yalty will take to visit
on foot seven of the churches, where the Holy Sepulchres are displayed;
and in the afternoon all Madrid resorts to the Plaza del Sol and the
Carrera San Geronimo, to show off their gayest costumes in a regular
gala promenade. Finally, on Saturday morning--why forty-eight hours only
is allowed for the supposed entombment does not quite appear--the bells
clang forth, noise and gaiety pervade the whole city, and the day ends
with a cock-fight and the reopening of the theatres, and the first grand
bull-fight of the season is held on Easter Sunday. Verily, the Church is
mindful of the weakness of its vassals, and shows as much indulgence as
is thought needful to keep the people amused and careless of all else. I
remember, when I first noticed this wearing of the most gaudy colours on
Maundy Thursday, a day one would naturally expect to be one of special
mourning, I was told it was allowed by the Church because on that day
Pilate put the purple robe on Our Lord!

The processions and functions of Holy Week and other _fiestas_ have been
so often and so fully described that there is no need to refer to them;
but there are several curious survivals and religious customs in
out-of-the-way places which seem to have escaped notice. I have not been
able to find in any book on Spain a description of the strange dance
which takes place in the cathedral of Seville on, I think, three days in
the year, of which two are certainly the day of the Virgin and that of
Corpus Christi. The origin of the dance seems to be lost, nor is its
special connection with Seville known. All that one can hear of it is
that one of the archbishops of Toledo objected to the dance as being
irreverent and unusual, and ordered it to be stopped. The indignant
people referred the matter to the Pope, but even the date of this appeal
seems to be dubious, if not unknown. His Holiness replied that he could
not judge of the matter unless he himself saw the dance. Accordingly,
the boys who figure in this strange performance were taken to Rome, and
they solemnly danced before the Pope. His verdict was that there was
nothing irreverent about the dance, but he thought, as it was known only
to Seville, it would be better eventually to discontinue it; but so long
as the dress worn on the occasions when it is practised, lasted, the
dance might continue. The dresses have lasted to the present day, and
will always continue to last, say the Sevillanos, for