Lives of the Lindsays, or, A memoir of the House of Crawford and Balcarres > Volume 4

AN INDIAN LIFE. 7
after meals a long benediction was never omitted.
Often during the course of the day, and particularly in
my walks with the holy brethren, they admonished me
to become a Roman Catholic, and, had I remained much
longer there, they might have succeeded ; fortunately,
in four months, I was recalled to Cadiz, where the
gaieties of the town soon made me forget the mysteries
of the convent.
Xeres was then inhabited by many of the ancient
Spanish nobility, who lived a retired and primitive life.
Their chief amusement was a species of tournament,
called the Manexo. The noblesse and better families,
dressed in the ancient costume, and mounted on the
most beautiful horses, attended by their servants (also
mounted), entered the principal square, and were met,
in the opposite direction, by other caballeros. They
then ran at the ring, and performed many evolutions
exhibiting dexterity and able horsemanship. Towards
the close of the day, an active young bull was intro-
duced, with a long rope affixed to his horns, so as to
allow him to range over half the square. The younger
nobility then amused the bystanders by playing around
his horns, with infinite dexterity, in a thousand different
ways, the bull occasionally clearing the whole square.
When the horsemen were tired, the bull was made over
to the people, who teazed him on foot, until the animal
was exhausted.
The regular bull-fight I will not describe, it being well
known. The first one I saw was of a superb descrip-
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