Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/281

Rh With any kind of procession they are highly delighted. When the holy oil is carried to the villages, it is preceded by a drum, and escorted by a troop of Indians. The feasts of the church are observed chiefly by dances, and the discharge of sky-rockets, and other fireworks, an amusement of which they are passionately fond; and as the manufacture of gunpowder is a government monopoly, the practice is of course not discouraged.

Some instances have occurred, in which Indians have died possessed of considerable property; but of late years they have not had opportunities for acquiring wealth, and seldom provide either for age or sickness. As buyers they are cautious, and very much afraid of being deceived, but as sellers they are exceedingly anxious to impose. The men who bring wood, or grass for the cattle, invariably ask three times as much as they mean to take, and I have seen a quantity of charcoal, for which twenty rials was obstinately demanded, at length purchased of the same individual for five rials.

During the Spanish government, a personal tax was imposed upon every Indian, of four rials; by the payment of which, they were exempted from all other imposts, and were not liable to serve in the army. At the revolution this tax was repealed, and they became subject to the duties imposed on the rest of the