FEAST OF MAY DAY.

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statues. At Lamsycus, near tlie plain of Troy, a temple isshewn said to have been dedicated to this Divinity, andwhich is the only one I ever heard of, save that in theAbruzzi I am about to mention. The festival of Priapus was kept on the 1st of May, and in the church of the

villa o'e of-, where I witnessed one of those annual

commemorations on the 1st of May, 1811; it was called thefeast of Saint Cosmo and Damiano. I was much struckwith the clear and absolute identity of this celebration inhonour of the reproductive principle of the ancients whichin Greece and Rome took place on the 1st of May,—ourEnglish May-day, and the feast of Saint Cosmo andDamiano, I am now speaking of. We all know the originof “Jack in the green,”—“The May pole, &c.” At thechurch of St. Cosmo and Damiano, the priests distribute tothe devout attendants, male and female, small images ofwax, representing, and being also called, “ the fingers ofSt. Cosmo and Damiano.” Care is taken even to portraythe nail, which, after the fashion of the Turkish ladies, is ofa pink colour. These “ fingers,” the priests hang by a ribbonaround the necks of their female devotees, who, with allreverence kiss and bear them away. Such of my readersas have sojourned in Hindoostan, will probably rememberseeing Hindoo “ Jacks in the green,” and Saint Cosmo’sfingers carried about at the celebration of analogous festivals.Had I not lost all mv beautiful maps of Italy , by thecelebrated Rizzi Zannoni , I could probably recover thename of the village, where this ancient temple and ancientfestival still exist, which I should be glad to record for thebenefit of future travellers.

Of all the countries of Europe that had suffered byfeudal power and oppression, that of Naples had enduredthe most. Each invader or conqueror from Alaric,Attila, and Genseric, —the Sarracius,—Roger Guiscard,-~