the doors in the tabernacles are made of silver. The beautiful tecali, or so-called Mexican onyx, is used extensively for altars and fonts. (Vide chapter on Morelia, in Section IV.) Most of the churches are furnished with wooden settees. Prie-dieux are unknown.
A large number of the churches are rapidly falling into decay, and many of them are now used for business purposes, e. g. , barracks, warehouses, marble-works, etc. During his extensive tour through Mexico, in the winter and spring of 1883, the author saw but a single instance of a church undergoing repairs, viz., on the plaza of Indaparapeo in Michoacan. Several of the convents adjoining the churches are at present in ruins, while others have not been occupied for years, and some of them are now altered into hotels, as at Zacatecas and Monterey.
These institutions are crowded together into the cities and towns, none being found in the rural districts as in Europe. (Vide chapter on population.)
It is a universal custom to hang ex votos on the walls of the churches. They are either made of silver or wax, or consist of small paintings of the Virgin Mary.
Various notices invoking pater-nosters, or aves, for the repose of the souls of departed friends, or soliciting alms for certain purposes, are printed on paper of several colors and posted on the main door of the churches. Religious tracts, and ribbons giving the size of the head of some particular saint, are sold at the entrance to many of the cathedrals and chapels, especially during the lenten season.
A typical church-scene in Mexico is a number of men clothed in white-cotton garments, with zarapes of variegated colors on their shoulders, with broad-brimmed straw hats in their hands, and wearing huaraches, or leathern sandals, kneeling on a stone floor in company with women and girls, who are dressed in calico and wear a black shawl over the head and shoulders.
