Religion and Customs in Guatemala
A CORRESPONDENT of the Presbyterian, writing from Guatemala, says: "The customs and manners of the people of Guatemala are very closely allied to those of Mexico and the next neighbors of the north, and hence such religion as they have is of the very worst and highest form of idolatrous Romanism. This is carried on by a most profligate Jesuit Spanish priesthood, and patronized alone by the simple-minded Indians and the women of the upper classes, by means of their most ostentatious and ritualistic methods of worship. The men of the land are either advanced atheists or else are too sensible to submit themselves to such tomfoolery and mummery, the use of which they, like ourselves, fail to see; and hence they never go to church, save when young, to carry on flirtations with some señorita, but rather prosecute their business the same as on any other day, and spend their leisure, as usual, in the cantinas (saloons), at billiards and gambling—almost the only forms of general amusement known in these countries."