Collected Illustrations of the Three Realms

The Kingdom of Sicily

original: "斯伽里野國" (Sījiālǐyěguó). This is a phonetic transliteration of "Sicilia." Descriptions of Sicily in Ming Dynasty texts often originated from European maps and accounts brought to China by Jesuit missionaries.

Upon the mountains of this land, there are ventsoriginal: "穴" (xué). In this context, the term refers to volcanic craters or fissures, likely those of Mount Etna. that emit fire throughout all four seasons of the year. The people of this country carry large stones on their shoulders and cast them into these openings; in a mere moment, the stones are blasted back out, completely shattered.

Once every five years, the fire flows forth. This fire streams down to the seashore and then returns. It is said that the forest trees it encounters are not burned, but when it meets stones, it incinerates them until they are like charcoal. This passage describes lava flows. The observation that it "burns stone like charcoal" likely refers to the way molten lava consumes or transforms rock into porous, black volcanic stone (scoria or basalt), which resembles coal.