Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/300

292 far as their morals and faith are concerned; indeed, I believe they are more worthy of respect than formerly,—that their trials have purified them, and that they are capable, perhaps desirous, of wheeling to the right about, and joining the march of progress, leaving behind them the dead and corrupt superstitions that wrecked them and their hopes.

Stripped of their power by the enactments of 1857, the number of churches reduced to just enough to provide for the actual needs of the people, forbidden themselves to wear their priestly robes in the street, or to fill the air with the perpetual clamor of clanging bells, the clergy of Mexico have held a very painful position. Although we recognize the justness and necessity of the laws of reform, yet we cannot but pity those men in holy office when the thunderbolt fell, who now suffer for the sins of their predecessors.

But though religious processions through the street are prohibited in Mexico, the people do not fail to celebrate the feast days and the festivals. They respect not the Sabbath, nor the priest, but they have a sort of reverence for the saints. Of the three hundred and sixty-five saints in the Mexican calendar, not all, fortunately, are entitled to the honor of a holiday; but many are,—enough seriously to interfere with business, and consume the earnings of the people.

I witnessed several such festivities while in the country; but none seemed to me more grotesque and curious than that of Good Friday, when a final disposition was made of the arch-traitor Judas, against whom the Mexicans seem to have a special spite and wreak their vengeance upon him in a number of ingenious ways. All day long men are parading the streets with effigies of the betrayer hanging from poles, and hundreds are sold, especially to the children, who blow up these images with a gusto and delight only paralleled by our small boy on the Fourth of July. Each image, made of papier-maché, is filled with explosives, and has a fuse, like a fire-cracker, and is touched off by the juveniles amid great rejoicing. The thing culminates at evening, when immense Judases are hung up in prominent places, generally at the intersection of the streets, and exploded in the