attracting all eyes on account of its Passion Play. Burton's
object in going was "the wish to compare, haply to trace some affinity
between, this survival of the Christian 'Mystery' and the living scenes
of El Islam at Mecca," while Mrs. Burton's object may be gauged by
the following prayer which she wrote previous to their departure from
Trieste: "O Sweet Jesu... Grant that I, all unworthy though I be, may so
witness this holy memorial of thy sacrificial love, Thy glorious victory
over death and hell, that I may be drawn nearer to Thee and hold Thee in
everlasting remembrance. Let the representation of Thy bitter sufferings
on the cross renew my love for Thee, strengthen my faith, and ennoble my
life, and not mine only, but all who witness it." Then follows a prayer
for the players.

Burton found no affinity between the scenes at Ober Ammergau and those
at Mecca, and he was glad to get away from "a pandemonium of noise and
confusion," while Mrs. Burton, who was told to mind her own business
by a carter with whom she remonstrated for cruelly treating a horse,
discovered that even Ober Ammergau was not all holiness. Both Burton
and his wife recorded their impressions in print, but though his volume
[326] appeared in 1881, hers [327] was not published till 1900.

100. Mrs. Burton's Advice to Novelists. 4th September 1880.

The following letter from Mrs. Burton to Miss Stisted, who had just
written a novel, A Fireside King, [328] gives welcome glimpses of the
Burtons and touches on matters that are interesting in the light of
subsequent events. "My dearest Georgie, On leaving you I came on to
Trieste, arriving 29th May, and found Dick just attacked by a virulent
gout. We went up to the mountains directly without waiting even to
unpack my things or rest, and as thirty-one days did not relieve him, I
took him to Monfalcone for mud baths, where we passed three weeks, and
that did him good. We then returned home to change our baggage and start
for Ober Ammergau, which I thought glorious, so impressive, simple,
natural. Dick rather criticises it. However, we are back.... I read
your book through on the journey to England. Of course I recognised your
father, Minnie, [329] and many others, but you should never let your
heroine die so miserably, because the reader goes away with a void in
his heart, and you must never put all your repugnances in the first
volume, for you choke off your reader.... You don't mind my telling