to which
the man exposed himself, to a certain extent atoned for the barbarities
inflicted on the bull. Here for eight days bulls with blunted horns had
been stabbed, mangled, and tortured; many, no doubt, died of their
wounds, or were killed because they could not recover; and that day we
had seen four men struck down and carried off, two of whom had narrowly
escaped with their lives, if, indeed, they ever recovered. After the
immediate excitement of the danger, the men were less objects of
commiseration than the beasts, but the whole showed the still bloody
effects of this modified system of bull-fighting. Men go into all
places without shame, though not without reproach, but I am happy in
being able to say that none of what are called the higher classes of
the ladies of Merida were present. Still there were many whose young
and gentle faces did not convey the idea that they could find pleasure
in scenes of blood, even though but the blood of brutes.

In the evening we took another hot-bath at the loteria, and the next
day was Sunday, the last day of the fiesta, which opened in the morning
with grand mass in the church of San Cristoval. The great church, the
paintings and altars, the burning of incense, the music, the imposing
ceremonies of the altar, and the kneeling figures, inspired, as they
always do, if not a religious, at least a solemn feeling; and, as on
the occasion of grand mass in the Cathedral on my first visit to
Merida, among the kneeling figures of the women my eyes rested upon one
with a black mantle over her head, a prayer-book in her hand, and an
Indian woman by her side, whose face exhibited a purity and
intellectual softness which it was easy for the imagination to invest
with all those attributes that make woman perfect. Whether she was
maid, wife, or widow, I never learned.

At four o'clock in the afternoon we set out for the procession and
paseo. The intense heat of the day was over, there was shade in the
streets, and a fresh evening breeze. The streets through which the
procession was to pass were adorned with branches, and at the corners
were large collections of them, forming groves of green. The balconies
of the windows were hung with silk curtains and banners, and in the
doorways and along the walks sat rows of ladies simply but beautifully
dressed, without hats, their hair adorned with flowers, and their necks
with jewels. Near the church of San Cristoval we were arrested by the
crowd,