Santo Domingo may be said to have two carnivals, one on St. Andrew's day, November 30, the other during the three days preceding Lent. The former is the more exciting. Until recent years there was not a person in the capital and Santiago, where the populace was most given to the typical diversion of the day, who did not voluntarily or involuntarily participate therein. The diversion consisted in throwing water or flour or both on everyone within reach. The poorer people would arm themselves with great syringes and discharge them at every passerby or through the keyholes of house-doors. Others would station themselves at points of vantage with barrels and tubs of water and duck the unwary they were able to entrap. People of the better class would place great tubs of water on their balconies or roofs, which the servants would assiduously keep filled while their masters emptied buckets-full on friends in the street. The young men rode through the streets in open carriages, bombarding the ladies on balconies and housetops with eggs filled with perfumed water, and receiving drenchings in return. Within the last few years the authorities have restricted or prohibited the throwing of water, and the principal celebration of the day is now what is called a "white dance" given by the better society, at which the participants are supposed to come dressed in white in order that the many-colored confetti, serpentines and gilt powders which those present throw at each other between dances, may appear to better effect. During the carnival proper, before Lent, the streets are filled with masked persons in groups or alone, who dance, make impudent remarks or otherwise indulge in nonsense, to the special delight of the ubiquitous small boy. The better class celebrate with masquerade balls, where the merry spirit of the Dominican is given free rein. The principal vice of the country is gaming. Men of the better class play cards, dominoes, chess, checkers and billiards, for money, but they do so rather for pastime than for gain. Among the poorer classes, however, the predominant idea is that of making money quickly. Cards and dice are often used, but the typical form of gambling, the one at which the poor countryman is fondest of staking his hard-earned wages, is the cockfight. Every town has its cockpit where on Sundays and holidays the barbarous sport is carried on in the presence of crowds of whooping, screaming spectators who often ride miles to attend. The authorities claim that efforts have been made to stop this sport, but that they have all been unavailing. It constitutes a source of municipal income, the right to open cockpits being annually conceded to the highest bidder by the various municipalities. Raffles and lotteries are also permitted by law, being subject to taxation by the municipalities, and in one or two cities there are municipal lotteries.