very dwelling, is preserved to
sprinkle the fields and the sick also, and is thought to be specific
against the temptations of the devil at the hour of death. It is said to
remain uncorrupted for as long as twenty-five years. Children go about
on New Year's Day with a branch of rosemary stuck in an apple in which
are kreuzer or ten-kreuzer pieces, wishing good fortune and collecting
gifts. In Trieste and some of the Istrian towns, girls and boys go about
throughout the octave of Epiphany with little lanterns, kneel on the
steps of the houses, sing a song in honour of the three Holy Kings, and
then, knocking, ask for money. The song tells how Christ was born poor,
lived poor, and died on the Cross, and then goes on to wish friendly
donors as many angels to take them to heaven as a sieve has holes; for
the hard-hearted as many devils to take them as nails stuck in the door!
In some neighbourhoods children are taken into the vineyards on
Innocents' Day, when they strike the vines with switches and sing:
"Bear, bear fruit, pretty vine, else will I cut thy head off."

Great preparations are made for Easter, when young lambs and turkeys are
slain, which the folk-songs tell us used to be offered to the sun-god.
Roasted lamb, cooked eggs, cheese, and bread and salt are carried early
to the church to be blessed by the priest. When the bearers return, the
table is blessed by the head of the family, and God thanked for the
well-completed Lenten fast, after which they sit cheerfully down to
their meal, burning all fragments left, since the food has been blessed,
and taking care not to let anything fall to the ground. In Lent, and
during other fasts, they eat neither flesh nor eggs, nor any kind of
milk food. They have a saying that it is less culpable to kill a person
in _vendetta_ than to eat rich food in Lent. S. John the Baptist's Day
is one of their principal feasts. On the Eve the shepherds light fires
on all the hills. On the morning they swim for the first time in the
year, or wash from head to foot, and also wash all their animals. The
girls and boys make garlands of flowers and broom, set them on their
heads, and dance "with devotional joy." This is no doubt part of the
ancient heathen festival of midsummer. Another festival which has
nothing to do with the Church is the "Fasching" or "Pust," on Monday
during Carnival. Groups of masked male dancers go through the villages
with horns on their heads, or with bells at their gi