BRACJA AND BOM JKSUS. 145 



purpose for which they were intended, inaRmuch as thoy 

 liave certainly attracted the general admiration of th(3 

 Portuguese people : but it is almost inconceivable that, 

 amidst a lavish expense of well-built chapels, wide stone 

 staircases, deeply carved balustrades, and elaborate foun- 

 tains, which extend from the bottom of the hill to the 

 church on the top, the designers of the representations 

 should be contented with such paltry figures, at the sight 

 of which, notwithstanding the solemnity of the scenes in- 

 tended to be depicted, it is almost impossible to repress a 

 smile. At Varallo, on the contrary, the figures are not 

 only generally well modelled, but many of them are really 

 creditable works of art ; and some of the scenes repre- 

 sented are so life-like as quite to startle one by the vivid- 

 ness with which the facts they recall are brought before 

 the mind. At the same time it must not be forgotten, 

 that in every nation, to the uneducated mind, wholly 

 ignorant of art, the veriest daub will pass for a splendid 

 picture, and, after all, the scenes at Bom Jesus are little, 

 if at all, inferior to kindred representations in some other 

 lands. Thus in Bavaria, I have at Christmas seen the 

 * Christ-kind,' as it is called, or the Nativity of the Holy 

 Child in the stable, with all the accompaniments of ox and 

 ass, represented in Munich (the home of the arts) with no 

 little familiarity. At Mentone, I have witnessed on Good 

 Friday the Burial of our Blessed Lord, enacted with a 

 coarseness that was quite revolting, while at the neigh- 

 bouring town of Monaco a far more elaborate ceremonial 

 is annually introduced, exemplifying the entire history of 

 the Passion of our Saviour, but all in so homely and 

 familiar a style as to strike the unaccustomed stranger 

 with disgust, and appear to him a burlesque closely bor- 

 dering on the blasphemous ; though so far from shocking 

 the national mind, I have seen these coarse representations 



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