the maid vowed a dozen candles to be burned on Santa Lucia if the saint would restore the missing instrument. No sooner promised than responded to, for on returning to the dining-room there lay the crooked thing on the centre of the table; and both vow that it was neither there when they left the room, a few minutes previously, nor had any one but themselves had access to it. The mistress assured me of her firm belief in the interposition of the saint on this occasion, and, of course, the maid would not dare doubt.

Many of them being in colored lanterns, the effect of the lights is very pretty on a dark ground; and it is probably as innocent a method in which to spend money as any other, whilst it gives encouragement to one branch of domestic industry, candle-making. It was maliciously said that these light-manufacturers encouraged belief in the miraculous deeds of the saint to serve their own ends. The illuminations continued from Assumption day until late in September, Santa Lucia often presenting a brilliant spectacle from the multitudes of lights arranged in crosses, triumphal arches, or other fancy forms, not unfrequently intermingled with vari-colored lanterns. As the mania continued spreading, so that even the summits of San Christoval and Renca were not too lofty for the display of these votive offerings, the church took exception, and the populace was notified that within its holy walls or their own dwellings were the proper places for such pious exhibitions. This caused a falling off, but not entire cessation, until a positive prohibition was issued. Government suspected the socialist club as in some manner connected with the new religious fervor, apprehending that in the out-of-the-way crags and precipices other matters than "good will to men" were the subjects of discussion, and the placing of candles in fulfilment of vows mere pretexts for gatherings boding no good to the peace and prosperity of Santiago. A guard was therefore sent to the castle and sentries were posted along the paths leading to the summit of the hill, whilst the archbishop at last put the seal of condemnation on the display altogether. Previous to 1850, Santa Eusebia had very few votaries in Santiago; after that time I never saw a propitiatory candle publicly burned.

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SEPTEMBER 8.—ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN.-All named Mercedes celebrate this as their day instead of the actual anniversaries of their births, and in preference to the 24th, which is the regular day of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes. In 1850 it came on Sunday, and, as each lady deemed it especially desirable to attend mass on that day, the great number who are thus called renders morning service at the cathedral and the church erected to her ladyship no little attractive to the beaux and undevout. The archbishop was not present at the cathedral, and, though his second in command officiated, the ceremonies remained as little like devotion as ever. Of the music it is not necessary to say anything more; it is always good, and may be listened to much to the satisfaction and moral edification of all rightly inclined. After the mass, the usual procession of feast-days came off, through the nave, the aisles, and around the church. It consisted of a number of men and youths, wearing silk capes of different colors and with lighted candles in their hands, and the dean with the consecrated wafer in a golden vessel resembling an image of the sun. He was surrounded by the clergy of the episcopal establishment; four gentlemen carried a silken canopy over his head, and boys scattered flowers in the path of the coming procession.

The church possesses hundreds of the capes worn, and during mass servants go round with armfuls, silently offering one to each genteelly dressed male whom they may catch upon his knees. If he nod his head, the cape is tied over his shoulders, and this symbol authorizes another set of servants to supply him with a wax candle. The salvers borne by the boys were piled high with the earliest offerings of spring, and it seemed desecration to trample so many of nature's exquisite productions under the feet of a crowd of rude and portly male bipeds. I can yield something to woman, and would not be hyper-critical when seeing flowers spread for any men whose countenances indicated devotion and self-sacrifice for the benefit of their kind; but to witness them crushed as sand under feet of the people who compose the processions at Santiago, not excepting the clergy and friars (who are the fattest and most corpulent of all), makes me regret that such things as religious pageants exist.

NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LAS MERCEDES: Our Lady of Mercies.-In other countries annual festivals interrupted from any cause are irrecoverable; here, however, such is not the case the importance of constant appeals to the outward senses of the multitude is never to be lost sight of; and if the weather prohibit parade out of doors, the church authorities defer it to a more propitious season. Tuesday, the 24th, was the legitimate anniversary, but on that day the flood-gates of heaven were opened, and the rain descended in such torrents as to keep every one at home; the procession was, therefore, postponed to the 29th. The festival was heralded by a novena, or nine-days' service, at the church; not uninterruptedly, for that would have altered the proportions of the plump-looking friars, and made them more like every-day working-men, but by preachings and exhortations just after twilight in the evenings, and confessions and masses at all hours of the period named. So great were the numbers attending night-service, that the streets in front of the church-doors were also filled by women. The church had been partially decorated with flags some days previously, and at sunrise of the 29th no less than thirty national banners of different sizes were flying from its front and turrets. There was also between the towers a large star made of paper, of the three national colors, which was illuminated by night, adding much to the effect. Nor was the scene inside less flaunting or showy. The procession, in the afternoon, is stated to have been extremely pretty, but not unlike that of the following Sunday, under charge of the Dominicans.

NUESTRA SEÑORA DEL ROSARIO: Our Lady of the Rosary.-The multitude of silver and tinsel ornaments decorating the altars of Santo Domingo was extraordinary, and the quantity of natural flowers arranged in vases, wreaths, and festoons, not less striking. From each of the longitudinal arches there was suspended a flag of one of the civilized nations of the earth-that of Spain occupying the post of honor, if the column next the high altar can be so regarded; the "stars and stripes" not far from the central arch. At vespers, on the preceding evening, all the side altars, as well as the body of the church, were lighted up, curiosity attracting an immense crowd to witness it. A larger number might be accommodated were there seats, as in Protestant edifices; but under present arrangements, each female must not only leave space for new-comers. to pass between herself and neighbors, but also take care that they do not encroach within the space intended to allow change of position to her feet. There seems no fixed period for them to remain either at mass or vespers, some leaving immediately after the priest consumes the host, the majority just before the sermon-even those who stay through the discourse being engaged in paters and aves with their rosaries rather than with the oration. High-backed benches are placed along the columns forming the nave, and across its base, for the accommodation of the men; but our sex does not often form a very numerous part of the congregation.

There was much chanting from a body of friars stationed in the nave, no small amount of whispered admiration among the dark-eyed dames and maidens occupying their humble seats around, and any amount of pressing and squeezing by the gaping, odorous gentry, whose uncombed locks are ever thrust under one's nose in such places. At the termination of the ceremonies inside, the bells of both towers were set in motion, a band stationed in one turret struck up a gay tune, and the air of the plazuela before the church literally teemed with fireworks of various descriptions, fizzing and exploding to a degree that rendered the confusion of bell, and military band, and human voices, "worse confounded."

The procession came off at 5 o'clock of the afternoon, and was composed of a body of the devout bearing torches; next came the Dominican friars, preceded by an image of San Pio V, under a canopy borne on men's shoulders; Santo Domingo, a similar paste and pasteboard image, followed immediately after; two or three orders of monks succeeded; and then the archbishop, with his golden cross, surrounded by his suite. A military band followed his reverence, and Our Lady of the Rosary, flanked by parts of a company of lancers, brought up the rear. All the canopies were more or less composed of silver, and ornamented with flowers in wreaths and bouquets, as well of silver as natural products. That, however, under which the last image of the procession was moved was by far the most costly. All the dresses were of the

richest silks and velvets-strings of diamonds and pearls, borrowed from many a fair dame's casket for the occasion, adding to the brilliancy of her ladyship. The most attractive object, however, was a representation of the infant Saviour, in robes and ornaments still more luxurious, borne on her left arm-her right hand displaying at the same time the insignia of a Chilean general. Although the procession moved only from the church to the plaza, thence round three of its sides, and back again, through another street, much time was consumed. The platforms, saints, and canopies were very weighty, and each moment added a shower of natural flowers to their load from the balconies beneath which they passed, so that the bearers were obliged to pause for rest quite frequently.

NUESTRA SEÑORA DEL CARMEN, patrona jurada del ejercito: Our Lady of Carmel, sworn patroness of the army.--The church of San Augustin was decorated with flags and flowers, as those of La Merced and Santo Domingo had been, the variety and profusion of nature's exquisite productions effectively captivating one's sight. A grand mass was performed in the morning, at which as many of the civic troops attended as the edifice would contain, after their arms had been stacked in the plazuela, under charge of a guard. How many the officers managed to pack, it is difficult to say; for, finding that it would not be easy to retreat at will, and that the squeaking tones of the little old organ offered no recompense for a stand of two or three hours among the copper-colored citizens composing the Guardia Nacional, whilst they poured in at one door, I escaped through another. A procession was made in the afternoon, composed of the highest military chieftains, monks and priests ad libitum, the order of St. Sepulchre, representations of several saints, male and female, and Our Lady of Carmel, under canopies and on thrones and platforms, as mentioned on the day of the Rosaries, and finally, as then, the archbishop, with his ever-attendant suite and insignia. Most of the ornaments about the canopies and thrones were rich and gorgeous to a degree-embossed silver flowers eclipsing in brilliancy, if not in beauty, the natural creations in whose midst they were placed. The toilet of Our Lady of Carmel particularly, and those of the female images generally, though most costly and profuse in ornaments, scarcely concealed so much of their persons as danseuses of the French school have considered it politic to cover in presence of an audience. Daylight as it was, each member of the procession carried a long wax taper. From the difficulty with which the porters supported the cumbrous stages, though cheered by the inspiriting sound of military music, the column necessarily moved slowly. To render anew their vows of subservience, the civic battalions were drawn up in two lines, extending from the door of the church along the street leading to the great plaza, and around its four sides, with a space between the lines just wide enough for the cortége to pass. All the remainder of the plaza, the balconies which commanded a view of it, and the thoroughfares leading into it, were filled by the populace, embracing every class of society, whose murmurs of delight were scarcely drowned in the fizzing and cracking noise of the fireworks which welcomed the advent of the pageant. What reverence or faith in the result of this propitiatory display was exhibited in the countenances of the lookers-on, may be told in one word-none !

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