s.{56}

Christmas plays performed by puppets are found in other countries too. In
Poland "during the week between Christmas and New Year is shown the
_Jaselki_ or manger, a travelling series of scenes from the life of
Christ or even of modern peasants, a small travelling puppet-theatre,
gorgeous with tinsel and candles, and something like our 'Punch and Judy'
show. The market-place of Cracow, especially at night, is a very pretty
spectacle, its sidewalks all lined with these glittering Jaselki."{57}
In Madrid |154| at the Epiphany a puppet-play was common, in which the
events of the Nativity and the Infancy were mimed by wooden figures,{58}
and in Provence, in the mid-nineteenth century, the Christmas scenes were
represented in the same way.{59}

Last may be mentioned a curious Mexican mixture of religion and
amusement, a sort of drama called the "Posadas," described by Madame
Calderon de la Barca in her "Life in Mexico" (1843).{60} The custom was
based upon the wanderings of the Virgin and St. Joseph in Bethlehem in
search of repose. For eight days these wanderings of the holy pair to the
different _posadas_ were represented. On Christmas Eve, says the
narrator, "a lighted candle was put into the hand of each lady [this was
at a sort of party], and a procession was formed, two by two, which
marched all through the house ... the whole party singing the
Litanies.... A group of little children, dressed as angels, joined the
procession.... At last the procession drew up before a door, and a shower
of fireworks was sent flying over our heads, I suppose to represent the
descent of the angels; for a group of ladies appeared, dressed to
represent the shepherds.... Then voices, supposed to be those of Mary and
Joseph, struck up a hymn, in which they begged for admittance, saying
that the night was cold and dark, that the wind blew hard, and that they
prayed for a night's shelter. A chorus of voices from within refused
admittance. Again those without entreated shelter, and at length declared
that she at the door, who thus wandered in the night, and had not where
to lay her head, was the Queen of Heaven! At this name the doors were
thrown wide open, and the Holy Family entered singing. The scene within
was very pretty: a _nacimiento_.... One of the angels held a waxen baby
in her arms.... A padre took the baby from the angel and placed it in the
cradle, and the _posada_ was completed. We then returned to the
drawing-room--angels