NOTICES OF PERU. 



395 



er, and the stomach is not employed in digestion. At the same 

 lime, the water carriers, seemingly as gay as the morning, are 

 hurrying along, chirping or whistling to their asses loaded 

 with cool water dripping from the kegs. 



We entered the only church in Lambayeque. It is built of 

 adobes and brick, is terraced round, and occupies one side of 

 the plaza. It has a tower or belfry about a hundred feet high. 

 The interior, like all Catholic churches, contains several altars 

 and saintly shrines. The altar cloths are secured by a great 

 iron hasp and padlock, which conveyed to my mind a dark 

 meaning, that had some relation to the honesty of those who 

 visit these shrines. The pulpit, as well as some of the altars, 

 are heavily carved and richly gilt, and the square columns are 

 hung with crimson damask, trimmed with tawdry yellow lace, 

 but the whole is tarnished and covered with dust. The choir 

 contained an organ, a rudely constructed but sweet toned harp, 

 two horns, two vocalists, and a violin. The music w^as solemn 

 and soothing at times, and then lively. The organ always 

 sounded without accompaniment. 



Several women, some in saya y manto, and one or two in 

 the mantilla, were kneeling on mats or rugs, in the nave of 

 the church, counting their beads, while two priests were chant- 

 ing mass before the altar. In distant corners of the temple, 

 two w^ere kneeling beside confessionals, whispering through 

 its sieve-like pane into the ear of a friar seated within the bo. 

 while two or three irreverent curs were gamboling amono 

 the kneeling women. One old lady was apparently much aii 

 noyed, and occasionally interrupted her devotions to cast a re- 

 proving glance upon the sporting dogs, and then relaxed her 

 countenance to a proper devotional longitude. Just as she was 

 concluding a prayer with "Bendito sea Dios," a little dog 

 leaped against her. Her equanimity was overthrown, and she 

 exclaimed in an angry but subdued tone, <^zafe perro, sin ver- 

 guenza !" — out, dog, without shame ; but the dog seemed to 

 enjoy her anxiety, and did not desist till she struck at him 

 with her rosary. 



About noon, in spite of the oppressive heat, we passed 

 through the silent streets, to visit a family that one of us had 



