1828.] "Mexico;" and "Mexican Illustrations." 593 



(t As a nation, the women must be pronounced unpardonably plain. I was 

 astonished, after all I had heard and all I had read, not to find above a dozen 

 really handsome ladies, with good figures, in all my excursions ; and even they 

 lost most of their attraction, if seen in the mornings, by the habit of being 

 then peculiarly slovenly ; for it is impossible to speak of the Mexican ladies 

 as ' when unadorned adorned the most/ 



ff All have a great quantity of dark hair ; but it is not fine, or in natural 

 ringlets. Indeed that of the lower orders is so coarse, long, and black, that 

 when, of an evening, I have seen women walking about in great pride, pur- 

 posely turning round to display fully their straight locks hanging down their 

 back, my imagination has irresistibly reverted to the tails of the Life Guards' 

 horses in London. 



" Seldom is one lady found paying a visit to another ; such things are either 

 unpractised, or considered an improper sort of espionage. They go to mass 

 in the morning, to the theatre at night ; and the intervals are passed in lolling 

 at home, doing nothing but smoke little white paper cigars as big as a quill, 

 or in a drive to the Alameda. 



" In the evening, the saloon is thrown open to such male acquaintance as 

 choose to call, where the female part of the family are seen sitting in a row 

 against the wall, flirting their fans with a velocity and dexterity of movement 

 which is highly creditable. Working I have seen once; reading never; piano- 

 fortes twice; singing to the guitar I have heard frequently; but as they 

 usually pitch the voice to the highest key, it thrilled through my head like a 

 most abominable octave. 



" Spitting, smoking, and eructating are considered just as indispensable 

 accomplishments among the ladies as the gentlemen ; and if a Senorita wishes 

 to shew you particular attention, she puts her hand into her bosom, pulls out 

 a number of cigarritos, and entreats your acceptance of one." 



If the manners of the Mexicans seem here to be treated with little 

 ceremony, upon their morals (as described by our author) we are not 

 disposed very particularly to touch. In justice, however, to Mr. B., we 

 should add, he admits that, even during his stay, from the intercourse 

 with Europeans, matters were improving. The ladies, in general, were 

 discarding the use of tobacco : and the richest and prettiest paid their 

 countrymen, the compliment of declaring they would only marry 

 foreigners. ' 



The enormous extortions of the Catholic clergy, and the tyrannical 

 rule that they maintain over the lower classes, and especially the Indians, 

 are spoken of by both the authors before us ; and the military writer 

 shews no mercy to the dissolute nature of their lives. The fees demand- 

 able upon the performance of religious ceremonies may be gathered 

 from an anecdote, related by Mr. Ward, of an Indian at whose hut he 

 halted. This man's house, when he set out in life, had cost him four 

 dollars, and his marriage fees were twenty-two ! He had paid this sum, 

 but was still indebted to the padre for the baptism of a child ; the fees 

 for which he was then endeavouring to raise. These extortions, how- 

 ever, according to Mr. Beaufoy's account, form but a small part of 

 the revenue of the church, which puts a direct tax, in cases of necessity 

 or pleasure, upon the daily gains and wages of the people. Mr. B/s 

 conclusions are sometimes hasty, but he gives an example in proof of 

 this fact, as to which no error could well arise : 



" At a place where I was visiting, the men employed in the mines, amount- 

 ing to nearly a thousand, were paid each Sunday morning after mass ; and at 

 the different pay-tables stood a person with a plate and small silver crucifix. 

 As each individual's name was called out, he exclaimed on advancing, ' The 



M.M. New Series. VoL.V. No. 30. 4 G 



