SICILY AND MALTA. 109
Here the people of Palermo pay daily
visits to their deceased friends, and recal
with pleasure and regret the scenes of
their past life: here they familiarize them-
selves with their future (Tate, and chuse
the company they would wish to keep in
the other world. It is a common thing to
make choice of their nich, and to try if
their body fits it, that no alterations may
be necesfary after they are dead ; and some-
times, by way of a voluntary penance,
they accustom themselves to sland for
hours in these niches.
The bodies of the princes and filst no-
bility are lodged in handsome chesls or
trunks, some of them richly adorned .
these are not in the shape of cossins, bat
all of one width, and about a foot and
a half, or two feet deep. The keys are
kept by the ncarest relations of the family,
%vho
Here the people of Palermo pay daily
visits to their deceased friends, and recal
with pleasure and regret the scenes of
their past life: here they familiarize them-
selves with their future (Tate, and chuse
the company they would wish to keep in
the other world. It is a common thing to
make choice of their nich, and to try if
their body fits it, that no alterations may
be necesfary after they are dead ; and some-
times, by way of a voluntary penance,
they accustom themselves to sland for
hours in these niches.
The bodies of the princes and filst no-
bility are lodged in handsome chesls or
trunks, some of them richly adorned .
these are not in the shape of cossins, bat
all of one width, and about a foot and
a half, or two feet deep. The keys are
kept by the ncarest relations of the family,
%vho