osaries, chaplets, medals, AGNUS DEI, holy
water bottles, framed pictures of saints, etc., not to forget a goodly
number of those chapbooks, struck off in Friburg on coarse bluish paper,
in which you can hear about miracles of our own time, or "Jesus Christ's
Letter to a true believer," containing awful predictions, as for the
years 1831 and '32, about impious revolutionary France.
One of those canvas daubs, with which strolling showmen adorn their
booths, hangs from a rafter, no doubt to prevent its being spoilt by too
long rolling up. It bore the following legend:
"THE DOWNRIGHT TRUE AND MOST MEMORABLE CONVERSION OF IGNATIUS MOROK,
KNOWN AS THE PROPHET, HAPPENING IN FRIBURG, 1828TH YEAR OF GRACE."
This picture, of a size larger than natural, of gaudy color, and in bad
taste, is divided into three parts, each presenting an important phase in
the life of the convert, surnamed "The Prophet." In the first, behold a
long-bearded man, the hair almost white, with uncouth face, and clad in
reindeer skin, like the Siberian savage. His black foreskin cap is topped
with a raven's head; his features express terror. Bent forward in his
sledge, which half-a-dozen huge tawny dogs draw over the snow, he is
fleeing from the pursuit of a pack of foxes, wolves, and big bears, whose
gaping jaws, and formidable teeth, seem quite capable of devouring man,
sledge, and dogs, a hundred times over. Beneath this section, reads:
"IN 1810, MOROK, THE IDOLATER, FLED FROM WILD BEASTS."
In the second picture, Morok, decently clad in a catechumen's white gown
kneels, with clasped hands, to a man who wears a white neckcloth, and
flowing black robe. In a corner, a tall angel, of repulsive aspect, holds
a trumpet in one hand, and flourishes a flaming sword with the other,
while the words which follow flow out of his mouth, in red letters on a
black ground:
"MOROK, THE IDOLATER, FLED FROM WILD BEASTS; BUT WILD BEASTS WILL FLEE
FROM IGNATIUS MOROK, CONVERTED AND BAPTIZED IN FRIBURG."
Thus, in the last compartment, the new convert proudly, boastfully, and
triumphantly parades himself in a flowing robe of blue; head up, left arm
akimbo, right hand outstretched, he seems to scare the wits out of a
multitude of lions, tigers, hyenas, and bears, who, with sheathed claws,
and masked teeth, crouch at his feet, awestricken, and submissive.
Under this, is the concluding moral:
"IGNATIUS MOROK BEING CONVERTED, WILD BEASTS CROUCH BEFORE HIM."
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