THE TOWN OF CART AGO AND ITS LIFE 45 



bright tin, and there were perhaps more people there than 

 usual. 



Palm Sunday, or Domingo Santo de Ramos, was the 

 beginning of the great Holy Week celebrations. Early mass 

 was celebrated in a number of churches, but the chief event 

 was the procession of Nuestro Sefior del Triunfo through 

 the streets from the church of Guadalupe to the Church of 

 the Soledad. The procession consisted of several hundred 

 men and boys walking on the left side of the street, as many 

 women and girls on the other side, with the band in the mid- 

 dle playing a gay march anything but religious in tone. 

 Behind the band a space was kept clear, then followed three 

 ragged barefoot boys, the middle one carrying a small 

 diamond-shaped purple banner while the outer boys held 

 tall candles. After them came two men leading a donkey on 

 which was a life-size figure of Christ — Nuestro Seiior del 

 Triunfo — holding the reins in the right hand and a large 

 bunch of palm leaves in the left. The figure was dressed 

 in purple velvet, with a long flowing purple velvet cloak 

 embroidered in gold, a wide lace collar and a big purple hat 

 from under which hung long curls — such a costume as 

 Charles the Second of England wore. It had not been pos- 

 sible to tie the figure on the donkey securely and in spite of 

 men who walked close on each side and held the image in 

 place with their hands it swayed and lurched from side to side 

 in a manner more suggestive of a drunken man than a sacred 

 figure. Behind the donkey came a crowd of men and boys 

 filling the street solidly from curb to curb and extending 

 about half a block behind. All the men walked bare- 

 headed, and most were peons although there were plenty 

 of people of the upper classes waiting in the park to join the 

 procession as it came by and apparently to go to church 

 with it. 



On Monday afternoon there was a procession from the 



