Like a many-coloured
serpent it wound out of the chapel, writhed through the intricacies of
the pathway, and
Then unrolled itself freely, in splendid convolutions,
about the sunlit meadow, saluted by the crash of mortars, bursts of
military music from the band, chanting priests and women, and all the
bagpipers congregated in a mass, each playing his own favourite tune.
The figure of the Madonna - a modern and unprepossessing image - was
carried aloft, surrounded by resplendent ecclesiastics and followed by a
picturesque string of women bearing their votive offerings of candles,
great and small. Several hundredweight of wax must have been brought up
on the heads of pious female pilgrims. These multi-coloured candles are
arranged in charming designs; they are fixed upright in a framework of
wood, to resemble baskets or bird-cages, and decked with bright ribbons
and paper flowers.
Who settles the expenses of such a festival? The priests, in the first
place, have paid a good deal to make it attractive; they have improved
the chapel, constructed a number of permanent wooden shelters (rain
sometimes spoils the proceedings), as well as a capacious reservoir for
holding drinking water, which has to be transported in barrels from a
considerable distance. Then - as to the immediate outlay for music,
fireworks, and so forth - the Madonna-statue is "put up to auction":
fanno l'incanto della Madonna, as they say; that is, the privilege of
helping to carry the idol from the church and back in the procession is
sold to the highest bidders.
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