Cock-fights. — Quito Ladies. 81 



is reserved for the most notable days in the calendar: 

 Christmas, New Year's, Inauguration-day, and Independ- 

 ence-day — the 10th of August. 



Cock-fights come next in popularity, and are hoTm fide 

 fights. Often the roosters are so heroic that both leave 

 their blood in the arena, and never crow again. Little 

 knives are fastened to the natural spurs, with which the 

 fowls cut each other up frightfully. The interesting scene 

 takes place on Sundays and Thursdays, near the Church of 

 Santa Catalina, and is regulated by a municipal tribunal. 

 The admission fee of five cents, and the tax of two per cent, 

 on bets, yield the city a monthly revenue of $100. 



•Other pastimes are carnivals and masquerades. Carnival 

 is observed by pelting one another with eggs and sprink- 

 ling with water. Whoever invented this prelude to Lent 

 should be canonized. Masquerades occur during the holi- 

 days, when all classes, in disguise or fancy dress, get up a 

 little fun at each other's expense. The monotony of social 

 life is more frequently disturbed by fashionable fimerals' 

 than by these amusements ; and, as the principal families 

 are inter-related, the rules of condolence keep the best part 

 of society in mourning, and the best pianos and guitars si- 

 lent for at least six months in the year. 



A word about the ladies of Quito. We concur in the 

 remark of our minister, Mr. Hassaurek, that " their natural 

 dignity, gracefulness, and politeness, their entire self-pos- 

 session, their elegant but unaffected bearing, and the choice- 

 ness of their language, would enable them to make a cred- 

 itable appearance in any foreign drawing-room." Their 

 natural talents are of a high order ; but we must add that 

 the senoras are imeducated, and are incapable of either 

 great vices or great virtues. Their minds, like the soil of 

 their native country, are fertile, but uncultivated ; and their 

 hearts, like the climate, are of a mean temperature. Pray- 



F 



