as one part wears
out it is renewed, but never a whole garment made. The dress is
peculiar: it consists of short trousers to the knees, and a jacket which
hangs from one shoulder, stockings and shoes with large buckles or
bows, and a soft hat, somewhat of the shape of a Tam-o'-shanter, with
one feather--that of an eagle, I think. The dress is red and white for
the day of Corpus, and blue and white for the day of the Virgin, covered
with the richest gold embroidery, for which Spain has always been
famous. The boys, holding castanets in each hand, advance, dancing with
much grace and dignity, until they reach the front of the High Altar;
there they remain, striking their castanets and performing slow and very
graceful evolutions for some time, gradually retiring again as they came
in, dancing, down the nave. The boys are regularly instructed in the
dance by the priests, and the number is kept up, so that neither dancers
nor garments ever fail. The Pope's order is obeyed, while the Sevillanos
retain their strange religious function. The fact of the performance
taking place in the evening perhaps accounts for its being so little
known, but it would seem also as if the authorities of the cathedral do
not care to have attention drawn to it. The dance is called _los
seises_, and even the origin of the name is unknown.

In Holy Week and at Christmas are performed passion plays at some of the
theatres, strangely realistic, and sometimes rousing the audience to
wild indignation, especially against Judas Iscariot, who is hissed and
hooted, and is often the recipient of missiles from the spectators,
while interspersed with this genuine feeling one hears shouts of
laughter when anything occurs to provoke it. On one occasion one of the
Roman soldiers (always unpopular in the religious processions) appeared
on the stage, dragging, by a cord round the neck, a miserable-looking
man carrying a huge cross, so heavy that it caused him continually to
fall. As the soldier kicked him up again, and continued to drag him
along by the neck, the audience became ungovernable in their rage.
"_Dejale! Dejale! Bruto! Bruto!_" they yelled; and, finally threatening
to storm the stage and immolate the offending soldier, the play had to
be stopped and the curtain rung down.

In villages too poor to possess _pasos_--the beautifully modelled
life-size figures which form the _tableaux_ in the rich churches and
processions--human actors take their place. In