Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/616

596 of Jonacatepec, state of Mexico, not far from the capital, a woman accused of witchcraft was burnt to death, after suffering much torture, by means of which the acknowledgment was wrung out of her that she was really a witch. On the 7th of April, 1874, two men were burnt at the stake, under a regular sentence of court, in San Juan de Jacobo, district of Concordia, in Sinaloa, for having, during the period of six months, bewitched another man. The authors of the outrage were arrested and subjected to a trial for murder.

Among the festivals which upon their yearly recurrence obtain a strict observance with a most marked devotion are the following: New-Year's day, epiphany, septuagesima, sexagesima, and quinquagesima Sundays, Shrovetide, Ash-Wednesday, lent, feast of the seven Dolours of the blessed virgin Mary, passion Sunday, palm Sunday, the holy week, and easter. During the holy week, the tragedy enacted in Syria nearly nineteen centuries ago has been reproduced almost to the life, even to the inflicting of lashes on the man personating the saviour. Christ's act of washing his apostles' feet was one of the ceremonies, and was generally performed by a person in high position, official or social, on twelve poor men who were afterward given generous alms. Maximilian did it in 1866. It has been for centuries a season of display of wealth as well as of piety. The lower classes, however, have ever devoted their special worship to the virgin Mary under the many names faith has given her. To the saviour, her son, they show a respectful pity, an humble and more distant adoration; but to Mary they give their whole confidence, looking up to her as their powerful intercessor in heaven. Hence her shrines are always well tended and filled with men and women on their knees, addressing themselves to her images with faces expressive of the most intense love and devotion.