Condego 219 
bushes, the gorgeous butterflies, and many-coloured birds 
were all there; but our attention could only be called un- 
willingly to them. Our jaded animals trudged on with 
mechanical steps, and, tired ourselves, we thought of nothing 
but getting to the end of our day’s journey, and resting our 
weary frames. 
We did not return from Palacaguina by the road we had 
come, but took one much more to the westward. This we 
did, not only to see a fresh line of country, but to gratify 
Rito with a visit to his relations, whom he had not seen 
for two years. Two miles beyond Palacaguina, we crossed 
a river, beyond which I saw no more of the quartz-con- 
glomerate that I have so often mentioned whilst passing 
through Segovia. From this place to the mines the rocks 
were soft decomposing dolerites, with many harder bands 
of felsite, and, occasionally, plains composed of more recent 
trachytic lavas. 
We passed through another weedy, dilapidated town, 
called Condego, where they have a singular custom at their 
annual festival held on the 15th of May. For some weeks 
before this date, they catch all the wild beasts and birds they 
can, and keep them alive. During the night preceding the 
feast-day they plant the plaza in front of the church with 
full-grown plants of maize, rice, beans, and all the other 
vegetables that they cultivate; and amongst them they 
fasten the wild beasts and birds that have been collected; 
so that the sun that set on a bare, weedy plaza rises on one 
full of vegetable and animal life. The year before, a young 
jaguar that had been caught was the great attraction. It 
has now grown so large, that they are afraid of it, and do 
not know what to do with it. It is kept in an empty house 
at Pueblo Nuevo, along with a dog, to which it is greatly 
attached, although it 13 the one that caught it when young. 
The custom of planting the square with vegetables, and 
bringing together all the wild animals that can be collected, 
is doubtless an Indian one. The ancient Nicaraguans are 
said to have worshipped maize and beans, but the service 
may not have had more significance than our own harvest 
feasts. 
We reached the edge of the savannahs of the plain of 
Segovia and began to ascend the high ranges that divide it 
