Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/236

228 cathedral commenced, which was finished in 1667, at a total expense little short of $2,000,000. It occupies the eastern side of the great plaza, is of the shape of a cross, 426 feet long, 200 wide, and 175 feet high, with massive towers reaching an altitude of 200 feet. Joined to it is a sister church, the Sagrario, or church of the parish, the florid and almost grotesque façade of which forms a decided contrast with the grand and imposing front of the cathedral. Until very recently, these were enclosed by a line of chains hung between about one hundred stone posts, the two corner pillars opposite the plaza supporting a cross with a ghastly emblem of death at its base,—a skull skilfully carved from marble, and an entwined serpent. This enclosure, which was a favorite resort of the bird-sellers, Indians with light wares for sale, leperos, and beggars, has been converted into an attractive garden. Many a time have I seen groups of dirty men and women of the proletarians crouched at the bases of these pillars,—not in worship or adoration, but engaged in threading with their bony fingers one another's hair, in eager search for that hemipterous insect so rarely seen except on the filthiest of the human species.

The interior of the grand cathedral is, even at the present day, after having been successively plundered, most magnificent. It contains five naves, six altars, and fourteen chapels, which contain the bones of some of the viceroys and departed great men of Mexico. The Glory of the Cupola, Virgin, and revered saints, were painted by celebrated artists. A balustrade surrounds the choir, of a metal so rich that an offer to replace it with one of equal weight in solid silver was refused. This weighs twenty-six tons, and came from China in the old days of Spanish dominion, when the richly freighted galleons of Spain sent their cargoes overland from Acapulco to Vera Cruz, on the way to the mother country. The high altar was formerly the richest in the world, and yet retains much of its original glory. It contained candlesticks of gold, so heavy that a single one was more than a man could lift, chalices, cruets, and pixes of gold encrusted with precious stones, censers, crosses, and statues of the same precious metal, studded with emeralds,