They Looked As Grave As Though They Were Going Through Some
Religious Ceremony, Their Faces As Little Excited As Their
Limbs;
and on the whole, instead of the spirited, fascinating Spanish
dances which I had expected, I found the Californian
Fandango,
on the part of the women at least, a lifeless affair. The men
did better. They danced with grace and spirit, moving in circles
round their nearly stationary partners, and showing their figures
to great advantage.
A great deal was said about our friend Don Juan Bandini, and when he
did appear, which was toward the close of the evening, he certainly
gave us the most graceful dancing that I had ever seen. He was
dressed in white pantaloons neatly made, a short jacket of dark
silk, gaily figured, white stockings and thin morocco slippers
upon his very small feet. His slight and graceful figure was
well calculated for dancing, and he moved about with the grace
and daintiness of a young fawn. An occasional touch of the
toe to the ground, seemed all that was necessary to give him a
long interval of motion in the air. At the same time he was not
fantastic or flourishing, but appeared to be rather repressing a
strong tendency to motion. He was loudly applauded, and danced
frequently toward the close of the evening. After the supper,
the waltzing began, which was confined to a very few of the "gente
de razón," and was considered a high accomplishment, and a mark of
aristocracy. Here, too, Don Juan figured greatly, waltzing with the
sister of the bride, (Donna Angustia, a handsome woman and a general
favorite,) in a variety of beautiful, but, to me, offensive figures,
which lasted as much as half an hour, no one else taking the floor.
They were repeatedly and loudly applauded, the old men and women
jumping out of their seats in admiration, and the young people
waving their hats and handkerchiefs. 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. She was his
niece, and a great favorite with him, so old Don Domingo had to
join in the laugh. A great many such tricks were played, and many
a war of sharp manoeuvering was carried on between couples of the
younger people, and at every successful exploit a general laugh
was raised.
Another singular custom I was for some time at a loss about.
A pretty young girl was dancing, named, after what would appear to
us the sacrilegious custom of the country - Espiritu Santo, when a
young man went behind her and placed his hat directly upon her
head, letting it fall down over her eyes, and sprang back among
the crowd. She danced for some time with the hat on, when she
threw it off, which called forth a general shout; and the young
man was obliged to go out upon the floor and pick it up. Some of
the ladies, upon whose heads hats had been placed, threw them off
at once, and a few kept them on throughout the dance, and took
them off at the end, and held them out in their hands, when the
owner stepped out, bowed, and took it from them. I soon began
to suspect the meaning of the thing, and was afterward told that
it was a compliment, and an offer to become the lady's gallant
for the rest of the evening, and to wait upon her home. If the
hat was thrown off, the offer was refused, and the gentleman was
obliged to pick up his hat amid a general laugh. Much amusement
was caused sometimes by gentlemen putting hats on the ladies' heads,
without permitting them to see whom it was done by. This obliged
them to throw them off, or keep them on at a venture, and when they
came to discover the owner, the laugh was often turned upon them.
The captain sent for us about ten o'clock, and we went aboard in
high spirits, having enjoyed the new scene much, and were of great
importance among the crew, from having so much to tell, and from the
prospect of going every night until it was over; for these fandangos
generally last three days. The next day, two of us were sent up to
the town, and took care to come back by way of Capitan Noriego's
and take a look into the booth.
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