ions of man, I cannot have a doubt that
it was the same bird which King David saw on the house-top before him, and
to which he listened as it poured forth its sweet and plaintive song."

The ceremonies of St Anthony's Day, when the beasts of burden, decked in
many-coloured trappings, are brought to receive the priestly benediction,
are described with much unction, and defended with Mr Waterton's usual
zeal for the ordinances of his church, and with considerable tact, against
the ridicule often thrown upon them by "thoughtless and censorious
travellers." "I recalled to my mind the incessant and horrible curses
which our village urchins vent against their horses on the Barnsley canal,
which passes close by my porters' lodges"--and truly the most rigid of
Protestants could scarcely deny, in this case, the advantage, for the
well-doing of both man and beast, which the usages of Rome have over those
of Yorkshire. But the approach of the malaria season at length compelled
them to leave Rome for Naples; and on the journey Mr Waterton's
ornithological tastes were gratified to the utmost. "I saw more birds than
I had seen on the whole of the journey from England; and after having seen
the ram of Apulia, I no longer considered Homer's story of Ulysses with
the sheep of Polyphemus as so very much out of the way." But a still more
imposing spectacle than the festival of St Anthony awaited them at Naples:
this was the liquefaction of the blood of St Januarius, on September 19,
to witness which was the principal object of their visit. We shall leave
Mr Waterton to speak for himself. "At the termination of high mass, the
phial containing the blood was carried by one of the canons into the body
of the cathedral, that every person might have an opportunity of
inspecting the blood, and kissing the phial, should he feel inclined.
There were two phials--a large one, containing the blood as it had flowed
from the wounds of the martyr at its execution; and a smaller one,
containing his blood mixed with sand, just as it had been taken from the
ground on which it had fallen. These two phials were enclosed in a very
strong and beautifully ornamented case of silver and glass. I kissed this
case, and had a most satisfactory opportunity of seeing the blood in its
solid state,... and the canon who held it turned it over and over many
times to prove to us that the blood was not liquid.... At one o'clock
P.M., no symptoms whatever of a change had occur