Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/468



438 ASUNCION,

divided his temple into male and female. At other times there were so few voices and so many echoes that imagina- tion took the mors au dents. I was once startled by the impudence of a French " Frere ignorantin/' who^ disturbed in fierce love-making to a pretty Paraguayan, stared fiercely at me from his stray corner, as if I, forsooth_, had been the ofi'ender. Here reposes the terrible Doctor Francia ; he never decreed for himself a monument,, holding, probably, that " pourrir sous du marbre on pourrir sous la terre, c^est toujours pourrir/^

A few steps lead to the main square, the Plaza de la Cathedral, or de Gobierno, the nucleus of the old town, which, however, has lost all its antique aspect. In the raised centre reviews were held, the public rejoiced in Christmas *^*^ tamashas,"*^ such as races of 200 yards, fire- works, the sortija or running at a ring, and the gomba or <( nigger-dance -" here Toros fought in real earnest, not like the bull-play of Lisbon and other places. It was, in fact, the site for spectacula and circenses. Facing the river side is the Cabildo, a ponderous two-storied building of the parallelo- pipedonic order. The central pediment bears the usual two medallions ; the upper one has " Republica de Paraguay" in- scribed in crescent shape over a vulgar " lone star" — here with eight rays, and in other places with six — their sup- porters being crossed branches of yerba and tobacco, which show but little difference. The lower oval has the same external legend, half circling a medallion, whose rim bears the yerba and tobacco, whilst the centre is inscribed with " Paz y Jastiza,^' bisected by a pole which bears a Liberty cap and stands upon a lion passant. This Paraguayan coat of arms here appears everywhere, in place and out of place, from the buttons of the soldiers^ uniforms to the fa9ade of the cathedral. The Cabildo is supported by piers ; whilst under it are dungeons more terrible than the Piombi of