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INDIAN NUNS, ETC.
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which the image is deposited, and all the ornaments of the altar are of gilt bronze and zinc.

Besides the Collegiate and the Parish Church, there are at Guadalupe the Church of the Capuchin Nuns, and the Churches of the Hill and the Well; all in such close conjunction, that the whole village or city, as it calls itself, seems altogether some religious establishment or confraternity, belonging to these temples and churches, united in the worship of the Virgin, and consequent upon the "Miraculous Apparition" manifested to the chosen Indian, Juan Diego.

I regret not having known till lately, that there exists in Mexico a convent of Indian Nuns; and that each nun, when she takes the veil, wears a very superb Indian dress—the costume formerly worn by the cacicas, or ladies of highest rank.

I went some days ago with the Señorita F——a to visit the house for insane women, in the Calle de Canoa, built in 1698, by the rich congregation of el Salvador. The institution is now in great want of funds; and is by no means to be compared with the establishment of San Hipólito. The directress seems a good, kind-hearted woman, who devotes herself to doing her duty, and who is very gentle to her patients; using no means but those of kindness and steadiness to subdue their violence. But what a life of fear and suffering such a situation must be! The inmates look poor and miserable, generally speaking, and it is difficult to shake off the melancholy impression which they produce on the mind. We were particularly struck by the sight of one un-