the churches rang their bells for mass , and i saw plenty of schoolchildren rushing past me , all rather clean and neatly dressed , and then two little crews being paraded by monks into the churches , both of which were quite antique and had no ornament on the front at all , save for statues deep in niches - saints who scarcely had any features left to them at all - the heavily patched stones of the facades obviously having weathered the frequent earthquakes of this region .