The Funcion
Penonomé, from its situation near the mountains, is recognized as head-quarters by the Indians of the interior, who, though retaining their own independent life, and inhabiting their own pueblos, come down once or twice a year, on the great festive occasions of the Church, to confess and pay their nominal taxes. Their alcaldes are appointed by the government, and the priests retain some power over their superstitions; but besides this they seem to have little connection with their Spanish neighbors, except in the barter of their productions for goods. Manchester has penetrated even here, and all the native cotton fabrics are reproduced so faithfully by English operatives, and are so much cheaper, that the domestic manufactures have nearly ceased. The shawls (rebosos) of the women, of a peculiar and not ungraceful pattern, are used for veils, as well as mantillas. These Indians have short, dumpy, but athletic figures, and clear, dark complexions, very black, straight hair, shaved short behind and on the top of the head, hanging in long elf-locks at the side, with a narrow coronet, or stiff wig, above the forehead. Their heads are very long and narrow; so much so, that I found it impossible to fit myself with a straw hat among the assortments of native manufacture they had brought to the fête. The women, like the men, are short and stout, none handsome, but with good, trusty faces. In the morning the alcaldes of all the villages appeared, marching down to pay their taxes, and be blessed by Padre Grimaldo. Much good, no doubt, the latter did them. These respectable functionaries were dressed for the occasion in their diplomatic costume, fossil British navy-coats, with skirts worse than those we are now wearing, decorated with an occasional button, old American militia uniforms, caricatures originally, as they all are, and one richly embroidered garment, once the pride of some French savant when he appeared as Membre de l’Institut. A few of them had hats as outlandish as their costume, and with several the most essential part of a full-dress toilet had been altogether omitted, and they were sans culottes. They were preceded and followed by a couple of bare-legged individuals, bearing each a long, slender ebony wand, acting as ushers of the black rod.
Our day passed pleasantly enough. When you have nothing else to do in the tropics, you can always eat an orange; but we were not reduced to this of necessity. The nearness of the serrated mountains, with their supporting ridges sloping off to the plain, gave a grandeur to the view. We lounged about the village, chatted with the young ladies, laughed at their beaux, who were rigged out in antiquated black suits, and with queer hats, visited the perpetual fandangos, where a strumming was kept up varied by an occasional bit of doggerel verse in the time of the melody. Our approach was a signal for a fresh burst of an improvisation such as this: “Here come two noble English gents. Rata-tat rat-a-bump slam bang bumpo. They have their pockets full of pence. Rat-a-tit-a-tit cling clang thumpo. They’ll give us some, and we’ll be richer, enough to buy five bowls of chicha. Viva, viva los Señores Ingleses,. clink-a-clink rat-a-tat thump-a-dido.” The great lion of the festivity was the exhibition of fire-works that evening. Our house was most conveniently placed for seeing. They were ushered by an insane rattling of drums and bells, and numberless volunteered feux-de-joie on the part of the boys. The display of rockets, candles, serpents, &c. was as much as one of our Fourth of July affairs would have been. The finale was religious and grand; from the trefoil window of the church, supposed to represent Noah’s ark, a fiery dove issued, and, finding no rest for the sole of its foot on the wire, it ran along, it returned to the church, and, immediately issuing with a fiery olive-branch in its mouth, ran forward on another wire to a large lithographed picture of the Virgin, surrounded by wheels, candles, and serpents; it lighted this, and the whole went off in a blaze of glory, and the blessed Virgin was translated to the celestial regions in a mantle of flame.