e of the year,
as coals do in our houses.--_Monthly Magazine._

* * * * *

ROMAN FUNERALS.

The ceremonial of the funeral of a cardinal is considered as one of the
most imposing at Rome, which is a city of ceremonies, and yielding only
in magnificence to the obsequies of royal personages. The burial of the
Mezzo-ceto classes is conducted rather differently. The body is exposed
much in the same manner, at home; but the convoi, or passage from the
habitation to the sepulchre, is generally considered as an occasion which
calls for the utmost display. Torches, priests, psalmody, are sought for
with a spirit of rivalry which easily explains the sumptuary laws of the
Florentine and Roman statute-books, and which, unnoticed but not
extinguished in the present age, in a poorer must have been highly
offensive to the frugality and jealousies of a republic. The religious
orders, the Capucins particularly, are in constant requisition; not a day
that you may not meet two or three of their detachments in various parts
of the city:---the religious or charitable fraternities, such as the
Fratelli della Misericordia, of which the deceased is generally a brother
or a benefactor, or both, think it also a point of duty and gratitude to
swell the _cortege_, and in the greatest numbers they can muster to attend.
Their costume, which is highly picturesque, is always a striking feature,
and adds much to the brilliancy of the display. They wear a sort of sack
robe or tunic, which covers the whole body, girt with a rope round the
waist, and with holes pierced in the _capuchon_ for the eyes; their large
grey slouched hat is thrown back, much in the manner in which it appears
on the statues of Mercury, on their shoulders; their feet are often in
zoccoli, or sandals of wood, and sometimes, though rarely, bare. The
colour of their dress varies according to the rule of their society; at
Rome, I have noticed white, blue, and grey: at Florence they prefer black.
The corpse is dressed up with great care, and often with a degree of luxury
which would become a wedding; the best linen, the richest ornaments, are
lavished; garlands are placed on the head; the hands crossed, with a
crucifix between them, on the bosom, and the face and feet left quite bare.
Sometimes, through a capricious fit of piety, all this is studiously
dispensed with, and the body appears clad in the habit of some religious
order, to which the deceas