ANAHUAC or, Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern by EDWARD B. TYLOR 1861 [Illustration: Frontspiece. See page 93. THE CASCADE OF REGLA. From aPhotograph by J. Ball Esq. Of the Hacienda de Regla. March 1856. ] INTRODUCTION. The journey and excursions in Mexico which have originated thenarrative and remarks contained in this volume were made in the monthsof March, April, May, and June of 1856, for the most part on horseback. The author and his fellow-traveller enjoyed many advantageousopportunities of studying the country, the people, and the antiquitiesof Mexico, owing to the friendly assistance and hospitality which theyreceived there. With this aid they were enabled to accomplish much morethan usually falls to the lot of travellers in so limited a period; andthey had the great advantage too, of being able to substantiate orcorrect their own observations by the local knowledge and experience oftheir friends and entertainers. Visiting Mexico during a lull in the civil turmoil of that lamentablydisturbed Republic, they were fortunate in being able to availthemselves of that peaceable season in making excursions to remarkableplaces and ruins, and examining the national collection of antiquities, and other objects of interest, --an opportunity that cannot haveoccurred since owing to the recommencement of civil war in its worstform. The following are some of the chief points of interest in these Noteson Mexico, which are either new or treated more fully than hitherto: 1. The evidence of an immense ancient population, shewn by the abundance of remains of works of art (treated of at pages 146-150), is fully stated here. 2. The notices and drawings of Obsidian knives and weapons (at page 95, &c. , and in the Appendix) are more ample than any previously given. 3. The treatment of the Mexican Numerals (at page 108) is partly new. 4. The proofs of the highly probable sophistication of the document in the Library at Paris, relative to Mexican eclipses, have not previously been advanced (see Appendix). 5. The notices of objects of Mexican art, &c. , in the chapter on Antiquities, and elsewhere (including the Appendix), are for the most part new to the public. 6. The remarks on the connection between pure Mexican art and that of Central America, in the chapter on Xochicalco, are in great part new. 7. The singular native bridge at Tezcuco (page 153) is another novelty. The order in which places and things were visited is shewn in theannexed Itinerary, or sketch of the journeys and excursions described. ITINERARY: Journey 1. Cuba. Havana. Batabano. Isles of Pines. Nueva Gerona. Baños de Santa Fé. Back to Havana. _Pages_ 1-14. Journey 2. Havana. Sisal. Vera Cruz. _Pages_ 15-18. Journey 3. Vera Cruz. Cordova. Orizaba. Huamantla. Otumba. Guadalupe. Mexico. _Pages_ 18-38. Journey 4. Mexico to Tacubaya and Chapultepec, and back. _Pages_ 55-58. Journey 5. Mexico to Santa Anita and back. _Pages_ 59-65. Journey 6. Mexico. Guadalupe. Pachuca. Real del Monte. Regla. Atotonilco el Grande. Soquital and back to Real del Monte. Real del Monte to Mount Jacal and Cerro de Navajas (obsidian-pits), and back to Real del Monte. Pachuca. Guadalupe. Mexico. _Pages_ 72-105. Journey 7. Mexico to Tisapán. Ravine of Magdalena. Pedrigal (lava-field), and back. _Pages_ 118-120. Journey 8. Mexico to Tezcuco. Pages 129--162. Tezcuco to Pyramids of Teotihuacán and back. Pages 136--146. Tezcuco to Tezcotzinco (the so-called "Montezuma's Bath, " &c. ). Aztec Bridge, and back to Tezcuco. _Pages_ 152-153. Tezcuco to Bosque del Contador (the grove of ahuehuetes, where excavations were made. ) _Pages_ 154-156. Tezcuco to Mexico. _Page_ 62. Journey 9. Mexico. San Juan de Dios. La Guarda. Cuernavaca. Temisco. Xochicalco. Miacatlán. Cocoytla. _Pages_ 172-195. Cocoytla to village and cave of Cacahuamilpán and back. _Pages_ 196-205. Cocoytla to Chalma. Oculán. El Desierto. Tenancingo. Toluca. Lerma. Las Cruzes. Mexico. _Pages_ 214-220. Journey 10. Mexico to Tezcuco. Miraflores. Amecameca. Popocatepetl. San Nicolas de los Ranchos. Cholula. Puebla. Amozoque. Nopaluca. San Antonio de abajo. Orizaba. Amatlán. El Potrero. Cordova. San Andrés. Chalchicomula. La Junta. Jalapa. Vera Cruz. West Indies and Home. _Pages_ 260- 327. