VIRGIN OF REMEDIOS. 143 
Besides these, there were files of arrieros ; crowds of Indians, with 
charcoal in huge panniers on their backs ; others with turkies ; asses 
laden with hay — the hay covering the whole of the little animal so com- 
pletely, that at a short distance he looked like a self-movhig stack. Then, 
again, there was a better class of the natives, who had contrived to hire a 
couple of planks covered with a mat-awning, swung upon wheels, in the 
shafts of which they drove a lean and half-starved mule, — while among 
the crowd dashed our postillion, with his antediluvian vehicle. We 
were, in fact, the only foreigners on the road, except a band of valiant 
French hair-dressers, who, taking advantage of the holiday, had sallied 
forth with brightly shining guns and bloodless bags, to do execution on an 
army of snipes that lay behind its intrenchments of marsh and grass. 
The feast, I have said, is purely Indian in its celebration at this shrine. 
You will remember when the Spaniards were expelled from the city — on 
that dreadful evening, which has since passed into history by the name of 
the "noche triste," or ''sad night'' — that they retreated through the vil- 
lao-e of Tacuba, then an Indian town of some importance, and encamped 
on the adjacent heights. Some of the forces strayed still farther west- 
ward, and, quitting the shores of the lake, slept on the first rise of the 
mountains. There they passed a panic-struck night, and in the morning, 
a small doll, which had dropped from the knapsack of a Spanish soldier, 
(the bruised relic, doubtless, of some pet baby he had left at home,) was 
found on a maguey, or aloe. Lo ! it was proclaimed, by the finder, to be 
a miraculous image of the Holy Virgin — a token of approaching success 
and safety — and the doll was thenceforward sanctified ! When the Span- 
ish power became firm.ly fixed in Mexico, a church was built on the spot 
of the miraculous visit, and the shrine was endowed with the votive ofier- 
ings of the wealthy and superstitious. 
Having appeared to the soldiers just at the critical moment, she was 
called the Virgin of " Remedios," or Remedies — and from that day to 
this, she has been regarded as the special patroness of the ill, the un- 
happy, the sorrowful, and unlucky. If the " rainy season" does not come 
soon enough for the hopes of the Indian farmer, so that he can raise his 
corn and frijoles, she is prayed to. If it lasts too long, she is besought. 
If the small-pox, cholera, or fevers rage, she is the pious medicine ; 
and ever with success, because her image is generally brought to the in- 
fected district, from her healthy mountain country-seat, when the mal- 
ady is abating. It is said, however, that there was a mistake about her in 
the case of the last small-pox that prevailed in the Capital. She was 
produced too soon ! The convalescent came to return thanks ; those 
who had it in its incipient state, to be relieved ; and the healthful, to be 
spared entirely — the result was, a frightful spreading of the infection 
amono- the multitudes who prostrated themselves before the image. 
The church has, of course, made a fine revenue out of this miraculous 
power of the Virgin ; and I have been told that she was frequently rented 
out to the different parishes, at the rate of five or seven thousand dollars per 
