Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/289

 MExrco- 249 sistence depends upon the contributions of their parishioners; which, in general, are regulated by custom, and not by law : they consist of marriage and baptismal fees, and certain dues payable on burials, masses, and other church ceremonies, most of which are very exorbitant, and produce a most demo- ralizing effect amongst the Indian population. For instance, in States, where the daily wages of the labourer do not exceed two reals, and Mfhere a cottage can be built for four dollars, its unfortunate inhabitants are forced to pay twenty-two dol- lars for their marriage fees ; a sum which exceeds half their yearly earnings, in a country where Feast and Fast days re- duce the number of dias utiles (on which labour is permitted) to about one hundred and seventy-five. The consequence is, that the Indian either cohabits with his future wife until she becomes pregnant, (when the priest is compelled to marry them with, or without, fees,) or, if more religiously disposed, contracts debts, and even commits thefts, rather than not satisfy the demands of the ministers of that religion, the spirit of which appears to be so little understood. Throughout the Bishopric of Valladolid the marriage fees vary from seventeen to twenty-two dollars : in La Puebla, Durango, and Mexico, they are from fourteen to eighteen dol- lars, according to the supposed means of the parties; and these enormous sums are extorted from the meanest pa- rishioners. The fees on baptisms, and burials, are likewise very high. In the Mining districts, each miner pays iveekly to the Church, half a real (a medio), in order to provide for the expenses of his funeral ; and on the day of the Haya (the weekly pay- ment), an agent of the Cur a is always present to receive it. Thus twenty-six reals, or three dollars and two reals (thirteen shillings English money), are paid annually, by each mining labourer, in full health and employment, in order to secure the privilege of a mass being read over his body upon his de- cease. An Indian, who lives ten years under such a system,