ombola the number was limited
to ninety thousand.

The tickets, as will be seen above, are divided into three lines, with
five divisions in each line, and you can fill up the fifteen divisions
with any numbers running from one to ninety, that you may see fit.
Ninety tickets, with numbers from one to ninety, are put in a revolving
glass barrel, and after being well shaken up, some one draws out one
number at random, (the slips of paper being rolled up in such manner
that the numbers on them can not be seen.) It is passed to the judges,
and is then read aloud, and exposed to view, in conspicuous figures, on
a stand or stands; and so on until the tombola is won or the numbers all
drawn.

Whoever has three consecutive figures on a line, beginning from left
hand to right, wins the _Terno_; if four consecutive figures, the
_Quaterno_; if five figures, or a full line, the _Cinquina_; and whoever
has all fifteen figures, wins the Tombola. It often happens that several
persons win the _Terno_, etc., at the same time, in which case the
amount of the _Terno_, etc., is equally divided among them. These public
tombolas are like too many thimble-rig tables, ostensibly started for
charitable objects, and it is popularly whispered that the Roman
nobility and heads of the Church purchase vast numbers of these tickets,
and never fill them up; but then again, they are not large enough for
shaving, and are too small for curl-papers; besides, six hundred and
fifty _scudi_! Whew!

The Piazza Navona, bearing on its face, on week-days, the most terrible
eruptions of piles of old iron, rags, paintings, books, boots,
vegetables, crockery, jackdaws, contadini, and occasional dead cats,
wore on the Sunday of the tombola--it was Advent Sunday--a clean,
bright, and even joyful look. From many windows hung gay cloths and
banners; the three fountains were making Roman pearls and diamonds of
the first water; the entire length (seven hundred and fifty feet) and
breadth of the square was filled with the Roman people; three bands of
military music played uncensurable airs, since the public censor
permitted them; and several companies of soldiers, with loaded guns,
stood all ready to slaughter the _plebe_. It was a sublime spectacle.

But the curtain rose; that is to say, the tombola commenced. At a raised
platform, a small boy, dressed in black, popularly supposed to be a
cholera orphan, rolled back his shirt-cuffs--he had a shirt--plunged his
hand i