HEAL DKL MONTE MINES. 445 



others, generally consult their own fancy in the choice of their lovers. 

 I cannot but smile when I think how strangely one of them would 

 look on a suitor who should found his claims to her favour on the 

 length of his purse or his pedigree. The very humblest orders ma- 

 nifest a degree of sentiment in affairs of the heart, and, when a cool- 

 ness arises, preserve a certain form in breaking them off. Amanuenses 

 drive a regular trade in cartas-de-amor with those who are unable to 

 write their own, and there is a sentiment conveyed even in the colour 

 of the wafer used on such occasions. I received once a visit at my 

 office from an old matron of respectable appearance, who, requesting 

 to speak with me aside, pulled from under her pano, or shawl, a huge 

 holly-hock, which she presented to me, she said, on the part of a nina, 

 or young damsel. There was, no doubt, some meaning in this also, 

 which I did not precisely comprehend, nor did I think it worth while 

 minutely to investigate, although the messenger seemed ready to 

 afford every elucidation in her power. But if the lowest classes in 

 Mexico do riot exhibit mercenary depravity, there is little increase of 

 refinement to be found even in the highest. With regard to the per- 

 sons of the Mexican fair, they may be allowed the credit of small and 

 pretty hands and feet ; but they are so far from contracting the size 

 of the latter, as the Chinese, by wearing small shoes, that many, from 

 the total omission of that article of dress, acquire, after a time, an un- 

 graceful dumpiness of the lower extremities. The time to view them 

 to the greatest advantage is certainly on their coming out of the 

 temascal, a kind of steam-bath, the ruddy glow thereby produced on 

 their cheeks, set off by their long coal-black streaming hair, tends to 

 make their appearance rather attractive. They often plait their hair 

 behind, so as much to resemble a tail, which, though far from orna- 

 mental, they have a great dislike to being deprived of by force or 

 fraud. I once heard a woman complaining bitterly of a man who 

 had cut off her queue. Her grief I at first attributed to the intrinsic 

 value of the hair, which, as I had been informed, is often sold for the 

 decoration of images in the churches. I now learnt, however, that 

 such an act enforced contrary to her inclinations, is considered as' a 

 brand of infidelity. 



Hitherto I have spoken of the Mexican Creoles in general, as 

 found in the district or vicinity of Real del Monte. In all these the 

 mixture of Spanish blood with the native Indian was manifest, and 

 mostly, as might be expected, in those of superior station. But we 

 often received visits from a purer race, the primitive Indians, whose 

 peculiarities afforded curious matter of remark. They came, at cer- 

 tain seasons, bringing for sale birds, inhabitants of the hotter regions 

 of the plains: cardinals, calandrias, the sinsonti or mocking-bird, 

 and various other species, which do not breed at so great a height as 

 Real del Monte. These Indians were a timorous people, and exces- 

 sively stupid, hardly possessing the few words of Spanish necessary 

 to carry on their trade. I observed that in the disposal of their 

 stores, having fixed the separate price of each bird, they would by no 

 means make the least abatement in consideration of the buyer's taking 

 their whole *fetock at once. Their dress was usually a plain cotton 

 frock and trowsers, with an ordinary straw hat. Some brought bows 



