ten o'clock
But on that day many tents and booths of boughs were also set up on the broad green that stretched away to the hedges of vineyards and vegetable gardens , where modern houses now are built . In each booth there was a little kitchen , a mere earthen fire-pot , such as the alchemists used of old , but larger , and there were tables made of boards laid on trestles with rude benches for seats , and there were little ten-gallon barrels of wine still unbroached , and piles of loaves covered with clean white cloths , and there was much green lettuce for salad , floating in tubs full of water , and there were also fresh onions without end , with their long stalks and big bunches of tiny flowers . For on the Eve of Saint John the Baptist all fairies good and bad , and goblins that are black or grey , and the white hobgoblins too , and the shadowy , unearthly lemures , have deadly power ; and ghosts and wraiths go wailing through lonely church-yards , and the fountain sprites float on the water and laugh in the pale moonlight ; the misshapen things of evil that haunt murderers ' graves move strangely in the gloom ; and though the air be still , the chains that dangle from old gibbets all clank together wildly when the blood-spectres hang upon them with wan hands and swing themselves to and fro ; then the banshee shrieks amongst the ancient elms , and deep down in the crypt of far San Sisto , by the Latin Gate , the Shining Corpse rises from his grave against the south wall and glares horribly all night at his fellow-dead . No wonder that against such terrors the Roman people thought it wise to eat snails fried in oil , and to carry onions in blossom in their hands , and especially to fortify their quailing spirits with many draughts of strong wine from Genzano , and Frascati , and Marino , till the grey dawn forelightened above the Samnite hills , and a decent man might go home to sleep safely by daylight , and be waked only by the bells that rang out for high mass at ten o'clock . So in the late afternoon all those excellent preparations had been made for resisting ghostly fear , and as soon as the sun went down the firepots in the booths would be filled with charcoal , and presently a marvellous smell of frying oil would pervade the air , while thousands upon thousands of little lights would be lighted , all made of big snail-shells filled with olive oil and tallow and each having a tiny wick in it . But the sun was not low yet , and the great bells were ringing to call the people into the Basilica for Vespers . Fine coaches drove up to the transept entrance , one after the other , bringing cardinals and princes and Roman ladies of high rank by the score ; and their gorgeously liveried footmen followed them into the church carrying fald-stools and kneeling-cushions as if for a great ceremony in Saint Peter 's ; and though it was a cloudless day in June two huge closed umbrellas , of the colours of each family , were strapped upon the top of every coach , but those of the cardinals were scarlet .