Miscellaneoics Papers. 253 



booth in the plaza by a procession from the church before the 

 dance begins. The dance in honor of San Juan ( June 24 ) and 

 that of the patron saint, San Diego (November 12), are the prin- 

 cipal dances of this type. The latter is followed by an elaborately 

 prepared feast. The former, besides the feast element, has a mock 

 torrel combat (bull fight) preceding and accompanying it, a "gallo" 

 (rooster) race between acts, and is followed by a water- throwing 

 performance. 



The torrel combat begins the evening of the 23d of June, con- 

 tinues in the streets and plaza and around the church while mass^ 

 is said on the 24th, and flanks the procession with the image on its 

 way to the plaza, and keeps up a general hurrah throughout the 

 entire day. In this peculiar mock performance a man leading a 

 mock bull — a bull hide stretched over a wooden frame supported 

 by one or more men with head and body obscured in the frame — 

 enters the plaza followed by a dozen or more rough, dirty, shabbily 

 dressed, slouch-hatted boys and men, representing Mexican cow- 

 boys. At intervals these cowboys tease the bull with sticks till he 

 gets enraged, bellows, and charges upon them. Feigning to be 

 overcome they fall before him in the mud and water, if any is to be 

 found, and are trampled under foot by the enraged "beast." Being 

 then free, the "beast" charges upon whoever may chance to be in 

 the street at the time, making women scream and scaring children 

 nearly to death. The keepers, then wallowing in the mud till it 

 would be hard to tell by their appearance that they are human be- 

 ings, make chase after it, and after much cracking of whips, bellow- 

 ing and hallooing they recapture it. In the intervals while the 

 mock bull is quiet its keepers take it from house to house, and 

 from the inmates receive offerings of bread and other eatables, to be 

 presented as an offering to the gods whose symbols are in the 

 estufas. 



In the "gallo" race, all the boys whose given names are John 

 (Juan) — as it is St. John's day — have to furnish a rooster each for 

 the race. These roosters, one at a time, are buried in the soft sand in 

 the plaza, all but their heads. Then practically all the young men 

 of the village, mounted on horseback, gallop by where it is buried, 

 lean over in the saddle, grab at its exposed head, and in case any 

 one of them succeeds in seizing it, he endeavors to pull it, strug- 

 gling, from its buried position. When once it is in possession of 

 a rider, the real race begins. All try to take it from him, while he, 

 with horse at a full run, pounds his opponents with the squawking 

 chicken as they gallop over hills and valleys and through canyons. 



