Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/343

Rh with the approbation of the royal audience; but have not any funds for the support of their religious association, except the gratuitous contributions collected among themselves.

The festival which more especially excites them to a display of all their show and finery, is that of the Sunday of the octaves of Corpus Christi day. All the tribes unite for the procession, which sets out on that day from the great convent of Santo Domingo. Each carries its banner, and a canopy, beneath which proceeds the king or queen, with a sceptre in the right hand, and a staff, or some other instrument, in the left. These personages are accompanied by all the individuals belonging to the nation, provided with certain noisy instruments of music, the greater part of them having a very disagreeable sound. Those who compose the retinue of the kings or queens, vie with each other in the adoption of the most horrible costumes. Some appear in the guise of devils; others are covered with feathers from head to foot; others imitate bears, with skins thrown over them; and others, again, represent monsters, with horns, claws of lions, tails of serpents, and feathers of hawks. They are all of them armed with bows, arrows, clubs and shields. They stain the face of a red or blue colour, according to the usage of the countries which gave them birth; and introduce into the procession certain horrid shouts and gestures, as terrific as if they were in reality engaged in the attack of an enemy. The seriousness and ferocious enthusiasm with which these scenes are represented, afford us an idea of the barbarity that would accompany their martial assaults. The decorations, which would be highly agreeable in a masquerade of carnival time, seem to be indecent in an ecclesiastical performance, and still more so in a proces-