very high bridge which spans it is most curious on either side the ravine is honeycombed with pre-historic cave-dwellings, still Massafra. inhabited by the poor. Prickly pears grow to such a size as almost to warrant the name of trees, and one or two feathery palms wave slowly to the wind, while the flat-roofed white houses, daubed here and there with yellow, red, blue, and green, complete the eastern illusion. The Massafrese dialect is sui generis; understood with difficulty by the people round, and contains many Arabic words. We were fortunate enough to see the great "festa" of the Madonna della Scala, whose colossal image is in the keeping of the nuns of St. Benedict, alone permitted to dress and un dress her. Two days before the procession the Madonna is taken by night to the Church of La Scala, about half a mile out of the town, and everyone is hard at work preparing fireworks to greet her re-appearance. The little Piazza of Massafra was entirely covered by an erection of high poles and lines of thick cord, and the excitement, which was tremendous, increased as the shrill sound of fifes and drums came nearer. A master of the ceremonies, dressed like an Egyptian priest in an opera, opened the procession, followed by a crowd of women in their best clothes, with large wax candles in their hands; after them a brown silk Leader of the Procession at Massafra. THE MADONNA DELLA SCALA. 103 banner was carried by a Confraternity, wearing black capes and a large yellow rosette with Charitas embroidered on it, fastened on the left shoulder. Then came a fine old silver crucifix, and a puce-coloured flag with a Virgin painted on white silk in the middle; a red silk banner was attended by the Confraternity of Sta. Philomena, who wore scarlet capes, their long white dresses stiff with starch, and ornamented with old lace, of which they are very proud. A band preceded the congregation of the Carmelites, who had quaint braces over their chocolate coloured capes, ending in broad tablets, which hung in front and behind, embroidered, one with the word Carmele, the other with Decor. The congregation of the Rosario also had a band, and an enormous white silk flag, all painted and embroidered; their capes were black with a flower worked in coloured silks on the left side. Just in front of the immense statue of the Virgin came the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament in sky-blue capes, with the emblems of the sacrament worked in silver on the left side; four monks, and the canons of the church in purple. The Madonna's robe was of white silk heavily embroidered with gold, and her crown, necklace, and bracelets sparkled in the sun. The honour of carrying her is put up to auction, and this year the bearers paid as much as eighty tomola of grain each.* Behind her was the Blessed Sacrament, under a canopy borne by eight men, who pay two tomola. The Madonna halted at the Church of the Benedictine Convent, which was not opened until the image had knocked three times at the door. On the termination of her visit the fireworks on the Piazza were let off and the noise was deafening. Bits of stick and flaming sheets of brown paper flew thick through the air, and we retreated off the balcony, where as friends of "Il Comendatore," as Sir James Lacaita is always called, we had the best places. The whole procession now wended its way through the narrow streets down to the lower part of the town, to the mother church of Massafra, which the Madonna honours by a visit of eight days, after which she returns to the more modern church in the Piazza. Here she stays as long as she is "invited," i.e., as long as devotees will pay fifty francs a day for her maintenance. Then she returns to the convent, to be undressed and put away till next year. The modern Church of the Madonna della Scala, so called from the called from the immense *Five tomola are equal to a quarter. stair |