Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/300

 2 54 T^h^ Dancing-Tower Processions of Italy.

property of guilds, the Miiratori (masons) taking preced- ence as the special devotees of the patron of the city. The soldiers and shopkeepers tender their allegiance to San Giorgio, the Contadini (peasants) to Sant' Antonio, and these stands which have so melancholy a history were composed of the insignia of the different trades; the first being a model of four castellated buildings ; the second, two trophies of arms, a shop, and a pyramid of wine barrels ; the third, a cottage, a haystack, and two tree branches, possibly intended for the olive and the vine.

About five o'clock in the afternoon vespers are celebrated in the Cathedral, and then the Bishop, the living repre- sentative of Sant' Ubaldo, and clad like him in golden cope and mitre, comes down in solemn procession to give the ecclesiastical benediction. With him is the church image of the Saint, swaying and tottering on the shoulders of aged men, who, in their lusty youth had, like their sons and grandsons, run and shouted under the far heavier burdens.

The two processions (the Ceri now form up into one) meet in the Via Dante, and as the last word of the Benediction is spoken start off on their mad career. They are preceded by a mounted trumpeter, and by the first captain (possibly the representative of the former Capitano del Popold) also mounted, and waving a sword. Behind him comes the second captain on foot, together with two men bearing covered hatchets ; these being most likely the relics of the military part of the pageant, formerly of much greater importance. Up and down the narrow streets the Ceri tossed wildly, the limp arms of the little images wagging feebly as if in mute protest, their golden, blue, and red robes making bright spots of colour in the grey landscape. Overhead in the tower of the Palazzo dei Consoli the great bell, which is rung only five times a year, tolled slowly, the men, who by pressing with their feet on heavy levers set it in motion,