The eggs are in accordance with a custom that still prevails
among the peasant classes in the Valsesia, where women on giving
birth to a child generally are given a sabaglione--an egg beaten up
with a little wine, or rum, and sugar. East of Milan the Virgin's
mother does not have eggs, and I suppose, from the absence of the
eggs at Oropa, that the custom above referred to does not prevail in
the Biellese district. The Virgin also is invariably washed. St.
John the Baptist, when he is born at all, which is not very often,
is also washed; but I have not observed that St. Elizabeth has
anything like the attention paid her that is given to St. Anne.
What, however, is wanting here at Oropa in meat and drink is made up
in Cupids; they swarm like flies on the walls, clouds, cornices, and
capitals of columns.
Against the right-hand wall are two lady-helps, each warming a towel
at a glowing fire, to be ready against the baby should come out of
its bath; while in the right-hand foreground we have the levatrice,
who having discharged her task, and being now so disposed, has
removed the bottle from the chimney-piece, and put it near some
bread, fruit and a chicken, over which she is about to discuss the
confinement with two other gossips. The levatrice is a very
characteristic figure, but the best in the chapel is the one of the
head nurse, near the middle of the composition; she has now the
infant in full charge, and is showing it to St.
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