BALL OF THE MESTIZAS. 



97 



the bayle de las Mestizas. After a month in 

 Indian ranchos, that day toiling among ruins, almost 

 driven to distraction by garrapatas, clambering over 

 a frightful sierra, and making a journey w^orse than 

 any sixty miles in our country, all at once I settled 

 down at a fancy ball, amid music, lights, and 

 pretty w^omen, in the full enjoyment of an arm- 

 chair and a cigar. For a moment a shade of regret 

 came over me as I thought of my invalid friends, 

 but I soon forgot them. 



The enramada, or enclosure for the ball-room, 

 v^as an arbour about one hundred and fifty feet long 

 and fifty feet wide, surrounded by a railing of rude 

 lattice-work, covered with costal, or hemp bagging, 

 as a protection against the night air and sun, and 

 lighted by lamps with large glass shades. The floor 

 was of hard cement ; along the raiUng was a row of 

 chairs, all occupied by ladies ; gentlemen, boys, and 

 girls, children and nurses, were sitting promiscuous- 

 ly on the floor, and Don Philippe Peon, when he 

 gave me his chair, took a place among tbem. El 

 bayle de las Mestizas was what might be called a 

 fancy ball, in which the seiioritas of the village ap- 

 peared as las Mestizas, or in the costume of Mestiza 

 women : loose white frock, with red worked border 

 round the neck and skirt, a man's black hat, a blue 

 scarf over the shoulder, gold necklace and bracelets. 

 The young men figured as vaqueros, or major domos, 

 in shirt and pantaloons of pink striped muslin, yellow 

 buckskin shoes, and low, round-crowned, hard-plat- 



VoL. IL— N 9 



