64 MEXICO. 
Yet this could scarcely be called an escape : the crowd without seemed 
quite as great as that within. In the Plaza, over part of which an awning 
was spread for a procession at the close of the ceremonies, the Indians 
had erected booths where they displayed their wares, and were driving a 
profitable trade in trinkets, pictures of saints, &c. ; a mode of speculation 
which they imitated from the priesthood, who, at the doors of the churches, 
likewise carried on a brisk business in selling to the faithful slips of crim- 
son ribbon, about two feet long, with a pious inscription, and medals of the 
Holy Virgin, for sixpence a-piece. I bought one, and passed on. 
In the shops around the square were all the unoccupied Mexicans. 
The church was too small to contain them, and they were necessarily 
forced to retire to these establishments ; where, with their donzellas of the 
reboso, they luxuriated on lemonade, oranges, and sweet biscuits, varying 
;heir food and flirtations with a choice cigarrito. 
At the distance of about two hundred yards from the main edifice, an- 
other chapel is erected over a spring of mineral water. This is regarded 
as a " holy well ;" and part of the ceremonial, upon this occasion, is to dip 
the fingers in the sacred stream, and to make with it a sign of the cross on 
brow and breast. In all such seasons, none are of course more devout 
and more conscientious in the performance of this duty than the Indians. 
They believe that the Virgin herself has specially consecrated the wa- 
ter ; and the consequence is, that a simple dip is by no means sufficient. 
I suppose there could not have been less than three thousand of these In- 
dians in the village, half of whom were constantly pressing, squeezing, 
shouting, with their women by their sides, and their children, in full squall, 
strapped to their backs ; all struggling, either to approach or leave the 
well. Not satisfied, however, with a dip in the water, they felt it to 
be a religious duty to wash ; and as so many thousands were paddling 
in maudlin devotion, the well became necessarily fouled, notwithstand- 
ing its sacredness. In addition to this, as all could not reach the foun- 
tain itself, multitudes were obliged to content themselves with the refuse 
that drained along the gutters, after having served for the ablutions of the 
more fortunate. The consequence was. that a more besmeared set of 
wretches was never displayed, than when the Indians completed their pious 
lustrations toward evening. But even this did not exhaust their craving 
appetites for the sacred water ; and every one who could buy, borrow, steal, 
or own a vessel, capable of containing liquids, bore it with him to his 
distant home full of the turbid flood. It was a panacea for many an ill, 
and perhaps superior in efficacy to a " blessed candle !" 
From the door of the edifice over the well, a steep stairway strikes up 
the hill side of Tepeyac, to a church on the summit ; and to this, it is the 
duty of all to perform a pilgrimage in the course of the day. I followed 
the steps of the multitude ; but as the church was crowded even more 
densely with natives than the edifice below, I refrained from entering, 
and sat down on a pile of stones to enjoy a charming view of the Valley 
