220 THE LIMOSNEEOS. 



for paupers, there is no country perhaps more 

 infested with beggars, especially from Chihua- 

 hua south. In the large cities, Saturday is 

 the alms-giving day by custom ; and on such 

 occasions the limosncros (as the mendicant 

 race is called), may be seen promenading the 

 streets in gangs of thirty or forty, or in smaller 

 numbers, performing genuflections at every 

 nook and comer of the town, each croaking 

 aloud his favorite set of orisons and inviting 

 the blessings of heaven upon every man, wo- 

 man or child, who may have been so fortu- 

 nate as to propitiate the benison by casting a 

 few dacos into his outstretched hand. In 

 some sections of the country, this system of 

 begging has proved so successful that parents 

 have actually been known to maim and de- 

 form their children, during the earhest stages 

 of infancy, in order to fit them for the trade, 

 and thereby secure to themselves a constant 

 source of emolument for the remainder of 

 their hves. Persons affecthig disease and fre- 

 quently malformation for the purpose of excit- 

 ing the commiseration of the wayfarer, are 

 also extremely numerous. I had often observ- 

 ed in Chihuahua a robust-looking fellow, who 

 to all appearance, had partially lost the use of 

 his lower extremities, sliding about the streets 



» 



from door to door upon a sort of cushion, ask- 

 ing alms. One fine day, a furious bull, pur- 

 sued by some vaqueros, came plunging do^vn 

 in the direction where he sat, moaning and 

 grieving most pitcously ; when, forgetting his 

 physical disabilities, he sprang to his feet with 



