Mexican Marlcets. 155 



Even more difficult and far more dangerous is what they 

 call ' barbearal becerro.' The bold ranchero approaches the 

 bull on foot, and not from behind, but in front ; seizes with 

 one hand one of its ears, with the other its snout, and then 

 twisting its neck with a sudden jerk brings the bull to the 

 ground. 



The class of people in Mexico between the rich classes and 

 the Indians do not dress in the French style, nor in the simple 

 style of the Indians. The lowest class of them, the ' leperos,' 

 dress as they can afford it, the climate of the country permit- 

 ting them to wear very litde ; a pair of coarse tiousers, a 

 similar shirt, and a sombrero of palm-leaves are sufficient. 

 The women of what I may call the lower middle class invari- 

 ably wear a more or less elegant petticoat, covering them from 

 the waist to their feet. For their bust a loose shirt is thought 

 sufficient, and generally a neckerchief is added to it. The 

 characteristic part of their dress is, however, the rebozo, which 

 serves them for all passible purposes, and with this they under- 

 stand how to dress themselves in a rather becoming and often 

 coquettish manner. The rebozo is a kind of shawl either of 

 cotton or silk, plain or interwoven with gold or silver thread, 

 two and a half or three metres long and one wide, with an 

 open fringe at both ends. 



Though it is very unusual for ladies to walk in the street, 

 except on going to church and coming from the Alameda, I 

 sometimes took the liberty of looking about, and found always 

 new and interesting things to see, especially on the markets, 

 where so many articles were sold which I had never seen be- 

 fore. I was especially attracted by the great quantity of very 

 fine flowers coming from the floating gardens, where they bloom 

 even in winter. Stawberries are to be had all the year round, 

 and a great variety of fruit, in their season, are heaped up in 

 large pyramids. Covent Garden market in London looks in 

 this respect poor in comparison with the most common Mexi- 

 can market. 



The fruit to be seen everywhere is the banana, which is 

 called in Mexico platano. It is a smooth yellow pod, sometimes 

 with dark spots, of about five inches long and thick in propor- 

 tion, which contains a soft, gold-coloured, somewhat mealy bat 

 extremely aromatic flesh. These pods grow together in clus- 

 ters of not rarely more than a hundred. The bananas grow 



