JOURNEY TO GUATEMALA. 



71 



a temporary altar, ornamented with bouquets of wild 

 flowers, and wax tapers burning in plated candlesticks. 

 The ladies, on coming into the presence of the Saint, left 

 off talking, and tried to look devout. The gentlemen 

 took their hats off. Very soon, however, both sexes began 

 to whisper, then to talk loud, and then to laugh. At 

 length, all respect for the Saint seemed to have been lost ; 

 for the gentlemen put their hats on, and some of them 

 actually took out their segars and smoked in his face. 



We were now conducted to take some refreshment at 

 a table amply furnished with cakes, sweetmeats, orchate, 

 lemonade, cinnamon water, and a beverage called fresco, 

 an infusion of the pine-apple. The house, though little 

 better than a large hut, had a neat and holyday appear- 

 ance ; the walls were set off with festoons of shrubs and 

 flowers, and the floor was strewed with leaves. A sort 

 of barn, immediately opposite the house, had been cleared 

 out to serve as a theatre. It was entirely open on the 

 side that was to face the audience ; the roof and sides 

 were ornamented with branches of trees and little flags of 

 different colours ; a few boards clumsily put together an- 

 swered the purpose of a stage, and a large piece of can- 

 vass that of a curtain. There was also a temporary shed 

 of branches of the palm tree, supported by stakes, to serve, 

 in case of need, as a shelter for the turba multa of the 

 uninvited. All this, and the crowd of people flocking in 

 from the town and the adjacent villages, reminded me of 

 the fete described in Gil Bias, and got up in Olmedo by 

 Thomas de la Fuente, with this difference, that there were 

 no Latin inscriptions. 



Some time was consumed in arranging matters, before 

 the play could commence. In the mean while, the audi- 

 ence had crowded together in front of the stage promis- 

 cuously, and in a manner not approved of by the Patron, 

 (the master of the fete,) or by the curate. The latter 

 took upon himself to remedy this confusion. He directed 

 the maestro and his musicians, who composed the orches- 



