Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/207

Rh astonishment, hardly able to believe that they had not alighted on a different planet.

But it is not everybody who has a petition to the Decollati who can undertake a pilgrimage to their shrine. Where this cannot be done there is still the possibility of reaching their ears. In the stillness of the night a taper is kindled before their picture. A ghastly picture it is, of bodies hanging from the gallows or burning in the midst of the fire, the latter being usually taken for a scene in Purgatory. The cottage door or the window is opened. The devotee falls on her knees, and tells her beads. Among her prayers she states in plain terms what she wants,—for there is no need to beat about the bush with the Decollati,—winding up with a last orison in rhyme threatening them with indifference for the future if they do not grant her what she has in mind. All sorts of petitions are thus presented, nor is it only women who are the petitioners. One man will ask for success in business, and another for three lucky numbers in the lottery. The mother will pray for her children, and the wife for her husband. The maiden who has quarrelled with her lover will pray thus:

This reminds us of the common English charm: