Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/94

 70 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA church and fandangos Californians all found a level." At weddings, the music of cachuca and jota twanged without ceasing for three days and nights. Christenings were celebrated by a salute of pis- tols as the babe and its attendants left the church, and by much drinking of red wine. At funerals there was " feasting, fighting, praying, and a camp-fire before the house if the weather was cold." On Christmas Eve, Spanish and Mexican families hung lanterns about the inner court of their houses and gave gifts. On September 16th the Indians gathered in the villages and with their painted dances to Sun, Water and Moon, their oratory and games of taker sia made cause with their Mexican neighbours over the anniversary of Mexico's independence from Spain and the birth of the Republic. In remote settlements the priest's semi-annual visit to " confess, baptise, marry, bury, and administer communion " was seized upon as an opportunity for carnal orgies which lasted for days. But of all old California's rubied revelries none could compare with the round-up, the rodeo, the festival of the horsemen. The Spaniards, " intrepid cavaliers, managed their steeds with remarkable adresse, neglecting for this exercise all other work." Bidden to the estate of a lord-of-many-acres, men groomed their horses, not forgetting to fasten a rose for their