anywhere on the island, did I find the slightest sign of, or allusion to, the month of Mary. Mass ended, the worthy Incumbent invited me to share a bottle of Cyprus wine. I asked him how far the people understood the Illyric office? a question to which I was anxious to have a clear answer. "Enough," he said, "to carry away the general meaning of a passage. "But stay," he continued, "did you ever read Rabelais in the original?" "Yes." "Well, about as well as a French peasant could understand that dialect, so do these the office." The reader will hereafter see both more, and less, favourable accounts of the same matter. My worthy host preached on the principal festivals, usually translating or adapting Segneri: he seemed pleased when I told him that an English Priest had translated the more striking sermons of that great preacher.
S. Fosca.
Leaving Poglizza, my way was to S. Fosca, nearer the Strait; a church nearly the fac-simile of S. Antonio. But here, much hidden by lime-cast, I made out the inscription:—
.... ed. April, consecrat, per manus ... ano millesimo nongessimo tertio.
I should have, without more than internal evidence, fixed the erection of the church to 1100. One cannot remember, with reference to the somewhat rare dedication, the church of S. Fosca at Torcello; earlier even than this. S. Fosca, or Fusca, was a Ravennate Martyr, in the persecution of Diocletian.
