humiliate her? He must have all the vile, mean traits there are. ASCENT OF VESUVIUS · CONTINUED. In this city of Naples, they believe in and support one of the wretchedest of all the religious impostures one can find in Italy-the miraculous liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius. Twice a year the priests assemble all the people at the Cathedral, and get out this vial of clotted blood and let them see it slowly dissolve and become liquid- and every day for eight days this dismal farce is repeated, while the priests go among the crowd and collect money for the exhibition. The first day, the blood liquefies in forty-seven minutes- the church is crammed, then, and time must be allowed the collectors to get around: after that it liquefies a little quicker and a little quicker, every day, as the houses grow smaller, till on the eighth day, with only a few dozen present to see the miracle, it liquefies in four minutes. And here, also, they used to have a grand procession, of priests, citizens, soldiers, sailors, and the high dignitaries of the City Government, once a year, to shave the head of a made up Madonna- a stuffed and painted image, like a milliner's dummy-whose hair miraculously grew and restored itself every twelve months. They still kept up this shaving procession as late as four or five years ago. It was a source of great profit to the church that possessed the remarkably effigy, and the ceremony of the public barbering of her was always carried out with the greatest possible éclat and display the more the better, because the more excitement there was about it the larger the crowds it drew and the heavier the revenues it produced but at last a day came when the Pope and his servants were unpopular in Naples, and the City Government stopped the Madonna's annual show. There we have two specimens of these Neapolitans -two of the silliest possible frauds, which half the population religiously and faithfully believed, and the other half either believed also or else said nothing about, and thus lent themselves to the support of the imposture. I am very well satisfied to think the whole population believed in those poor, cheap, miracles a people who want two cents every time they bow to you, and who abuse a woman, are capable of it, I think. ASCENT OF VESUVIUS CONTINUED. These Neapolitans always ask four times as much money as they intend to take, but if you give them what they first demand, they feel ashamed of themselves for aiming so low, and immediately ask more. When money is to be paid and received, there is always some vehement jawing and gesticulating 64 about it. One cannot buy and pay for two cents' worth of clams without trouble and a quarrel. One course," in a two-horse carriage, costs a francthat is law-but the hackman always demands more, on some pretense or other, and if he gets it he makes a new demand. It is said that a stranger took a one-horse carriage for a course-tariff, half a franc. He gave the man five francs, by way of experiment. He demanded more, and received another franc. Again he demanded more, and got a franc demanded more, and it was refused. He grew vehement-was again refused, and became noisy. The stranger said, "Well, give me the seven francs again, and I will see what I can do "— and when he got them, he handed the hackman half a franc, and he immediately asked for two cents to buy a drink with. It may be thought that I am prejudiced. Perhaps I am. I would be ashamed of myself if I were not. Well, as I was saying, we got our mules and horses, after an hour and a half of bargaining with the population of Annunciation, and started sleepily up the mountain, with a vagrant at each mule's tail who pretended to be driving the brute along, but was really holding on and getting himself dragged up instead. I made slow headway at first, but I began to get dissatisfied at the idea of paying my minion five francs to hold my mule back by the tail and keep him from going up the hill, and so I discharged him. I got along faster then. We had one magnificent picture of Naples from a high point on the mountain side. We saw nothing but the gas lamps, of course-two-thirds of a circle, skirting the great Bay-a necklace of diamonds glinting up through the darkness from the remote distance less brilliant than the stars overhead, but more softly, richly beautiful—and over all the great city the lights crossed and recrossed each other in many and many a sparkling line and curve. And back of the town, far around and abroad over the miles of level campagna, were scattered rows, and circles, and clusters of lights, all glowing like so many gems, and marking where a score of villages were sleeping. About this time, the fellow who was hanging on to the tail of the horse in front of me and practicing all sorts of unnecessary cruelty upon the animal, got kicked some fourteen rods, and this incident, together with the fairy spectacle of the lights far in the distance, made me serenely happy, and I was glad I started to Vesuvius. ASCENT OF MOUNT VESUVIUS. - CONTINUED. This subject will be excellent matter for a chapter, and to-morrow or next day I will write it. CHAPTER III. 35 "SEE ASCENT OF VESUVIUS CONTINUED. EE Naples and die." Well, I do not know that one would necessarily die after merely seeing it, but to attempt to live there might turn out a little differently. To see Naples as we saw it in the early dawn from far up on the side of Vesuvius, is to see a picture of wonderful beauty. At that distance its dingy buildings looked white-and so, rank on rank of balconies, windows, and roofs, they piled themselves up from the blue ocean till the colossal castle of St. Elmo topped the grand white pyramid and gave the picture symmetry, emphasis, and completeness. And when its lilies turned to roses when it blushed under the sun's first kiss it was beautiful beyond all description. well say, then, "See Naples and die." of the picture was charming, itself. In front, the smooth sea-a vast mosaic of many colors; the lofty islands swimming in a dreamy haze in the distance; at our end of the city the stately double peak of Vesuvius, and its strong black ribs and seams of lava stretching down to the limitless level campagna One might |