'Can You, Oh, Insensate Crowd!' He Would Cry, 'Can You Sit
In Silence?' - But Here His Voice Was Drowned In An Overwhelming Cry
Of Loudest Woe, From Every Part Of The Church; And For Five Minutes
All Further Effort To Make Himself Heard Was Unavailing.
This
singular scene continued for nearly half an hour; then, by degrees,
the vehement grief of the congregation abated, and when I left the
cathedral it had subsided once more into low sobs and silent tears.
"I now took my way, with many others, to the Church of San Francisco,
where, in an open space in front of the church, I found that the duty
of the day had advanced to the funeral service, which was about being
celebrated. There a scaffolding was erected, and the crucifixion
exactly represented by wooden figures, not only of our Lord, but of
the two thieves. A pulpit was erected in front of the scaffold; and
the whole square was covered by the devout inhabitants of the city.
The same kind of scene was being enacted here as at the cathedral,
with the difference, however, of the circumstantial funeral in place
of the death. The orator's discourse when I arrived was only here and
there interrupted by a suppressed moan, or a struggling sigh, to be
heard in the crowd. But when he commenced giving directions for the
taking down of the body from the cross, the impatience of grief began
to manifest itself on all sides, 'Mount up,' he cried, 'ye holy
ministers, mount up, and prepare for the sad duty which ye have to
perform!' Here six or eight persons, covered from head to foot with
ample black cloaks, ascended the scaffold. Now the groans of the
people became more audible; and when at length directions were given
to strike out the first nail, the cathedral scene of confusion, which
I have just described, began, and all the rest of the preacher's
oratory was dumb show. The body was at length deposited in the
coffin, and the groaning and shrieking of the assembled multitude
ceased. A solemn funeral ceremony took place: every respectable
person received a great wax taper to carry in the procession: the
coffin after being carried all round was deposited in the church: the
people dispersed; and the great day of Passion Week was brought to a
close."
CHAPTER IX.
EXPEDITION TO THE SUN-WORSHIPPERS. [Footnote: An account of this
expedition was requested by and sent to the Royal Geographical
Society of London, Eng.]
I took passage on the "Urano," a steamer of 1,500 tons, for
Concepcion, 200 miles north of Asuncion.
On the second day of our journey the people on board celebrated a
church feast, and the pilot, in his anxiety to do it well, got
helplessly drunk. The result was that during that night I was thrown
out of the top berth I occupied by a terrific thud. The steamer had
run on the sandbank of an uninhabited island, and there she stuck
fast - immovable.
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