach them through perpen-
dicular shaft, and a few steps bring you
into perfect mare of tunnels leading in
every direction, with crypts on each side
and at every possible level.
These tunnels and their branch tunnels
seem interminable. I counted upwards of
500 separate sepulchres, and there are no
doubt many thousands. One passage or
gallery of very large proportions was found
which opened into capacious squares or
chambers, where the crypts were fash
Toned as though for the more distinguished
dead There proportions were more ample,
and they were better formed in every re-
spect In many, a rest for the head and
neck was raised and followed in excellent
contour, and by the side of others were ex-
cavated inches for urns and the lamp for I
votive and other sepulchraI offices.
However ancient was the race that ex-
cavated or required such vast area for
burial, it is certain that these crypts were
equally as extensive in the days of the
Romans, 2000 years ago. They are COM
pletely barren of all remains, as they were
for long time used as abodes for the liV-
ing, the primitive Christians having fed to
them for refuge; and they have been on
various occasions the abodeS Of the early
Maltese when flying from the swords of
Goth, Vandal, Moor and Turk. No one has
ever fully explored them; and find from
the natives that the belief among them is |
universal that subterranean passages lead |
to Valetta and to other remote points in the |
island.
These are not the the only prehistoric res
mains of great interest to be found on the |
Islands. Diminutive catacomhs and rock |
heun tombs are accessible in nearly every |
important valley ravine or rocky gorge IN |
both Malta and GOA. Extensive catacombs |
are found at Micabba, Tower Nadur, ST. |
Paul's and Melliha bays, and Mnaidra; |
while at Hhagiar-Kim and Mnaidra in |
Malta and at the Giants Tower in Coco, l |
saw megalithic monuments rivaling in mas
slveness and mystery the Stonehenge of
England and the vast pagan monument of
New Grange, on the Boyne in Ireland. was
shown great and solitary monolith stand
ing near Har Hassan cave, on the south
coast of Malta. There is dolmanlike ruin
on Cordino Hill overlooking Valetta. And
measured upright blocks in the Hfagiar-
Kim ruin twenty-four feet high, while in
in tho cyolopean Giants Tower 1 found
thirty feet. Their additional length be- |
meath the debris surrounding them must
nave been considerable. All of these ire
nendous monoliths were put in place thou
sands of years ago by a people capa-
ole of quarrying and transporting
hem from sandstone beds nearly mile
distant, for the purpose of some form of
ldoration. They did their work so well
hat, while all other traces of their race
ire lost, these mute monuments have
brought the story true from almost unre-
accorded time of the eternal principle of |
Worship in the heart of man.
From my habit of wandering alone, and |
much in the country, in foreign lands, I |
lave come TO regard their birds as my most
harming chance acquaintance. Abso-
utely without trees, save those trans
,lanted and nurtured like exotic flowers,
Malta would hardly be regarded as the
aunt of birds. And yet have seen or !
card here in midwinter nearly every one
f the loved and humble sort well known ;
q summertime in northern Chimes
Along the stony roads l have kept ex- ;
liant pace with the hopping stonechat and l
edstart, and chirped back CHEEKY greet
az to focks of chafinches among the white !
nd kold of the orange trees. Climbing
he cliffs, or pothering among the ruins, I
ne melodies of thrush or hnnet have
coded the sky from the olive trees in the ]
alleys below. Crossing the walled fields
have often come upon marshalled hosts of
tlarks. Rocks, wrens, cross-bills and {
eldfares all welcomed me in homeland {
Lnguage I knew. The call notes of the {
peopled the famous island of
lie sword and cowl with olden forms and q
ices; and as the balmy evenings came, the Y
illieidic, murmurouS and ever-plaintive [
,ngs of the blackbirds thrilled me with t
alf-forgotten voices, until my heart cried '
It I
Thus, angel Of our later days.
With ever lowering, unseen hand
Are flashed upon our blinded ways c
The hidden shrines W understand. {
We climb the rugged sleeps of Truth, y
And faluer LOl thy helpincs bring n
The lesser TO the larger Youth
A a = 17r al. kJ,s-