Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/318

310 holding the head of Holofernes in her hand. Within other shrines are statues and images of holy men and patron saints. Their exterior is ornamented with all sorts of different emblems: angels carrying flags, others bearing harps, some with wreaths of flowers, comucopiæ, and incense-burners. Sometimes the shrines have a golden cupola on this summit, or an arrangement in the form of a lily, and above this again is the statue of some saint. On the reapers' guglia this would be St. George with the Cross of Malta, and holding a white flag in his hand. Some attribute of its guild hangs down from the centre niche of each shrine; the reapers have a sickle, the bakers a gigantic cake or twist of bread; from that of the butchers is suspended a piece of meat, the gardeners exhibit a gourd, the tailors a white waistcoat, the shoemakers a shoe, the pizzicagnoli (those who sell eggs, butter, bacon, &c.) a cheese, and the dealers in wine hang out a bottle. A man walks before each shrine carrying its particular emblem: the gardeners send a youth who carries a horn of plenty, the eatingshop-keepers have two figures borne in front of theirs which have been conjectured to be St. Peter and St. Paul; each of these figures rests against a pillar covered with silver leaf, and on this pillar rests a small wine-barrel.

Let us now follow in imagination one of these shrines as it moves slowly along towards the principal square of the town, and picture to ourselves an innumerable surging mass of human beings, with the high tower in their midst; with its brilliant colouring and its countless flags of gold and silver paper; the balconies full of bright flowers and gaily-dressed women and girls, the whole scene illuminated by the dazzling rays of a Campanian sun.

Immediately following the principal guglia is a ship in which sits a boy dressed as a Turk, and holding a pomegranate flower in his hand. Both this and the ship-of-war, fully equipped, which comes after it, are drawn along by men; this latter rests upon a simulated sea: on the bowsprit stands a young man in Moorish costume, contentedly smoking a cigar, and at the stern is a figure of the holy Paulinus himself, kneeling before an altar. The most singular part of the whole spectacle begins as soon as all the guglia have arrived on the piazza in front of the cathedral; the bearers of the principal guglia