FIREWORKS, ETC. 



215 



her friends and bid them farewell, and promised to take 

 me and procure me a share in the distribution. 



During this time rockets were fired from the steps, 

 and in the street, immediately in front, was a frame of 

 fireworks thirty feet high, which the whole crowd wait- 

 ed on the steps and in the street to see set off. Every- 

 body spoke of the absurdity of such an exhibition by 

 daylight, but they said it was the custom. The piece 

 was complicated in its structure, and in the centre was 

 a large box. There was a whizzing of wheels, a great 

 smoke, and occasionally a red flash ; and as the ex- 

 tremities burned out, for the finale, with a smart crack- 

 ing, the box flew open, and when the smoke cleared 

 away, discovered the figure of a little black nun, at 

 which all laughed and went away. 



In the afternoon was the procession in honour of the 

 "Virgin. Although Guatimala was dull, and, by the 

 convulsions of the times, debarred all kinds of gayety, 

 religious processions went on as usual, and it would 

 have been an evidence of an expiring state to neglect 

 them. All the streets through which the procession 

 was to pass were strewed with pine leaves, and cross- 

 ing them were arches decorated with evergreens and 

 flowers ; the long balconied windows were ornamented 

 with curtains of crimson silk, and flags with fanciful 

 devices. At the corners of the streets were altars, un- 

 der arbours of evergreens as high as the tops of the 

 houses, adorned with pictures and silver ornaments 

 from the churches, and the whole covered with flowers. 

 Rich as the whole of Central America is in natural 

 productions, the valley of Guatimala is distinguished 

 for the beauty and variety of its flowers ; and for one 

 day the fields were stripped of their clothing to beauti- 

 fy the city. I have seen great fetes in Europe, got up 



