GUANACASTE— SANTA CRUZ 457 



were on duty in the streets and when awake in the night I 

 heard the whistles of those on guard, as the town clock 

 struck the hours or half hours. 



Sunday's procession was repeated about noon on Monday, 

 an additional feature being a man who rode a mock bull as a 

 boy does a stick with a horse's head at one end. This mock 

 bull consisted of a cow's skull fixed to one end of a frame- 

 work of sticks, over which was stretched some brown fabric, 

 representing the bull's body. Mounted on this the man 

 pranced among the crowd, who on their part took oflF coats 

 and waved them before the "bull" as they did to the actual 

 bull in the plaza. Others beat the bull with anything at 

 hand, all in the greatest hilarity, and the animal soon proved 

 too weak to withstand dissolution. There were no fire- 

 works this evening, but on Tuesday evening a very few in 

 the plaza brought the fiestas to a close, although on the fol- 

 lowing afternoon the boys held mock "toros" in the plaza 

 with young bulls. There are all sorts of mixed descents 

 here between whites, Indians and negroes, and at the fiestas, 

 which brought together many people from the surrounding 

 country, one saw a great variety of physical features. 



On January 24 I went south to the panteon or cemetery 

 which, as is so often the case, was a dreary collection of 

 mounds, weeds and wooden crosses, the latter bearing some 

 names or inscriptions relating to the deceased. Animals 

 strayed in to graze and a sadder and more desolate place it 

 would be hard to find. On the road to the cemetery an 

 iguana watched me as I approached and finally took refuge 

 in a hole therein. I had not set out for the cemetery; I was 

 simply looking for new collecting grounds, but everything 

 was dry weeds. Turning off to the east I stumbled upon 

 the road to Nicoya, distant six hours by horse from Santa 

 Cruz, and followed it southward to a point on the Rio Medio 

 farther upstream than previously visited and spent some 



