THE CAMPO SANTO. 



287 



upon them. Remarkable as I considered this tree 

 at that time, I afterward saw larger ones, in more 

 favourable situations, not so old. 



The campo santo was enclosed by a high stone 

 wall. The interior had some degree of plan and 

 arrangement, and in some places were tombs, built 

 above ground, belonging to families in the village, 

 hung with withered wreaths and votive offerings. 

 The population tributary to it was about five thou- 

 sand ; it had been opened but five years, and alrea- 

 dy it presented a ghastly spectacle. There were 

 many new-made graves, and on several of the vaults 

 were a skull and small collection of bones in a box 

 or tied up in a napkin, being the remains of one 

 buried within and taken out to make room for an- 

 other corpse. On one of them were the skull and 

 bones of a lady of the village, in a basket ; an old 

 acquaintance of the cura, who had died within two 

 years. Among the bones was a pair of white satin 

 shoes, which she had perhaps worn in the dance, 

 and with which on her feet she had been buried. 



At one corner of the cemetery was a walled en- 

 closure, about twenty feet high and thirty square, 

 within which was the charnel-house of the ceme- 

 tery. A flight of stone steps led to the top of the 

 wall, and on the platform of the steps and along the 

 wall were skulls and bones, some in boxes and bas- 

 kets, and some tied up in cotton cloths, soon to be 

 thrown upon the common pile, but as yet having la- 

 bels with the names written on them, to make known 



