LEAVE OF ABSENCE. 117 



service, which, to judge by the crowds of strangers that followed 

 us in, was one of the sights of the day. The service was 

 chanted, in Armenian by about ten priests, dressed in very 

 showy A'estments of divers colours — to wit : green, rose colour? 

 crimson and yellow, according to their rank, with sashes of 

 gold, and blazonry thereon. They wear beards. The bishop 

 was a remarkably fine-looking old man, with a long white beard 

 and superb vestment, and got through his business in a very 

 stately manner. 'Tis strange that what we saw should be called 

 Christian, and founded, on the New Testament. To be sure we 

 did not understand a word of what was saying, and that makes 

 a serious difference ; but the ceremonies and clothing were 

 very unlike our ideas of the simplicity of Christianity, though 

 not more so than in the Roman Church, with which the 

 Armenian holds communion. This morning we went to see a 

 Jew and a Turk baptized, which is one of the annual sights of 

 Easter. Unfortunately there was little appearance of convince- 

 ment. At this time no Turk could be found, but we saw a 

 Jewess made a Christian of — whether hired for the purpose or 

 not, cannot say : a vast deal of mummery about it and a great 

 crowd of gazers : had to pay a paul (?) for our stand, and got 

 crushed into the bargain. A cardinal officiated, and I cannot 

 say how many lusty priests, grey-haired men, strong men, 

 youths, boys and children. A cursory walk through the Vatican 

 Museum occupied three hours. It contains interminable 

 galleries of ancient statues and sculpture of various kinds. 

 There is of course much to look at, but without repeated visits 

 little to carry away in the memory. There are the Laocoon 

 and the Apollo Belvidere, with which we were already too 

 familiar to be struck dumb with admiration. But let that pass, 

 One apartment contains three fine statues by Canova ; the only 

 ones by that modern master we have yet seen here. The pope's 

 second museum has the Antinous, the Dying Gladiator, and 

 the Roman Venus, with which we were less familiar, and conse- 

 quently more struck. The sickening agony of the gladiator 

 is wonderfully expressed, and under a proper light must almost 

 be ecpial to life ; but there is too strong light in the room to 

 see it properly. For my part, I have been more impressed by 

 a statue comparatively modern — of which we hear nothing — 

 than by these celebrated antique ones. The author is Bernini, 



