146 BROWN : 



was a perfectly well recognized local type of disease, and very 

 dangerous. It is not so now. 



The building material is the volcanic tufa, which conies 

 out so soft as to be worked like wood with saw and hatchet ; 

 and with time and exposure becomes nearly as hard as a 

 brick. It is admirably cheap and suitable as used in its own 

 home, but I vehemently suspect that our high buildings 

 would crush it. The houses are all stuccoed ; the party walls 

 are tiles, not lath and plaster. A new building takes a long 

 time to dry out, and the saying is : " Let your enemy live in 

 your house the first year, your friend the second, and you may 

 live in it the third if you choose." 



San Gennaro — St. Januarius is the patron saint of the 

 city. Some of his blood is kept in a small bottle at the 

 Cathedral, I believe, and once or twice a year it is liquefacted. 

 All Naples goes to see the miracle, and there is some confu- 

 sion. It may be that what is in the bottle, blood or whatever 

 else, is stiffish in its natural condition, and being much 

 handled by warm hands relents a little. I did not go to the 

 function. One scrambling crowd in a church is just like 

 another and such things maj' be seen anywhere, almost. But 

 at all events, go all the faithful do, and swear, every one of 

 them does, that the miracle comes to pass. 



There is one act of worship which, as far as I know, is 

 altogether peculiar to this cit)-. I say, as usual, as far as I 

 know. A line of a hundred and fifty or two hundred little, 

 cast iron mortars — more or less, according to the sanctity of 

 what is to be adored — is set in order. The mortars are loaded 

 with something excessiveh' noisy when fired off, and from 

 every touch hole there hangs a very wide awake little fuse. 

 One carr3ang a torch passes along and touches these diabolical 

 implements off at the rate of say sixty to the minute. When 

 the bangs begin to grow gradually louder you know that 

 meeting is nearly out. The matter is so arranged on purpose. 

 A salvo of this kind was rarely to lack on the piazza in front 

 of the English church of a Sunday for the benefit of us 



