ladies' FASlliONS* 215 



r 



ticularly to the chivalrous cahallero of the 

 South — the rico of the country, yet similar 

 modes of costume and equipage, but of 

 coarser material, are used by the lower classes. 

 Nor are they restricted among these to the 

 riding-dress, but are very generally worn as 

 ordinary apparel. Common velveteens, fus- 

 tians, blue drilUngs and similar stuffs, are very 

 niuch in fashion among &uch rancheros and 

 viUagcois as are able to wear anything above 

 the ordinary woollen manufactures of the 

 country. Coarse wool hats, or of palm-leaf 

 [sombreros de petate), all of low crowns, are 



the kind generally worn by the common peo- 

 ple. 



As I have already observed, among the bet- 

 ter classes the European dress is now fre- 

 quently worn ; although they are generally a 

 year or two behind our latest fashions. The 

 ladles, however, never wear either hat, cap or 

 bonnet, except for riding ; but in Ueu of it, 

 especially when they walk abroad, the rebozo 

 (or scarf), or a large shawl, is drawn over the 

 head. The rebozo is by far the most fashiona- 

 ble : it is seven or eight feet in length by 

 nearly a yard in width, and is made of divers 

 stuffs— silk^ linen or cotton, and usually va- 

 riegated and figured in the warp by symmetri- 

 cally disposed threads waved in the dying. 

 It is certainly a beautiful specimen of do- 

 mestic manufacture. The finest articles are 

 valued at fifty to a hundred dollars in the 

 North ; but the ordinary cotton rebozo ranges 



at from one to five dollars, and is generally 



