SOCIETY. 149 



his wife hud added another " responsibility " to the half dozen already possessed by them, and 



that the yiniiiLr stranger \\a- to he taken In the cathedral i'r luijitism as soon M the ]><lrino 

 (sponsors) rame. Although it mi^lit cost me an hour or two and time \va> precious jut th. 

 as tli> IK- ini|ini|,ri< -t\ . and 1 wanted to witness the ceremony, I concluded to join tin- 



party. The carriage ..!' tin- padrinos drove t.. the door in a little while, and they came in pre- 

 o-ded hy a servant with a silver waiter filled with ornamental pastilles, for distribution to those 

 win. attended the christening or wished "lon^ life" to the padrinou. These are the customary 

 oiierin^s some of the pastilles having pendants of gold or jewels, if the padrinos are very 

 opulent. 



Dona - , the padrina, with the nurse and child, went in her close carriage her husband 

 and myself in his gig the father remaining at home. The gig having broken down with us in 

 the pla/a, some minutes elapsed before the horse could be properly secured, so that the carriage 

 arrived first, and we found madam, with a priest from the convent of La Merced, another from 

 the cathedral, and a rabble of boys, who had obtained an inkling of what was going on, awaiting 

 us at a side entrance. The Mercedario soon slipped on his embroidered robes in the vestuary, 

 and we proceeded towards the church door in the following order : Imprimis, a dirty-faced, 

 shock-headed boy, carrying a wax candle ornamented with tinsel flowers, and a box containing 

 the cruet of oil, salt, and one or two towels, which certainly had not just come from the hands 

 of the laundress ; next, the two priests ; one under a robe of cream-colored silk, embroidered 

 with every imaginable figure a short, fat, good-natured, lazy fellow ; the other in his long 

 black sutan only short, lean, ceremonious, but lazy too; third, the padrinos he, tall and 

 stout she, short and thick, the mother of fourteen children, and (as he told me when we walked 

 back half an hour later) likely to be the mother of fourteen more ; and fourth, the nurse, with 

 the youthful candidate for honors, enveloped in a long, heavily embroidered, white silk shawl 

 or other contrivance. These were the essentials; your humble servant and half a score of 

 rowdy boys, who jingled the bells and other things about the cathedral, were accessories, 

 following closely in the rear. 



Arrived at the door, the padrinos were directed to hold each a part of the child and of 

 the wax candle the latter until then in possession of the page. There, prompted by the 

 cathedral priest as to the proper portions of the ritual, our Mercedario friend blundered through 

 a jargon of Latin words, without having inspired the slightest thought of solemnity on the 

 part of any one concerned, unless it might have been the god-mother or myself. Although 

 audibly told two or three times that the name of the infant was " Jose Santiago," he some- 

 times said "Jose Santiago," sometimes "Santiago Jose," sometimes only one of them, and 

 at others, again, stopped to ask the name. A most oblivious memory the worthy padre seemed 

 to have, and its effect was such as to render the ceremony no little ludicrous. The ritual at the 

 church door concluded by marking the sign of the cross with a finger moistened with spittle, 

 inserting a pinch of salt into the little fellow's mouth, and anointing him on the back of the head 

 may have occupied ten minutes, perhaps, when we proceeded, in the same order as before, to one 

 of the chapels, on whose altar half a dozen wax candles had been lighted. Here the padrinos, 

 again jointly holding the child, were required to promise certain religious offices in his behalf; 

 and this satisfactorily agreed to, the robe of the officiating priest was changed for another as 

 like to it, in my eyes, as another pea. The child was then anointed with the sign of the cross 

 on the forehead ; and finally, master Jose Santiago having been asked three times whether he 

 wished to be baptized, and the sponsors answering affirmatively for him each time, water was 

 dripped across the back, or rather the top, of his head, ''in the name of the Father, and of 

 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." So persecuted had the little fellow been, I am very sure that 

 he would have answered "yes" also could he have talked, on the same principle that girls are 

 said to do who take lovers to get rid of them ; but it did seem to me the questions would have 

 been more appropriate at the commencement. As we were about to leave the altar, the priest 

 belonging to the cathedral suggested an ave or two, and we all dropped to our knees, each one 



