488 THE NATIONAL HOLIDAYS. 



mechanics, and the reading of their names in this manner might inspire emulation. Nor must 

 I omit to mention that the only premium by the University, or rather by its advice, was 

 announced: "For morality. Presented by the University of Chile, to Presbyter Don Jose 

 Santiago Rabanal."* A very anomalous condition of Christianity, when it becomes expedient 

 to reward the clergy for leading moral lives ! 



In the apartments of the municipality the various specimens of the mechanic arts, painting, 

 engraving, &c., were arranged for examination. These embraced portraits of Columbus and 

 Valdivia, painted for the National Gallery by the professor of the academy, and whose perform- 

 ances are about of the same comparative merit as those of his countryman in marble which 

 disfigure the eastern portico of the Capitol at Washington ; one or two smaller paintings copied 

 by Chilenos, and with considerable skill, from galleries at Kome ; and quite a large number of 

 old paintings borrowed from the monasteries and private collections, for the purpose of filling 

 the walls. Let us hope, too, the committee desired thus delicately to show the professor how 

 artists had worked. There was a model of a church very prettily made of pasteboard, a French 

 bedstead or two, the carpet and coverlet alluded to, and probably fifty, or at most sixty 

 smaller articles, comprising shoes, leather, silver-ware, and embroidery. This was the whole 

 national exhibition of domestic products ; and, as the names of the exhibitors proved, nearly 

 every article came from the shop of a domiciliated foreigner. 



The 20th is more emphatically the people's day. Horse-racing, for which government 

 provides the purses ; trials of skill at various games, when its officers or agents are the umpires ; 

 and free permission to gratify the universal passion for gambling, are great attractions to the 

 mass. Then the booths and carts are arranged much in the same way as on the preceding day, 

 but on a part of the pampilla just without .the city ; and as the thousand and one impulsive 

 characteristics accompanying national games can only be properly witnessed on foot, I walked 

 to the scene. By 2 o'clock thousands, on horseback and on foot, were moving between the lines 

 and crowding every resort of amusement, mirth and good humor predominant everywhere. 

 Perhaps the display of fancifully decorated carts, filled with well dressed women with their 

 guitars, was greater than on the preceding day, and the number of the people was certainly 

 not less ; the opportunity to feast and dance, gamble and jockey, without hindrance, being para- 

 mount to every other consideration with them. On these occasions their only dance is the 

 " Zama cueca," in which only two persons take part. Each holds a handkerchief in the right 

 hand, which is alternately waved by one over the head of the other as they turn after a few steps 

 backward and forward, the body being occasionally inclined during these steps often gracefully, 

 .sometimes lasciviously. The step is by no means elegant ; but is slow, monotonous, and as 

 destitute of animation as the sing-song music by which it is accompanied. Besides guitars, a 

 large number of the booths had rudely made harps, whose bases rest on feet, so that the players 

 remain seated. There were also small tables, with tops composed of five or six slats of brass 

 or hard wood, that produced, when beaten with the palms of the hands, a rattling noise 

 not unlike castanets. The instrumental is but an accompaniment to the vocal .performance ; but 

 the only words I was able to distinguish above the din and peals of laughter were, " Adios, mi 

 guerido amante" (Farewell, my dear lover). 



In one place there were masks fixed on poles between lists, and bundles of lances, for mounted 

 tilters : in another, a stiff" revolving horizontal bar resting in axles made slippery with tallow. 

 It had supporting cords at arm's length on each side, and a- piece of money placed as a prize 

 for the successful promenader to the far end of tl^e bar. He who walks the bar without over- 

 turning, gains the reward; but, as the name of the diversion, " rota cabeza/ ' implies, there are 

 more broken heads than prizes gained. Few experimentalize without having their " knowledge 

 boxes" sounded. Here, a group surrounds a board marked with six numbers, whose proprietor 

 decides the fate of stakes placed on them by a twirl of his tee-totum. There, we find a circular 

 table having eight equi-distant numbers, with intermediate spots of red and blue, and a re- 



* See Araucano, No. 1137. 



