ast of the next world, and the
other of this. Italians are fond of this world."{60} Christmas is for
the poorer Italians a summing up of human birthdays, an occasion for
pouring out on the _Bambino_ parental and fraternal affection as well as
religious worship.

In Rome, Christmas used to be heralded by the arrival, ten days before
the end of Advent, of the Calabrian minstrels or _pifferari_ with their
sylvan pipes (_zampogne_), resembling the Scottish bagpipe, but less
harsh in sound. These minstrels were to be seen in every street in Rome,
playing their wild plaintive music before the shrines of the Madonna,
under the traditional notion of charming away her labour-pains. Often
they would stop at a carpenter's shop "per politezza al messer San
Giuseppe."{61} Since 1870 the _pifferari_ have become rare in Rome, but
some were seen there by an English lady quite recently. At Naples, too,
there are _zampognari_ before Christmas, though far fewer than there used
to be; for one _lira_ they will pipe their rustic melodies before any
householder's street Madonna through a whole _novena_.{62}

[Illustration:

CALABRIAN SHEPHERDS PLAYING IN ROME AT CHRISTMAS.

_After an Etching by D. Allan._

From Hone's "Every-day Book" (London, 1826).]

In Sicily, too, men come down from the mountains nine days before
Christmas to sing a _novena_ to a plaintive melody accompanied by 'cello
and violin. "All day long," writes Signora Caico about Montedoro in
Caltanissetta, "the melancholy dirge |113| was sung round the village,
house after house, always the same minor tune, the words being different
every day, so that in nine days the whole song was sung out.... I often
looked out of the window to see them at a short distance, grouped before
a house, singing their stanzas, well muffled in shawls, for the air is
cold in spite of the bright sunshine.... The flat, white houses all
round, the pure sky overhead, gave an Oriental setting to the scene."

Another Christmas custom in the same place was the singing of a _novena_
not outside but within some of the village houses before a kind of altar
gaily decorated and bearing at the top a waxen image of the Child Jesus.
"Close to it the orchestra was grouped--a 'cello, two violins, a guitar,
and a tambourine. The kneeling women huddled in front of the altar. All
had on their heads their black _mantelline_. They began at once singing
the _novena_ stanzas appointed for that day; the tune was primi