Page:Our Neighbor-Mexico.djvu/478

 466 the chief feature of the Indian worship consists in dances inside the church, which is of great size. Eye-witnesses assure me that at one time can be seen as many as sixteen distinct groups of dancers, each group with its separate band of music, all playing different tunes at the same time, and the worshipers tripping it merrily in different dances, producing a Babel confusion and a grotesque pantomime, which baffles description.

"These are of daily occurrence, and are a true and faithful specimen of the spiritual condition of the Mexican Indians of to-day."

The following placard and commentary show something of the perils our cause has to undergo. Their dates are late, and they, or others like them, we fear, are not yet concluded.



",—Either you are Catholic by name, or Catholics in fact. If you are Catholics in faith, give a terrible blow to these savages, intruders, and adventurers, who, to make themselves appear wise and important, and to assure to themselves a future without labor, attempt that which they do not understand—that band of filthy scoundrels, deluded sons of all the devils. Let us rise en masse to finish at once this accursed race, whose proper place is in hell, which is not complete without them. With one sure blow insure their death and the death of their families. Let a fiery death exterminate this sect of accursed wretches, who attempt to overthrow the Apostolic Roman Catholic religion, in which we will live and die.

"Unfurl proudly the standard of the Faith, and shout, 'Long live the religion! Viva la religion!! Death to the sons of Satan!!!'"