g long sticks or poles, they move
about accompanied by burlesque music. Every remarkable incident that has
occurred in the families of the town during the course of the year, is
made the subject of a song in the Quichua language; and these songs are
sung in the streets by the _Corcobados_. Matrimonial quarrels are
favorite subjects, and are always painted with high comic effect in
these satirical songs. The Corcobados go about for two days; and they
usually wind up their performances by drinking and fighting. When two
groups of these Corcobados meet together, and the one party assails with
ridicule anything which the other is disposed to defend, a terrible
affray usually ensues, and the sticks which have served as hobby-horses,
are converted into weapons of attack.

In order to facilitate the conversion of the idolatrous Indians, the
Spanish monks who accompanied Pizarro's army, sought to render the
Christian religion as attractive as possible in the eyes of the heathen
aborigines of Peru. With this view they conceived the idea of
dramatizing certain scenes in the life of Christ, and having them
represented in the churches. In the larger towns these performances have
long since been discontinued, but they are still kept up in most of the
villages of the Sierra; indeed the efforts made by enlightened
ecclesiastics for their suppression, have been met with violent
opposition on the part of the Indians.

On Palm Sunday, an image of the Saviour seated on an ass is paraded
about the principal streets of the town or village. The Indians strew
twigs of palm over the animal, and contend one with another for the
honor of throwing their ponchos down on the ground, in order that the
ass may walk over them. The animal employed in this ceremony is, when
very young, singled out for the purpose, and is never suffered to carry
any burthen save the holy image. He is fed by the people, and at every
door at which he stops, the inmates of the house pamper him up with the
best fodder they can procure. The ass is looked upon as something almost
sacred, and is never named by any other appellation than the _Burro de
Nuestro Senor_ (our Lord's ass). In some villages I have seen these
animals so fat that they were scarcely able to walk.

Good Friday is solemnized in a manner the effect of which, to the
unprejudiced foreigner, is partly burlesque and partly seriously
impressive. From the early dawn of morning the church is thronged with
Indian