Page:Appleton's Guide to Mexico.djvu/240

212 (coro) is finely carved. Formerly the passage-way from the choir to the high altar was inclosed with a silver railing, but during the revolution the Liberals entered the edifice and confiscated the precious metal. The silver doors on the tabernacles of the side chapels still remain. The fonts are of Mexican onyx, brought from Puebla, three hundred miles distant. It is said that the Cathedral received upward of $4,000,000 from the owners of mines in the neighborhood (at Ozumatlan), between the years 1758 and 1858. The inhabitants of Morelia worship the outside as well as the inside of the Cathedral, and it is customary for men to remove their hats while passing it. The stranger renders himself liable to insult if he fails to observe this usage. A Mexican peasant will often kneel in passing this holy of holies. In Morelia, as in some other cities, the people generally bow to the priest, or padre, whether they know him or not. When the priest wishes to administer the last rites of the Church to a person in articulo mortis, he repairs to the house in a close carriage, drawn by two white mules. It is usual to kneel in the streets while this carriage is passing, and the tourist will give great offense to the by-standers if he does not conform to this practice. Before the overthrow of the clerical party, the host was borne through the streets by a sort of procession, arranged as follows: First, a man with a bell; then the coach containing the sacrament, or estufa; then six attendants on each side of it, carrying large lanterns or torches; and three soldiers in the rear.

Protestants have often been mobbed or arrested, and in a few cases killed, for refusing to kneel on the approach of the host. The late Bishop Haven relates that, in the year 1824, in the City of Mexico, an American shoemaker was at work on his bench, near the doorway, on the first floor of a house. Presently the bell announced the coming of the priest bearing the host. A Mexican stepped into this doorway, and, kneeling on the floor, turned to see if the shoemaker was