LADY-SMOKING. 243 



ing amusement. To judge from the quantity 

 of tuned instruments which sahite the ear 

 almost eveiy night in the week, one would 

 suppose that a perpetual carnival prevailed 

 everywhere. The nmsical instruments used 

 at the hailes mid fcmclangos are usually the fid- 

 dle and bandoiin, or guitarra, accompanied in 

 some villages hy the tomhe or httle Indian 

 drum. The musicians occasionally acquire 

 considerable proficiency in the use of these 

 instruments. But what most oddly greets, 

 and really outrages most Protestant ears, is 

 the accompaniment of divine service with the 

 ver}^ same instruments, and often with the 

 same tunes. 



Of all the petty vices practised by the TsTew 

 Mexicans, the vicio inocerde of smoking 

 among ladies, is the most intolerable; and 

 yet it is a habit of which the lovehest and the 

 most refined equally partake. The jruro or 

 dgarro^ is seen in the mouths of all : it is 

 handed round in the parlor, and introduced 

 at the dinner table — even in the ball-room it 

 IS presented to ladies as regularly as any 



. * The Tpuro is a common cigar of pvre tobacco ; but the tcnu 

 ctgarro or cigarrito is applied to those made of cut tobacco rolled 

 BP in a strip of pa])er or corn-husk. The latter are by far in the 

 most general use in New Mexico, even among the men, and are 

 those only smoked by the females. In this province cigarros are 

 Tiirely tsold in the shops, being generally manufactured by every 

 one just as they are needed. Their expertness in this^ ' accomplish- 

 pienf is often remarkable. The mounted vaquerowiU take out 

 njs gvagito (his little tobacco-flask), his packet of hojas (or pre- 

 pared husks), and his flint, steel, etc.,— make his cigarrito, strike 

 hre and commence smoking in a minute's time— all while at full 

 ^peed : and the next minute will perhaps lazo the wildest hull 

 Without interrupting his smoke. 



