, 1885-07-18
rt4e cArAcoMgs oF PALERMO.


lnris FisarcI
The soil upon which the Capuchin
monastery al Palermo, Italy, is built,
possesses to such q degree the singular
property of Mastering the decomposition
of q corpse, that in Que year nothing r.
mains upon the bones except u few
patches OF black withered skin, and,
perhaps, some of the hair OF the beard
and checks. The collins are placed in
small lateral vaults, each Of which on
tains about eight or ten dead,
and. after a year passes, the
90 II is opened and the corpse
taken OUT, a frightful mummy, that
Is then suspended in one Of the main
galleries. where the members of tho
family come to visit il. Those who wish
to be preserved by this drying process
make their will accordingly; and they
will lie filed away under those black
vaults so long as their relatives pay a
certain annual stipend. When this is
no longer paid. the remains are taken
away and buried in the ordinary a
ner.
To enter, we pass through q chapel
and slowly descend a broad stairway OF
tone. Before US is an immense gallery,
to whose walls are suspended a whole
nation OF skeletons clad in the most
oddly grotes ue costumes. Some hang
in air side by side. A line Of dead
stands erect upon the ground. Some
heads are gnawed by hideous ,egeta-
tons, which deform even still more the
JAWS and the bones Of the face;
some still preserve their hair, others
fragments Of mustache; Others a long
bit oil beard.
And they are all dressed, these dead
these wretched, hideous and ridicul-
Gus dead-all dressed 10y their relatives,
who have taken them out of their co .hns
in order to make them take part in this
awful assembly. Almost all are clad in
a sort Of long black robe, with a cowl
which is generally drawn over the h adj.
But there are others whose friends de-
sired to attire more s~umptuously. and
the miserable skeleton, wearing an en-
broidercd Greek cap and enveloped in a
rich mans dressing gown. seems, as it
lies upon its back, to sleep a night
marish sleeps sleep at once ludicrous
and terrific. A placard like a blind
mans begging card. bearing the name
and date of death. is hung TO the neck
of each corpse. Those dates make .
cold SILVER pass through the very mar
row of ones bones.
Here are the women, even more bur
lesque than the men, for they have been
coluettishly attired and bedecked.
Their heads stare at you from within
bonnets decorated with ribbons and
with lace, making a snow-whito fringe
around each blaeg face, all putreled
all gnawed by the strange chemistry Of
the earth. Their hands protrudo, like
the severed roots of trees, from the
sleeves of new dresses, and the stock
ings that contain the bones of the legs,
look empty. Sometimes the dead wear
only a pair Of shoes, large, too large
for the poor dried up feet.
But now we enter a gal cry full of lis
tie glass co MS this Is the ohildren's
burial chamber. The homes OF the little
creature, still soft, could not resist the
work of decomposition And you can
not tell exactly what you are looking
at, the miserable little things are so de
formed, so crushed, so frightfully shape
less, But tears come to your eye when
you observe that the mothers have
dressed them all in the same little
dresses they wore when alive. Aud
they com here to look at them some
times.
often you see teside the corpse a
photograph showing the living person
as he was, and nothing is more start
ling. more terrifying than this contrast.
We pass through another gallery,
lower and darker, which seems to have
been reserved for the poor. In one
black recess there are some twenty of
them, suspended all together under an
opening in the roof, which let's in the
outer air upon them in strong and sud
den whitfs. The are clad in n sort of
black canvas, fastened about the ne k
and feet; and, as they lean one over the
other, yGu imagine they were |shivering
seeking TO escape. screaming for help
They look like the drowned creW Of
some ship.
Here Is tbs Chamber of the Priests Ia
vast gallery OF horror. AT the first
glance they seem more terrible than the
others, robed in their sacred yestments
80 bla X, red and violet. But as YOU
examine them one after the other a
nervous and irrepressi 10 laugh seizes
you at the spectacle Of their b zarre at
tltudes, the CHASTITY coLcdy OF their
poses. You behold some who sing; yon
see others who pra The faces OF all
have been lifted up; the hands of all
have been crossed. They wear the
sacerdotal biretta upon their neshlcss
brows, Sometimes it hangs sideways
over n ear in n ocular way, some
times it slips down over the nose. A
very carnival Of death Is this, made
more burlesquo by the gilded richness
Of the ecclesiastical robes.
From time to time a head rolls down
upon the ground, the attachments o.
the neck having been gnawed through
by mice. lhou ands Of mice dWell in
this human charnel- house,
On certain festival days the cataoombs
Of the Capuchins are thrown open 10 the
public. Once a drunken man got into
the place, lay down to sleep, and awoko
in the middle of the night. He called,
screamed, howled with terror, rushed
madly to and fro in vain e orts TO
escape. But no one heard him. In
the morning he was found clinging to
the iron bars Of the gate with so des-
perate a grip that 1t required a long
time to detach his hands from them.
lie was mad.
Since that time a great bell has been
suspended near the entrance.
Origin OF Orange niussom