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29 March 1872 — San Sebastian | |
Friday. 29th March [1872]. Good Friday. We wrote all the morning I copying a lot of Henry’s article on Velasquez for him. We lunched at 1½ & at 2 we went out driving & took Giovanni on the box. We went by the road of the valley to Hernani where we heard there was to be a procession. We passed quantities of peasants going there & on getting to Hernani found the streets crowded– On getting to the church we there met by chance Mr Brunet & his brother who advised us to get out & send the carriage to put up for an hour. This we did & we all went into the church where a sermon was being preached in the Biscayan language so that we could not understand a word. The church was crowded the people being all seated on the ground—the women had most of them their heads tied over with white handkerchiefs. The church was darkened; the great gilded retablo over the high altar with its large carved figure shone out of the glimmer– As soon as ones eyes got accustomed to the light one saw that in front of the high altar stood a large figure of Christ on the cross with 2 ladders fixed behind it. At the foot of the cross stood a strange figure—a man dressed up in scaly tinsel to represent armour with a helmet with high white plumes—leggings of tinsel tied with red bows & appropriate sandals—he was surrounded by 6 small children in gold as angels– Mr Brunet told me the sermon was a history of the life of Christ & at the end when the preacher had reached the history of the Crucifixion he made a sign to 2 priests who mounted the ladders behind the Cross & at the several signs from the preacher they took down first the superscription then the crown of thorns & so proceeded to take out the nails from the hands & put the arms of the figure by its sides—then they took out the nail of the feet & finally took down the figure & laid it in a glass coffin—at wh the sermon ended. We got quickly out of church & went to the balcony of the town hall to see the procession– First the people poured out & it was surprising to see how many the church had held—then one could see coming down the aisle the figure dressed in tinsel who was supposed to represent St Michael. He came skipping a kind of slow measured dance with uplifted hands in one of wh was a sword & the other a buckler– The step he performed was a kind of “battement”—he threw up his legs as high as he could before him at each step having a hoop in the hem of his short petticoat to enable him to kick his legs up high. He was followed by his attendant angels—then priests bearing a black canopy, then two angels in black—then priests with lights & then the figure in the glass coffin—afterwards 2 small angels in black velvet—then a life sized figure of the Virgin in black silk—then two little angels in purple satin & green wings & then a life sized figure of St Veronica in a green brocade mantle & the procession was closed by a lot of country women– All eyes seemed turned on St Michael & he seemed to be of the chief interest. He is generally chosen as being the best tennis player of the town– It threatened to rain so we descended from our balcony & found our carriage to drive back to S. Seb. wh we did by another road over the hills by wh we had not been before. We dined at 6½ & went to bed early. | |
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