The houses that hem the course on either side are
a double rainbow. Above their soft gray walls the
level roofs are lost in a gorgeous human drift. It is
the apotheosis of color. Erect men tower statue-like
above the crowd of moth,ers who nurse brown babes,
and maidens who whisper and titter. Upon a com-
manding hillock cluster a hundred men ; and either
side of the street of running is six deep with the more
feverish. Upon an ancient bench beside the western
goal sit the Cacique and his two assistants and the
principal shamans, rolling cigarettes in the sweet
corn-husk and smoking gravely. Beside either goal
stand its two judges, side by side, erect, tireless, im-
passive.
Now a head rises from the trap-door of the estufa,
and the War-Captain steps out upon the roof and de-
scends the old steps to the ground, followed by the



THE CHASE OF THE CHONGO



121



swart athletes in single file ; and solemnly they march
down to the western goal. There are forty-four
runners — twenty-two to a side — the unmarried dis-
tinguished by the dab of yeso upon the cheek. Desi-




A WATCHER OF THE RACE.
derio heads the procession, and his first sub-captain
brings up its rear. The seated dignitaries have risen
and taken their places in two files behind the umpires,
facing to the east. Down through the aisle between
them stalks the procession, while the shamans blow
each from his left palm a pinch of the sacred corn-



122 THE CHASE OF THE CHONGO

meal in invocation to Those Above ; and all bow their
heads while the Cacique prays the prayer of the run-
ning.
