The sacred morsel of wood is now kept in a cupboard built into the wall, and is guarded by an iron door. The door has two keys, one of which is in the possession of the Mayor, while the curé has charge of the other. The lock is so made that both keys are required to open it. On certain days of the year the relic is carried in procession through the town. On dark nights, when tempests are howling, and the great waves are dashing in fury against the base of the rock, the people go to the Mayor, and then to the curé, and escort them both to the church. The cupboard is unlocked, the bit of sacred wood is carried to the edge of the cliffs, and prayers are said above the angry waters. Then the tempest ceases, the waves become still, and the morsel of the true cross is once more locked up in its strongly guarded resting-place. There are other superstitions at Bonifacio, such as the one which tells you never to sleep with your feet pointing to the door, as that is the way corpses go out. Then, if anyone is ill in the house, or away from home, so that he cannot take his usual place at the table, no one else is allowed to sit in the empty chair. If there be any fear that this will happen, the table is always pushed with one side against the wall, thus preventing anyone from sitting on that side. The plate and knife and fork of the sick or absent one are laid just the same as if he were present. The bit of sacred wood is not the only valuable relic that Corsicans claim to possess, for in the crypt of one of their churches in the north they have a little bit of the earth out of which Adam was made, a handful of almonds from the Garden of Eden, a handful of manna gathered by the Israelites in the wilderness, and the rod with which Moses divided the waters of the Red Sea so that the Jews could pass over. These precious relics have been in the country between five and six hundred years. They were saved from the wreck of a Spanish ship that was three times cast upon the shore.