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Spain, or Further Europe 195
that at the moment of the Consecration of the Host,
instead of the ordinary little bell to inform the worshippers
that the supreme act is taking place, a curious machine
fixed near a windolv, and facing the altar, was put in
motion by one of the canons or inferior clergy present,
who pulled a rope, and then allowed the apparatus to
return upon itself.^
It was formed of flat pieces of wood so arranged that they
looked like the spokes of a water-wheel, working apparently
on a common pivot. As the wheel revolved, each spoke
dropped down on the one beneath it, this caused a sound
resembling a loud clapper or an old-fashioned watchman's
rattle. Similar clappers, but of course on a much larger
scale, are fixed on the top of the towers of churches in
Spain. They are used during the latter part of Holy
Week, both to announce the hours of worship and the
time of clay, since bells are not then allowed to be rung,
and all clocks are stopped.- The popular opinion is, that
the bells of Spain make a journey to Rome during those
three days, nor are they singular in this, for the bells of
the village of Orly (Dept. Seine, France) are believed
by its inhabitants to do the same. They appear, however,
to have no substitute for them, but on the Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday in Holy Week, the choir boys of
that place, as stated by M. Fouju in the Revue des
Spain.
' Possibly, at the time of the foundation of this chapel, bells were unknown in
- This custom exists also in Naples, but there, though the church bells and the
clocks are mute, no clapper is substituted for the bells, except in private houses,
where a kind of watchman's rattle is used to give notice of the meals, instead of the
usual dinner-bell.