AN ODD PROCESSION. 



217 



across the breast, large boots, and each with an old gui- 

 tar, waltzing and dancing an occasional fandango. 

 How it happened that these devils, who, of course, ex- 

 cited laughter in the crowd, came to form part of a re- 

 ligious procession, I could not learn. The boys follow- 

 ed them, just as they do the military with us on a fourth 

 of July ; and, in fact, with the Guatimala boys, there is 

 no good procession without good Devils. 



Next, and in striking contrast, came four beautiful 

 boys, six or eight years old, dressed in white frocks and 

 pantalettes, with white gauze veils over wreaths of roses, 

 perfect emblems of purity ; then four young priests, 

 bearing golden candlesticks, with wax candles lighted ; 

 and then four Indians, carrying on their shoulders the 

 figure of an angel larger than life, with expanded wings 

 made of gauze, puffed out like a cloud, and intended to 

 appear to float in air, but dressed more after the fashion 

 of this world, with the frock rather short, and the sus- 

 penders of the stockings of pink riband. Then, borne 

 as before, on the shoulders of Indians, larger than life, 

 the figure of Judith, with a drawn sword in one hand, 

 and in the other the gory head of Holofernes. Then 

 another angel, with a cloud of silk over her head, and 

 then the great object of veneration, La Virgina de la 

 Concepcion, on a low hand-barrow, richly decorated 

 with gold and silver and a profusion of flowers, and 

 protected by a rich silken canopy, upborne on the ends 

 of four gilded poles. Priests followed in their costly 

 dresses, one under a silken canopy, holding up the 

 Host, before the imaginary splendour of which all fell 

 on their knees. The whole concluded with a worse 

 set of devils than those which led the procession, being 

 about five hundred of Carrera's soldiers, dirty and rag- 

 ged, with fanaticism added to their usual expression of 



Vol. I.— E e 19 



