Lima owes to the Viceroy Abascal, Marquis de la Concordia, the erection of a place for the interment of all those who die in the city and suburbs; it is called the pantheon. Situated on the outside of the walls, it is sufficiently large to contain all the dead bodies for six years, without removal; when this becomes necessary, the bones are taken out of the niches, and placed in the osariums. Many of the rich families have purchased allotments for family vaults, having their names inscribed above. The building is a square enclosure, divided into several sections; in the wall are niches, each sufficient to hold a corpse, and the divisions are also formed by double rows of niches built one above another, some of them eight stories high, the fronts being open. The walks are planted with many aromatics and evergreens. In the centre is a small chapel, or rather altar, with a roof: its form is octagonal, so that eight priests can celebrate mass at the same time. The corpse is put into the niche with the feet foremost, if in a coffin, which seldom happens, except among the richer classes, the lid is removed, and a quantity of unslaked lime being thrown on each body, its decay is very rapid. For the conveyance of the dead several hearses of different descriptions are provided, belonging to the pantheon, and they are not permitted to traverse the streets after twelve o'clock in the day.
Before the establishment of this cemetery, all the dead were buried in the churches, or rather, placed in vaults, many of which had wooden trap-doors, opening in the floors; and notwithstanding the plentiful use of lime, the stench and other disgusting effects were sometimes almost insufferable. When the first nun was to be carried to the pantheon, great opposition was made by the sisterhood; but the Viceroy sent a file of soldiers, and enforced the interment of the corpse in the general cemetery.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] The lenity shown in this case, by the inquisition, might probably be owing to the expectation that the tribunal would shortly be abolished by the Cortes.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Population of Lima....Remarks....Table of Castes....The Qualifications of Creoles....Population and Division....Spaniards....Creoles, White....Costume....Indians....African Negroes....Their Cofradias, and royal Personages....Queen Rosa....Creole Negroes....Mestiso....Mulattos....Zambos....Chinos....Quarterones and Quinterones....Theatre....Bull Circus....Royal Cockpit....Alamedas....Bathing Places....Piazzas Amancaes....Elevation and Oration Bells....Processions of Corpus Christi, Santa Rosa, San Francisco, and Santo Domingo....Publication of Bulls....Ceremonies on the Arrival of a Viceroy.
There are few cities in the world whose population exhibits a greater variety of shade or tint of countenance than Lima, or, perhaps, a greater contrast of intellectual faculty, if the rules established by physiognomists may be relied on. But these arbiters of physiognomy have been white men, and there appears to be a considerable portion of egotism attached to their opinions. They have not only erected their own tribunal, and instituted their own code of laws, but they have presided, judged, and sentenced in favour of themselves. By giving to the facial line or indicator of talent and genius a particular direction, the European white has been able to place himself at the head, and to degrade the black, or negro of Africa, by placing him at the bottom of the list. Probably the success of the Europeans in their wars and conquests, and in their advancement in the arts and sciences, may give considerable support to this classification. By drawing an horizontal line that shall touch the base of the cranium, and intersecting it by another drawn from the forehead and touching the extremity of the upper lip, the statuaries have found the supposed angle of human perfection. The Greeks fixed this angle at 100°; the Romans at 95°; and according to this rule, the European face varies between 80° and 90°; the Asiatic between 75° and 80°; the American, having the forehead more flattened, between 70° and 75°; and, lastly, the Negro between 60° and 70°. By this mode of judging, we find the European at the head, and the rude semi-brutal negro at the bottom. But how disconcerted the lovers of this criterion must feel, if any credit can be given to what has been asserted of the Egyptians, the founders and promoters of the arts and sciences. Colonies from Egypt and the east, led by Pelasgus, Cecrops, Cadmus, &c., were the tutors of the Greeks, whom they found on their arrival more ignorant than Columbus, Cortes and Pizarro found the Americans, at the discovery and conquest of their country. Yet Herodotus, l. 11, p. 150, says, that the Egyptians were black, with woolly, curled black hair; and Blumenbach asserts, that having dissected several Egyptian mummies, he observed that they belonged to the negro race, from their elevated pomulos, thick lips, and large flat noses. The Copts also, who are descendants of the Egyptians, have the aspect of mulattos, and appear to belong to the negro race.