But If The Church Occasions Their
Indigence, It Likewise, In Some Measure, Alleviates The Horrors
Of It, By Amusing Them With Shows, Processions, And Even Those
Very Feasts, Which Afford A Recess From Labour, In A Country
Where The Climate Disposes Them To Idleness.
If the peasants in
the neighbourhood of any chapel dedicated to a saint, whose day
is to be celebrated, have a mind to make a festin, in other
words, a fair, they apply to the commandant of Nice for a
license, which costs them about a French crown.
This being
obtained, they assemble after service, men and women, in their
best apparel, and dance to the musick of fiddles, and pipe and
tabor, or rather pipe and drum. There are hucksters' stands, with
pedlary ware and knick-knacks for presents; cakes and bread,
liqueurs and wine; and thither generally resort all the company
of Nice. I have seen our whole noblesse at one of these festins,
kept on the highway in summer, mingled with an immense crowd of
peasants, mules, and asses, covered with dust, and sweating at
every pore with the excessive heat of the weather. I should be
much puzzled to tell whence their enjoyment arises on such
occasions; or to explain their motives for going thither, unless
they are prescribed it for pennance, as a fore-taste of
purgatory.
Now I am speaking of religious institutions, I cannot help
observing, that the antient Romans were still more superstitious
than the modern Italians; and that the number of their religious
feasts, sacrifices, fasts, and holidays, was even greater than
those of the Christian church of Rome.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 301 of 535
Words from 80750 to 81021
of 143308
