Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/317

Rh shrines which are carried round the town on that day. "Le Guglie di San Paolino" is the popular name for these shrines, though this seems a misnomer, as the word guglia means simply an obelisk or needle, and these shrines or guglie (as we will continue to call them) are, properly speaking, high towers of a pyramidal form. When the important day arrives no less than nine such guglie may be seen advancing from different directions, all converging to one spot—the piazza in front of the cathedral. Each shrine belongs to a particular guild; they are covered with bright-coloured stuff, and are an enormous height; some of them are said to tower above the houses. When thus carried along in procession, every guglia requires about thirty men to bear it along; it consists of at least five storeys, supported on pillars; each storey is smaller than the one below it; on the platform at the base of each shrine is seated a band of musicians. Bright-coloured flags hang from every corner, and the whole is surmounted by a statue of St. Paulinus, or some other saint. Every niche has a gold back-ground, on which are arabesques in waving lines; in the spaces between the pillars are figures representing spirits, angels, saints, and knights in most gorgeous costumes; other figures hold horns of plenty in their hands; others, again, bunches of flowers, garlands, or flags. As each guglia moves along, the whole edifice flutters and rustles in the air, for these shrines, being carried on men's shoulders, are necessarily rather unsteady. Within the lowest storey, in the centre of the musicians, who make discordant sounds with trumpets, drums, triangles, and cornet-a-piston, sit young girls crowned with flowers. Eight of the guglie or shrines are about the same size, but the ninth, which is the largest of all, is over 300 feet in height (or 102 palms of their measurement, reckoning the palm at nine inches); this belongs to the corporation of the cultivators of the land. Every trade is represented at this feast by its guglia, which takes from four to six months to prepare; its cost is borne by the workmen themselves, and comes to between 16l. and 17l. of our money. Its separate portions are finally put together in the street near the house belonging to the master of its particular guild. In the lowest storey of the guglia belonging to the reapers or the agriculturists is a colossal figure of Judith, magnificently dressed, and