THE NATIONAL HOLIDAYS. 485 



that he would be in tin- portion at>ove all other* which would immediately enable him to rally 

 the lityul to government. 



The day wan wnili. i.-mly overcast to make it pleasant wh -n tin- HUH huie brightly for a few 

 minutes at a tim< . \- -t n-t -" nnich obscured as to render it chilly. From an early hour the 

 streets \\, ! ali\e \\ith people, all in holiday dress; runny hundreds, if not thousands, having 

 saved their profits tor months in order to make a display on the Carupo de Marte. Wending 

 towards it from every quarter won- carriages which only make their appearance on this one day 

 of the year. In many cases they were venerable relicn handed down from the revolution ; in 

 others, tall spectral-looking vehicles covered with a profusion of ornamental gilding, and pei 

 in mid-heaven; in others again, superb specimens of French or English workmanship, with all 

 th accompaniments of modern luxury. The occupants of nearly all were dressed with that 

 taste and elegance especially characteristic of Chilenas in public. Intermixed among them, and 

 following guides whose high-peaked straw hats, broad-legged cotton drawers, poncho, and fifteen- 

 feet goads made them notable, sleek oxen slowly dragged huge wagons, whilst from the interiors 

 of the carts came notes of guitars and voices, not always of the sweetest or most melodious kind. 

 Nevertheless, if one might judge from the mingled music and laughter, their occupants were 

 merry parties. A little farther on were crowds of horsemen mounted on every variety of 

 steed, from the hi^h-hloodcd courser to the humble donkey; slashing caballeros with bridle and 

 saddle mountings worth a score of golden ounces, and greasy guasos with a single sheepskin 

 and bridle of hide; high-born donzettas with costly habits floating in the wind as they sped 

 gracefully along, and dark-skinned guasitas with eyes like living diamonds, sitting their wild 

 steeds with instinctive grace, and dashing over the ground with a recklessness fearful to behold. 

 This was evidently the favorite mode of locomotion: it rendered one free; but ladies generally 

 are afraid to attempt it, because of the racing and jostling invariably practised at this festival, 

 and the consequent risk in such a crowd. Yet there were many of the "upper ten" among the 

 moving mass of men ; for the whole nation appear to ride well, as if intuitively! 



Families were collected at the doors of the houses, watching the passing crowds; the pul- 

 perias and confectionery-shops, so numerous in every street, were filled with numbers of the ever- 

 thirsty and ever-hungry race ; and other groups surrounded the ambulant venders who were 

 travelling towards the pampilla with fruits, ices, and cakes. On the house-tops and doorways, 

 on moving wagons, and even on the trees, fluttered flags and pennons of every variety. 

 Indeed, the head of one of our horses was decorated with a miniature Chile banner; the other 

 with the stars and stripes of our own country. A cheerful and animated scene it was, not- 

 withstanding it led through mud and among wretched hovels between the centre of population 

 and the outskirts. From these very ranchos issued many of its gaily dressed participators. 



Our party comprised three young ladies and myself in a close carriage, two gentlemen in a 

 birlocho, and four others on horseback. Those mounted were to scour the field and serve as 

 pilots to such portions of it as were offering scenes of interest approachable by the carriages. 

 Already some six or seven thousand troops had assembled when we arrived, shortly after noon ; 

 artillery, infantry, lancers, and dragoons stretching over the plain for more than a mile, and kept 

 by pickets of mounted municipal police within lines which visitors were not permitted to traverse. 

 Beyond the square thus formed by the military, and within which it was intended to manoeuvre 

 them, carts were drawn up with booths and tents at every few paces, hastily erected, so as to 

 form a sort of street, through which the carriages and equestrians paraded. Outside the booths, 

 in deeply-dug trenches, cooks were busy roasting whole sheep and great pieces of beef, on spits 

 of wood lying across earthen walls. And beyond all these were tethered the oxen or mules that 

 had transported the population of the capital to the festival, their piles of edibles, and the 

 barrels of drink necessary for more than twenty thousand souls. 



Stopping, as they often did, to witness various scenes, or to interchange salutations with 

 friends, the multitude of carriages and mounted riders moved with diiiiculty within the busy 

 mass, and at times were actually at a stand in the almost inextricable confusion necessarily 



