WE arrived at Trani, the Turenum of the Itineraries, in Holy Week, and found all the churches decked out with hangings, and the people dressed in their best.

Like most Apulian towns, Trani is built of white stone and well paved; the roofs of the houses are flat, and balconies abound.

Before dawn on Thursday morning I was awakened by most dismal and woe-begone sounds which came nearer and nearer, and getting up, I saw a weird procession of whiterobed men wending their way slowly through

the streets, chaunting at the top of their voices. Most ghostly did they look in the pale dawn; white hoods drawn over their heads, with holes for their eyes. All day long one confraternity or another paraded the town; some all in white, some with short black mantles, others with blue. Some had small hats slung by their sides, others wore large shovel hats over their hoods, and some bore enormous wooden crosses, which I was told they paid to carry.

On Good Friday there was a procession in the morning chiefly for the women, who were remarkably neat and well-clothed, nearly all had silk dresses and large gold chains. They had taken off their shoes, and their white stockings were sadly soiled and torn as they walked through the dirty streets, each holding an enormous wax candle with both hands. The priests were barefoot, and so were the men who preceded the long line of women.

A barber, who offered me a seat in his shop, told me with a sigh that it cost a great deal of money nowadays to set up house on account of the luxury of the women of Trani. "They want silk gowns, they want necklaces, they want rings; and now progress is come, and they learn to read and write; but alas they have not learnt to sweep or to sew." I after

"LA BATTARIA DI JESU."

13

wards learnt that my friend the barber came from Piedmont, and was unpopular in Trani because he insisted upon his shop being swept out every evening, an unheard-of innovation, as I could well believe, judging from the floors and the staircase of our inn.

In the afternoon there was a much grander procession, life-size images of Our Lord and the Virgin being carried high on men's shoulders surrounded by many gentlemen of Trani, who picked their way daintily through the dirt with their poor bare feet.

On Saturday morning early I heard a great altercation outside my door, and explanations that I was a "Signora," and that it would be most unbecoming to enter my room, as I was probably in bed; but that the gentlemen were in No. 10, and that their room could be entered without impropriety. On coming down to breakfast I found a man with a large salver well filled with coppers and a few silver pieces, who, in the impossible dialect of the country, asked for a contribution, "per l'abbavescio di Cristo, per la battaria di Jesu," which translated means, " for the resurrection of Christ, for the battery of Jesus." Before many hours were over we found out to our cost what the battery was.

The people of Trani are very proud of their town, which they call the Athens of Apulia ; and when I asked whether it was on account of any famous university, they said, no; it was because the assizes are held there!

The common people were astonished and amused at my independent way of walking about, and I was often asked, "Che donna sièt ?" "Di che paès' sièt ?" ("What sort of woman are you?" "What country do you come from?") To save long explanations I answered Florence, when the native good breeding came out in saying they had heard how beautiful Florence was, and how courteous the Florentines were, which they saw was true from my not minding the uncivil way in which I had been questioned. My hat was a great source of wonder, as all the women wear a shawl over their heads; no doubt a remnant of the Venetian occupation in the fifteenth century.

At length, as I was wending my way, like most people in Trani, towards the cathedral, a courageous street boy addressed me: "Ma, che sièt u' masch' che avet' u' cappel?" ("But are you a man that you wear a hat ?") The question was overheard by some respectable-looking young men, who came up hats in hand, extremely irate, and scolded the small boy for

MY BODY-GUARD.

15

disgracing Trani in the eyes of a stranger, begging me to excuse the want of manners. "Was I going to the cathedral? Would I allow them to escort me," they asked; to which I gladly assented and we went on and entered the fine old church which was chokeful.

My self-constituted body-guard got me a chair, and stood round me to prevent my being pushed about by the crowd. Curiosity however got the better even of their manners, and in a roundabout way they began to ask whether I liked Trani, where I came from, who I was, and where I was going. So we exchanged names; I duly admired Trani, and they complimented me on my Italian and my extraordinary courage in walking about alone. I said that my companions were artists who wanted to draw, while I wanted to see all I could. "Ah, that was all very well; but courage, much courage was necessary, and it was an admirable quality." While we were exchanging pretty speeches, a priest came out of a side chapel and suddenly there was a great movement in the crowd in the nave, chiefly composed of women. Cries of joy, clapping of hands, stamping of feet and shrieking, roused my curiosity. "E l'allegria dei peccati" ("it is the jollity of sins "), I was told, which I thought an odd way of describing that