otable
days in the calendar: Christmas, New Year's, Inauguration-day, and
Independence-day--the 10th of August.

Cock-fights come next in popularity, and are _bona fide_ fights. Often
the roosters are so heroic that both leave their blood in the arena, and
never crow again. Little knives are fastened to the natural spurs, with
which the fowls cut each other up frightfully. The interesting scene
takes place on Sundays and Thursdays, near the Church of Santa Catalina,
and is regulated by a municipal tribunal. The admission fee of five
cents, and the tax of two per cent. on bets, yield the city a monthly
revenue of $100.

Other pastimes are carnivals and masquerades. Carnival is observed by
pelting one another with eggs and sprinkling with water. Whoever
invented this prelude to Lent should be canonized. Masquerades occur
during the holidays, when all classes, in disguise or fancy dress, get
up a little fun at each other's expense. The monotony of social life is
more frequently disturbed by fashionable funerals than by these
amusements; and, as the principal families are inter-related, the rules
of condolence keep the best part of society in mourning, and the best
pianos and guitars silent for at least six months in the year.

A word about the ladies of Quito. We concur in the remark of our
minister, Mr. Hassaurek, that "their natural dignity, gracefulness, and
politeness, their entire self-possession, their elegant but unaffected
bearing, and the choiceness of their language, would enable them to make
a creditable appearance in any foreign drawing-room." Their natural
talents are of a high order; but we must add that the senoras are
uneducated, and are incapable of either great vices or great virtues.
Their minds, like the soil of their native country, are fertile, but
uncultivated; and their hearts, like the climate, are of a mean
temperature. Prayer-books and French novels (imported, as wanted, for
there is not a book-store in the city) are the alpha and the omega of
their literature; Paris is considered the centre of civilization. They
are comely, but not beautiful; Venus has given her girdle of fascination
to few. Sensible of this, they paint.

Holinski gives his impressions by contrasting the fair Quitonians with
the fairer Guayaquilians: "Les yeux vifs et ardent, le pied fine et
mignon, les teintes chaudes et dorees" distinguish the latter. In the
ladies of the high capital there is nothing of this: "Les yeux ne