78 SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



the greater part of whom expressed the most 

 decided anger and contempt. Not so however 

 all the Indians : I attentively marked their 

 countenances ; not a smile escaped them, or 

 even a word — all was silence and attention. In 

 reply to a joke of one of the students, an old 

 Indian remarked, 66 It is true we have three 

 very good Spanish gods, but we might still 

 have been allowed to keep a few of those of 

 our ancestors!" and I was informed that 

 chaplets of flowers had been placed on the 

 figure by natives who had stolen thither, un- 

 seen, in the evening for that purpose ; a proof 

 that, notwithstanding the extreme diligence of 

 the Spanish clergy for three hundred years, 

 there still remains some taint of heathen 

 superstition among the descendants of the 

 original inhabitants. — In a week the cast was 

 finished, and the goddess again committed to 

 her place of interment, and hidden from the 

 profane gaze of the vulgar. 



