edios, and at nine o'clock the bells tolled for the procession, the
crowning scene of the fiesta. The church was emptied of its votaries,
and the plaza was alive with people hurrying to take a place in the
procession, or to see it pass. I climbed up into the Plaza de Toros,
and had a whole box to myself.

The space along the side of the bull-ring was thronged; and first came
a long procession of Indians with lighted candles; then the ministro
with the large silver salver, and money upon it, presenting it on
either side to receive additional offerings. As it passed, a woman
walked up and put upon it two reales, probably her all. Then came,
borne on a barrow above the heads of the crowd, the figure which had
attracted so much veneration in the church, Santiago on horseback, with
his scarlet and embroidered mantle and green velvet pantaloons bordered
with gold. This was followed by the cura, a fat, yellow-looking
half-bred, with his two dirty-faced assistants. Directly under me the
procession stopped, and the priests, turning toward the figure of the
saint, set up a chant. This over, the figure moved on, and stopping
from time to time, continued to work its way around the church, until
finally it was restored to its place on the altar. So ended the fair of
Jalacho and the fete of Santiago, the second which I had seen since my
arrival in the country, and both exhibiting the powerful influence of
the ceremonials of the church over the minds of the Indians. Throughout
the state, this class of the inhabitants pays annually a tax of twelve
reales per head for the support of the cura; and it was said on the
ground that the Indians at this fiesta had paid eight hundred dollars
for salves, five hundred for aves, and six hundred for masses, which,
if true, was an enormous sum out of their small earnings.

But the fiesta was over, and almost immediately the crowd was in
motion, preparing to set out for home. At three o'clock every street
was lined with people, some less and others more heavily laden than
they came, and some carrying home the respectable head of a family in a
state of brutal intoxication; and here I particularly remarked, what I
had frequently observed before, that among all the intoxication of the
Indians, it was a rare thing to see a woman in that state; it was
really an interesting spectacle to see these poor women, with their
children around them, supporting and conducting homeward their
intoxicated husbands.