When religious questions have not arisen, life in those remote villages has passed very pleasantly. The people live in great simplicity, knowing scarcely anything of the outside world and its progress. At the Feast of St. John the women take sheep and lambs, gaily decorated with colored ribbons, to church with them. That is an act of worship, for the priest puts his hand on each lamb and blesses it. A _velorio_ for the dead, or a dance at a child's death, are generally the only meetings beside the church; but, as the poet says: "'Tis known, at least it should be, that throughout All countries of the Catholic persuasion, Some weeks before Shrove Tuiesiday comes about, The people take their fill of recreation, And buy repentance ere they grow devout, However high their rank or low their station, With fiddlling, feasting, dancing, drinking, masking, And other things which may be had for asking." Carnival is a joyous time, and if for only once in the year the quiet town then resounds with mirth. Pails of water are carried up to the flat roofs of the houses, and each unwary pedestrian is in turn deluged. At other times flour is substituted, and on the last day of the feast ashes are thrown on all sides. At other seasons of the year the streets are quiet, and after the rural pursuits of the day are over, the guitar is brought out, and the evening breeze wafts waves of music to each listening ear. The guitar is in all South America what the bag-pipes are to Scotland-the national musical instrument of the people. The Criollo plays mostly plaintive, broken airs--now so low as to be almost inaudible, then high and shrill. Here and there he accompanies the music with snatches of song, telling of an exploit or describing the dark eyes of some lovely maiden. The airs strike one as being very strange, and decidedly unlike the rolling songs of British music. In those interior towns a very quiet life may be passed, far away from the whistle of the railway engine. Everything is simplicity itself, and it might almost be said of some that _time itself seems at a standstill_. During the heat of the day the streets are entirely deserted; shops are closed, and all the world is asleep, for that is the _siesta_ time. "They eat their dinners and go to sleep--and could they do better?"