Page:Our Neighbor-Mexico.djvu/196

 186 These vast columns, ninety feet high, support a vaster roof, that seems almost aerial in its height and grace. The springing arches bend like a hand of heaven, each ridge a finger, above the prostrate worshipers. The altar is of polished pillars of marble, with each groove edged with gold plate. The effect is very brilliant, the play of gold on the variegated marbles being strange and striking. One could hardly tell if they were not all gold. Inside these flashing



columns is a mass of polished green and almost translucent marble, and above and around it hang all manner of images: popes and ecclesiastics, angels and apostles, and, over all, Mary, God blessed forever in this ornate idolatry. The chapel in the rear of the high altar is a mass of gilded and graven images, as are all the chapels in the chief churches in all the cities. None is more resplendent than one in the old Church