LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 239 



washed and combed, plastered behind their ears, and 

 plaited into a long queue, which hung down their 

 backs. Enaguas of gaudy colour (red most affected) 

 were donned, fastened round the waist with ornamented 

 belts, and above this a snow-white camisita of fine linen 

 was the only covering, allowing a prodigal display of 

 their charms. Gold and silver ornaments, of antiquated 

 pattern, decorate their ears and necks ; and massive 

 crosses of the precious metals, wrought from the gold 

 or silver of their own placeres, hang pendant on their 

 breasts. The enagua or petticoat, reaching about half- 

 way between the knee and ancle, displays their well- 

 turned limbs, destitute of stockings, and their tiny feet, 

 thrust into quaint little shoes (zapatitos) of Cinderellan 

 dimensions. Thus equipped, with the reboso drawn 

 over their heads and faces, out of the folds of which 

 their brilliant eyes flash like lightning, and each pretty 

 mouth armed with its cigarito, they coquettishly enter 

 the fandango.* Here, at one end of a long room, are 

 seated the musicians, their instruments being generally 

 a species of guitar, called heaca, a bandolin, and an 

 Indian drum, called tomle one of each. Round the 

 room groups of New Mexicans lounge, wrapped in the 

 eternal sarape, and smoking of course, scowling with 

 jealous eyes at the more favoured mountaineers. These, 

 divested of their hunting-coats of buckskins, appear in 

 their bran-new shirts of gaudy calico, and close fitting 



* The word fandango, in New Mexico, is not applied to the 

 peculiar dance known in Spain by that name, but designates a 

 ball or dancing meeting. 



