250 



CHARACTERS AND COSTUMES. 



numbers of women with oranges, pears, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, 

 lemons, guyavas, aguacates, chirimoyas, plantains, fish and eggs, 

 swell the increasing crowds. The butcher drives along a diminu- 

 tive donkey, on whose saddle he has erected his peripatetic sham- 

 bles, filled with beef or mutton, whilst, at the corners and on the 

 edge of the side w T alks, sit long rows of Indian women with pans 

 of savory chile sauces and heaping baskets or cloths of steaming 

 tortillas. All these eager venders of the necessaries and luxuries 

 of life, engage public attention by shouting the quality and value of 

 their wares at the top of their voices. Sound and motion are the 

 predominant features of the varied panorama ; and the stunned 

 stranger is glad to retreat into quiet nooks and byeways in which 

 he meets the stately gentlewoman and cavalier, dressed in the be- 

 coming habiliments of their station. When ladies go abroad in 

 Mexico to shop or visit, they universally use their coaches; yet 

 every woman daily walks to mass, — and, whilst engaged in this 

 religious pilgrimage, exhibits the old and habitual costume of black 

 silk gown and lace mantilla, which she has derived from her 

 Spanish ancestors. This is a charming dress. It exposes the 

 black, lustrous hair of the graceful wearers, and fully develops 

 that majestic yet feminine gait with which the Mexican women 

 seem to glide and undulate along their path. The inseparable fan, 

 — her constant companion, play thing and interpreter, in the sa- 

 loon, the ball room, the theatre or the church, — rests carelessly, in 

 her right hand, which coquettishly clasps the folds of her mantilla ; 

 and, from beneath its silken folds, her large lustrous eyes gleam 

 soft and languishingly above her pale but healthful cheeks. If 

 Mexican ladies are not so variously beautiful as the women of 

 northern lands, in whose veins the blood of many nations has 

 mingled, they are most loveable creatures in spite of the uniformity 

 of their national type. There is a degree of exquisite tenderness, 

 and an expression of affectionate sincerity, in the face of Mexican 

 women, which instantly wins not only the respect but the confidence 

 of the gazer. Nor does their character in real life contradict their 

 amiable physiognomy. Faithful as a friend and as a wife, the 

 Mexican lady is a person, who, with the educational advantages 

 enjoyed by their northern sisters, would rightfully maintain as high 

 a position in the social scale, with, perhaps, a more delicate degree 

 of sensibility. 



The lower classes of females are of course different from the up- 

 per ranks both in appearance and personal qualities. They are of 

 impure blood. Spaniard, Indian, Negro and Malay, have con- 



