Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/250

shortly before the earthquake the cows under his care, lowed in such an unusual manner, that he went to their stable to see if they wanted hay, but could not account for their disquietude. Large fissures, like those which we have already mentioned, have been observed in this territory. These are certified to me by letters from P. Lettore Guglielmo from Castelgrande, who also speaks of the noises which were heard, and adds that a month before the deplorable event, travelling with some others through the valley of Marsico, he was surprised to hear subterraneous and aerial noises, like those produced by cannon. He informs me that in Montemurro, or, to speak more correctly, that in the place where Montemurro was, individuals were excavated alive, after nine days' interment in deep holes, and mules and fowl after twenty. In Saponara, besides the noises in the air, those who lived in the country observed the whole atmosphere enkindled at the second shock, when the town was destroyed. It is also related that one Giuseppe de Cilia was lifted off his feet and thrown to a higher place than that he occupied; and that another man was raised up twice in the air, falling back twice to the ground. D. Giambattista de Canto, priest (whose house was thrown down, and his two sisters killed), was carried, without knowing how, about a quarter of a mile, to a declivity separated from other ruins, when he found himself on his feet and unhurt. Near the banks of the Agri, which flows through this territory, a great gulf four or five feet in diameter was found, close to the ruins of an ancient bridge, broken to pieces by the shocks. The water in this river increased greatly. We must not omit a circumstance already famous, viz., the conduct of the Cistercian heroine of this commune, Maria Margherita Ceramelli di D. Lelio, who, having extricated herself from the rubbish which covered her, endeavoured, with a courage and strength superior to her sex, to excavate the other sisters, pulling the quilts in which they were wrapped with her teeth, and drawing them out from the pressure of material with which they were laden. She succeeded in saving ten, and then hastened to her father's house, when she found that her younger sister had performed no less wonders. This young girl, safe and uninjured in the falling of the house, detached a beam in the roof of a small