Page:Life in Mexico vol 2.djvu/37



 Dia de Muertos — Leave Mexico — Herraderos — San Cristobal — Tunas — Plaza de toros — Throwing the laso — Accidents — Rustic breakfast — Country fare — Baked meat — Indian market — Buried bull — Mountain — Solitary hacienda — Reyes — Mules marked — Return — Queen of Spain's birth-day — Diplomatic dinner.

November 3d.

the second of November, a day which for eight centuries has been set apart in the Catholic Church for commemorating the dead, the day emphatically known as the "Dia de Muertos," the churches throughout all the Republic of Mexico present a gloomy spectacle; darkened and hung with black cloth, while in the middle aisle is a coffin, covered also with black, and painted with skulls and other emblems of mortality. Every one attends church in mourning, and considering the common lot of humanity, there is, perhaps, not one heart over the whole Catholic world, which is not wrung that day, in calling up the memory of the departed.

After early mass, we set off for Santiago, where we intend to spend a week, to be present at the Herraderos — the marking of the bulls with a hot iron with the initials of the proprietor's name; stamping them with the badge of slavery — which is said to be an extraordinary scene; to which all rancheros