If one visit the Ara Celi during the afternoon of one of these _festas_, the scene is very striking. The flight of one hundred and twenty-four steps, which once led to the temple of Venus and Rome, is then thronged by merchants of Madonna wares, who spread them out over the steps and hang them against the walls and balustrades. Here are to be seen all sorts of curious little colored prints of the Madonna and Child of the most ordinary quality, little bags, pewter medals, and crosses stamped with the same figures and to be worn on the neck,--all offered at once for the sum of one _baiocco_. Here also are framed pictures of the Saints, of the Nativity, and, in a word, of all sorts of religious subjects appertaining to the season. Little wax dolls, clad in cotton-wool to represent the Saviour, and sheep made of the same materials, are also sold by the basketful. Children and _contadine_ are busy buying them, and there is a deafening roar all up and down the steps of "_Mezzo baiocco, bello colorito, mezzo baiocco, la Santissima Concezione Incoronata,"--"Diario Romano, Lunario Romano Nuovo,"--"Ritratto colorito, medaglia e quadruccio, un baiocco tutti, un baiocco tutti,"--"Bambinelli di cera, un baiocco_."[C] None of the prices are higher than one _baiocco_, except to strangers,--and generally several articles are held up together, enumerated, and proffered with a loud voice for this sum. Meanwhile men, women, children, priests, beggars, soldiers, and _villani_ are crowding up and down, and we crowd with them. [Footnote C: "A half-_baiocco_, beautifully colored,--a half-_baiocco_, the Holy Conception Crowned." "Roman Diary,--New Roman Almanac." "Colored portrait, medal, and little picture, one _baiocco_, all." "Little children in wax, one _baiocco_."]