BAHIA. 87 



silver-mounted poles, carried on either side of each of them. 

 Amongst these also walked here and there a priest, in the usual 

 cassock and alb, and one or two old monks with hooded robes 

 and double chins, with a well-nourished appearance. 



A crowd of acolytes succeeded, dressed nearly like the 

 priests, and, like them, mostly white-skinned or but slightly 

 yellow. All the remainder of the procession had deep yellow- 

 brown or almost black faces. A body of priests came next, and 

 then the saint, carried on a silvered platform on the shoulders 

 of eight bearers. 



The saint was a wooden figure, of life-size, with a Vandyke- 

 like countenance, black hair, moustache, and beard. He was 

 dressed in a stiff crimson velvet cape, worked with gold lace, 

 crimson trunk hose, and flesh tights over very thin and shaky 

 legs, and had a curious sort of plume or cockade of feathers and 

 tinsel sticking up at the back of his head. 



In front of the saint, skipped along two little girls, one of 

 them with a dark yellow complexion, the other jet black. They 

 were dressed as angels, with wings of feathers and tinsel. 

 Around the saint marched a guard of soldiers with fixed 

 bayonets, and immediately behind came a military brass band 

 in full bray, but playing well. Another body of soldiers fol- 

 lowed with fixed bayonets and led by their officers with drawn 

 swords. 



Behind the procession followed a crowd of negro women, 

 crushing through the street. The negro women of Bahia are 

 strapping females and apt to become very stout. The balconies 

 in the narrow street were crowded with the wives and daughters 

 of the townspeople, who pelted the saint as he passed with 

 bouquets of flowers. 



Vespers were going on at the churches. I entered one, an 

 oblong building with a small apse for a chancel, and a row of 

 rectangular pillars on either side, shutting off the aisles. There 

 were three or four clerestory windows, but no others. The 

 interior was profusely ornamented with bright colour and gilt 

 tracery in relief. The chancel and altar, which had an elaborate 

 gilt reredos, were brilliantly lighted up by candles, whilst the 

 body of the church was comparatively dark, having no light but 



