Part 9 (1/2)
DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT CONVENT AT AJUDA IN RIO JANERIO.
At the end of the chapel is a large quadrangle, entered by a ma.s.sive gateway, surrounded by three stories of grated windows. Here female negro pedlars come with their goods, and expose them in the court-yard below. The nuns, from their grated windows above, see what they like, and, letting down a cord, the article is fastened to it; it is then drawn up and examined, and, if approved of, the price is let down. Some that I saw in the act of buying and selling in this way, were very merry, joking and laughing with the blacks below, and did not seem at all indisposed to do the same with my companion. In three of the lower windows, on a level with the court-yard, are revolving cupboards, like half-barrels, and at the back of each is a plate of tin, perforated like the top of a nutmeg-grater. The nuns of this convent are celebrated for making sweet confectionary, which people purchase. There is a bell which the purchaser applies to, and a nun peeps through the perforated tin; she then lays the dish on a shelf of the revolving cupboard, and turns it inside out; the dish is taken, the price laid in its place, and it is turned in. While we stood there, the invisible lady-warder asked for a pinch of snuff; the box was laid down in the same way, and turned in and out.
CEREMONY OF THE INITIATION OF A NUN.
The disposition to take the veil, even among young girls, is not uncommon in Brazil. The opposition of friends can prevent it, until they are twenty five years old; but after that time they are considered competent to decide for themselves. A writer describes the initiation of a young lady, whose wealthy parents were extremely reluctant to have her take the vow. She held a lighted torch in her hand, in imitation of the prudent virgins; and when the priest chanted, ”Your spouse approaches; come forth and meet him,” she approached the altar singing, ”I follow with my whole heart;” and, accompanied by two nuns already professed, she knelt before the bishop. She seemed very lovely, with an unusually sweet, gentle, and pensive countenance. She did not look particularly or deeply affected; but when she sung her responses, there was something exceedingly mournful in the soft, tremulous, and timid tones of her voice. The bishop now exhorted her to make a public profession of her vows before the congregation, and said, ”Will you persevere in your purpose of holy chast.i.ty?” She blushed deeply, and, with a downcast look, lowly, but firmly answered, ”I will.” He again said, more distinctly, ”Do you promise to preserve it?” and she replied more emphatically, ”I do promise.” The bishop then said, ”Thanks be to G.o.d;”
and she bent forward and reverently kissed his hand, while he asked her, ”Will you be blest and consecrated?” She replied, ”Oh! I wish it.”
The habiliments, in which she was hereafter to be clothed, were sanctified by the aspersion of holy water: then followed several prayers to G.o.d, that ”As he had blessed the garments of Aaron, with ointment which flowed from his head to his beard, so he would now bless the garments of his servant, with the copious dew of his benediction.” When the garment was thus blessed, the girl retired with it; and having laid aside the dress in which she had appeared, she returned, arrayed in her new attire, except her veil. A gold ring was next provided, and consecrated with a prayer, that she who wore it ”might be fortified with celestial virtue, to preserve a pure faith, and incorrupt fidelity to her spouse, Jesus Christ.” He last took the veil, and her female attendants having uncovered her head, he threw it over her, so that it fell on her shoulders and bosom, and said, ”Receive this sacred veil, under the shadow of which you may learn to despise the world, and submit yourself truly, and with all humility of heart, to your Spouse;” to which she sung a response, in a very sweet, soft, and touching voice: ”He has placed this veil before my face that I should see no lover but himself.”
The bishop now kindly took her hand, and held it while the following hymn was chanted by the choir with great harmony: ”Beloved Spouse, come--the winter is pa.s.sed--the turtle sings, and the blooming vines are redolent of summer.”
A crown, a necklace, and other female ornaments, were now taken by the bishop and separately blessed; and the girl bending forward, he placed them on her head and neck, praying that she might be thought worthy ”to be enrolled into the society of the hundred and forty-four thousand virgins, who preserved their chast.i.ty and did not mix with the society of impure women.”
Last of all, he placed the ring on the middle finger of her right hand, and solemnly said, ”So I marry you to Jesus Christ, who will henceforth be your protector. Receive this ring, the pledge of your faith, that you may be called the spouse of G.o.d.” She fell on her knees, and sung, ”I am married to him whom angels serve, whose beauty the sun and moon admire;”
then rising, and showing with exultation her right hand, she said, emphatically, as if to impress it on the attention of the congregation, ”My Lord has wedded me with this ring, and decorated me with a crown as his spouse. I here renounce and despise all earthly ornaments for his sake, whom alone I see, whom alone I love, in whom alone I trust, and to whom alone I give all my affections. My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak of the deed I have done for my King.” The bishop then p.r.o.nounced a general benediction, and retired up to the altar; while the nun professed was borne off between her friends, with lighted tapers, and garlands waving.
WEDDED LOVE IS INFINITELY PREFERABLE TO VARIETY.
Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true source Of human offspring, sole propriety, In Paradise of all things common else!
By thee adult'rous l.u.s.t was driven from men, Among the b.e.s.t.i.a.l herds to range; by thee, Founded in reason, loyal, just and pure, Relations dear, and all the charities Of father, son, and brother, first were known.
Thou art the fountain of domestic sweets, Whose bed is undefiled and chaste p.r.o.nounced.
Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings, Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile Of harlots, loveless, joyless, unendear'd, Casual fruition; nor in court amours, Mix'd dance, or wanton mask, or midnight ball, Or serenade, which the starved lover sings To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain.
