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Show 82 PERSONAL ADVENTURES temptation of St. Anthony. The latter was full of grotesque and grinning spectres, interspersed with females in a state of classic nudity, but whose blandishments I think it argued the best possible taste on St. Anthony's part to resist. 1 also noticed a very beautiful figure of the lifeless body of the Saviour, enclosed in a glass case ; I "\vas, however, not a little surprised at the barbarous taste that had directed the arrangement of the accessories. The figure lay on a stiff and ungraceful couch, formed of the richest and most costly stuffs, but so thick and modern in design as immediately to dissipate all those serious ideas which the real beauties of the "\vork 'vere calculated to inspire. It was just such an effect as n1ight be produced by draping one of the old Greek rnodels in satin and Brussels lace. But this was not the only incongruity observable. The virgin was represented in modern attire, with a bunch of artificial flowers in her hand, and the altar itself was decorated with all the primitive colours, without the slightest atten1pt at IN CALII~ORNIA. 83 blending or hannony. There was an Ol'ganloft, but the only musical instrument that it contained 'vas a huge drun1, on "\vhich I found written in English, "This is the drun1 belonging to the Ontario, which made such a noise in the South Seas." On attending service on the follo,ving Sunday, I must confess I "\Vas not a little startled at the character of the n1usical selections, with which the devotions of the congregation (alrnost exclusively cornposed of fen1ales) "rere enlivened. The instru1nents consisted of a guitar, a violin, and a H u te ; and, during the usual pauses in the ritual, "\Ve were alternately entertained with the piquant air of " Yankee Doodle," and the solemn national anthem of "Hail, Colurnbia." I could not but admire the inimitable self-possession of the French consul, whose features 'vere scre,ved up into an absorbed and intense devotional expression, which, by the unnatural rigidity of the facial muscles, was evidently assumed to keep down the latent explosion that he had ten1porarilv succeeded in s1nothering. |