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witnessed, there can be no doubt of his answer; he would at once declare they were celebrating the Pongal.
OF THE HINDUS.
"January 18th, 1819.-We were present to-day at one of the most ridiculous scenes I ever witnessed, even in this country. It was St. Anthony's blessing of the horses, which begins on that Saint's day and lasts for a week. We drove to the church of the Saint, near the Santa Maria Maggiore, and could scarcely make our way through the streets, from the multitudes of horses, mules, asses, oxen, cows, sheep, goats, and dogs, which were journeying along to the place of benediction; their heads, tails, and necks decorated with bits of coloured ribbon, on this their unconscious gala-day. The Saint's benediction, though nominally confined to horses, is equally efficacious and equally bestowed upon all quadrupeds. The priest stood at the door of the church, holding a brush in his hand, which he continually dipped into a large bucket of holy water, and spirted at the animals as they came in unremitting succession, taking off his little skull cap and muttering every time, 'Per intercessionem Sancti Antonii abbatis hæc animalia liberantur a malis"."
There can be no doubt that this ceremony is much older than St. Anthony, and it probably is a relique of the Latin village festival of the Paganalia or the Feriæ Sementina", which took place about the middle
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[L. Preller, "Römische Mythologie ", 1858, p. 404 f.]
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