t is a common practice for the devotee, in order to propitiate
it, to inflict upon himself some punishment or privation; such, for
example, as that of absenting himself from the theatre, or the bullfights
(_corridas de toros_), abstaining from eating dessert, or from going to
the promenade, balls, and routs. This is called making _a promise_. To
wear the habit (_llevar habito_) signifies to dress modestly, and in
clothes of a dark colour, and without any ornaments, until the desired
favour from the image be obtained, and, at the same time, wearing a medal
of the Virgin on the arm. Those persons who desire to carry these acts
of penance and mortification to a greater degree of perfection, adopt
much severer practices and even more painful, such as putting hard peas
into their shoes, wearing _cilicios_,--which are belts made of hogs'
bristles, and having sharp iron goads which penetrate the
flesh,--sleeping on the ground, and other foolish practices.

All those inflictions are performed only when the favour stipulated for
with the Virgin or the saints is obtained; so that if what is asked be
not granted, the devotee remains absolved from the conditional obligation
which he has contracted.

The practice of self-scourging has been established in the Roman Catholic
Church from time immemorial. In the religious orders, particularly those
of the Capuchines, there were appointed days, such as Good Friday, on
which a whipping, self-inflicted, was a rigorous obligation. Among
devotees it is a voluntary act, except when imposed by the confessor by
way of penance. The number of lashes depends on the time which it takes
to pray the _Miserere_. The instrument employed is exactly the same as
that known to the English as the "cat o' nine tails."

There is a society, or brotherhood, designated the school of Christ ("_La
Escuela de Cristo_"), very much addicted to this self-castigation. They
meet together regularly in a subterranean chapel, which is kept in total
darkness during their exercises. The priest who conducts them ascends a
pulpit, and all his performance consists in the most lamentable
exclamations, which excite not only the grief, but the horror, of the
hearers. Every thing in these meetings breathes obscurity, and is
calculated to appal the human mind. There nothing is heard of the
goodness of God, or of his mercy, but, on the contrary, he is represented
as an inexorable tyrant, always disposed to punish with the