But where shall the
money be found? This enthusiastic nation, so enamoured of all that is
exquisite in art, will spend sixty million francs on a new Ministry of
Justice which, barely completed, is already showing signs of disrupture;
it will cheerfully vote (vide daily press) the small item of eighty
thousand francs to supply that institution with pens and ink - lucky
contractor! - while this and a hundred other buildings of singular beauty
are allowed to crumble to pieces, day by day.
Not far from the abbey there stands a church dedicated to Saint Roque.
Go within, if you wish to see the difference between Benedictine dignity
and the buffoonery which subsequently tainted the Catholicism of the
youth. On its gable sits a strange emblem: a large stone dog, gazing
amiably at the landscape. The saint, during his earthly career, was
always accompanied by a dog, and now likes to have him on the roof of
his sanctuary.
The Norman church attached to the Trinita lies at a lower level than
that building, having been constructed, says Lupoli, on the foundations
of a temple to Hymenaeus. It may be so; but one distrusts Lupoli. A
remarkable Norman capital, now wrought into a font, is preserved here,
and I was interested in watching the behaviour of a procession of female
pilgrims in regard to it. Trembling with emotion, they perambulated the
sacred stone, kissing every one of its corners; then they dipped their
hands into its basin, and kissed them devoutly. An old hag, the mistress
of the ceremonies, muttered: "tutti santi - tutti santi!" at each
osculation. Next, they prostrated themselves on the floor and licked
the cold stones, and after wallowing there awhile, rose up and began to
kiss a small fissure in the masonry of the wall, the old woman
whispering, "Santissimo!" A familiar spectacle, no doubt; but one which
never fails of its effect. This anti-hygienic crack in the wall, with
its suggestions of yoni-worship, attracted me so strongly that I begged
a priest to explain to me its mystical signification. But he only said,
with a touch of mediaeval contempt:
"Sono femine!"
He showed me, later on, a round Roman pillar near the entrance of the
church worn smooth by the bodies of females who press themselves between
it and the wall, in order to become mothers. The notion caused him some
amusement - he evidently thought this practice a speciality of Venosa.
In my country, I said, pillars with a contrary effect would be more
popular among the fair sex.
Lear gives another account of this phallic emblem. He says that
perambulating it hand in hand with another person, the two are sure to
remain friends for life.
This is pre-eminently a "Victorian" version.
VII
THE BANDUSIAN FOUNT
The traveller in these parts is everlastingly half-starved.
