IMPROVIDENCE SUPERSTITION DRUNKENNESS. 31 



ever is to be removed from his fields, in bags, instead of in barrows 

 or carts ; and the old system of bearing every burden, no mattei 

 how onerous, on his shoulders instead of a dray or a wagon. It 

 offends him to speak of changes, which he regards as unrighteous 

 innovations. His character, like that of the Chinese, is one of 

 excessive tenacity for old customs. After three centuries of con- 

 stant intercourse with strange races, he still segregates himself from 

 the foreigner, and, nestling in his native village, keeps aloof from 

 the Spaniard. He speaks his hereditary language ; clings to his 

 old habits ; and, — according to the report of reliable travellers, — 

 worships, occasionally in private, his ancestral idols. In the capi- 

 tal, garlands which have been secretly suspended on the images by 

 Indians, are still sometimes found around the hideous Aztec di- 

 vinities preserved in the court yard of the University. " You gave 

 us three very good gods " — said an Indian once to a respectable 

 Catholic curate, — "yet you might as well have left us a few of 

 our own ! " 



Grave, taciturn and distrustful, — types, in manners, of a crushed 

 and conquered race, — the Indians of Mexico, wear a sombre look 

 and demeanor, accompanied by an air of evident submissiveness. 

 It is rare to find them merry, except at the end of harvest on the large 

 estates, when an annual festival is prepared, in which they are ac- 

 customed to unite with great zest. They have other periods of 

 cessation from toil, such as the Sabbath day, the feasts of the pa- 

 tron saints of their village or parish church. Upon these occasions 

 their devotion to the externals of religion is exhibited by a lavish 

 expense in articles which they imagine may contribute to the honor 

 or glory of their spiritual protector in heaven. In order to cele- 

 brate the occasion with due decorum, according to their simple 

 ideas, they not only spend whatever money they happen to possess 

 at the moment, but pledge themselves, in advance, at the haciendas, 

 for the loan of sums which they must repay by future labor. The 

 result is that these superstitious frivolities consume a large share of 

 the Indian's substance ; and, notwithstanding his economy and 

 trugality, he and his family are obliged to spend the greater part of 

 the year in misery, in recompense for the rockets, fire crackers, 

 music, wax candles, and flowers, which he purchased on the Festi- 

 val of his Santo. In addition to these ecclesiastical costs, we must 

 not omit his personal expenses, for the Indian does not forget 

 his bodily condition whilst he pays attention to his spiritual wants. 

 Liquor and gambling, fill up the occasional pauses in the pious 

 ceremonials, so that after the Indian has finished his religious ser- 



