The Cecil Whig., 1885-06-27
THE OAPUOHIN OATAOOMBS.
A Terribly Realistic Description of the
Dead Plebeians of Palermo.


monastery at Palermo, Italy, is built,
possesses to such degree the singular
property of Fastening the dee, mposition
of Il corpse, that in one year nothing re-
m tins upon the bones except a few
patches o: black withered skin and per
hapS, some of the hair of the beard and
cheeks. The collins are placed in small
lateral vaults, each of which contains
about eight or ten dead; and, after a
year passes, tho coffin is opened and the
corpse taken out, frightful mummy,
that is then suspended in one Of the main
galleries, where the members of the
family come to visit it. Those who wish
to b. preserved by this drying process
make their wills accor ingly; anl they
will be filed away un Ter tho sc bi .ct
vaults ST. lorg as their relatives pay Il
certain annual stiI end When this is II,
and buried in the ordinary manner.
To enter, we pass through chapel
anu SLOWLY ueSccnl Il Dlotu stall way vi
stone. Before us Is AN immense gallery,
to whose walls are suspended Uh"ic
.tion of skeletons clad in the most oddly
grotesque costumes. Some hang upon
the ground. A line of dead stanGs erect;
upon the ground. Some heads are
gnawed by hideous vegetations, which
rof, cfi11 tha .,p} rho
bones of the face; some still preserve
their hair; others fragments o: mustache
others long bit of beard.
And they are all dressed, these dead
these wretched, hideous and ridiculous
dead-all dressed by their relatives who
have taken them out of their coilins in
awful assembly. Almost all are clad in
a sort of long black robe, with a cowl
which is generally drawn over the head
But there are others whose friends dc
sired to attire more sumptuonsly, and
the miserable skeleton, wearing an en-
broidered Greek cap and enveloped in
1iSh lllah sSShio, h' ~
lies upon its back, to sleep nightmarish
slsep-a sleep at once ludicrous and ter
rife. A placard like blind mans beg
gingcard, bearing the name and the date
of death, is hung to the neck of each
corpse. Those dates make cold shiver
pass through the very marrow of ones
bones.
Here are the women, even more bur
lesque than the men, for they have been
coquettishly attired and hedecked.
Their heads stare at you from within
bonnets decorated with ribbons and with
lace, making snow white fringe around
each black face all putrefed, all gnawed
by the strange chemistry of the earth.
Their hands protude, like the severed
roots of trees, from the sleeves of new
dresses and the stockings tia. contain
the bones of the legs loak empty
Sometimes the dead wear only pair of
shoes. large, too large for the poor dried
up feet.
But now we enter a gallery full of lit
tie glass ootfins; this is the childrens
burial chamber. The bones Of the little
creatures still soft, could not resist the
work OF decomposition. And YOU can
lot tell exactly what you are looking at,
the miserable little things are so deform-
ed, SO crushed, SO frightiully shapeless,
But tears come to your eyes when you
observe that the mothers have dleSsed
them all in the same little dresses they
wore when alive. And they come here
to look at them sometimes.
Often you see beside the corpse a pho
tograph showing the living person as he
was, and nothing is more startling, 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 III the outer air
upon them in strong su lden whiffs.
They are clad in a sort of black canvas,
fastened about the neck aud feet: and,
AS they lean one over the other, yon i'm
agine they were shivering. seeking to
escape, screaming for help. They look
like the drowned crew OF some ship.
Here is the Chamber of the p. P.ests-a
vast gallery of hnrro.! At the first
glance they seem more terrible than the
black, red and violet. But as you ex-
anime them one after the other a ner-
vous and irrepressble laugh seizes you
at the spectacle of their bazarre attitudes,
the shastly comedy of their poses. You
behold some who sing; you see others
who pray. The faces of all have been
lifted up; the hands of all have been
crossed. They wear the sac,rdotal bi
retta upon their tleshless broWs. Some
times it hangs sidex lys over one elr in
a jocular way. sometimes it slips down
over the nose. A very carnival of death
is this, made more burles1ue by the
glded richness of the ecclesiastical
robes.
From time to time head rolls down
upon the ground, the attachments of the |
neck having been knawed through by
mice. Thousands of mice dwell in this
human charnel- house.
On &C rtain festival days the catacombs
of the CapuchinS are thrown open to the |
public. Once drunken man got into |
the place, lay down to sleep and awoke
in the middle of the night. He called,
howled with terror, rushed |
m IDLY to and fro in vain efforts to escape.
But no one heard him. In the morning
he was found clinging to the iron bars of
the gate with SO desperate "a grip that it
long time to detach lis hands
from them.
lie was mad.
Since that time a great bell has been
near the entrance.
Nnf 81 SinpIe GRAY Hair