190 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



some respects it is more cmious. It is not attended 

 by large merchants with foreign goods, nor by the 

 better classes from Merida, but it is resorted to by 

 all the Indians from the haciendas and villages. It 

 is inferior in one respect: gambling is not carried 

 on upon so large a scale as at Yzamal. 



The time was when all countries had their period- 

 ical fairs ; but the changed and improved condition 

 of the world has almost abolished this feature of an- 

 cient times. Increased facilities of communication 

 with foreign countries and different parts of the 

 same country make opportunities for buying and 

 selling an every-day tiling ; and at this day, in gen- 

 eral throughout Europe, for all articles of necessity, 

 and even of luxury, every man has, as it were, a fair 

 every day at his own door. But the countries in 

 America subject to the Spanish dominion have felt 

 less sensibly, perhaps, than any others in the world, 

 the onward impulse of the last two centuries, and 

 in them many usages and customs derived from Eu- 

 rope, but there long since fallen into oblivion, are 

 still in full force. Among them is this of holding 

 fairs, of which, though several took place during the 

 time of my journey in Central America, I had no 

 opportunity of seeing any. 



The fair of Jalacho was an observance of eight 

 days, but the first two or three were marked only 

 by the arrival of scattering parties, and the business 

 of securing places to live in and to display wares. 

 The great gathering or high change did not begin 



