PULPEKIA. 



11 



The bull-fights were very boyish exhibitions, 

 and deserve no particular description. The ani- 

 mals, in fact, were never killed, but merely teas- 

 ed by horsemen, who goaded them with blunt 

 spears ; or they were distracted by men on foot, 

 who waved flags in their faces, and, as soon as the 

 bulls were irritated, and ran after them, escaped 

 over the railings into the Ramadas. 



The chief interest, to us at least, lay in the 

 people, whose various dresses we were never tired 

 of looking at, while the interpretation of their 

 strange language gave us ample occupation ; for 

 although they all professed to speak Spanish, their 

 dialect was strongly marked with a local idiom and 

 pronunciation. Every thing indeed was new to 

 us, and partook more or less of a characteristic air; 

 but it is not easy to describe ; chiefly from its want 

 of resemblance to any thing we have before wit- 

 nessed. 



In the course of the first evening of these fes- 

 tivities, while I was rambling about the streets 

 mth one of the officers of the ship, our attention 

 was attracted by the sound of music, to a crowd- 

 ed pulperia or drinking-house. We accordingly 



