204 
GUATEMALA. 
of wax; while from Salvador are brought wax, incense, 
balsam, oil, and brooms. 
Now, with all this we expected to see something re¬ 
markable, but saw only an ordinary altar-piece, with plain 
curtains before the miraculous image. It was not a holy- 
service time, consequently the curtains could not be raised; 
the padre, however, after sending Frank’s revolver out 
of the holy place, took us behind the altar and admitted us 
to a small glass room where the black image stands. It 
was much less than life size, very black,—painted, how¬ 
ever, only by time, — inferior in conception and execution, 
and wearing long female hair. Ex-voto pictures and gold 
and silver images and tokens hung upon and around this 
figure, and in the same chamber were figures of Joseph 
and Mary, together with angels with cotton-wool wings. 
It was impossible for me to feel any of the awe with which 
past generations of Indios have regarded this black Christ. 
My imagination is not wholly dulled, and I have felt 
curious sensations before the horrible idols of the Pacific 
islanders, before the placid features of a gigantic Buddha, 
in the Hall of Gods at Canton, and before the Jove of 
the Vatican. I have been in the holy places of many 
nations, and have felt a sympathy with the worship¬ 
pers ; even the black cliffs of the supposed Sinai have led 
my thoughts captive. But here in Esquipulas there was 
nothing but the husk, — nothing solemn, nothing holy; 
the portrait of Figueroa was the most respectable thing 
in the church. It was, moreover, no strange thing to pass 
into the vestry and overhaul the boxes of gold and silver 
ex-votos; these we could purchase at so much an ounce. 
They were indeed, as our new friend Dr. Jose declared, 
“ very curibus.” All parts of the human body, healthy 
