protection to her--she could have needed no other. Think what a

multitude of small souls were crowded into that theatre last night. If

the manager could have filled his theatre with Neapolitan souls alone,

without the bodies, he could not have cleared less than ninety millions

of dollars. What traits of character must a man have to enable him to

help three thousand miscreants to hiss, and jeer, and laugh at one

friendless old woman, and shamefully humiliate her? He must have all

the vile, mean traits there are. My observation persuades me (I do not

like to venture beyond my own personal observation,) that the upper

classes of Naples possess those traits of character. Otherwise they may

be very good people; I can not say.

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

355

The Innocents Abroad