How can one expect the gambling of the poor to cease when even twelve _centimes_ (less than five farthings) may bring fifty francs? The Roman goes to the lottery with all the paraphernalia and a good deal of the sentiment of devotion. "Se ci aiuti Iddio e la Madonna," they exclaim--If God and the Madonna will help us--we shall win the _terno_. There are several "tips" for winning. One which is as awesome as it is efficacious consists in starting the _kyrie eleison_--hardly recognisable in its popular dress as _crielleisonne_--and then say on your knees thirteen _ave marias_ to as many madonnas. Having invoked Baldassare, Gasper, and _Marchionne_ (Melchoir)--though what the three wise kings have to do in that _galere_ is not very obvious--you go out of the house, taking care to answer nothing if any one calls you. You go straight to the church of S. John Beheaded, where those who suffered capital punishment used to be interred, and then whatever you see or hear inside or out, look it up in the "Book of the Art" and you are safe to win. Another _bella divozione_ for the same end is to go up the steps of Ara Coeli on your knees reciting a _requiem aeternum_ or a _de profundis_ on each step. A large number of the people praying so devoutly to the Madonna di Sant' Agostino (whose other principal care is the safety of childbirth) are praying for luck in the lottery--praying or threatening, for the one is very kin to the other in the primitive mind as it is in the magic of all primitive peoples. Some of these may have been conducting a solitary nocturnal vigil, having risen from their beds, kindled two candles, and proceeded to carry through one or other of the _belle divozioni_. [Illustration: HOLY STAIRS AT THE SAGRO SPECO The ravine (above the monastery of S. Scholastica) where S. Benedict took refuge from the corruption of Rome, became the site of the _Sagro Speco_, the sacred cavern, with the ninth-century monastery of _San Benedetto_. The peasants of Subiaco ascend the stairs here represented on their knees, as the _Scala Santa_ in Rome is ascended, and, occasionally, even the numerous stairs of _Ara Coeli_. See page 86.]