MEXICO. 



415 



evergreens. Perhaps the most imposing edifice is the cathedral, whicn is in the Gothic style, 

 and would do honor to any city in Europe. The provincial cities are some of them as well 

 built as the capital, and the haciendas which are scattered over the country are large and sub- 

 > stantial edifices of stone, with out-houses of the same. But Mexico is the country of inequality, 

 and this appears in nothing more distinctly than in the dwellings of the rich and of the poo. 

 The houses of the rich are elegant ; the huts of the indigent, hardly comfortable ; the latter are 

 of various kinds, generally a mud cottage or a mere wicker of canes, costing about 6 dollars. 



9. Food and Drink. Maize or Indian corn is the principal material for food, especially on 

 the table-land. The preparations of it are various ; the most palatable and general are tortillas, 

 a sort of pancakes. These are spread with chile, a kind of pepper ; and they are so much es- 

 teemed, that in great houses a woman is kept expressly to make them, who is called, by virtue 

 of her office, Tortillera. The maize is also much used in a sort of gruel, sweetened with honey, 

 while a drink is made from it resembling cider, and another resembling beer. After maize, the 

 fruit of the banana and the flour of the manioc are the most consumed. The banana is ealen 

 fresh and dried. The fruit is often 8 inches long, and a cluster has sometimes ISO fruits, 

 weighing 80 pounds. The plant is cultivated with little care, and produces in a few months 



' after it is planted ; 1 ,000 feet of land will sometimes produce 4,000 lbs. of nutritive substance ; 

 and the root is made into sweetmeats. The root of the igname is also used as food, and it 

 sometimes weighs 60 lbs. The potato and yam are also extensively used, and bread is made 

 also from the juca root, which yields the flour of manioc. From the situation of Mexico, 

 where the land gradually rises to a great altitude, almost every plant used for food in diflerent 

 climates, is successfully cultivated. The number is v/onderful. Food is therefore so abun- 

 dant, that the labor of a man for 2 days will, in most places, supply a family for a week. The 

 olive and vine produce well, though neither are cultivated to a great extent. In the city of 

 Mexico, the consumption of meat is greater to the individual than in Paris. The flesh of ani- 

 mals is often sold in the markets cut up into strips, and measured by the yard ; it is also dried 

 and preserved in the same form. Beef and mutton are general, but there is no veal ; butter is 

 dear and ordinary, and there is little cheese. Milk is at least genuine, for it is sold in the udder, 

 and drawn from the cow before the purchaser. Beef, in the city of Mexico, generally sells at 

 cents for the 28 ounces ; mutton, I2h a pound ; eggs, 25 cents the dozen. Small fish 

 from the lake, a dollar the dozen ; turkeys a dollar each, fowls 75 cents the pair ; peaches 5 

 cents a dozen, pears 75 cents, oranges 33, and jiines 12^ cents each. 



The vegetable and fruit market is a beautiful sight for a foreigner. The Indians, who are 

 generally the gardeners, display fruit in cones and pyramids to the best advantage, and decorate 

 their stalls with gaudy flowers. The stalls have, besides tropical productions, all the usual 

 garden vegetables of Europe. Of drinks, there are in Mexico, unfortunately, too many that 

 intoxicate, and their injurious effects are too apparent upon the Indians and poorer population. 

 The most usual drink, not excepting perhaps even water, is the pulque, a liquor produced from 

 a variety of the Agave Americana. The taste is agreeably acid, and it is, perhaps, of all in- 

 toxicating liquids, the least hurtful. It is the juice of the plant, obtained by cutting off the 

 shoot just before it is bursting out to flower ; it is so hollowed out, that the juice fills the cavity 

 left; and so abundant is the sap, that it is dipped out several times in the day. A plant, even 

 in a barren soil, produces 150 bottles of pulque, though it is about 16 years before it will do to 

 make the incision. Humboldt calls the maguey the vine of the Aztecs, and the natives prefer 

 the pulque to all wines, and their preference is justified by many Europeans. A very intoxi- 

 cating brandy, called mexical, is distilled from the pulque. The pulque has, unfortunately, the 

 best flavor when it has the least fragrance, as it has often when in the best state a fetid odor, 

 though, as this is not universal, it may perhaps, when the cultivators have more skill, be reme- 

 died. The consumption of pulque is enormous in the city ; 44,000,000 of bottles are consumed 

 annually. There is some wine made in Mexico, but not of a good quality ; and the Europear„ 

 use the wines of Europe. 



10. Diseases. A plague has at diflerent periods swept off the Indians. It is supposed by 

 some to be the black vomit. The smallpox has also committed its ravages. Generally Mex- 

 ico is salubrious on the high land ; but on the coast it is subjected to the fevers that are com- 

 mon in the West Indies. 



11. Traveling. Their is little traveling in jMexico, and of course the accommodations for 

 travelers are far below excellence ; they are, perhaps, as bad as in any other civilized country ; 

 and although the exclusion of all Europeans except Spaniards, is no longer enforced (but the 



