d at all without
some one of these titles which a mistaken piety has conferred upon her,
but that every one of these titles has a particular class of persons
singled out from among the faithful, so that some are the devotees of one
Virgin and some of another; and they who profess such devotion, for
example, to the Virgin of the Rosary, never pray to the Virgin of Griefs.
To such a point does this exclusive affection arrive, that the devotees
are apt to dispute among themselves as to the respective merits of the
advocations to which each consecrates his worship. In some cities and
towns the inhabitants are divided into parties, some defending one
Virgin, and some another, which state of discord has resulted in angry
disputes, animosities, and even acts of violence.

The statues of the Virgin are of two classes; some are made entirely of
wood, including the draperies. Among these are some of superior merit.
{116} Others have only the head and hands of sculpture, the rest being
only a kind of frame-work, fit to support the dress, which is made of
worked velvet and other rich textures.

The statues consecrated to a popular advocation have immense treasures,
consisting of clothes, of crowns and collars, bracelets, and other
trinkets, brilliants, pearls, emeralds, and other precious stones. The
custody of these things is confided to one of the principal ladies of the
city, and she is called the mistress of the robes to the Virgin
(_camarera mayor de la Virgin_), and it is her duty, assisted by other
ladies of inferior degree in the sacred household, to dress and undress
the statue, varying the costume and ornaments according to the solemnity
of the day.

Some few of those advocations require particular colours to be observed
in the vestments appropriated to the respective statues; the Virgin of
Carmen, for example, must be dressed in white and dark grey; that of the
Conception in white and blue; that of Griefs in blue and red; that of
Solitude in white and black, and so on. The greater number of those
statues of the Virgin have in their arms a figure of the infant Christ.

It is worthy of remark, that the images which most excite devotion are
generally those which are most ugly and most disproportionate. The
Virgin of Zaragoza, the devotion of all Spain to which touches the
borders of enthusiasm, and on which statue Ferdinand VII. conferred the
office of field marshal (_capitan general_), is very small, and has the