of the superstitious
practices of the blacks on the high Barbary shore, and their occasional
rage and fury at the things they worshipped; and I said to myself, If all
this here doesn't smell of fetish, may I smell fetid.

'At this place the priest left us, returning to Naples with his
subordinate, on some particular business I suppose. It was, however,
agreed that he should visit us at the Holy City. We did not go direct to
the Holy City, but bent our course to two or three other cities which the
family were desirous of seeing; but as nothing occurred to us in these
places of any particular interest, I shall take the liberty of passing
them by in silence. At length we arrived at the Eternal City: an immense
city it was, looking as if it had stood for a long time, and would stand
for a long time still; compared with it, London would look like a mere
assemblage of bee-skeps; however, give me the bee-skeps with their merry
hum and bustle, and life and honey, rather than that huge town, which
looked like a sepulchre, where there was no life, no busy hum, no bees,
but a scanty sallow population, intermixed with black priests, white
priests, grey priests; and though I don't say there was no honey in the
place, for I believe there was, I am ready to take my Bible oath that it
was not made there, and that the priests kept it all for themselves.'

CHAPTER NINETY-NINE

A CLOISTER--HALF ENGLISH--NEW ACQUAINTANCE--MIXED LIQUORS--TURNING
PAPIST--PURPOSES OF CHARITY--FOREIGN RELIGION--MELANCHOLY--ELBOWING AND
PUSHING--OUTLANDISH SIGHT--THE FIGURE--I DON'T CARE FOR
YOU--MERRY-ANDREWS--ONE GOOD--RELIGION OF MY COUNTRY--FELLOW OF SPIRIT--A
DISPUTE--THE NEXT MORNING--PROPER DIGNITY--FETISH COUNTRY

'The day after our arrival,' continued the postilion, 'I was sent, under
the guidance of a lackey of the place, with a letter, which the priest,
when he left, had given us for a friend of his in the Eternal City. We
went to a large house, and on ringing were admitted by a porter into a
cloister, where I saw some ill-looking, shabby young fellows walking
about, who spoke English to one another. To one of these the porter
delivered the letter, and the young fellow, going away, presently
returned and told me to follow him; he led me into a large room where,
behind a table on which were various papers and a thing which they call,
in that country, a crucifix, sat a man in a kind of priestly dress. The
lad having opened the door for