674 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



One fact will give an idea of the distinctly religious character of 

 these celebrations, in no way carnivalesque in spite of the costumes 

 and the burlesque aspect of the whole at the first glance. On the 5th 

 of May, 1912, the "ball" was at its height in Dinamita when, to- 

 ward 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the priest asked me whether the time 

 seemed to me suitable for the benediction of the graveyard, which 

 was supposed to take place on that day. I agreed that it was, and 

 with the priest, preceded by the sexton and followed by about 50 

 people, we took the road to the cemetery, about 3 kilometers away. 

 While passing near the native village of Dinamita, where the dances 

 took place, our passage was noted and immediately the dancers of 

 the two troupes "Matachines" and "Antiguos" joined with us, to- 

 gether with their musicians, and followed, dancing and gesticulating 

 as usual. The priest accepted their company, naturally and without 

 the least notice, or, I should rather say, as something fitting, as a 

 pious act. At the cemetery they made him sit on one of their two 

 thrones; these consisted of rustic armchairs garlanded with ribbons, 

 flowers, and leaves made of colored paper, and they bent devout 

 knees during the benediction of the tombs and of the ground destined 

 for future burials. They accompanied mutely the litanies, the 

 rosary, then they returned with us without stopping their dancing 

 and without their presence causing the least scandal. 



This seems to me to demonstrate that these dances had a distinctly 

 religious side. Traditionally, something of their freshness and of 

 their early simplicity has undoubtedly been lost at obstacles on the 

 journey traveled during four centuries. But they have nevertheless 

 preserved a pagan element borrowed from the ancient myths of 

 Mexico, together with the skillful grafting-on done by the Catholic 

 missionaries. It is a mixture of the Cross of the Saviour of the 

 World, the basis, bond, and symbol of the Christian religion, with 

 the cross of Quetzalcoatl, which represents the four winds or the 

 four cosmogonic suns of the Aztecs. But it is also, alas, the reflec- 

 'tion of a considerable part of the population of Mexico, Indian or 

 half-breed, semipagan, semi-Catholic, ignorant and fanatical among 

 whom the thin veneer of civilization, the very superficial civil in- 

 struction and the religious education consisting almost entirely of 

 affectations and outward practices of a cult, scarcely conceal the 

 ferocity of the Redskin. Besides the war dances or the semi- 

 religious, semiprofane dances of which I have just spoken and which 

 have a character more or less archaic, there are several others, wholly 

 modern, which are popular in Mexico : In the cool regions the Jarabe, 

 the Danson, the Boleros, the Jotas, and in the tropical zone the 

 Zapateo. 



The Jarabe consists of a series of steps made by a man and woman, 

 sometimes several couples, without touching each other, the man 



