The _pasos_ or processions of _Semana Santa_ pass through Sierpes to the Plaza de la Constitución, where the mayor of the city is seated on a daïs before the Ayuntamiento. Here there are stands for spectators. The processions are headed by men of the Guardia Civil; mummers dressed as Romans follow, then come masked monks, girls in white raiment, bands of music, and city officials. On Palm Sunday there is a blessing of the palms in the Cathedral by the Cardinal Archbishop, who is clothed in purple canonicals. The procession leaves the edifice by the Puerta San Miguel. At Vespers the sacred banner is elevated, and at six in the evening four _pasos_ parade the streets, in honour of San Jacinto, Santisimo Cristo, San Juan Bautista and San Gregorio. Figures by Montañez, the celebrated ecclesiastical sculptor, are borne in these processions. One of the most imposing objects of veneration is the immense crucifix, carried on a stand by thirty concealed bearers. It is followed by musicians playing the solemn funeral music of Eslava. Miguel Hilarion Eslava, the composer, was born in 1807, near Pampeluna, in the north of Spain. He sang in the cathedral choir of that city, and afterwards played the violin in services. First a priest, he became chapel-master at Seville, in 1832, where he composed a great number of pieces of church music and masses. His chief work is _Lira Sacro Hispaña_, a collection of sacred music from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, with brief biographies of the composers. This _magnum opus_ is in ten volumes. Eslava also wrote secular music, and his operas of _Il Solitario_, _La Tregura di Ptolemaide_ and _Pedro el Cruel_ were first produced at Cadiz. The eighth volume of the _Lira_ contains only Eslava's music, and the _Museo Organico Español_ embodies some of his own organ compositions. This famous composer spent many years of his life in Seville. He lived in a house in the Calle del Gran Capitan, now used as the Colegio de San Miguel, a school for boys. Over the gateway is an inscription announcing that Eslava lived in this house. The courtyard is extremely quaint, and should be seen. The solemn strains of Eslava's _Miserere_ may be heard in the Capilla Mayor of the Cathedral during Holy Week, upon the day of 'rending the Veil of the Temple.' This ceremony is accompanied by peals of artificial thunder. On the Saturday after Good Friday, the _Velo Negro_ (black curtain) is torn amidst the clanging of bells and claps of thunder. On the same day a candle, twenty-five feet in height, is consecrated.