A Company Of Men Droned
Out Gregorian Chants In Painfully Nasal Tones, Using Antique Books With
Square Headed Notes; Then The Sweet Voice Of Our Host's Daughter,
Evangeline, Sounded Solo, And Her Youthful Companions In The Choir Took
Up The Chorus Of The Kyrie Eleison:
-
"Then came the evening service.
The tapers gleamed from the altar,
Fervent and deep was the voice of the priest, and the people
responded,
Not with their lips alone, but with their hearts; and the Ave Maria
Sang they, and fell on their knees, and their souls with devotion
translated,
Rose on the ardor of prayer, like Elijah ascending to heaven."
The young girls array themselves in hats and costumes which are only two
or three years behind the prevailing mode; but the attire of the middle
aged and elderly women is striking and peculiar. For Sundays, this is
invariably black throughout, and yet does not look funereal. The dress
is of plain bombazine or alpaca, a shawl folded square, and over the
head a large silk handkerchief, which must be put on with greatest
exactness and care to make just so many folds at the sides with a huge
knot under the chin; while the point at the back hangs below the neck,
and generally has one or more initials neatly worked in colors
("cross-stitch") in the corner. As most have clear olive complexion,
with rich color in the cheeks, arid lustrous black eyes, this headdress
is surprisingly becoming, giving quite a gypsyish effect.
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