Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/319

Rh cause it to dance up and down, and backwards and forwards; their movements are directed by a man with a staff, who beats time; the puppet-figures move, and the flags and streamers flutter about; the whole erection looks as if it must inevitably fall. It must be a wonderful sight. Nor does it end here; for in like manner the other eight shrines are also made to dance; sometimes they set to each other, as in our quadrilles or lancers. After this has continued some five or ten minutes perhaps the respective shrines are deposited on the ground, and the men and youths dance round them; sometimes twenty persons will form a circle; each man lays an arm on the shoulder of the man next to him, and thus placed they move round in a circle; in the midst of the ring, so formed, two solo dancers perform very graceful steps. These latter occasionally take up a third man on their arms, and still continue dancing; he too, though lying down flat, dances with all his limbs—his cue is to look gradually more and more fatigued and exhausted; he at length appears to become quite giddy—he lets his head sink, and pretends to be dead. The outer circle of performers are also dancing all this time round this group in an animated manner; presently the pretended dead man raises himself, smilingly holds up his head, and begins playing the castanets. Similar dances are performed before every shrine; some of the men do gymnastics, one will balance himself on the heads of two of his companions, making various tours de force; the large ship-of-war also does its part in this extraordinary scene.

Whilst this is going on in front of the west door of the cathedral, the bishop of Nola is saying mass at the high altar within the sacred edifice. The service and the dancing are brought simultaneously to a close; the whole ends with a procession of clergy and monks, which parade through the town, followed by the guglie and their attendants; the feast ends with the firing of guns and the letting-off of crackers and hand-grenades in every street.