Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/139

Rh to the afternoon prayers, recitations are to be repeated before it every night, at eight o'clock. I asked how this could be reconciled with the honour due only to the “one Mediator appointed between God and man—the man Christ Jesus;” but could get no other reply than, “Ave Maria Santissima.” The Virgin, is here the chief object of adoration; if any thing be lost, she is solicited to restore it, or to direct where it may be found; if any be sick, she is implored to heal, and on every occasion is addressed as an appointed mediator. The tradition given respecting her transit, as it is termed, in a small book of prayers for the fifteen days, is, “That at the day of Pentecost, she was in the house with the apostles, and was the first who received the gift of the spirit; that a voice was heard from heaven, saying, 'Come, my dove, my friend, my spouse!' and that immediately her soul ascended to heaven, her body remaining on the earth, shining like the sun.” The apostles, it is added, buried it, and after three days, it was raised again, and exalted at the right hand of the Saviour, where she has since remained, to intercede with her Son, for all the faithful.

August 26. Violent thunderstorm with very vivid flashes of lightning; the electric fluid fell in six or seven different parts of the city, scorching the goods in some of the tiendas, but happily