192 



PASSAGE ACROSS 



the back part of the room burning before sacred 

 pictures and images. 



The power of the priests has diminished very 

 much since the Revolution. They are not re- 

 spected ; they have ahnost all families, and lead 

 most disreputable lives. Still the hold they have 

 upon society is quite surprising. The common 

 people laugh at their immorality, yet they go to 

 them for images and pictures, and they send their 

 wives and daughters to confess to them. Three 

 times a day the people in the streets take off* their 

 hats, or fall down on their knees. Every quarter 

 of an hour during the night the watchman of each 

 street sings as loud as he is able a prayer of Ave 

 Maria purissima," and then chants the hour and 

 a description of the night. 



During the day one constantly meets a calesh 

 drawn by two mules, driven by a dirty boy in a 

 poncho, and followed by a line of inhabitants with 

 their hats off", each carrying a lighted candle in 

 a lantern : every individual in the streets kneels, 

 and those who have windows towards the streets 

 (who are generally the females I have described) 

 are obliged to appear with a lighted candle. In the 



