entered the church at
midnight on Christmas Eve to wait for the procession of the _culla_, or
cradle. "Its three ample naves, separated by rows of Ionic columns of
white marble, produced a splendid vista. Thousands of wax tapers marked
their form, and contrasted their shadows; some blazed from golden
candlesticks on the superb altars of the lateral chapels.... Draperies of
gold and crimson decked the columns, and spread their shadows from the
inter-columniations over the marble pavement. In the midst of this
imposing display of church magnificence, sauntered or reposed a
population which displayed the most squalid misery. The haggard natives
of the mountains ... were mixed with the whole mendicity of Rome.... Some
of these terrific groups lay stretched in heaps on the ground,
congregating for warmth; and as their dark eyes scowled from beneath the
mantle which half hid a sheepskin dress, they had the air of banditti
awaiting their prey; others with their wives and children knelt, half
asleep, |115| round the chapel of the _Santa Croce_.... In the centre
of the nave, multitudes of gay, gaudy, noisy persons, the petty
shopkeepers, laquais, and _popolaccio_ of the city, strolled and laughed,
and talked loud." About three o'clock the service began, with a choral
swell, blazing torches, and a crowded procession of priests of every rank
and order. It lasted for two hours; then began the procession to the cell
where the cradle lay, enshrined in a blaze of tapers and guarded by
groups of devotees. Thence it was borne with solemn chants to the chapel
of _Santa Croce_. A musical Mass followed, and the _culla_ being at last
deposited on the High Altar, the wearied spectators issued forth just as
the dome of St. Peter's caught the first light of the morning.{68}

Still to-day the scene in the church at the five o'clock High Mass on
Christmas morning is extraordinarily impressive, with the crowds of poor
people, the countless lights at which the children gaze in open-eyed
wonder, the many low Masses said in the side chapels, the imposing
procession and the setting of the silver casket on the High Altar. The
history of the relics of the _culla_--five long narrow pieces of wood--is
obscure, but it is admitted even by some orthodox Roman Catholics that
there is no sufficient evidence to connect them with Bethlehem.{69}

The famous _Bambino_ at the Franciscan church of Ara Coeli on the citadel
of Rome is "a flesh-coloured doll, tightly