BURIAL CUSTOMS. 265 



spirits, called Limbo, where they remain for eve r 

 without either suffering punishment or enjoy- 

 ing happiness. Baptized infants, on the other 

 hand, being considered without sm, are sup- 

 posed to enter at once into the joys of heaven. 

 The deceased child is then denominated an 

 angelito (a little angel), and is interred with 

 joy and mirth instead of grief and wailing. 

 It, is gaudily bedecked with fanciful attire and 

 ornaments of tinsel and flowers ; and being 

 placed upon a small bier, it is carried to the 

 grave by four children as gaily dressed as 

 their circumstances will allow; accompanied 

 by musicians using the instruments and play- 

 ing the tunes of the fandangos; and the 



mem 



ment. 



In New Mexico the lower classes are very 

 rarely, if ever, buried in coffins: the corpse 

 heing simply wrapped in a blanket, or some 

 other covering, and in that rude attire con- 

 signed to its last home. It is truly shock- 

 ing to a sensitive mind to witness the inhu- 

 man treatment to which the remains of the 

 dead are sometimes subjected. There bein 

 nothing to indicate the place of the pre^dous 

 graves, it not unfrequently happens that the 

 partially decayed rehcs of a corpse are dug up 

 and forced to give place to the more recently 

 deceased, when they are again thrown with 

 the earth into the new grave with perfect in- 

 difference. The operation of filling up the 

 grave especially, is particularly repulsive ; the 

 earth being pounded down vvdth a large maul, 



23 



