a quarter cents. The
largest amount proclaimed by the boy was twenty-seven dollars and three
reals, which, divided among four hundred and thirty-eight players, did
not make very heavy gambling. In fact, an old gentleman near whom I was
standing told me it was a small affair, and not worth learning; but he
added that there was a place in the neighbourhood where they played
monte for doubloons. The whole amount circulated during the evening
fell far short of what is often exchanged at a small party in a private
drawing-room at home, and among those who would not relish the
imputation of being accounted gamblers. In fact, it is perhaps but just
to say that this great concourse of people was not brought together by
the spirit of gambling. The people of Merida are fond of amusements,
and in the absence of theatres and other public entertainments, the
loteria is a great gathering-place, where persons of all ages and
classes go to meet acquaintances. Rich and poor, great and small, meet
under the same roof on a footing of perfect equality; good feeling is
cultivated among all without any forgetting their place. Whole families
go thither together; young people procure seats near each other, and
play at more desperate games than the loteria, where hearts, or at
least hands, are at stake, and perhaps that night some bold player, in
losing his medios, drew a richer prize than the large purse of
twenty-seven dollars and three reals. In fact, the loteria is
considered merely an accessory to the pleasures of social intercourse;
and, instead of gaming, it might be called a grand _conversacione_, but
not very select; at least such was our conclusion; and there was
something to make us rather uncharitable, for the place was hot enough
to justify an application to it of the name bestowed in common parlance
on the gambling-houses of London and Paris.

At about eleven o'clock we left. On our way down the street we passed
the open door of a house in which were tables piled with gold and
silver, and men around playing what, in the opinion of my old adviser
of the loteria, was a game worth learning. We returned to the house,
and found, what in our haste to be at the fiesta we had paid no
attention to, that Dona Micaela could give us but one room, and that a
small one, and near the door. As we expected to remain some days in
Merida, we determined the next morning to take a house and go to
housekeeping. While arranging ourselves for the night,