The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-12-03
A MEXICAN FETE.
CELEBRATING THE FFAsT OF SAN
LORENZO IN NEW MENICO.
a Weird Performance in Which
Grotesque Dancers Pay Tribute
to the Sainf-Ludicrous Features
of the Ceremony.

! Shortly after shutdown the fete of
San Lorenzo was inauguTated. It was
an opening performance, as wierd as
a witches dance, with a fiend from
the Inferno fiddIing out the accompan-
iment, says a Bernalillo dispatch to
the New York Advertiser. Fagot fires
were lighted in every square of the
narrow, dusty streets, and soon the
town was all aolaze with the yellow
glare that cast fantastic shadows up
on the walls of the little cubes of mud,
the adobe houses of Sun-kisSed
CLINE. A shot was fired, and there
emerged from one of the low buildings
a. string of as peculiarly CARRIED men
as one might see in a years travel
Through foreign countries. They came
tripping out in single file, about TWEEN
ty in number, swaying their lithsome
bodies in rhythm with a two-String
fiddle and a guitar that was sadly out
of tune, the while executing a dance
tnat was never seen upon any stage.
The costume was really a wonderful
affair, the headdress being markedly
striking in design and finish. In shape
something like the French chapeau, it
served the double purpose of a mask
and headgear, extending to the mouth
and enveloping the greater part of the
Ihead. 1t was gaily tinseled and tas-
seled and fairly shone with beads and
all the characterization which the Mex
lean fancy can suggest. The lower
part of the face was concealed by a
silk handkerchief of a brilliant color,
leaving a small aperture for breathing
purposes. Down the back floated vari-
colored streaners, and capes of rich
material dropped gracefully from the
shoulders. In one hand they carried a
scroll work that looked like the sub
stantfal side of a paper rack and with
the other they ratified their prettily dec
GRATED castanets in tune with the mo-
notonouS movements of the dance.
Some of the dancers were distinguish
Led in an original and startling way,
which, to the American onlooher, lent
ridicule to the whole insane proceeding.
Over their velvet trousers were drawn
abbreviated balloon pantalettes of the
style so affected by the comic paper
cartooniStS in their sketches of the
aunties of colored society.
Around the flaming fagot fires they
formed and amid a silence as profound
as graveyard at night they circled
these tributes to the saint, never
changing the step, but varying the
movements of the body at command
of the leader. Sometimes they would
bow and scrape to the flames, and then
fall to the earth and squirm and wrig-
gle like so many horrid snakes. 1t
| was a weird scene. The glow from
the fires dreadfully accentuated the
painted faces of the Indians, who
stood stoically silent, with no miami
festation of approval or displeasure.
They formed a lurid background to a
decidedly dramatic ceremony. The
senors themselves, mantIed in their Sc
rapes, were an interesting part of the
stage group, and the gaunt and sallow
faces of the senoras seemed to reflect
the spirit of superstition that swayed
the scene. The dancers never appear
ed to grow tired. 1t was ''On, on with
the dance" all the time. until a diver
sion was created by the sudden APP
pearance of an evil spirit in the make
up of a bull. This fellow wore horns
and the greater pHrt of his body was
encased in the hide of the animal that
shows SO much antipathy to red.