THE COCK-PIT. 79 
against Santa Anna's bird, the broker was called to his box and an aid- 
de-camp covered it. Besides these bets, the General usually had some 
standing ones agreed on beforehand with the owners of other cocks ; and 
in this manner five or six thousand dollars were lost or won by him in 
the pit daily. Seven mains of cocks were fought each day — the Presi- 
dent seeming to relish the sport vastly, while his aids were highly ex- 
ited, and the ladies looked on with evident gusto. 
Nothing can be more grossly mean than a passion for cock fighting. 
A bull fight, brutal and bloody as it is, has still something noble in the 
contest between the man and the animal ; there is a trial of skill, and 
often a trial for life. Horse racing is a beautiful sport, it is both exciting 
and useful ; and the breed of a noble animal is cherished and improved by 
it. But to see grown men, and among them the chiefs of a nation, sit 
down quietly to watch two birds kick each other to death with slashers and 
spurs, in order to make money out of the victory of one of them, is too 
contemptible to be sanctioned or apologized for in any way, except by 
old traditionary customs. Such were the old customs of Mexico. Their 
fathers gambled — they gamble. Their fathers fought fowls — they fight 
fowls ; and if you speak to them of it, they shrug their shoulders, with a 
^' pues que .?" — " what will you ?" 
It is with pleasure, however, that I record one pleasant scene at least 
in this festival of St. Augustin. On the second day I did not go out early 
in the morning, but took a place in the diligence at half-past two p. m., 
reaching the village in a couple of hours. Disgusted with the gambling 
scenes and the cock-pit, I went only to see the Calvario, or ball given 
every afternoon at the Calvary, which adjoins the village on the west. 
We walked to this spot through beautiful lanes of Oriental-looking 
houses, bowered among groves of orange and jasmine, and arrived about 
six o'clock. As the people were just assembling we strolled up the 
green hills, traversed by streams of crystal water, until we reached an 
eminence above the village, bosomed in an eternal shade, from which 
peeped out the white walls of the houses and azoteas, covered with the 
most beautiful and fragrant flowers. Across the valley, the eye rested 
on the silvery line of Tezcoco, and as the slanting rays of the sun fell 
over the soft midland-view, and athwart the hills through the gaps of the 
western mountains, lighting the ravines, and throwing the bold peaks in 
shadow, I thought I had never beheld a more perfect picture drawn from 
fancy of the peace and beauty of a " Happy Valley." It was soon en- 
livened by figures, and became a scene worthy of the fairy fancy of 
Watteau. 
From the top of Calvary, the hill-side sloped down amphitheatrically 
to a level meadow, a bow-shot in width, closed on the east and west by 
trees in their freshest foliage, and terminated at the north by a garden and 
azotea just peeping over the leaves of an orange grove. On the side of 
