270 THE STORIES OF NOTED PAINTINGS. 



THE FESTIVAL OF THE MADONNA DELL' ABCO 

 AT NAPLES. 



By Louis LEOPOLD ROBERT (born 1794, died 1835). On the 

 day after Whitsunday, usually in the latter part of May, all 

 Naples puts on its holiday clothes and gayest ornaments, and re- 

 pairs to the church of the Madonna dell' Arco, seven miles to 

 the eastward at the foot of Mt. Somma. The whole intervening 

 distance is one continuous scene of dancing and merry-making 

 men and women crowned with wreaths of flowers or fruits, and 

 carrying garlands or poles surmounted with branches of fruit or 

 flowers. It is a perfect Bacchanalian procession ; and it is 

 pointed to as indicating unmistakably the Greek origin of this 

 festival loving people. 



THE FALCONER. 



In the early times of Old England, and down to the reign of 

 the Georges, hawking was the great national sport. Persons of 

 rank scarcely appeared outside of their castles without a hawk 

 on their hands or carried in their train. Great sums of money 

 were spent on the amusement. As high a sum as $5,000 has 

 been paid for a cast of hawks. They were trained to fly high in 

 in the air, and then swoop down on either flying or running 

 game, striking the object dead with their strong beaks. The 

 whistle of the falconer recalled them to the perch on his finger. 

 Hawks of the larger kinds imported from Tartary, were trained 

 for antelopes, bustards and cranes ; those of the smaller kinds, 

 natives of Norway, were trained for hares, partridges and pigeons. 



THE GIPSIES' HOME. 



By C. LAREN, an English artist. If there is a people in the 

 world that has no home, it is the strolling, vagabond Gipsy race. 

 Sprung from the degraded caste of pariahs in India, the Gipsies 

 have now been among civilized people four hundred and fifty 

 years ; yet they are still precisely the same in race and nature as 

 when they first intruded themselves into Europe. They are most 

 numerous in the south of Spain ; and are there compelled by 

 force of numbers to conform themselves somewhat to civilized 

 modes of living. 



