Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/301

 presence of delighted crowds. Then, also, the bells in the towers ring out their chorus of rejoicing, and a peculiar apparatus, also in the cathedral tower, makes a loud, crackling noise, which the crowds understand well to mean the breaking of the bones of the thieves on the cross.

TravellersTravelers [sic] of forty years ago tell us of the murdering of men guilty of a failure to bend the knee at the approach of the Host, when passing through the street attended by the priests; but such a thing is no longer possible. I was surprised one day, on crossing the Plaza, at seeing everybody drop down upon their knees, and received some very black looks from some