Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/251

Rh been in search, not of an honest diversion, but of a ruinous game.

The BULL FEASTS have their determinate time and place. When the prize-fighters are denied an opportunity to display their valour, they are admired on account of their legerity. The custom of hamstringing the bull that does not attack, is very censurable: another method ought to be devised to kill him, without resorting to this one, which conveys with it an idea of cold and deliberate treachery. The spectators are not a little molested by the importunities of the venders of a particular description of punch, stiled by them agua de berros (cress-water), so much overcharged with brandy, that it would be fatal in any other country less moderate than Peru. In this diversion the mode is not so cruel as it was six or eight years ago. A fighter at a bull-feast is represented in Plate VIII.

The ASSEMBLAGES of company on the banks of the Amancaes river, commence on St. John's day, the 24th of June, and terminate at the close of September. The excursions to the hills adjacent to Lima take place at the same time. The gentle garua, descending from that station, covers with shurbs