1 832.] Notes of the Month on Affairs in General. 585 



own joyous country festival of England. It is the sad and solemn 

 " Commemoration of the Cross/' that then assembles the devout 

 payzdnos in their respective village plazas ; and May, the November of 

 the southern climates, supplies them with appropriate emblems in the 

 sere and yellow leaves of autumn vegetation, and the few withering flowers 

 that still linger and droop on the verge of the forests. Instead of the 

 tall slender May-pole, flaunting with garlands and early flowers, and deco- 

 rated with ribbons of every hue, as a signal for the evening dance, the 

 venerable village cross, thickly covered with a profusion of myrtle, esctiva, 

 and various other dark-coloured evergreens, is surrounded during the day by 

 aged devotees, clad in the sombre habits of the religious orders which they 

 profess, kneeling in the dust, and reciting repeated rosaries 5 and, at night, 

 is lighted up with small lamps, casting a dim, melancholy light, barely 

 sufficient to distinguish the forms of the penitentes, veiled, naked to the 

 waist, and armed with scourges, lashing themselves in frantic penance, as 

 a fancied atonement for sins of too deep a dye, doubtless, to receive abso- 

 lution from the church on any other terms. 



On this jiight, the numerous crosses to be found on the road-side in 

 that country, erected by superstitious piety near spots that have been 

 stained by murder, are illuminated with a few tapers. A prominent object, 

 from the Alameda of the Tajamar, in Santiago, is a large cross of this 

 description, erected on the summit of a neighbouring conical hill, the 

 Cerro de San Cristoval. There an unfortunate Cbilenalady was murdered 

 by her former lover the Marquez de , in a paroxysm of un- 

 founded jealousy, into which he had been purposely betrayed by a disap- 

 pointed rival. He still lives, and walks that very Alameda ; from whence 

 he cannot but distinctly see the illuminated cross, on each returning first 

 of May. 



On the Llano de Portales, too, the plain beyond the promenade of the 

 Obelisk, a stake, on which are fixed the skull and'hands of a plebeian mur- 

 derer, is conspicuously pointed out by a lantern. Collections are also 

 made, from door to door, arid in every place of public resort, for the pur- 

 pose of purchasing candles, to range along the wall at the usual place of 

 execution, and on the banquillos, or fixed seats, in which criminals sen- 

 tenced to be shot, are secured. Nothing, in short, but the gloomiest re- 

 collections appear to prevail, on this day, throughout a nation so remark- 

 able, at all other times, for hilarity and mirth. 



A COMPANION FOR LORD BYRON. The author of Don Juan was 

 celebrated, we believe, for the variety and beauty of his lady companions. 

 We have a glorious list in our memory ! There was the gentle hazel-eyed 

 and raven-haired girl of Ravenna, and the fond Venetian, of whom, he 

 told Moore, he should " never tire," and the Countess, the lovely Guiccioli, 

 and a hundred others. A new candidate for his lordship's acquaintance 

 is announced in the Metropolitan for April. It is a dainty morceau, and 

 deserves extraction. It runneth as follows : 



"MINOR POETICAL PIECES, 



BY MRS. PARKYNS, 



Of Ruddiagton, 



In 8vo. Uniform with Lord Byron's Early Poems." 

 Mrs. Parkyns of Ruddington ! Is there not something very sweet and 

 honey-breathing in the word Ruddington ? 



M.M. New Scries. VOL, XIIL No. 77. 2 R 



