Torches were flaring in every direction, and considerable business was being done at all the booths.

Crowds of drunken people were squatting on the ground in all directions; at the town-house the band of music was playing the _jarabe_, and 40 or 50 persons were dancing this lively dance.

Old and young, men and women, boys and girls, all were taking part; no one paid attention to any other person, but each seemed to be trying to prove himself the most agile of the party.

All were drunk, some astonishingly so.

Occasionally a dancer would bump against such an one, who would fall head over heels.
Immediately picking himself up, he would go at it again, with even greater vigor; sometimes one fell, of himself, in a helpless heap, and lay where he fell, until kicked out of the way or until the music stopped.