MEXICO. 



123 



intermingling pictures presented before us during these 

 two days ; and I am totally unable to disentangle from 

 the mass any connected event or spectacle worth detail- 

 ing. The whole city seemed to reel under the influence 

 of phrensy, and we were obliged to reel with it. To see 

 as much as we could, and to give no offence, were, I 

 own, our principal objects. I remember an old woman 

 who happened to be my neighbour during the passage 

 of one of the processions, who perhaps observed that I 

 w T as not as ready with a genuflection as the bystanders, 

 shaking a Judas, the size of a child of two years old, 

 at me, by the scuff of the neck, and muttering to me 

 with a scowl of hatred, " See ! here is a countryman of 

 yours f? 



It was a rebuke which I felt I merited — for what did I 

 there ? 



During this season every church and monastery had 

 its peculiar services from morning to night. In the ca- 

 thedral I heard several : and the music, accompanied by 

 a small orchestra, was good as to composition, though in- 

 differently performed. Within* that noble structure I 

 remarked nothing in the general style of the rites and 

 services of a particularly undignified or revolting charac- 

 ter: but to describe the orgies enacted in the generality 

 of the other churches could but be disgusting to you. 

 The scenes of the Passion were played and turned into 

 comedy ; while waltzes and contradances were played 

 over the bier, on which the effigy of our Saviour was 

 laid out in state. On the evening of that day, after ma- 

 king the round of eighteen or twenty churches, we re- 

 turned to our quarters, thoroughly fatigued and out of 

 spirits. 



At an early hour on the Saturday, preparations were 

 made to terminate the season of humiliation. What hu- 

 miliation ! On going into the streets we saw the Judases 

 — which I omitted to tell you, were, in fact, fireworks so 

 disguised — hanging by thousands over the centre of the 

 streets, and to the fronts of the houses. In the Plaza 

 Mayor, the booths had entirely disappeared ; troops 



