THE NORTH COAST OF TENERIFE 85 



pageantry of the Flower Carpet, held annually in June 

 at the Villa of Orotava. 



To attempt to depict in a few lines that which 

 should take a whole book to describe is to do such a 

 subject injustice, and apart from this, I hesitate to allude 

 to it except in the most cursory way, having been only 

 a superficial observer of the ceremony, and being quite 

 uninitiated in the why and the wherefore which go to 

 build up much of the interest attaching to such a scene. 

 From early morning, on the day of the Flower Carpet, 

 crowds of peasants flock up the steep incline that leads 

 to the Villa, the men dressed for the most part in 

 black, the women and children in the brightest of 

 coloured shawls and headgear ; and the picturesque 

 old town never shows to better advantage than when 

 viewed thus from below, its church spires and many- 

 storied houses, relieved by the fresh green of the sur- 

 rounding trees, standing out in varied colouring against 

 the distant background of mountain, or grey cloud. 

 Every one, from far and near, who is able to go, turns 

 out to see the Flower Carpet. For days beforehand 

 mules, laden with heath and broom, have come down 

 from the mountains in order to supply materials for the 

 background of this effective "carpet.'' The petals of 

 the flowers only are used, and a separate design is 

 worked out in each principal thoroughfare, the patterns 

 being laid into a setting of dark green ; as soon as 

 the patterns are formed, water is sprinkled over the 

 "carpet," in order to keep the petals from blowing 

 away. The whole is a mosaic, executed in flower 

 petals of almost every conceivable shade. Nearly every 

 species of flower and shrub in the island is brought 



