bethought himself at last of a way to rid the honest man of his devils, and his money together. He told him it would be necessary to combat with the devils singly and on a day appointed, when the poor man came with a sum of money-without which the good father had forewarned him the devil never could be dislodged-he bound a chain, connected with an electrical machine in an adjoining chamber, round his body-lest, as he said, the devil should fly away with him—and having warned him that the shock would be terrible when the devil went out of him, he left him praying devoutly before an image of the Madonna, and after some time, gave him a pretty smart shock, at which the poor wretch fell insensible on the floor from terror. As soon as he recovered, however, he protested that he had seen the devil fly away out of his mouth, breathing blue flames and sulphur, and that he felt himself greatly relieved. Seven electrical shocks, at due intervals, having extracted seven sums of money from him together with the seven devils, the man was cured, and a great miracle performed.

To us, this transaction seemed a notable piece of credulous superstition on the one hand, and fraudulent knavery on the other; but to our friend the Abâte, it only seemed an ingenious device to cure of his fears asimpleton over whose mind reason could have no power,-as the physician cured the lady who fancied she had a nest of live earwigs in her stomach, not by arguing with her on the absurdity of such a notion, but by shewing her that an ear

wig was killed with a single drop of oil, and making her swallow a quantity of it. But with respect to the man and his devils, I would ask, why inspire superstitious terrors to conquer them by deceit, and why make him pay so much money?

Yet this is nothing to other things that daily happen. Would you believe that there has actu ally been in Rome a trial for witchcraft ?—a grave formal trial for witchcraft, in the nineteenth century! I began to think I must be mistaken, and that the world had been pushed back about three hundred years. But it is even so.

There is certainly more superstition in the south of Italy than the north, because there is more ignorance: In Milan, and in most of the cities of Lombardy, it is rapidly disappearing with the diffusion of knowledge and science. Yet Florence, enlightened as she is, has a reasonable share; and miracles, and miraculous Madonnas, abound nearly as much in Tuscany as in the Estates of the Church, as I have good reason to know. Even the liquefaction of St Januarius's blood,-which is generally quoted as the comble of superstition, is not without its parallel. At Mantua, a bottle of the blood of Christ is liquefied every year, to the great edification of the countrymen of Virgil. The bottle, containing this real blood of Christ, was dug up at Mantua, in a box about 200 years ago, with a written assurance that it had been deposited there by a St Longinus, a Roman Centurion, who witnessed the crucifixion, and became converted, and ran away from Judea to Man tua with this bottle

of blood; and after lying sixteen centuries in the ground, the box, the writing, the bottle and the blood, were as fresh as if placed there only the day before!

But I might write a book of miracles, were I to relate the hundredth part of all that takes place every year-nay, every day, in Italy. So I have done.

LETTER LXXX.

BLESSING OF THE HORSES-FESTAS-ITALIAN

MANNERS.

Sunday, Jan. 18th, 1819.

WE were present to-day at one of the most ridiculous scenes I ever witnessed, even in this country. It was St Anthony's Blessing of the Horses, which began on that saint's day, and I understand lasts for a week; but as this was a festone, I rather imagine we saw it in its full glory. We drove to the church of the saint, near Santa Maria Maggiore, and could scarcely make our way through the streets, from the multitudes of horses, mules, asses, oxen, cows, sheep, goats, and dogs, which were journeying along to the place of benediction their heads, tails, and necks, decorated with bits of coloured ribbon and other finery, on thistheir unconscious gala day. The saint's benediction, though nominally confined to horses, is equally efficacious, and equally bestowed upon all quadrupeds; and I believe there is scarcely a brute in

Rome, or the neighbourhood, that has not participated in it.

An immense crowd were assembled in the wide open space in front of the church, and from the number of beasts and men, it looked exactly like a cattle fair. At the door stood the blessing priest, dressed in his robes, and wielding a brush in his hand, which he continually dipped into a huge bucket of holy water, that stood near him, and spirted at the animals as they came up, in unremitting succession, taking off his little skull cap, and muttering every time," Per intercessionem beati Antonii Abatis hæc animalia liberantur a malis in nomine Patris et filii et Spiritus Sancti.— Amen!"

The poor priest had such hard work in blessing, that he was quite exhausted and panting, and his round face looked fiery red with his exertions. The rider, or driver of the creature, always gave some piece of money, larger or smaller, in proportion to his means or generosity, and received an engraving of the saint, and a little metallic cross; however, all animals might be blessed gratis.

Several well-dressed people, in very handsome equipages, attended with out-riders in splendid liveries, drove up while we were there, and sat uncovered till the benediction was given. Then having paid what they thought fit, they drove off and made way for others.

One adventure happened, which afforded us some amusement. A countryman having got a blessing on his beast, putting his whole trust in its