Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

ON THE PACIFIC COAST 327
to a procession in her honour, and gaily-dressed,
life-size figures of that sorrowful lady are set up
under sparkling canopies at the corners of the prin-
cipal streets. On this day, ladies who rejoice in
the name of "Dolores" (and in Catholic countries
they are legion)
invite their friends to eat sweet-
meats and to drink wine and chicha with them.
Even I, old bachelor and foreigner as I am, have
received several such invitations, and one Dolores
has gone the length of sending me a pair of garters
embroidered in blue, red, and white silk ! Vanitas
vanitatum ! Yet even this mediaeval fooling
better than the unmitigated money -seeking (by
fair means or foul), and as reckless and luxurious
spending, of Guayaquil.
Sometimes our superstitions are rich in historical
souvenirs. \Yhen that most valiant of Pizzaro's
warriors, Pedro de Candia, leapt on shore at Tum-
bez, he carried in his hand a cross, extemporised
from two bits of firewood. The inhabitants let
loose on him "a lion" and a tiger, who, instead of
attacking him, prostrated
is
themselves before the
cross, etc. etc. A piece of that famous cross is preserved
on the altar of one of the churches of Piura,
and the church itself is dedicated to La Santa Cruz
del Milagro (The Holy Cross of the Miracle).
NOTES ON Till; VALLEYS OF 1'IUKA AND CHIRA,
IN NORTHERN I'l.RU 1
Tnl'Or.kAI'lIY AND M IM I: \|,