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30 the miracles of antichrist
dog with many heads. There was also a large
smithy and a lame blacksmith with only one eye
right in the middle of his forehead. And worst of
all was, that in the very depths of the mountain was
a brimstone lake, which boiled like a kettle of oil
and in it lay Lucifero and the condemned. No, he
would probably not have courage to come, she said.
Otherwise it was not dangerous to live there, for
the mountain feared the saints. Donna Elisa said
that it feared many saints, but most of all Santa
Agata of Catania. If the Catanians always behaved
themselves as they should towards her, neither
earthquakes nor lava could harm them.
Gaetano stood quite close to her, and he laughed
at everything she said. How came he to be there,
and why could he not help laughing? This is a
wonderful signora.
In order not to deceive her, he said suddenly :
" Donna Elisa, I’m going to be a monk."—" O, are
you ? " she said. Then, without anything further,
she began again to tell about the mountain.
She said that now he must listen carefully ; now
she came to the most important part. He should
go with her down the south side of the mountain,
till they came near the large plain of Catania, there
he would see quite a large, broad, semicircular valley.
But it was entirely black, the lava streams came
flowing down into it from all directions. There were
only stones, not a blade of grass.
But what was Gaetano’s idea of the lava? Donna
Elisa supposed he thought it lay smooth and even
on Etna, just as it lies on the street. But in Etna
there was so much deviltry. Could he conceive that
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