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Cuba. Volantes. A Cuban Railway. Voyage. Passports. Isle of Pines. Mosquitos. Pirates. Runaway slaves. Baths of Santa Fé. Alligators. The Cura. Missionary Priest. Florida Colonists. Blacks in the West Indies. Chinese and African slaves. CHAPTER II. Players and Political Adventurers. Voyage. Yucatan. Slave-trade in Natives. The Ten Tribes. Vera Cruz. Don Ignacio Comonfort. Mexican Politics. Casualties. The City of the Dead. Turkey-buzzards. Northers. The "temperate region. " Cordova. The Chipi-chipi. The "cold region. " Mirage. Sand-pillars. The rainy season. Plundered passengers. Robber-priest. Aztec remains. Aloe-fields. Houses of mud-bricks. Huts of aloes. Mexican churches. Mexican roads. Making pulque. CHAPTER III. Palace-hotel of Yturbide. Site and building of Mexico. Changes in the Valley of Mexico. Dearth of Trees. Architecture. Drunkenness. Fights. Rattles. Judas's Bones. Burning Judas. Churches in Holy Week. Streets. Barricades. People. Women. The cypress of Chapultepec. Old-fashioned coaches. The canal of Chalco. Canoe-travelling. "Reasonable people. " Taste for flowers. The "Floating Gardens. " Promenade. Flooded streets. Earthquakes. CHAPTER IV. Tacubaya. Humming-birds and butterflies. Aztec feather-work. Bullfight. Lazoing and colearing. English in Mexico. Hedge of organ-cactus. Pachuca. Cold in the hills. Rapid evaporation. Mountain-roads. Real del Monte. Guns and pistols. Regla. The father-confessor in Mexico. Morals of servitude. Cornish miners. Dram-drinking. Salt-trade. The Indian market. Indian Conservatism. Sardines. Account-keeping. The great Barranca. Tropical fruits. Prickly pears. Their use. The "Water-Throat. " Silver-works. Volcano of Jorullo. Cascade of Regla. "Eyes of Water. " Fires. The Hill of Knives. Obsidian implements. Obsidian mines. The Stone-age. The loadstone-mountain of Mexico. Unequal Civilization of the Aztecs. Silver and commerce of Mexico. Effect of Protection-duties. Silver mines. The Aztec numerals. CHAPTER V. A Revolution. Siege and Capitulation of Puebla. Military Statistics. Highway-robbery. Reform in Mexico. The American war. Mexican army. Our Lady of Guadalupe. Miracles. The rival Virgins. Sacred lottery-ticket. Literature in Mexico. The clergy and their system of Education in Mexico. The Holy Office. Indian Notions of Christianity. CHAPTER VI. To Tezcuco. Indian Canoes. Sewer-canal. Water-snakes. Salt-lakes. A storm on the lake. Glass-works. Casa Grande. Quarries. Stone Hammers. Use of Bronze in stone-cutting in Mexico and Egypt. Prickly Pears. Temple-pyramids of Teotihuacán. Sacrifice of Spaniards. Old Mexico. Market of Antiquities. Police. Bull-dogs. Accumulation of Alluvium. Tezcotzinco. Ancient baths and bridge. Salt and salt-pans. Fried flies'-eggs. Water-pipes. Irrigation. Agriculture in Mexico. History repeats itself. CHAPTER VII. Horses and their training. Saddles and bits. The Courier. Leather clothes. The Serape. The Rag-fair of Mexico, Thieves. Gourd water-bottles. Ploughing. Travelling by Diligence. Indian carriers. Mules. Breakfast. Bragadoccio. Robbers. Escort. Cuernavaca. Tropical Vegetation. Sugar-cane. Temisco. Sugar-hacienda. Indian labourers. The evensong. The Raya. Strength of the Indians. Xochicalco. Ruins of the Pyramid. Sculptures. Common ornaments. The people of Mexico and Central America. Their civilization. Pear-shaped heads. Miacatlán. CHAPTER VIII. Cocoyotla. Indian labourers. Political Condition of the Indians. Indian Village and huts. Cotton-spinning. The Indian Alcalde. Great Cave of Cacahuamilpán. Optical phenomenon. Monk on horseback. Religion of the Indians. Idols. Baptism by wholesale. Village amusements. Dancing. Chalma. The meson and the convent. Church-dances. The