Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/90

85 rolls by, but oftentimes when some other of the few clumsy vehicles kept by the wealthier inhabitants rumble along the pavement. Of this our own experience furnished an amusing, or I ought rather to say, melancholy proof. In this instance they bent the knee quite as devoutly to a coach full of obstinate heretics, as they could have done to the pseudo successor of St. Peter himself.

Strangers or heretics, for the words with them are synonymous, seldom receive so courteous a reception, especially the ladies, who, by their dress, are more easily recognized as foreigners. At them, or rather their bonnets, stones and dirt are not unfrequently thrown, accompanied by the elegant word “cochinas,” which, being translated, signifies that respectable community, the swine.

Even the better educated are slaves to the superstitions of the church of Rome. To images of saints and to church doors every passer by takes off the hat, and at ten in the morning when the bell tolls to announce the raising of the host in the cathedral, the streets and shops, salas and kitchens, are alike filled with devout kneelers.

The etiquette connected with visiting the archbishop partakes a little of the same character. As the visitor enters, the archbishop rises to meet him, and presents his finger, on which is a valuable diamond ring called “La Esposa” the bride,