266 HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



fireworks let off upon occasions of the kind, the processions, from which 

 dancing and the quaintest disguisings are inseparable, afford a rich source 

 of delight to the common mass of Indians. Christian worship, however, 

 not merely in Mexico, but everywhere, has received shadings from the 

 countries into which it has been transplanted. 



With regard, finally, to the remaining population, the Europeans, but 

 especially the pure-blooded descendants of the Spanish conquerors of 

 Mexico, unquestionably hold the highest rank. Then follow the Africans, 

 the negroes, who here are almost all free people, and in part marry amongst 

 themselves. Indian women prefer negroes as husbands, not only to men 

 of their own race, but even to Europeans, as the boisterous vivacity of the 

 Congo negro suits them better. 



Whites born in tropical countries, of European parents, or their descend- 

 ants in pure lineage, are usually called Creoles ; descendants of negroes, 

 ci^eole negroes ; the offspring of whites and negroes, mulattoes ; of whites 

 and American Indians, red mestizoes ; and of whites and Hindoos, yel- 

 low mestizoes. The descendants of mulattoes are called hashes ; of a 

 white and mulatto, terzeron ; of a white and a terzeron, quateron. Chil- 

 dren sprung from Europeans and aborigines of Brazil are called mame- 

 luhos ; those from a Chinese man and a Malay woman, tehos ; those from 

 a Hindoo and a negress, buganeses ; and finally, those from Hottentots and 

 whites, hastes. PI. 30, fig. 1, represents a Spanish Creole, a Mayor of 

 Jerez in Mexico ; fig. 7, a mulatto woman of rank ; and fig. 8, a Brazilian 

 mestizo. 



The Inhabitants of Central America. 



The Republic of Central America (Guatemala), constituting the con- 

 necting link between South and North America, forms a curved, high, 

 mountainous country, surrounded by. the two great oceans and the two 

 declivities of the Andes (Panama and Tehuantepec). Capes Honduras and 

 Gracios a Dios extend into the Caribbean Sea, and Cape Blanco into the 

 Pacific Ocean. The cHmate is warmer here than in Mexico, the soil more 

 luxuriant, the productions richer. Of the population, two fifths are abo- 

 rigines, two fifths mestizoes, and one fifth whites ; besides many independent 

 Indian tribes upon the entire west and northwest coasts, of whom the Mos- 

 quitoes in Honduras have intercourse with the English and Americans, but 

 are mortal enemies of the Spaniards. The settled Indians, or Indios 

 ladinos, are baptized, and like the Mexicans have adopted all the external 

 rites of Christianity without having any idea of its spirit. Their costume 

 is picturesque. Persons in good circumstances wear a cotton shirt, wide 

 trowsers, leather sandals, and a girdle of colored stuff. The common 

 Indians do not wear cotton fabrics, but materials woven of the fibres of the 

 agave (maguey), and other plants. Gentleness, industry, taciturnity, hospi- 

 tality, and veracity, are virtues for which they are celebrated ; drunkenness, 

 on the other hand, is their greatest fault. The industrial arts, agriculture, 

 438 



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