PECTIXID.E. — SCALLOP. Ill 



Aigues-Mortes, in Languedoc ; a town which he had 

 founded, that he might have a seaport on the Mediter- 

 ranean. He also embarked at that place on his unsuc- 

 cessful crusade in 1270, having assembled a fleet of 800 

 galleys, and an army of 40,000 men. 



The following description of the apostle St. James, 

 patron of Spain, given by Bernard Picart,*" may not 

 be uninteresting to some of my readers. He says, " St. 

 James, Patron of all Spain, has rested for these 900 

 years past in the Metropolitan Church of Compostella. 

 The image of this blessed apostle is upon the high altar ; 

 it is a small wooden bust, with forty or fifty white tapers 

 constantly burning before it. Pilgrims kiss it three 

 times, and put their hats upon the head of it, with abun- 

 dance of respect and devotion. There are thirty silver 

 lamps always burning in the church, and six large silver 

 candlesticks five feet high, which were given by Philip 

 III. There are five platforms, of large freestones, for 

 walking all round the church, and above it is another 

 of the same kind, where the pilgrims ascend and fix 

 some remnant of their clothes to a stone cross, which 

 is erected thereon. They likewise perform another cere- 

 mony as singular as this. They pass under this cross 

 three times, through such a small hole that they are 

 obliged to slide through with their breasts against the 

 pavement, so that such as are never so little too fat 

 must suffer severely, and yet through they must go, if 

 they will obtain the indulgence thereto affixed. This is 

 the strait gate of the Gospel through which the pil- 

 grims enter into the high-road to salvation. Some who 

 had forgotten to pass under the stone cross, have gone 

 back five hundred leagues to perform this ceremony. " 



* ' Religious Ceremonies,' p. 432. 



