CHAPTER XIV.
THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE.
tradition," says the historian Altamirano, "as written by Don Luis Becerra Zanco about 1666, because of the simplicity of its language, and also because of its reflecting more the characteristic sweetness and softness of the Nahautal language, in which the tradition was undoubtedly originally preserved, is the most authentic."
The subject of Guadalupe has been one of such intense interest, that about sixty-one Mexican and Spanish writers have written elaborately on it. So prominent is she, that thousands of children are annually christened by her name.
The tradition, as generally believed, is as follows: "At an early hour on the morning of December 9, 1531, Juan Diego, a humble Indian, who had been recently converted to the Catholic faith, was quietly pursuing his way from a town adjacent to the City of Mexico, to mass. Pausing for a moment at the foot of a mountain known as the Cerro del Tepazac, which is about three miles from the city, he was held spell bound by sweet and sonorous singing, which seemed to
