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300 There is no limit whatever to the stake, and unfair play is out of the question, but the chances are so much in favour of the table, that few persons continue winners for any length of time.

During the whole fair the streets and squares of San Agustin are filled, by day and by night, with crowds of people, who sleep à la belle étoile, or take shelter under the carriages, with which the Plaza is crowded. Provisions of all kinds are to be found in booths erected for the occasion; horses and mules are picketed in every direction round the town; temporary huts are raised with boughs and mats, and as a profusion of flowers is used in all these structures, nothing can be more variegated than the appearance of this motley scene. In the evening, the cockpit is carpeted, and lighted up with chandeliers; cushions are placed upon the benches, looking-glasses suspended from the wooden pillars, and, as the roof, which is of shingles, is concealed, in part, by a quantity of green boughs, the whole forms a pretty, circular ball-room, in which all the élite, and all the refuse, of Mexican society may be seen assembled at the same time. The lower classes, however, are excluded from the centre of the house, into which no one improperly dressed is admitted, and forced to take their seats upon the higher tiers of benches. Here they exercise the usual privilege of the one-shilling gallery, by applauding most vociferously the performances of any lady, whose style of dancing happens to please them, and by calling