Another of their games I was for some time at a loss about.  A pretty young girl was dancing, named—­ after what would appear to us an almost sacrilegious custom of the country—­ Espiritu Santo, when a young man went behind her and placed his hat directly upon her head, letting it fall down over her eyes, and sprang back among the crowd.  She danced for some time with the hat on, when she threw it off, which called forth a general shout, and the young man was obliged to go out upon the floor and pick it up.  Some of the ladies, upon whose heads hats had been placed, threw them off at once, and a few kept them on throughout the dance, and took them off at the end, and held them out in their hands, when the owner stepped out, bowed, and took it from them.  I soon began to suspect the meaning of the thing, and was afterwards told that it was a compliment, and an offer to become the lady’s gallant for the rest of the evening, and to wait upon her home.  If the hat was thrown off, the offer was refused, and the gentleman was obliged to pick up his hat amid a general laugh.  Much amusement was caused sometimes by gentlemen putting hats on the ladies’ heads, without permitting them to see whom it was done by.  This obliged them to throw them off, or keep them on at a venture, and when they came to discover the owner the laugh was turned upon one or the other.

The captain sent for us about ten o’clock, and we went aboard in high spirits, having enjoyed the new scene much, and were of great importance among the crew, from having so much to tell, and from the prospect of going every night until it was over; for these fandangos generally last three days.  The next day, two of us were sent up to the town, and took care to come back by way of Senor Noriego’s, and take a look into the booth.  The musicians were again there, upon their platform, scraping and twanging away, and a few people, apparently of the lower classes, were dancing.  The dancing is kept up, at intervals, throughout the day, but the crowd, the spirit, and the elite come in at night.  The next night, which was the last, we went ashore in the same manner, until we got almost tired of the monotonous twang of the instruments, the drawling sounds which the women kept up, as an accompaniment, and the slapping of the hands in time with the music, in place of castanets.  We found ourselves as great objects of attention as any persons or anything at the place.  Our sailor dresses—­ and we took great pains to have them neat and ship-shape—­ were much admired, and we were invited, from every quarter, to give them an American dance; but after the ridiculous figure some of our countrymen cut in dancing after the Mexicans, we thought it best to leave it to their imaginations.  Our agent, with a tight, black, swallow-tailed coat just imported from Boston, a high stiff cravat, looking as if he had been pinned and skewered, with only his feet and hands left free, took the floor just after Bandini, and we thought they had had enough of Yankee grace.