ITALIAN DEBAUCHERY.
If chast.i.ty is none of the most s.h.i.+ning virtues of the French, it is still less so of the Italians. Almost all the travellers who have visited Italy, agree in describing it as the most abandoned of all the countries of Europe. At Venice, at Naples, and indeed in almost every part of Italy, women are taught from their infancy, the various arts of alluring to their arms, the young and unwary, and of obtaining from them, while heated by love or wine, every thing that flattery and false smiles can obtain in those unguarded moments: and so little infamous is the trade of prost.i.tution, and so venal the women, that hardly any rank or condition set them above being bribed to it, nay, they are frequently a.s.sisted by their male friends and acquaintances to drive a good bargain; nor does their career of debauchery finish with their unmarried state; the vows of fidelity which they make at the altar, are like the vows and oaths made upon too many other occasions, only considered as nugatory forms, which law has obliged them to take, but custom absolved them from performing. They even claim and enjoy greater liberties after marriage than before; every married woman has a cicisbey, or gallant, who attends her to all public places, hands her in and out of her carriage, picks up her gloves or fan, and a thousand other little offices of the same natures; but this is only his public employment, as a reward for which, he is ent.i.tled to have the lady as often as he pleases at a place of retirement sacred to themselves, where no person not even the most intrusive husband must enter, to be witness of what pa.s.ses between them. This has been considered by people of other nations, as a custom not altogether consistent with chast.i.ty and purity of manners; the Italians themselves however, endeavor to justify it in their conversations with strangers, and Baretti has of late years published a formal vindication of it to the world. In this vindication he has not only deduced the original of it from pure Platonic love, but would willingly persuade us that it is still continued upon the same mental principles; a doctrine which the world will hardly be credulous enough to swallow, even though he should offer more convincing arguments to support it than he has already done.
NAKED FAKIERS
So different over all the world are the sects of saints as well as of sinners, that besides the Bramins, a set of innocent and religious priests, who have rendered their women virtuous by treating them with kindness and humanity, there are another sect of religio-philosophical drones, called Fakiers, who contribute as much as they can to debauch the s.e.x, under a pretence of superior sanct.i.ty. These hypocritical saints, like some of the ridiculous sects which formerly existed in Europe, wear no clothes; considering them only as proper appendages to sinners, who are ashamed, because they are sensible of guilt; while they, being free from every stain of pollution, have no shame to cover.
In this original state of nature, these idle and pretended devotees, a.s.semble together sometimes in armies of ten or twelve thousand, and under a pretence of going in pilgrimage to certain temples, like locusts devour every thing on their way; the men flying before them, and carrying all that they can out of the reach of their depredations; while the women, not in the least afraid of a naked army of l.u.s.ty saints, throw themselves in their way, or remain quietly at home to receive them.
It has long been an opinion, well established all over India, that there is not in nature so powerful a remedy for removing the sterility of women, as the prayers of these st.u.r.dy naked saints. On this account, barren women constantly apply to them for a.s.sistance; which when the good natured Fakier has an indication to grant, he leaves his slipper, or his staff at the door of the lady's apartment with whom he is praying; a symbol so sacred, that it effectually prevents any one from violating the secrecy of their devotion; but should he forget this signal, and at the same time be distant from the protection of his brethren, a sound drubbing is frequently the reward of his pious endeavors. But though they venture sometimes in Hindostan, to treat a Fakier in this unholy manner, in other parts of Asia and Africa, such is the veneration in which these l.u.s.ty saints are held, that they not only have access when they please, to perform private devotions with barren women, but are accounted so holy, that they may at any time, in public or private, confer a personal favor upon a woman, without bringing upon her either shame or guilt; and no woman dare refuse to gratify their pa.s.sion. Nor indeed, has any one an inclination of this kind; because she, upon whom this personal favor has been conferred, is considered by herself, and by all the people, as having been sanctified and made more holy by the action.
So much concerning the conduct of the Fakiers in debauching women, seems certain. But it is by travellers further related, that wherever they find a woman who is exceedingly handsome, they carry her off privately to one of their temples; but in such a manner, as to make her and the people believe, that she is carried away by the G.o.d who is there wors.h.i.+pped; who being violently in love with her, took that method to procure her for his wife. This done, they perform a nuptial ceremony, and make her further believe that she is married to the G.o.d; when, in reality, she is only married to one of the Fakiers who personates him.
Women who are treated in this manner are revered by the people as the wives of the G.o.ds, and by that stratagem secured solely to the Fakiers, who have cunning enough to impose themselves as G.o.ds upon some of these women, through the whole of their lives. In countries where reason is stronger than superst.i.tion, we almost think this impossible: where the contrary is the case, there is nothing too hard to be credited.
Something like this was done by the priests of ancient Greece and Rome; and a few centuries ago, tricks of the same nature were practiced by the monks, and other libertines, upon some of the visionary and enthusiastic women of Europe. Hence we need not think it strange, if the Fakiers generally succeed in attempts of this nature; when we consider that they only have to deceive a people brought up in the most consummate ignorance; and that nothing can be more flattering to female vanity, than for a woman to suppose herself such a peculiar favorite of the divinity she wors.h.i.+ps, as to be chosen, from all her companions, to the honor of being admitted to his embraces; a favor, which her self-admiration will dispose her more readily to believe than examine.