up early and at 7.30 a brass band began to perambulate the
town to announce that the festa had begun. At 8.30 the band entered the
Matrice, and before Mass the sacred picture was unveiled, the band
saluting it with a burst of music. Much may be done in music by allusion
and suggestion. The service concluded with an extremely graceful
movement in six-eight time, that drove the Madonna out of the mind of at
least one listener and substituted a vision of laughing girls swaying
lightly to the rhythm and singing of the dancing waves whose foam gave
birth to Venus.

When the church emptied we got a better view of the picture. It is about
6 ft. high by 3 broad, painted in oils on wood prepared with gesso, and
represents a smiling Madonna with the Child at her breast. She is seated
on a throne in a landscape; two angels hold over her head a massive
golden crown; the Child is crowned also and in His hand are three ears of
corn, to signify fruitfulness; He also holds the keys. The crowns are
really only half-crowns, but they are gold or silver-gilt, and are
fastened into the wood of the picture. All round the Madonna's nimbus is
a raised band of gold set with twelve diamond stars, valued at 14,000
lire. A large diamond earring hangs in her right ear, the only one that
is visible; three large diamond rings are on the fingers of her right
hand and one on the finger of her left which supports the Child, and
suspended all over her skirts is an immense quantity of jewellery. The
frame is of wood entirely coated with silver, in the form of a
Renaissance doorway with a fluted column on each side and a broken
pediment over the top. It is almost concealed by the jewellery hung
about it, earrings, chains, necklaces, rings, watches etc. These are
offerings from the faithful, but what is shown is nothing like all.
There is a large chest containing much more and what has been given this
year is exposed in a separate case. These valuables constitute the
Madonna's dowry and she carries it with her on her journeys; but some of
the more important articles never leave the mountain; her diamond stars,
for instance, are removed from the picture when it goes down, and their
place is taken by less valuable stars of gold.

In the afternoon there were horse-races outside the Trapani gate on a
fairly level piece of road, and a concert and illumination in the balio
in the evening.

In the course of the day I bought a copy of the explanatory