Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1886-07-17
THE cArAcoMss OF PALERMO.
A Terribly Realistic Description Of the
Dsad-A Hidoous Array.


monastery at Palermo, Italy, is built,
possesses to such degree the singular
property of Fastening the decomposition
of q corpse, that in one year nothing re-
mains upon the bones except q few
patches of black withered skin, and,
perhaps, some Of the hair of the beard
and cheeks. The collins are placed in
small lateral vaults, each of which, con-
tains about eight or ten dead;
and, after o year passes, the
colin is opened and the corpse
taken out, a frightful mummy. that
is then suspended in one of the main
galleries, where tho members of the
family come to visit it. Those who wish
TO be preserved by this drying process
make their will accordingly; and they
will be filed away under those black
vaults SO long as their relatives pay
certain annual stipend. When this is
no longer paid, the remains are taken
away and buried in the ordinary man
ner.
To enter, we pass throughSfa chapel
and slowly descend broad. stairway of
stone. Before US is an immense gallery,
TO whose. walls-are suspended. a. whole
nation of skeletons clad in the most
oddly groteslue costumes Some hang
in air side by side. A line Of dead
stands erect upon the ground. Some
tions, which deform even still more the
jaws and the bones of the face;
some still preserve their hair; Others
fragments Of mustache; others Ion
bit of beard.
And they are all dressed, these dead
these WI etched, hideous and ridicul-
GUS dead-all dressed by their relatives,
who have taken them out of their collins
in order to make them take part in this
awful assembly Almost all are clad in
a. sort of long black robe, with cowl
which is generally drawn over the head.
But there are others whose friends de-
sired to attire more sumptuously, and
the miserable skeleton, wearing an en-
broidered Greek cap and enyeloped in a
rich mans dressing gown, seems, as it
lies upon its back, to sleep night
marish sleep--a sleep at once ludicrous
and terrific. A placard like a blind
mans begging card bearing the name
and cate of death, is hung to the neck
of each corpses Those dates make a
cold SILVER pass through the very mar
row of ones bones s
Here are the women, even more bur-
lesque thanathe men, for they have been
coquettishly attired and bedecked.
Their heads stare at you from within
Donnets decorated with ribbons and
with lace, making a snow-White fringe
around each black face, all putrefed,
all gnawed by the strange chemistry OF
the earth. Their hands protrude, 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 pair Of shoes, large, too large
for the poor dried up feet.
But now weenter gallery full of lit.
tie glass collins; thiss'is the children's
burial chamber. The bones Of the little
creature, istill soft, could not resist the
work of decomposition. And you car
not tell exactly what you are looking
at, the miserable little things are so de
formed, so crushed, SO frightfully shape
lessl But tears come to your eye wher
YOU observe, that the mothers have
dressed them all in the same little
dresses they wore when alive. Ant
they come here to look at them. some
times.
Often you see beside the corpse {
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 ont
black recess there are some twenty O
them, suspended all together under al
opening in the roof, which let's in tn
outer air upon them in strong and sud
den whiffs. They are clad in q sort o
black canvas, fastened about the necl
and feet; and, as they lean one over thu
other, you imagine they were shivering
seeking to escape, screaming for help
They look like the drowned crew 0
some ship.
Here is the Chamber Of the Priests
vast gallery of horrorl At the frs
glance they seem more terrible than tn
others, robed in their sacred vestment
BLACK, red and violet. But as yo,
examine them one after the other
nervous and irrepressib.e laugh seize
you at the spectacle of their bizarre at
titudes, the CHASTITY comedy of thei
poses. You behold some who sing; yo
see others who pray. The faces of o.
have been lifted up the hands Of al
have been crossed. They wear tn
sacerdotal biretta upon their feshles
brows. Sometimes it hangs sideway
over one ear in ocular way, some
times it slips down over the nose.
very carnival Of death is this, mad
more burlesque by the gilded richnes
of fha ncnlesiastioal rohaS
From time 10 time head rolls dow
upon the ground, the attachments q
the neck having been gnawed throug
by mice Thousands of mice dwell
this human charnel- house.
On certain festival days the catacomt
Of the ,Capuchins are thrown open to ii
public. Once drunken man got mi
the place, lay down to sleep, and awol
in the middle OF tho night He 'callet
screamed howled with terror, rushe
madly to and fro in vain efforts
escape. But no one heard him.
the morning he WAS found clinging
the iron bars Of the gate with SO de
khnA . L.