As Caper entered the gate, the first objects meeting his sight were: a procession of genuine pilgrims, dressed precisely as you see them in Robert le Diable, or Linda di Chamouni, or on the stage generally--long gray robes down to their feet, cocked hats with cockle shells, long wands; some barefoot, some with sandals: on they passed, singing religious songs. Then came the peasantry, all in perfect theatrical harmony, costumes rigidly correct _à la Sonnambula_. German artists dressed in Sunday clothes _à la Der Freyschutz_. A café with festoons of lemon-peel hung from window to window--they are not up to this idea in _Fra Diavolo_. Pretty girls in latticed windows, with red boddices, white sleeves, flowers in their hair--_legitimate Italian drama_. Crockery-ware in piles--_low comedy_. A man with a table, Sambuca and Acqua-vita bottles on it, and wee glasses, one cent a drink: _melodrama_. Fresh oranges and figs, pumpkin-seed and pine cones; a house with mushrooms strung on thread, hanging from window to window--this was not for festival display, but is the common way of the country. Notices of the _festa_, containing programme of the day, including amusements, ecclesiastical and secular, hung up alongside the stands where they were selling lottery tickets--_tragedy_. Fountains, with groups of peasantry drinking, or watering horses and donkeys--_pantomime_. Priests, in crow-black raiment, and canal-boat or shovel hats--_mystery_. Strangers from Rome, in the negro-minstrel style of costume, if young men; or in the rotund-paunch and black-raiment dress, if elderly men; or in the _chiffonée_ style, if Roman women attempting the last Parisian fashion--_farce_.
Here are the booths with rosaries, crucifixes, Virgin Mary's holy-water holders, medals of Pio Nono, or jewelry; gold crescent earrings, _spadine_ (long silver hair pins); silver hearts, legs, arms, for votive offerings, and crosses without number.
Caper entered the church; it was filled, and stifling with heat and frankincense, and contadini, and wax lights burning before the shrine, on which the sun shone. There were beautiful faces among the _pajine_ (people in fine raiment), showing what can be made from the _contadine_ (people in coarse clothes) by not overworking them.