The record-union., 1891-02-08

these open spaces the passer-by may
have an unrestricted view of bones,
shrouds, skulls, dismembered limbs and
headless trunks, in such an awful jum-
BILE as, it is to be hoped, would be diff
cult to find anywhere else on earth.
Some of the skeletons show considerable
flesh yet clinging to them, and there
are long braids of hair and glossy tresses,
that doubtless loving hands not long ago
caressed. The wonder grows that the air
is not SO poisoned by decomposition as to
kill the inha bitants of all the surround
ing section; but, though rendered sick to
faintness by the fearful sight, truth COM
pells me to admit that but little odor
comes from the charnel house. This is
partly due to the lime that has been free
ly used, and also, no doubt, to the abb
sence of the blue-bottle fly, and the fact
that putrefaction is almost impossible in
this pure mountain atmosphere, where
carcasses of man or beast, though left
uncovered in the sun, dry up and num-
nifty rather than decompose.
TO the left of this dreadful temple is a
large open space devoted to the poorest
people-hospital cases, and those who
cannot pay even three months rent for a
grave. The middle class-that vast ma
jority between the large pauper element
and the comparatively few aristocrats-
rent graves for a year, with the privilege
of renewing the lease if SO disposed.
Those in more aifiuent circumstances
generally begin with three years; and
those able to stretch the point beyond that
period of time, usually prefer niche in
the walls, which affords greater security
and may be retained as long as money
and the remembrance of the family hold
out.
AS we dismounted from our horses out
side the ground and left them in charge
of Cholo boys who are always prowling
about the premises waiting for similar
jobs-a long funeral procession was just
winding through the gates, and we fol-
lowed reverently in the wake. The cof-
fin was first carried into the chapel and
placed upon a big black dias, while pray
erS were said and incense burned. Then
the procession was reformed. with the
cadaver borne in the midst, led by two
black-gowned priests. Every few feet in
the distance of perhaps GOO yards be-
tween the chapel and the waiting niche
in the wall, the pall-bearers put the
coffin on the ground and chanted re-
sponses to the utterances of the priests in
dismal mass, after which water was
literally sprinkled from a tin bucket
upon the coffin, and incidentally upon
those who carried it. We are told that
the stops thus made between the church
and the grave depend upon the affluence
OF the late lamented, each stop costing q
stated sum for prayers and responses. Nc
women followed this favored corpse, non
are they ever seen at South American in
terments. When the place of sepulchel
was reached, after more prayers, re-
Sponses and sDrinkling from the tin
bucket, the coffin was slid into its aper-
ture, the mouth closed up with loose
stones, and over the outermost layer q
thick coating OF mortar was daubed, into
which was set Il marble slab.
The day of our visit must have been a
good one for funerals; for during the
hour we spent there, no less than I'VE OF
them came and went. The second coffin
was a plain, implanted box, carried on
the shoulders Of half dozen men; and
we observed that this necessitated the
services of only one priest, no stops be-
tween the chapel and the wall, and but
scanty sprinkling from the Watering
pot. Then followed in quick succession
three interments of the commonest sort,
the bodies having been brought UNI
cotfined from the city, to be hurried into
the ground as quickly as possible. The
portion where these poor are buried, is
a Golgotha that battles description. Its
entire surface is strewn with bones,
scraps Of broken collins, bits of grave
clothes, braids Of hair, ETC., which have
been turned up by the spades of grave
diggers, or dropped by those who bear
evicted corpseS to the charnel-house. AS
many as dozen new-made graves were
yawning for their occupants, and in the
pile of earth thrown up beside each one
were SOULS and limbs and bones galore.
On top of one heap noticed human
trunk, headless and limbless, and on an
other leg with withered flesh clinging
to it, from which the foot had been cut
by the spade. Directly in the path lay
something SO CHASTITY that the gentlemen
of the party quickly stepped between it
and us, but too late to save our eyes from
a ever-to-be-forgotten sight-that of a
woman's head, cut Off at the neck, with
long hair streaming all around it, and the
white cotton bandage that had bound up
the poor jaws still in it's place, hardly
soiled by contact with the earth.
We waited until one of the uncoffined
poor had been laid away. The body THAT
of woman) wrapped in it's meager
blanket, was lowered by means of raw
hide ropes; and then the pall-bearers pro-
ceeded to shovel on top the heap Of bones
stones, flesh and gravel that had been
turned out to make room in the old, old
grave for new occupant. The most act
and Hmbless trunk aforementioned
upon his spade and hurled it in with q
resounding whack that ones blood run
cold, and another rolled in the head with
his bare foot. There is no necessity fo1
this wholesale mixing of the bones of the
populace, for miles Of waste land stretch
away on every side.
FANNIE B. WARD.