Indeed Among People Of The
Character Of These Mexicans, The Waltz Seemed To Me To Have Found
Its Right Place.
The great amusement of the evening, - which
I suppose was owing to its being carnival - was the breaking of
eggs filled with cologne, or other essences, upon the heads of
the company.
One end of the egg is broken and the inside taken
out, then it is partly filled with cologne, and the whole sealed
up. The women bring a great number of these secretly about them,
and the amusement is to break one upon the head of a gentleman
when his back is turned. He is bound in gallantry to find out
the lady and return the compliment, though it must not be done
if the person sees you. A tall, stately Don, with immense grey
whiskers, and a look of great importance, was standing before me,
when I felt a light hand on my shoulder, and turning round, saw Donna
Angustia, (whom we all knew, as she had been up to Monterey, and down
again, in the Alert,) with her finger upon her lip, motioning me
gently aside. I stepped back a little, when she went up behind
the Don, and with one hand knocked off his huge sombrero, and at
the same instant, with the other, broke the egg upon his head,
and springing behind me, was out of sight in a moment. The Don
turned slowly round, the cologne, running down his face, and over
his clothes, and a loud laugh breaking out from every quarter.
He looked round in vain, for some time, until the direction of
so many laughing eyes showed him the fair offender.
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