Note: Translator Pauline Bancroft Flach died in 1966, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.
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MONGIBELLO
29
well enough that King Arthur had not yet come out
of his cave.
Gaetano did not wish to let her tempt him, but he
thought that he might be a little friendly. She was
still standing, but now he fetched her a chair.
That would not make her think that he wanted to
go with her.
He really liked to hear her tell about her
mountain. It was so funny that it should have so many
tricks. It was not at all like Monte Pellegrino,
near Palermo, that only stood where it stood. Etna
could smoke like a chimney and blow out fire like
a gas jet. It could rumble, shake, vomit forth
lava, throw stones, scatter ashes, foretell the weather,
and collect rain. If Mongibello merely stirred, town
after town fell, as if the houses had been cards set
on end.
Mongibello, that was also a name for Etna. It
was called Mongibello because that meant the
mountain of mountains. It deserved to be called so.
Gaetano saw that she really believed that he would
not be able to resist. She had so many wrinkles
in her face, and when she laughed, they ran
together like a net. He stood and looked at it; it
seemed so strange. But he was not caught yet in
the net.
She wondered if Gaetano really would have the
courage to come to Etna. For inside the mountain
were many bound giants and a black castle, which
was guarded by a dog with many heads. There was »
also a big forge and a lame smith with only one eye
in the middle of his forehead. And worst of all, in
the very heart of the mountain, there was a sulphur
sea which cooked like an oil kettle, and in it lay
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