Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/186

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A few weeks after this, my attention was called to the church by the erection of lofty canopies or sheds, supported each by four posts wound around with white and coloured cotton-cloth, placed in the streets which adjoin the church-compound. The flag of St. Anthony was unfurled from a high flag-staff; and at sundown, the noise of music and the reports of firearms announced the commencement of the services. At eight o'clock, I walked to the church, and found the workmen still busily at work upon the canopies erected in the street. The ceilings and pillars were wrapped in cloth, and from them hung lanterns, moons, stars, and angels, while the ground was strewed with flowers. The church was brilliantly illuminated with lamps, and the altars glittered with wax candles. On the floor many natives and East Indians were bowed before an image placed at the opposite end of the building; it was a full-length representation of our Saviour upon the cross; the blood was represented as streaming from his head upon his breast, and trickling