172 THE CHURCH AND ITS CEREMONIES. 



the maid vowed a dozen candles to be burned on Santa Lucia if the saint would restore the 

 missing instrument. No sooner promised than responded to, for on returning to the dining-room 

 there lay the crooked thing on the centre of the table ; and both vow that it was neither there 

 when they left the room, a few minutes previously, nor had any one but themselves had access to 

 it. The mistress assured me of her firm belief in the interposition of the saint on this occasion, 

 and, of course, the maid would not dare doubt. 



Many of them being in colored lanterns, the effect of the lights is very pretty on a dark 

 ground ; and it is probably as innocent a method in which to spend money as any other, whilst 

 it gives encouragement to one branch of domestic industry, candle-making. It was maliciously 

 said that these light-manufacturers encouraged belief in the miraculous deeds of the saint to 

 serve their own ends. The illuminations continued from Assumption day until late in Septem- 

 ber, Santa Lucia often presenting a brilliant spectacle from the multitudes of lights arranged in 

 crosses, triumphal arches, or other fancy forms, not unfrequently intermingled with vari-colored 

 lanterns. As the mania continued spreading, so that even the summits of San Christoval and 

 Kenca were not too lofty for the display of these votive offerings, the church took exception, and 

 the populace was notified that within its holy walls or their own dwellings were the proper 

 places for such pious exhibitions. This caused a falling off, but not entire cessation, until a 

 positive prohibition was issued. Government suspected the socialist club as in some manner 

 connected with the new religious fervor, apprehending that in the out-of-the-way crags and 

 precipices other matters than "goodwill to men" were the subjects of discussion, and the 

 placing of candles in fulfilment of vows mere pretexts for gatherings boding no good to the 

 peace and prosperity of Santiago. A guard was therefore sent to the castle and sentries were 

 posted along the paths leading to the summit of the hill, whilst the archbishop at last put the 

 seal of condemnation on the display altogether. Previous to 1850, Santa Eusebia had very few 

 votaries in Santiago ; after that time I never saw a propitiatory candle publicly burned. 



SEPTEMBER 8. ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN. All named Mercedes celebrate 

 this as their day instead of the actual anniversaries of their births, and in preference to the 24th, 

 which is the regular day of Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes. In 1850 it came on Sunday, and, 

 as each lady deemed it especially desirable to attend mass on that day, the great number who 

 are thus called renders morning service at the cathedral and the church erected to her ladyship no 

 little attractive to the beaux and un devout. The archbishop was not present at the cathedral, 

 and, though his second in command officiated, the ceremonies remained as little like devotion 

 as ever. Of the music it is not necessary to say anything more ; it is always good, and may be 

 listened to much to the satisfaction and moral edification of all rightly inclined. After the mass, 

 the usual procession of feast-days came off, through the nave, the aisles, and around the church. 

 It consisted of a number of men and youths, wearing silk capes of different colors and with 

 lighted candles in their hands, and the dean with the consecrated wafer in a golden vessel 

 resembling an image of the sun. He was surrounded by the clergy of the episcopal establish- 

 ment ; four gentlemen carried a silken canopy over his head, and boys scattered flowers in the 

 path of the coming procession. 



The church possesses hundreds of the capes worn, and during mass servants go round with 

 armfuls, silently offering one to each genteelly dressed male whom they may catch upon his 

 knees. If he nod his head, the cape is tied over his shoulders, and this symbol authorizes 

 another set of servants to supply him with a wax candle. The salvers borne by the boys were 

 piled high with the earliest offerings of spring, and it seemed desecration to trample so many 

 of nature's exquisite productions under the feet of a crowd of rude and portly male bipeds. I can 

 yield something to woman, and would not be hyper-critical when seeing flowers spread for any 

 men whose countenances indicated devotion and self-sacrifice for the benefit of their kind; but to 

 witness them crushed as sand under feet of the people who compose the processions at Santiago, 

 not excepting the clergy and friars (who are the fattest and most corpulent of all), makes me 

 regret that such things as religious pageants exist. 



