420 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



may be released from purgatory, if he should be 

 there, and may go to enjoy the kingdom of heaven. 

 Whoever the reader may be, God will rev\^ard his 

 charity. 26th of July, 1837." The writing bore 

 the name of Juana Hernandez, the mother of the 

 deceased, an old lady then living in the house of 

 the mother of the padrecito. 



Accustomed as we were to hold sacred the bones 

 of the dead, the slightest memorial of a departed 

 friend accidentally presented to view bringing with it 

 a shade of sadness, such an exhibition grated harshly 

 upon the feelings. I asked the padrecito why these 

 skulls were not permitted to rest in peace, and he 

 answered, what is perhaps but too true, that in the 

 grave they are forgotten ; but when dug up and 

 placed in sight with labels on them, they remind the 

 living of their former existence, of their uncertain 

 state — that their souls may be in purgatory — and 

 appeal to their friends, as with voices from the grave, 

 to pray for them, and have masses said for their 

 souls. It is for this reason, and not from any feel- 

 ing of wantonness or disrespect, that the skulls of 

 the dead are thus exposed all over the country. On 

 the second of November, at the celebration of the 

 fete in commemoration de los fieles difuntos, all 

 these skulls are brought together and put into the 

 tumulo, a sort of bier hung with black and lighted 

 by blessed candles, and grand mass is said for their 

 souls. 



In the afternoon the padrecito passed our door in 



