BULL-FIGHT AND BULL-FIGHTERS. 



193 



band, a short mantle of scarlet velvet, having a broad 

 gold edging round the cape and skirts, green velvet 

 trousers, with a wide gold stripe down the sides, 

 and boots and spurs. All the time I stood there, 

 and every time I went into the church, men, wom- 

 en, and children were pressing forward, struggling 

 with each other to kiss the foot of the saint. The 

 simple Indian, as the first act of devotion, led up 

 his whole family to do this act of obeisance. The 

 mother lifted her sucking child, and pressed its lips, 

 warm from her breast, against the foot of the bedi- 

 zened statue. 



In the afternoon commenced the first bull-fight. 

 The toreadores, or bull-fighters, all lived at the house 

 opposite ours, and from it the procession started. 

 It was headed by a wrinkled, squint-eyed, bandy- 

 legged Indian, carrying under his arm the old In- 

 dian drum, and dancing grotesquely to his own mu- 

 sic ; then followed the band, and then the gallant 

 picadores, a cut-throat looking set of scoundrels, 

 who, imagining themselves the admiration, were the 

 contempt of the crowd. 



The Plaza de Toros was on one side of the 

 square of the plaza, and, like that in the square of 

 the church of San Cristoval, was constructed of 

 poles and vines, upright, intwining and interlaced, 

 tottering and yielding under pressure, and yet hold- 

 ing together firmly. In the centre was a pole, on 

 the top of which flourished the Mexican eagle, with 

 outspread wings, holding in his beak a scroll with 



Vol. I.— B b 17 



