a. Coming
directly from home, we were not so much excited as when we reached it
after a toilsome and comfortless journey in Central America; but even
now it would ill become me to depreciate it, for the donna had read the
account of my former visit to Merida, and she said, with an emphasis
that covered all the rest, that the dates of arrival and departure as
therein mentioned corresponded exactly with the entries in her book.

We had arrived at Merida at an opportune moment. As on the occasion of
our first visit, it was again a season of fiesta. The fete of San
Cristoval, an observance of nine days, was then drawing to its close,
and that evening a grand _function_ was to be performed in the church
dedicated to that saint. We had no time to lose, and, after a hasty
supper, under the guidance of an Indian lad belonging to the house, we
set out for the church. Very soon we were in the main street leading to
it, along which, as it seemed, the whole population of Merida was
moving to the fete. In every house a lantern hung from the balconied
windows, or a long candle stood under a glass shade, to light them on
their way. At the head of the street was a large plaza, on one side of
which stood the church, with its great front brilliantly illuminated,
and on the platform and steps, and all the open square before it, was a
great moving mass of men, women, and children, mostly Indians, dressed
in white.

We worked our way up to the door, and found the church within a blaze
of light. Two rows of high candlesticks, with wax candles eight or ten
feet high, extended the whole length from the door to the altar. On
each side hung innumerable lamps, dotting the whole space from the
floor to the ceiling; and back at the extreme end, standing on an
elevated platform, was an altar thirty feet high, rich with silver
ornaments and vases of flowers, and hung with innumerable lamps
brilliantly burning. Priests in glittering vestments were officiating
before it, music was swelling through the corridor and arches, and the
floor of the immense church was covered with women on their knees,
dressed in white, with white shawls over their heads. Through the
entire body of the church not a man was to be seen. Near us was a bevy
of young girls, beautifully dressed with dark eyes, and their hair
adorned with flowers, sustaining, though I was now a year older and
colder, my previous impressions of the beauty of the ladies of Merida.

The chant died s