Evening star., 1944-02-06

oNHuuy.
Sicily and Southern Italy were
called the Kingdom Of the Two Sici-
lies before Italy became a unified
modern state. Now the Yanks in the
Mediterranean area have welded the
Two Sicilies together again with fire
and steel.
Biologists say that Sicily and
Southern Italy belong together. Ma
ture separated them ages ago, and
much blood has been shed in military
and political efforts to rejoin them
Gen. Eisenhower's Yanks, in crossing
the Strait of Messina, have followed
the route of the Romans, of Roger
the Norman, and of Garibaldi
What are the Two Sicilies like
island and mainland? What are the
Yanks finding that is familiar and
lust like home" and what is new
and foreign?
Weather Is Familiar.
On the familiar side is the wealth
er-the naturally changeable and
unruly weather of the Temperate
Zone. Sicily never freezes, but the
mountain tops are sometimes COW
cred with snow. Southern Italy,
with its jagged spine of mountains
reaching 6,400 feet, has severe
winter of sudden extremes, especially
in the Apennines and east to the
Adriatic.
Although Southern Italy and Sicily
are largely agricultural, they have
few farmhouses. Farmers live in
towns and go daily to fields miles
away. This practice causes rural
areas to have a deserted aspect
strange. to Yanks. The desolation of
Central Sicily is increased by the
sulphur mines, which once supplied
nearly all the worlds sulphur.
A Yank invited into a peasants
home is likely to see a large family
living in one or two rooms with its
pigs and fowls, and children wear
ing rock-salt amulets to ward of the
evil eye. A rich Neapolitan or Pal
ermitan might treat him to rich
foods and fine wines in the court
yard of a palace like home.
Sicily, granary of the ancient
world. and. as the home of Ceres,
mythical birthplace of agriculture. is
today combination orchard-garden-
vineyard. more fertile than Southern
Italy. Citrus fruits, grapes and
olives are the big crops. Cereals are
raised only in subsistence quantities.
Yanks in Sicily may forget their
jeeps long enough to take ride on
the traditional two-wheeled, highly
decorated, donkey pulled cart. On
the narrow sides of these carts ap-
pears the history Of Sicily in orig
inal oil paintings. The favorite
scenes in these moving pictures"
deal with the days of Norman oc-
cupation, when knighthood was in
flower.
Seas of Mud.
Southern Italy has few forests,
little dense vegetation. This bald
ness, which extends even to the
mountains, is the reason for the
intermittent flooding and drying up
of the many short rivers. 1t also
explains why moderate rainfall
produces seas of mud.
Noticeable to the nature-loving
Yank is the absence of birds and
their singing. Such forests as exist
are quiet in daytime. But at night
the cicadas and other insects set up
their shrill repetitive drone. Also
heard in the night are mandolins
and soft singing, or the more bois-
ferrous music of the tarentella-
national dance of Southern Italy
a lovers quarrel and reconcilia-
ton set to the dance.
Ageless marionette and Punch
and-Judy shows abound in both
Sicilies. Puppet-hero of Naples is
Scaramuccia, quarrelsome, cow
ardly braggart. Live actors take
part in the many town festivals.
Background of most of these cele-
brations is religious. Delicacies are
eaten, wine is drunk and men and
older women dance in the streets.
Girls and young married women
never dance.
Italians like to live in big town
or city. Though the average eleva-
tion is 1,700 feet, most of the people
live at, or near, sea level. Naples,
Palermo, Catania, Bari, Messina
are all ports. Along the generally
rocky coasts are many smaller
ports, several resorts - Sorrento,
Capri, Amalf1, Mondello - and
numerous fishing villages whose in
live on "frutta di mare
fruit of the sea.
Nature vs.. Man,
Caltanissetta, with about $4,000
and Foggia, with 81 900,
Answer to Yesterdays Puzzle,