Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/73

CH. IV.] guitars played to good time, which was rendered more distinct and marked by the spectators, many of whom accompanied it by tattooing with their fingers on the benches or any thing else near them equally convenient for the purpose. Two or three of them who had unemployed guitars, and were not acquainted with the use of the strings, or perhaps with the tune which was playing, shewed a wonderful dexterity in the use of their fingers, by thrumming on the back of the instrument with such correctness as to give the stress and feeling of the air in the most perfect manner, without the intonation and cadence of the notes. There were relays of dancers as well as of musicians, so that the amusement was kept up, without intermission, for two or three hours. The dance was, throughout, a repetition of the Spanish bolero in its original, unscientific, form. A couple of each sex were not only partners, but danced entirely independent of all the rest, and when they were tired they made room for another party. They begin