Many old churches are still in use. They are built of adobe brick, with dirt roof and dirt floor. Some of them possess paintings evidently imported from Spain. There are also many ruder home-made paintings on the walls. They are without seats or pews, the worshippers kneeling or sitting on the floor. They are also generally much out of repair. They contain many images, and in some of the churches a bier with a life-size image of the Savior. At certain festivals this is carried in a procession, and on Good Friday is used to dramatize the crucifixion of Christ. In some of the churches are exhibitions of Scriptural scenes covering the life of the Savior, apostles and early martyrs. Occasionally an image of Christ is rigged with a movable arm, which is turned by a crank. As with the movement of the crank the hand comes up, it is supposed to throw blessings upon the waiting congregation below. Upon one occasion during a long dry spell, they carried an image of the Virgin Mary in stately processions through the fields to secure rain. But the drouth continuing, the people in anger took the image out into the street, took off its costly clothing, and gave it a public whipping. Just then a severe thunder and hail storm came up; vivid flashes of lightning played around them, and the hail destroyed their crops and gardens. Greatly frightened, the ignorant people hastened to re-clothe the image, and prostrate themselves before it in most abject submission. The enclosure in front of these churches, and especially the floor of the church itself, is the favorite burial-place of the people, the holiest place of all being near the altar. Nearness to the altar is graded by the amount of money paid.