THE TRAIL OF THE CAVALIERS 



379 



Palazo Municipial, and, reining his 

 horse upon his haunches, springs to the 

 ground, throws his rein to his equerry 

 and strides within. Or when, standing 

 within the patio of his stately home, he 

 welcomes you in his lordly Castillian 

 language, which has suffered no de- 

 generation, and tells you all his house 

 is yours. 



The peon pf Mexico bears little re- 

 semblance to our Northern Indian. He 

 is extremely well-made, deep-chested, 

 square-shouldered and muscular, in fea- 

 ture strongly suggesting the Italian 

 peasant. But in his erect figure there is 

 no likeness to the misshapen body that 

 generations of toil have bred in the lat- 

 ter. 



His womankind are altogether charm- 

 ing. The younger women especially, 

 with their deep eyes, oval faces and un- 

 spoiled figures, approach very near to 

 one's ideal of savage beauty. 



It is in the extreme South, upon the 

 Isthmus of Tehuantepec, that the most 

 beautiful types of native women are en- 

 countered. They are straighter, taller, 

 more lithe, and their bronze faces have 

 a nobler cast. Whether this is due to 

 the simple life more nearly resem- 

 bling what it was of old — or, if 

 you like, more savage — is a matter of 

 conjecture. To me it seemed not un- 

 likely that the more Intimate contact 

 with the conquering race, and a conse- 

 quent more poignant realization of their 

 dependent condition, in the more settled 

 parts of the country, might have 

 brought a falling off from the original 

 fineness of a race that has left so many 

 evidences of enlightenment. That they 

 do realize their peonage, no one upon 

 whom their melancholy faces have once 

 been impressed, can doubt. Even when 

 they smile, which they do readily 

 enough, it is with a haunting wistful- 

 ness difficult to forget. 



Every Mexican town can boast of 

 her Alameda and a band. In the after- 

 noons of Sundays and feast days, and 

 usually Wednesday evenings, the belles 

 and beaux of the place gather and 

 promenade. They have no more curious 



The Mexican is a dramatic figure 



custom than this, nor is it likely that it 

 has a parallel anywhere else in the 

 world. The men form in a long line of 

 two abreast, and circle around the outer 

 edge of the park, and the women in a 

 similar ring, revolving, as it were, with- 

 in the other, walk slowly around in an 

 opposite direction. In this way every 

 Romeo will see his Juliet several times 

 in the course of the evening and ex- 

 change glances with her, may even 

 find opportunity for a hurried whisper. 



