be met with; and this was especially remarkable in a
group which it becomes necessary here to describe.

It consisted of twelve persons, the majority of whom were fantastically
attired in the national costumes of the various Indian tribes. These
were grouped round a _carro_, or two-wheeled cart in so picturesque a
manner, that it was easy to see that their performance had been
preconcerted and rehearsed. They wore symbols of mourning, and seemed
acting as pall-bearers and followers of a funeral; while upon the cart
itself were two figures, in which the horrible and the comic were
blended after a most extraordinary fashion. One of them was a Torso,
from whose breast and headless neck, and on the stumps of his arms and
legs, blood was incessantly dropping, and as fast as it dropped, it was
greedily licked up by several persons in Spanish masks and dresses. The
mutilated form seemed still to have life in it, for it groaned and gave
out hollow sounds of agony and complaint; at the same time struggling,
but in vain, to shake off a monster that sat vampire-like upon its body,
and dug its tiger claws into the breast of the sufferer. The aspect of
this monster was as strange as that of its victim. It had the cowl, and
the sleek but sinister countenance of well-fed Dominican friar; on its
right hand was fixed a blazing torch, on its left stood a dog that
barked continually; its head was covered with a brass basin, apparently
meant to represent the barber helmet of the knight of La Mancha. From
the shoulders of the figure protruded a pair of dusky wings, not unlike
those with which griffins and other fabulous monsters are represented in
old books of heraldry; its back was terminated by the tail of the
coyote, or Mexican wolf; while the claws with which it seemed digging
into the very bowels of the Torso, were those of caguar or tiger.

This singular pageant passed through the Tacuba street into that of San
Agustin, thence through the Plateria and the Calle Aguila into the
quarter of the city known as the Trespana, where it came to a halt
before the hotel of the same name. During this progress, the crowd of
Indians, Metises, and other coloured races, had been augmented by
numerous parties of Creoles; while the Spaniards contented themselves
with gazing distrustfully at the procession from the windows of their
houses. The strange group was now surrounded by thousands of Zambos,
Creoles, Metises, and Indians, presenting a variety a