206 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



equanimity with which I examined the paintings. 

 In fact, I did not remain long on the ground. 



It is particularly unfortunate that, while so many 

 apartments have remained free, this most curious 

 and interesting one has become filled up. It is 

 probable that the walls, as well as the arch, are plas- 

 tered and painted. It would have cost a week's la- 

 bour to clear it out, and my impression was, that, in 

 consequence of the dirt having been piled up against 

 the walls for an unknown length of time, through a 

 long succession of rainy seasons, the colours were 

 so completely effaced that nothing would have been 

 discovered to compensate for the labour. 



It was now nearly dark. My day's work had 

 been a severe one. I was tired and covered with 

 garrapatas, but the next day was Sunday, the last 

 of the fiesta, and I determined on returning to the 

 village that night. There was a brilliant moonlight, 

 and, hurrying on, at eleven o'clock I saw, at the end 

 of a long straight road, the illuminated front of the 

 church of Jalacho. Very soon, amid the shining 

 lights and congregated thousands, I forgot desola- 

 tions and ruins, and my sympathies once more mov- 

 ed with the living. I passed by the tables of the 

 gamblers, worked my way through the plaza and 

 through a crowd of Indians, who fell back in defer- 

 ence to the colour of my skin, and, unexpectedly to 

 my friends, presented myself at the baile. This time 

 I had no disposition to sleep. For the last night of 

 the fiesta the neighbouring villages had sent forth 



