HOUSEKEEPING. 



25 



CHAPTER IL 



Housekeeping. — Description of a Bull-ring. — A Bull-fight. — Spec- 

 tators. — Brutal Torments inflicted on the Bulls. — Serious Acci- 

 dents. — A noble Beast.— An exciting Scene. — Victims to Bull- 

 fighting. — Danger and Ferocity of Bull-fights. — Effects on moral 

 Character. — Grand Mass. — A grand Procession. — The Alameda. 

 — Calezas. — A Concert, and its Arrangements. — Fete of Todos 

 Santos. — A singular Custom. — An Incident. 



Early the next morning the carreta arrived with 

 our luggage, and, to avoid the trouble of loading 

 and unloading, we directed it to remain at the door, 

 and set out immediately to look for a house. We 

 had not much time, and, consequently, but little 

 choice ; but, with the help of Dona Micaela, in 

 half an hour we found one that answered our pur- 

 pose. We returned and started the carreta ; an 

 Indian followed, carrying on his head a table, and 

 on the top of it a washhand-basin ; another with 

 three chairs, all Dona Micaela's, and we closed 

 the procession. 



Our house was in the street of the Flamingo. 

 Like most of the houses in Merida, it was built of 

 stone, and had one story ; the front was about thir- 

 ty feet, and had a sala covering the whole, about 

 twenty feet in depth. The ceiUng was perhaps 

 eighteen feet high, and the walls had wooden knobs 

 for fastening hammocks. Behind the sala was a 

 broad corridor, opening on a courtyard, at one side 



Vol. L— D 3 



