Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/125

Rh books (legends and prayers), rosaries, pictures of saints, medallions, chestnuts, oranges, and other things, shouted and made a great noise. Little boys and girls were still preaching zealously in the church, and people of all classes were crowding thither. Processions advanced with the thundering cheerful music of the fire-corps. Il Bambino, a painted image of wood, covered with jewels and with a yellow crown on its head, was carried by a monk in white gloves and exhibited to the people from a kind of altar-like erection at the top of Ara Cœli steps. Every body dropped down upon their knees; Il Bambino was shown on all sides, the music thundered, and the smoking censers were swung.

In about an hour, Il Bambino was carried back into the church, and the throng of people dispersed. It was pleasant to see how quietly and amiably they conducted themselves, although the greater number consisted of ill-dressed men and boys. Devotion, properly so called, I did not observe in these countenances, but neither did I see any thing resembling laughter or derision. The people believed, evidently in Il Bambino, or had a sense of its symbolic significance, as an image of the child who came to give the people the treasures of the kingdom of Heaven.

On the 8th of January, I visited Villa Ludovici, in company with several Scandinavians. Amongst its antique statues, is a colossal head of Jesus, and a figure of Minerva of great beauty, but like all the antique divinities, cold, without any expression of human love and sympathy. It was pleasant to wander in the laurel and pine groves of the extensive