miller's daughter. Young friar. The Hill of Drums. Sacred cypress-tree. Oculan. Change of climate. Grain-districts of Mexico. The Desierto. Tenancingo. Toluca. Lerma. Robbers. CHAPTER IX. Museum. Fate of Antiquities. War-God. Sacrificial Stone. Mexican words naturalized in Europe, &c. Chamber of Horrors. Aztec Art. Wooden Drums. Aztec Picture-writings. The "Man-flaying" Mr. Uhde's Collection. Mr. Christy's Collection. Bones of Giants. Cortes' Armour. Mexican Calendar-stone. Aztec Astronomy. Mongol Calendar. Peculiarities of Aztec Civilization. The Prison at Mexico. No "Criminal class. " Prison-discipline. The Garotte. Mexican law-courts. Statistics. The Compadrazgo. Leperos and Lepers. Lazoing the bull. Cockfighting. Gambling. Monte. The fortunate Miners. CHAPTER X. A travelling companion. Mexicans who live by their wits. Jackal-masks, &c. Mexican words used in the United States. Miraflores. Cotton-factory. Sacred Mount and Cypress-tree. Rainy Season. Ascent of Popocatepetl. The Crater. View of Anahuac. Descent from Popocatepetl. Plain of Puebla. Snow-blindness. Hospitable Shopkeeper. Morality of Smuggling. Pyramid and Antiquities of Cholula. Hybrid Legends of Mexico. Genuine Legends. Old-world analogies among the Aztecs. CHAPTER XI. Puebla. The Pasadizos. Revolutions in Mexico. Festival of Corpus Christi. Mexican clergy. Their incomes and morals. Scourging. Religion of the People. Anomalous constitution of the Republic. The horse-bath. Debt-slaves or peons. Great fortunes in Mexico. Amozoque. Spurs. Nopalucán. Orizaba. Robbers. Locusts. Indian village. Inroads of Civilization. Lawsuits. Native Aristocracy. The vapour-bath. Scanty population. Its explanation. Unhealthy habits. Epidemics. Intemperance. Pineapples. Potrero. Negros. Mixed races. "Painted men. " CHAPTER XII. Barrancas. Indian trotting. Flowers. Armadillo. Fire-flies. Singular Fandango. Epiphytes. The Junta. Indian Life. Decorative Art. Horses. Jalapa. Anglo-Mexicans. Insect-life. Monte. Fate of Antonio. Scorpion. White Negress. Cattle. Artificial lighting. Vera Cruz. Further Journey. St. Thomas's. Voyage to England. Future destinies of Mexico. APPENDIX. I. The Manufacture of Obsidian Knives. II. On the Solar Eclipses recorded in the Le Tellier MS. III. Table of Aztec roots. IV. Glossary. V. Ancient Mexican mosaic work (in Mr. Christy's Collection). VI. Dasent's Essay on the Ethnographical value of Popular Tales and Legends. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS: PLATES: Cascade of Regla. _From a photograph by J. Bell, Esq. (To face title-page. )_ Porter and Baker in Mexico. Indians bringing Country Produce to Market. Indians in a Rancho, making and baking Tortillas. Map to illustrate Messrs. Tylor and Christy's journeys and excursions In Mexico. WOODCUTS: _(The cuts of smaller objects of antiquity, and articles at present in use, have been drawn from specimens in the Collection of Henry Christy, Esq. )_ Indian Tlachiquero, collecting juice of the Agave for Pulque. View of Part of the Valley of Mexico. Water-carrier and Mexican Woman at the Fountain. Group of Mexican Ecclesiastics. Stone Spear-heads, and Obsidian Knives and Arrow-heads, from Mexico. Fluted Prism of Obsidian, and Knife-flakes. Mexican Arrow-heads of Obsidian. Aztec Stone-knife, with wooden handle, inlaid with mosaic work. Aztec Head in Terra-cotta. The Rebozo and the Serape. Aztec Bridge near Tezcuco. Spanish-Mexican Saddle and appendages. Spanish-Mexican Bit, with ring and chain. Sculptured Panel, from Xochicalco. _(After Nebel)_. Small Aztec Head in Terra-cotta. Ixtacalco Church. Spanish-Mexican Spurs. Goddess of War. _(After Nebel)_. Three Views of a Sacrificial Collar or Clamp, carved out of hard stone. Two Views of a Mask, carved out of hard stone. Ancient Bronze Bells. Spanish-Mexican Cock-spurs. Leather Sandals. Mexican Costumes. _(After Nebel)_. View of Orizaba. Indians of the Plateau. _(After Nebel)_. [Illustration: MAP OF PART OF MEXICO TO ILLUSTRATE A JOURNEY FROM VERACRUZ TO MEXICO AND BACK & EXCURSIONS IN THE COUNTRY, By Messrs. E. B. Tylor and H. Cristy. ] CHAPTER I. THE ISLE OF PINES. In the spring of 1856, I met with Mr. Christy accidentally in anomnibus at Havana. He had been in Cuba for some months, leading anadventurous life, visiting sugar-plantations, copper-mines, andcoffee-estates, descending into caves, and botanizing in tropicaljungles, cruising for a fortnight in an open boat among thecoral-reefs, hunting turtles and manatis, and visiting all sorts ofpeople from whom information was to be had, from foreign consuls andLazarist missionaries down to retired slave-dealers and assassins. As for myself, I had been travelling for the best part of a year in theUnited States, and had but a short time since left the live-oak forestsand sugar-plantations of Louisiana. We agreed to go to Mexico together;and the present notes are principally compiled from ourmemorandum-books, and from letters written home on our journey. Before we left Cuba, however, we made one last excursion across theisland, and to the _Isla de Pinos_--the Isle of Pines--off the southerncoast. A volante took us to the railway-station. The volante is thevehicle which the Cubans specially affect; it is like a Hansom cab, butthe wheels are much taller, six and a half feet high, and the blackdriver sits postillion-wise upon the horse. Our man had a laced jacket, black leather leggings, and a pair of silver spurs fastened upon hisbare feet, which seemed at a little distance to have well polishedboots on, they were so black and shiny. The railway which took us from Havana to Batabano had some strikingpeculiarities. For a part of the way the track passed between two wallsof tropical jungle. The Indian fig trees sent down from every branchsuckers, like smooth strings, which rooted themselves in the ground todraw up more water. Acacias and mimosas, the seiba and the mahagua, with other hard-wood trees innumerable, crowded close to one another;while epiphytes perched on every branch, and creepers bound the wholeforest into a compact mass of vegetation, through which no bird couldfly. We could catch the strings of convolvulus with our walking-sticks, as the train passed through the jungle. Sometimes we came upon a swamp, where clusters of bamboos were growing, crowned with tufts of pointedleaves; or had a glimpse for a moment of a group of royal palms uponthe rising ground. We passed sugar-plantations with their wide cane-fields, thesugar-houses with tall chimneys, and the balconied house of theadministrador, keeping a sharp look out over the village ofnegro-cabins, arranged in double lines. In the houses near the stations where we stopped, cigar-making seemedto be the universal occupation. Men, women, and children were sittinground tables hard at work. It made us laugh to see the black menrolling up cigars upon the hollow of their thighs, which nature hasfashioned into a curve exactly suited to this process. At Batabano the steamer was waiting at the pier, and our passports andourselves were carefully examined by the captain, for Cuba is theparadise of passport offices, and one cannot stir without a visa. Foronce everybody was _en règle_, and we had no such scene as my companionhad witnessed a few days before. If you are a married man resident in Cuba, you cannot get a passport togo to the next town without your wife's permission in writing. Now itso happened that a respectable brazier, who lived at Santiago de Cuba, wanted to go to Trinidad. His wife would not consent; so he either gother signature by stratagem, or, what is more likely, gave somebodysomething to get him a passport under false pretences. At any rate he was safe on board the steamer, when a middle-agedfemale, well dressed, but evidently arrayed in haste, and with a facecrimson with hard running, came panting down to the steamer, and rushedon board. Seizing upon the captain, she pointed out her husband, whohad taken refuge behind the other passengers at a respectful distance;she