PASSION FOR GAMBLING. 



23 



than the loteria, where hearts, or at least hands, are 

 at stake, and perhaps that night some bold player, 

 in losing his medios, drew a richer prize than the 

 large purse of twenty-seven dollars and three reals. 

 In fact, the loteria is considered merely an acces- 

 sory to the pleasures of social intercourse ; and, in- 

 stead of gaming, it might be called a grand conver- 

 sacione, but not v^ry select ; at least such was our 

 conclusion; and there was something to make us 

 rather uncharitable, for the place w^as hot enough 

 to justify an appHcation to it of the name bestowed 

 in common parlance on the gambling-houses of 

 London and Paris. 



At about eleven o'clock we left. On our way 

 down the street we passed the open door of a house 

 in which were tables piled with gold and silver, and 

 men around playing what, in the opinion of my old 

 adviser of the loteria, was a game worth learning. 

 We returned to the house, and found, what in our 

 haste to be at the fiesta w^e had paid no attention 

 to, that Dona Micaela could give us but one room, 

 and that a small one, and near the door. As we ex- 

 pected to remain some days in Merida, we deter- 

 mined the next morning to take a house and go to 

 housekeeping. While arranging ourselves for the 

 night, we heard a loud, unnatural noise at the door, 

 and, going out, found rolling over the pavement the 

 Cerberus of the mansion, an old Indian miserably 

 deformed, with his legs drawn up, his back down, 

 his neck and head thrust forward, and his eyes start- 



