To Pass Away The Time, We Took Horses And Rode Down To The
Beach, And There Found Three Or Four Italian Sailors, Mounted, And
Riding Up And Down, On The Hard Sand, At A Furious Rate.
We joined
them, and found it fine sport.
The beach gave us a stretch of a mile
or more, and the horses flew over the smooth, hard sand, apparently
invigorated and excited by the salt sea-breeze, and by the continual
roar and dashing of the breakers. From the beach we returned to
the town, and finding that the funeral procession had moved, rode
on and overtook it, about half-way to the mission. Here was as
peculiar a sight as we had seen before in the house; the one looking
as much like a funeral procession as the other did like a house of
mourning. The little coffin was borne by eight girls, who were
continually relieved by others, running forward from the procession
and taking their places. Behind it came a straggling company of
girls, dressed as before, in white and flowers, and including, I should
suppose by their numbers, nearly all the girls between five and fifteen
in the place. They played along on the way, frequently stopping
and running all together to talk to some one, or to pick up a flower,
and then running on again to overtake the coffin. There were a few
elderly women in common colors; and a herd of young men and boys,
some on foot and others mounted, followed them, or walked or rode
by their side, frequently interrupting them by jokes and questions.
But the most singular thing of all was, that two men walked,
one on each side of the coffin, carrying muskets in their hands,
which they continually loaded, and fired into the air.
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