as has been said, with cherubim, seraphim, golden stars, and other
suchlike ornaments. Within were porters or peasants, who carried it on
their shoulders, placing themselves round the wooden base that we have
called the framework, in which, below the places where the weight rested
on their shoulders, were fixed cushions of leather stuffed with down, or
cotton-wool, or some other soft and yielding material. All the
machinery, steps, and other things were covered, as has been said above,
with cotton-wool, which made a beautiful effect; and all these
contrivances were called Clouds. Behind them came troops of men on
horseback and foot-soldiers of various sorts, according to the nature of
the story to be represented, even as in our own day they go behind the
cars or other things that are used in place of the said Clouds. Of the
form of the latter I have some designs in my book of drawings, very well
done by the hand of Cecca, which are truly ingenious and full of
beautiful conceptions.

It was from the plans of the same man that those saints were made that
went or were carried in processions, either dead or tortured in various
ways, for some appeared to be transfixed by a lance or a sword, others
had a dagger in the throat, and others had other suchlike weapons in
their bodies. With regard to this, it is very well known to-day that it
is done with a sword, lance, or dagger broken in half, the pieces of
which are held firmly opposite to one another on either side by iron
rings, after taking away the proportionate amount that has to appear to
be fixed in the person of the sufferer; wherefore I will say no more
about them, save that they seem for the most part to have been invented
by Cecca.

The giants, likewise, that went about in the said festival, were made in
the following manner. Certain men who were very skilful at walking on
stilts, or, as they are called in other parts, on wooden legs, had some
made five or six braccia high, and, having dressed and decked them with
great masks and other ornaments in the way of draperies, and imitations
of armour, so that they seemed to have the members and heads of giants,
they mounted them and walked dexterously along, appearing truly to be
giants. In front of them, however, they had a man who carried a pike, on
which the giant leant with one hand, but in such a fashion that the pike
appeared to be his own weapon, whether mace, lance, or a great
bell-clapper, such as Morgante is sai