154 MEXICO. 
neatly-turned ankles in richly- worked stockings, and somewhat more of 
the leg than befits other persons than opera dancers,) put themselves in 
• such an attitude, that you might naturally imagine they were in the act 
of pirouetting off to the music of a piano in the opposite corner, that gave 
forth the most fashionable waltzes and airs from the operas. Two dogs, 
(emblems, I suppose of " watchfulness,") but who did not seem to under- 
stand their duty very well, amused themselves, meanwhile, by wandering 
about among the pots and smelling at the flowers ! 
Retumins: from Nuestra Senora de Loreto, I found the streets crammed 
with people, among whom were crowds of ladies dressed quite as splen- 
didly as in the morning ; many of them still wore their diamonds, not- 
withstanding the imminent danger of robbery in such a concourse. The 
stores were all closed, the bells were silenced, and all was quiet but the 
hum of the crowd and the crack of the thousand rattles that filled the 
air like a meadow of grasshoppers. 
I went to the Profesa and found a similar display. I continued on to 
San Francisco, and there beheld the most tasteful and least childish of all 
these exhibitions. The walls of the church were hung with large pic- 
tures, portraying parts of the life of Christ ; and over the altar was a large 
architectural design, the outlines of which were marked with lights fast- 
ened on the canvas, so that the whole' picture seemed drawn with fire. 
The effect was novel and beautiful, and the better for a misty atmosphere 
in the church arising from the multitude of candles. 
In another of the seven chapels of San Francisco, a figure of our 
Lord, as large as life, was seated at the foot of the altar, crowned with 
thorns and bleeding at every pore ; while, at a side altar, was the Virgin, 
(again in becoming black velvet,) with a large straight svvord thrust 
through her -eart, and her eyes upturned like a dying Cleopatra. The 
crowd here v ds immense, and it was necessary to preserve order by sta- 
tioning guarc.s at all the doors. 
As I pas-^ed dovvn the street, I observed that numbers of booths had 
been erected at the principal corners and in the plaza. They are neatly 
made of reeds and matting, and their counters are woven over in front 
with sweet clover interlaced with flowers. Orgeat and other refreshing 
drinks only are sold in them, and in the whole throng of this day of idle- 
ness I have not met a drunken Indian or lepero. 
The Cathedral was also lighted up like the rest of the churches, and 
there was a similar display of ornaments. In the middle of the left aisle 
a silver altar had been erected, since yesterday, which reached nearly to 
the ceiling ; but it was tastelessly crowded with figures of saints and 
wooden pillars, painted to imitate marble. On this altar was displayed 
the Holy Sacrament during the period in which no consecration of the 
elements is permitted by the Church. 
