1XXX AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



tunity with myself of witnessing the blood in its 

 solid state ; and the canon who held the case 

 as I was looking most intently at it, turned it 

 over and over many times, to prove to lis that 

 the blood was not liquid ; and as he did this, 

 he only touched the case with the extremities 

 of his fingers. 



I ought to have mentioned above, that so 

 soon as High Mass had terminated, a number 

 of females were admitted into the sanctuary. 

 This was a kind of hereditary right, claimed 

 and possessed by their families time out of mind, 

 on account of their connection with that of 

 St. Januarius. These privileged women recited 

 aloud the Litany of the blessed Virgin; and 

 they sent up other fervent prayers to Heaven, 

 accompanied with the most extraordinary ges- 

 ticulations that can possibly be conceived. 

 Strangers who know little or nothing of the 

 Italian language, and who do not enter into the 

 fervour occasioned by a scene like this, have 

 sometimes taken it into their heads that these 

 females are actually abusing the saint for not 

 allowing his blood to liquefy so soon as they 

 could wish. But this is a false surmise on their 

 part. I was close to the females at the time 



