THE GAME FOWL. 245 



behaviour which throws over all these incongruities a cloak of 

 decency and decorum, that hides their impropriety so com- 

 pletely, that even foreigners, who have lived here a few years, 

 and who were at first struck with astonishment by these things, 

 are now quite reconciled to them. 



"As far as the company went, it might have been the 

 House of Representatives in Washington ; the ladies in the 

 gallery listening to the debates, and the members in the body 



of the house surrounding Messrs. and , or any other 



two vehement orators ; applauding their biting re-marks and 

 cutting sarcasms, and encouraging them to crow over each 

 other. The President might have been the speaker, and the 

 Oorps diplomatique represented itself. In the evening a ball 

 is given in the plaza de gallos." Life in Mexico, l>y Madame 

 Calderon de la Barca, p. 164. 



Among the amusements at Lima, so late as 1849, "The 

 Cock-pit is a great attraction, and all classes frequent it. The 

 Cocks fight in spurs, so the fight is soon over. My stay there 

 was not long ; a very fierce-looking fellow, with a sword-stick, 

 said, 'Bet:' I did; a cock fell, and he pocketed the money 

 and walked off. Amusing ! Drinking coffee under the vines 

 pleased me better/' Walpole's Four Years in the Pacific, 

 vol. ii. p. 33. 



