Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-08
GHAsTLY DISPLAY AT PALERMO.
Catacombs Against Which an Edict Has
just Been Issued.

CORPSE worship" takes a very strange form
IN the cemetery of the Cappucini at Palermo,
says writer in the FGR MAJ Gazette ''It has
been found that the earth of this cemetery
powdered tuf rock of some sort-has the power
to hasten the process OF decomposition, no that
IN year. or less, nothing remains of bodies
buried there but skin and bone. some of the
articular attachments. aud often the hair. Al
this stage they somewhat like mummies.
10 be buried IN the Cappucini is accounted q
privilege, as also the subsequent exclamation
and station IN the galleries. The mum mics,
being disinterred. are clothed by the piety' OF
their families; and so long yearly sum 10
paid for the honor they are placed among the
ghastllest company by which ever found my
self surrounded.
"A monk from the adjoining convent leads
the way. and the visitor desceuds a lroad
flight of stairs into well-lit corridors cut out Of
the solid rock. Goethe these galleries
long ago, and said the live tuf had been hewu
out with hne architectural effect The dead i'm
those days reposed in inches. as they did in
the ancient Greek tOmbs found in Sicily or the
Roman coumbarIL Perhaps in modern times
there was no more room for thus pigeon
boiling the dead. Perhaps II was felt 20 be
better that they should hold their lryee stand
ing, right and left of the passage-for so they
are posed today. Your sleeve brushes their
costumes almost inevitably as you move alongl
To these grim corridors come the sorrowing
survivors. moved by the strangest form of the
cult of the corpse! And what do they see?
These. sand my guide. are the monks-alI
these-In both these CORRIDORS" and we crossed
the Capuchlns quarter into that of the general
public. These he said again. are the men,
(Great Heaven what menu Most people
choose to have our monks havit for the bodies
after they are exhumed." In serried ranks all
down the galleries, standing or Leaning against
each other, are these parodIes of humanity.
Tney lie tier above tier. too. II in the berths
of The Phantom Ship They stand in groups
aloft on brackets, or singly hung against the
upper parts of the wall Some keep their
collins, but glazed or wired side or lad shows
you another version of the same grim spec
tacle. Few of the men are clothed m any,
thing but the months uniform. But by and by
you feel that finery adds another element OF
grom irony to the show. This Is the quarter
of the priests" said my monks hat is
Greek priest with all the gold on his
vestments and the strange cap-a Catholic
Greek. And the red ones belong 10 the Cathe-
dral Yes, purple cassock is a canon"-he
smiled, and added: The priests here don't
look better than the rest of Us lie was pleased
/ wondered what pleasure could visit the human
mind IN such surroundings. The biretti OF the
priests are sometimes tilted tipsily over the
noseless faces, sometimes jauntlly over the eve
less eye orbits. Some bodies have been regu-
larry embalmed. My monk said: See, his lips
are red. The color Is bright in his cheeks. All,
L cannot tell you If those glass eyes,
lnesc poor fuaOes are lchettQ. ike the bind
beggars who parade the streets of London, and
their names and death dates figure on their
placards You invited to admire Signor
Giuseppe Cuccio's fine head of hair; the half
of beard still adhering to this other defunct
Palermtan: an eyebrow here, a fragment OF q
must ache there. you move along.
"A Frenchman said those corpses looked 70
him as If they we're writing IN fierce pain;
would presently jabber at HIM or shrek; that
they huddled together for fear or helplessness,
They struck QlfferentlV The
display of teeth, the wide-open mouths made
for a weak, wild hilarity. They were far from
being all alike. One hollow-cheeked figure,
with gray flowing locks, exactly like an
abject church-door beggar, still above ground
and whining, in Palermo.
Undoubtedly the ugliest OF the sights is the
ladies' gallery. Corpse worship here has
prompted freaks OF burlesque millinery, such
as the trimming of the vacant skulls with deep
frils of lace. One poor shade lay in purple
silk. young lady's mummy was adorned
with silver crown. fantastic shoes, open-vork
stockings and white kid gloyesi A princess
among the most recent interments-lay in her
coffin, which bore many artificial garlands and
yards Of much-mottoed funereal ribbon and L
know not what other offerings besides. On All
Souls Day the dead in the Cappucini may be
said TO hold gruesome sort Of reception; but
the richer class, whose dear departed
stand there, frequent the cemetery at al
Imagine coming TO pay your devoirs
TO the ladies with whom you used to dance; to
your hostess OF former years, 10 the members
Of your family, TO the wife of your bosom, and
being received by these phantoms Of grizzly
bone! These bedezined skeletonsl These rag
and bone things. aping humanity! II Ia too hor-
riblei Yet there are Paiermitans who find
pleasure, some a certain consola-
ton. few terrible fascination. in the relics
Of their dead preserved an this cemetery But
not all the inhabitants approve of this mode of
sepulture. The edict has gone forth that there
are 70 be no more interments at the Cappucini.
We, ourselves, must 20 now said my monk
guide ruefully, up there, to the Campo
Santor
.'On certain fete days these 'catacombs' are
open 10 all comers- A drunken man once
strayed in here and fell asleep. At night the
porter locked up without noticing the sleeper
sober, with the early light the
horror of his surroundings seized upon the
man. He ran about wildly among the dead.
DE shrieked, but no one, even those la the con-
vent, could hear him The earliest passers-by
found him clinging convulsively 10 the bars Of
the entrance gate. They could hardly loose hia
hold He was stark madi"
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