:::::::::C TWO BIRD- LOVERS IN MEXICO B-"''"» 



SUNSET AND MOONLIGHT 



The afternoon was quickly passing, and we hastened 

 to turn our steps toward camp. We returned by a 

 shorter route, cutting off the great bend made by the 

 arroyo, and passing through a small village where a 

 few Mexicans drao-o;ed out their lives in this isolated 

 region. Poverty-stricken and ignorant, they were yet 

 hospitable and kind. Their little 'dobe chapel (for they 

 were too poor to have a church) was ornamented with 

 tattered and dirty ribbons, which were once bright-col- 

 oured, and with begrimed and faded bits of tinsel. As 

 we approached, a crowd of about fifty people, the entire 

 population of the village, were gathered before the 

 chapel, singing a wild but not unmusical chant, which 

 miofht well have been derived from some heathen rites 

 of the aboriofinal Indians. We found that it was a 

 fiesta — la fiesta cjrande I For had not the Virgin been 

 brought from some distant church to honour them by 

 a visit ! The men had carefully carried the life-sized 

 wooden image upright on a platform, mile after mile, 

 up and down the rugged hanrmcas and over the hot 

 plains ; and eight men had taken turns at transporting 

 a pitiful little worn-out organ, wherewith to accompany 

 the chants to the Virgin. And now they were as happy 

 as children, worshipi^ing and praying, and beginning 

 to feel the first effects of the pulque — the drink which 

 plays so prominent a part in all their fiestas. We re- 

 fused the unpleasant national beverage, but indulged 



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