The prayer especially consecrated to the drawing souls out of purgatory, and which forms an essential part of the office for the dead, is called in Spanish _responso_. It is composed of three anthems taken from the book of Job, a paternoster, and a collect, and ends with the formula, _Requiem eternam dona eis_, _Domine_. When the prayer is in favour of all souls, the _eis_ remains in the plural; but if it is in favour of one particular soul, then the singular _ei_ is used. On the day of All Souls, when an innumerable crowd of people assembles in the cemeteries, the priests also attend in great numbers to say _responsos_, at so much a-piece, for those who desire them. In a certain Spanish city, which we forbear to name, we have seen these priests rival each other in lowering the prices current of these precious performances. One was crying out, “I say a _responso_ for tenpence;” {148a} and another, “I say it for fivepence.” {148b} This may appear incredible, but it is an undeniable fact. In all Roman Catholic churches there is a _cepillo_ (alms-box), nailed to the wall, and having this inscription upon it, “_Para las benditas almas del purgatorio_,” (For the blessed souls in purgatory), for the reception of contributions: and the circumstance has given rise to an operation of mercantile character which is certainly very ingenious, and to which some Spaniards attribute the origin of bills of exchange. The priest of a parish of Andalusia, for example, has occasion for a certificate of the baptism or of the burial of some person in a parish of Arragon or in Navarre. The fee for this document is usually two pesetas. As it is almost impossible to send so small a sum from one extremity of the Peninsula to the other, the priest of Arragon or of Navarre draws two pesetas from the _cepillo_, or alms-box of his parish, and the Andalusian priest puts the same sum into the _cepillo_ of his parish, _or he says two masses as an equivalent_. In this way purgatory is converted into a kind of clearing-house, which wonderfully facilitates the transaction of business in the funds of the ecclesiastical market. A circumstance peculiar to the worship celebrated in favour of souls in purgatory is the prodigality of lighted candles which are consumed on those occasions. There is no doubt that the object of this practice is to expose to the view of the faithful a lively image of the flames by which these souls are tormented in their probationary state. A traveller, worthy of credit, assures us that the wax consumed with this object in the city of Granada alone (in which there are about forty churches), on the day of All Souls, amounted, a few years ago, to the incredible sum of £10,000.