The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-30

square at the base, adorned with gigan.
 tic statues of the patriarchs and apos. l ties, and illuminated by two hundred silver lamps and a thousand waxen ta- l pers.
 | More singular than all the rest is the
 sacred ballet that is danced by choris- | ters twice every year in the cathedral , in celebration of Corpus Christi and the Immaculate Conception. A group of
 beautiful boys, in plumed hats and cos tunes of the time of Philip III.-red
 and white for Corpus Christi, blue and white for the Virgin-execute various simple evoutions in front of the high
 altar, much as David may have danced
 before the Ark. They sing an anthem
 which sounds like Mozart minuet and
 are accompanied by flutes and violins;
 and at certain stages in the dance the
 boys use castinets. Certainly there is
 plenty of Scriptural precedent for reli-
 gious dancing: but it must be confessed
 that the castinets-so intimately aSsoci-
 ated with korldly gaiety--do sound deci-
 dedly out of place in dim and echoing
 cathedral. But, after all, Is not that
 merely a matter of prejudice and the
 imagination? If one musical instru-
 ment is acceptable to the Lord, why not
 another; and who shall say whether He
 is better pleased with drum or vioi, flute
 or mandolin, or the primitive pipes of
 Pan from which the organ was evolved?
 Only upon this one august occasion of
 the year does the Seville cathedral per-
 init all It's fabulous riches to be exhibl-
 J 1tY,p- tc 1,
 coming far to see. The pillars and
 walls are hung with crimson brocade
 embroidered with gold, whose gorgeous
 folds relieve the twilight of the interior,
 which is still further deepened during
 Holy Week by the black drapery that
 veils the stained-glass windows.
 There are eighty of these superb win
 dows, each triumph of art wrought by master hand, and they cost ten thou sand dollars apiece at the present value of Spanish money. The Monument"
 with it's jewelled lamps and thousand
 tapers, is erected only for this occasion, and the monstrance placed others in it; and in front of it stands the tenebrario,
 an enormous bronze, scandiestick tWen- ty feet high, carrying a candle that contains half ton of wax. Masses are
 continuous in the various chapels, and the music of the service, comprising the
 best compositions of Handel and Mo- zart chanted by hundreds of trained singers. accompanied by the laundering peals of two of the finest organs in the world is indescribably solemn and i'm pressive.
 On the afternoon of Holy Thursday occurs another strange ceremonial called the washing of the feet, The archbish- op, in all the glory of his purple robes and snowy mitre, with the archepiscopal insigna (the crozier and double cross), borne before him, enters the choir, where twelve men with bare feet sit awaiting his arrival. His excellency proceeds at once to business, kneeling down before the first man in thA row and washing his feet; then moving along on his knees to the next and per- forming the same duty, till all have been similarly treated It is considered a most distinguished honor to be given a place among "the Twelve" and large sums of money are bestowed upon the church, in the way of aims, to secure 1t.
 After the prayers and penaces of Holy Week the rigorous fasting of Good Fri day, the chanting of the miserere and the settlements of thee paso, the joyous festival of Easter comes as a powerful recreation. Not only does Spain lift up her voice. in common with all Christen- dom. in Te Deums and anthems to eel ehrate the resurrection of our Lord, but she goes trife farther than most countries and gives characteristic ex- pression to her rejoicing in grand bull-fight. On Easter, Sunday the first bull-fght of the season takes place, from which time n'there are perfor- manoes every Sunday afternoon the summer.
 In this poverty-stricken dilapidated, gray old Cordova, with less than forty thousand shiftless and discouraged in- habtants, it is hard to recognize the splendid capital of the Caliphs--the Sar- acen Athens whose population once reached a round million! If Moslem are to be believed, this city of Prince Abdurrahman, whose persan- al revenues amounted to sixty million dollars year-contained six hundred eight hundred schools, eighty shops, three hundred thou sand houses, fifty hospitals, seven hum fred inns, library of nine hundred thousand volumes, and thousand pub- ic baths, besides three thousand pri- 1ate baths of wealthy Moors along the It was the capital of the 'ichest and most powerful, as well as he most cultured monarchy in Europe, he center of eighty large cities, three hundred towns of the second-class and l villages, of which twelve | hundred lay along the banks of the | But even the historic | iyer has dwindled and shrunken since l hat golden day, like everything else in Spain. Then it was noble, full-tided ! dream, and now it's shallow and muddy | urrent is hardly worth bridging at this point. Tn Abdurrahman's time neither Rome, Damascus, Bagdad nor Constan- inople could hold candle to Cordova l or riches and nagnificence, and to this | eat of learning came students from all | ,arts of Europe, to be instructed by | Arab sages in the arts and sciences music, poetry and astronomy. All those lories vanished with the Turbaned floors, who carried away with them to heir own Morocco even the secret of making the once celebrated Cordova aather leaving behind neither trade or manufactures, and almost no life of 4