Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/401

Rh and as it were a significant demeanor. Again prayers are renewed with increased vigor, and the relations of San Gennaro lift up still shriller voices and still wilder cries; their glances flash fire, and some of them seem quite desperate that their holy uncle allows them to remain hungry so long. By degrees the prayers become so violent that they resemble abuse and opprobrium. It is said that the old women are not sparing in this respect, if the miracle be too long delayed. I was not able to distinguish such expressions this morning. The Neapolitan popular dialect, as spoken by the screaming voices of the Neapolitan women always sounds like abuse. These vehement outbursts become more and more volcanic, and actually threatening, when all at once every countenance brightens and a prayer ensues. A movement is observable in the mass of blood. It begins to slide first to the one side then to the other, it seems to become loosened from the glass. The priest continues still to swing the bottle, the rim of which it seems to one that he clasps with a secret manipulation. The old women scream and the priests mutter. Yet another five minutes and the miracle is complete, the blood is wholly liquefied and flows on all sides. The old women exult, many of the ladies weep, and all the pious press forward to kiss the glass bottle which contains the blood of the martyr, and which is now extended to their lips and their foreheads by the priest.

We hasten out of the throng at the altar lower down into the chapel, where we see the relations of San Gennaro place themselves in two rows, between the choir and the door. Here they pour forth a shrill