a little before two the padrecito disappeared from my
side, and soon after the ball broke up, and all moved toward the house.
When I entered, the padrecito was in his robes before the image of the
saint, singing a salve. The Indian sexton was perfuming it with
incense, and the dancers were all on their knees before it, each with a
lighted candle in her hand. This over, came the procession de las
velas, or of the candles. The cross led the way; then the figure of the
saint, a drunken Indian sexton perfuming it with incense. The
padrecito, in taking his place behind it, took my arm and carried me
along; the patron of the saint supported me on the other side. We were
the only men in the procession. An irregular troop of women followed,
all in their ball dresses, and bearing long lighted candles. Moving on
to the church, we restored the saint to his altar, and set up the
candles in rough wooden tripods, to be ready for grand mass the next
morning. At this time a discharge of rockets was heard without, and
going out, I saw another strange procession. We had all the women; this
was composed entirely of men, and might have passed for a jubilee over
the downfall of temperance. Nearly all were more than half intoxicated;
and I noticed that some who had kept sober during the whole of the
fiesta were overtaken at last. The procession was preceded by files of
them in couples, each carrying two plates, for the purpose of receiving
some of the dishes provided by the bounty of the patron. Next came,
borne on barrows on the shoulders of Indians, two long, ugly boxes, the
emblems of the custody and property of the saint, one of them being
filled with wax received as offerings, ropes for the fireworks, and
other property belonging to the saint, which were about being carried
to the house of the person now entitled to their custody; and the other
had contained these things, and was to remain with its present keeper
as a sort of holy heirloom. Behind these, also on the shoulders of
Indians, were two men, sitting side by side in large arm-chairs, with
scarfs around their necks, and holding on desperately to the arms of
the chairs, with an expression of face that seemed to indicate a
consciousness that their elevation above their fellow-citizens was
precarious, and of uncertain duration, for their Indian carriers were
reeling and staggering under their load and agua ardiente. These were
the hermanos de la misa, or brothers of the mass, the las