280 DRUNKENNESS OF THE INDIANS. 



strongly contrasted with a gloomy and severe look. 

 They had a more swarthy complexion than the Indians 

 which Humboldt and Bonpland saw in Peru, and more 

 beard likewise. Almost all those that he saw in the 

 neighbourhood of the capital wore small moustaches. 

 They attained a pretty advanced age, in spite of their 

 excessive drunkenness. This vice was most common 

 among those who inhabited the valley in which the 

 capital stood, and the environs of Puebla and Tlascala. 

 The police of Mexico, when Humboldt was there, were 

 in the habit of sending round tumbrils to collect the 

 drunkards that were found stretched out in the streets. 

 They were treated like dead bodies, and carried to the 

 principal guard-house. The next morning an iron ring 

 was put round their ancles, and they were made to clean 

 the streets for three days; they were set free on the 

 fourth day, but many of them were sure to be back 

 again in the course of the week. 



Travellers who merely judge from the physiognomy 

 of the Indians are tempted to believe that it is rare to see 

 old men among them. In fact, without consulting parish 

 registers, which in warm regions are devoured by the 

 ants every twenty or thirty years, it is very difficult to 

 form any idea of the age of Indians: they themselves 

 are completely ignorant of it. Their head never becomes 

 gray. It is infinitely more rare to find an Indian than a 

 negro with gray hairs, and the want of beard gives the 

 former a continual air of youth. The skin of the Indians 

 is also less subject to wrinkles. Humboldt often saw 

 in Mexico, in the temperate zone half way up the 

 Cordillera, natives, and especially women, a hundred 

 years of age. This old age was generally comfortable - 



