:::::::::=»|: TWO bird- LOVERS IN MEXICO B-:-"" 



SUNSET AND MOONLIGHT 



The afternoon was quickly passing, and we hastened 

 to turn our steps toward camp. We returned by a 

 shorter route, cutting off the great bend made by the 

 arroyo, and passing through a small village where a 

 few Mexicans dragged out their lives in this isolated 

 region. Poverty-stricken and ignorant, they were yet 

 hospitable and kind. Their little 'dobe chajjel (for they 

 were too poor to have a church) was ornamented with 

 tattered and dirty ribbons, Avhicli were once bright-col- 

 oured, and with begrimed and faded bits of tinsel. As 

 we approached, a crowd of about fifty people, the entire 

 population of the village, were gathered before the 

 chapel, singing a wild but not unmusical chant, which 

 might well have been derived from some heathen rites 

 of the aboriginal Indians. We found that it was a 

 fiesta — la fiesta cjran de ! For had not the Virgin been 

 brought from some distant church to honour them by 

 a visit ! The men had carefully carried the life-sized 

 wooden image upright on a platform, mile after mile, 

 up and down the rugged barrancas and over the hot 

 plains ; and eight men had taken turns at transporting 

 a pitiful little worn-out organ, wherewith to accompany 

 the chants to the Virgin. And now they were as happy 

 as children, worshipping and praying, and beginning 

 to feel the first effects of the jntkpie — the drink which 

 plays so prominent a part in all their fiestas. We re- 

 fused the unj^leasant national beverage, but indulged 



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