MEXICO. 



121 



to church, according to the fashion which enjoins them 

 to visit as many as possible, within the prescribed time of 

 humiliation. 



This state of things lasted for forty-eight hours. In 

 the principal churches, the high altars were despoiled of 

 their rich load of ornaments, or completely veiled by 

 dark-coloured drapery ; and the organs were as mute as 

 the bells : while in all others, constant illumination, and 

 the display of gold, silver, and tawdry ornaments, was 

 fatiguingly splendid. 



But do not deceive yourself : though there was an ab- 

 sence of many of the ordinary sounds, the city was not 

 silent. The trargple of thousands of feet — the march of 

 stately and interminable processions — and the hum and 

 clamour of innumerable voices filled the ear ; both in the 

 ordinary tones of conversation, and exerted to their ut- 

 most pitch, as they energetically, yet lovingly called 

 the attention of the passing to their commodities. " Aqui 

 hayjuiles V\ " Here's your sorts ! white fish !" bellowed 

 one. " Pato grande, mi alma ! pato grande, venga 

 usted /" " A great duck ! oh my soul, a great duck — - 

 come and buy P responded another. 



You may further understand that the interiors of the 

 churches were no more the theatre of silence than the 

 streets without, when I tell you that in addition to the 

 incessant stream of worshippers which poured along 

 their pavement from one door to another the livelong 

 day — in many of them, waltzes, boleros, and polonaises, 

 from harpsichord or organ — were the accompaniment of 

 the hasty devotion of the passing multitudes. 



All these sounds you may conceive, for they were after 

 all but ordinary ; but it is a moral impossibility for you 

 to imagine the extraordinary hubbub produced by the 

 sound of thousands of rattles, which filled the air from 

 morning to night. They were to be seen in the hands of 

 every individual of the lower classes, and of many of 

 the upper ; of every form and material, bone, wood, and 

 even silver ; from the size of a child's plaything, to one 

 which would outgrind half a dozen of our watchmen's 



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