220 
INHABITANTS. 
some instances beautiful and well proportioned — a beauty which 
is enhanced by their devotion to home, and the natural grace of 
their carriage. Their movements are quick and mercurial, and 
their manners are characterized by shyness rather than modesty. 
The Abbe Olavigero, in his excellent work on Mexico, says, 
in reference to the physical character of the Indians, that " there 
is scarcely a nation perhaps on earth in which there are fewer 
persons deformed ; and it would be more difficult to find a single 
hump-backed, lame, or squint-eyed man amongst a thousand 
Mexicans, than among any hundred of any other nation." This 
assertion is literally true of the natives on the Isthmus. In 
their habits they are exceedingly simple, and their chief sub- 
sistence consists of vegetable food ; but they are inveterate drunk- 
ards, and their passion for intoxicating liquors is carried to the 
greatest excess. When not under the influence of drink they 
are grave and thoughtful — a gravity which is particularly re- 
markable in Indian children. Their senses are exceedingly 
acute, especially that of sight, and their constitutions, notwith- 
standing habitual inebriation, sound, and their health robust. 
As a general rule, they are indifferent to advantages, and little 
inclined to work ; but, from the natural docility of their charac- 
ter, it seems only reasonable to infer that under better and 
brighter circumstances they would become both useful and in- 
dustrious. Every man and boy wears a machete, and the facility 
and dexterity of its use is not a little surprising. It serves as a 
weapon for defence, an instrument for killing beef, an axe for 
cutting wood, and a knife for eating, &c. As axemen, to per- 
form the grubbing and clearing on the route of the proposed 
railroad, their services will be found invaluable. 
If the habits and manners of the Indians are simple, their 
mode of living is not less so ; and their freedom from ordinary 
diseases is as much due to their abstemiousness as to the salu- 
brity of the climate. Maize, which is the chief object of culti- 
vation, is also a prominent article of food. This is manufac- 
tured by the women into cakes about eight inches in diameter, 
and of exceeding thinness, the grains being steeped in a weak 
solution of lime and water to render them soft and swollen ; after 
which they are ground into paste on a coarse-grained stone for 