declared that she had never consented to his going away, anddemanded that his body should be instantly delivered up to her. Thehusband was appealed to, but preferred staying where he was. Thecaptain produced the passport, perfectly _en règle_, and the lady madea rush at the document, which was torn in half in the scuffle. Allother means failing, she made a sudden dash at her husband, probablyintending to carry him off by main force. He ran for his life, andthere was a steeplechase round the deck, among benches, bales, andcoils of rope; while the passengers and the crew cheered first one andthen the other, till they could not speak for laughing. The husband wasall but caught once; but a benevolent passenger kicked a camp-stool inthe lady's way, and he got a fresh start, which he utilized by climbingup the ladder to the paddle-box. His wife tried to follow him, but theshouts of laughter which the black men raised at seeing herperformances were too much for her, and she came down again. Here thecaptain interposed, and put her ashore, where she stood like black-eyedSusan till the vessel was far from the wharf, not waving her lily hand, however, but shaking her clenched fist in the direction of thefugitive. To return to our voyage to the Isle of Pines. --All the afternoon thesteamer threaded her way cautiously among the coral-reefs which rosealmost to the surface. Sometimes there seemed scarcely room to passbetween them, and by night navigation would have been impossible. Wewere just in the place where Columbus and his companions arrived ontheir expedition along the Cuban coast, to find out what countries laybeyond. They sailed by day, and lay to at night, till their patiencewas worn out. Another day or two of sailing would have brought them towhere the coast trends northwards; but they turned back, and Columbusdied in the belief that Cuba was the eastern extremity of the continentof Asia. The Spaniards call these reefs "cayos, " and we have altered the name to"keys, " such as _Key West_ in Florida, and _Ambergris Key_ off Belize. It was after sunset, and the phosphorescent animals were making the seaglitter like molten metal, when we reached the Isle of Pines, andsteamed slowly up the river, among the mangroves that fringe the banks, to the village of Nueva Gerona, the port of the island. It consisted oftwo rows of houses thatched with palm-leaves, and surrounded by wideverandahs; and between them a street of unmitigated mud. As we walked through the place in the dusk, we could dimly discern theinhabitants sitting in their thatched verandahs, in the thinnest ofwhite dresses, gossipping, smoking, and love-making, tinkling guitars, and singing seguidillas. It was quite a Spanish American scene out of aromance. There was no romance about the mosquitos, however. The air wasalive with them. When I was new to Cuba, I used to go to bed in theEuropean fashion; and as the beds were all six inches too short, myfeet used to find their way out in the night, and the mosquitos camedown and sat upon them. Experience taught us that it was better to liedown half-dressed, so that only our faces and hands were exposed totheir attacks. The Isle of Pines used to be the favourite resort of the pirates of theSpanish main; indeed there were no other inhabitants. The creeks andrivers being lined with the densest vegetation, a few yards up thewinding course of such a creek, they were lost in the forest, and acruiser might pass within a few yards of their lurking-place, and seeno traces of them. Captain Kyd often came here, and stories of hisburied treasures are still told among the inhabitants. Now the islandserves a double purpose; it is a place of resort for the Cubans, whocome to rusticate and bathe, and it serves as a settlement for thosefree black inhabitants of Florida who chose to leave that country whenit was given up to the United States. One of these Floridanosaccompanied us as our guide next day to the Baños de Santa Fé. When we left the village we passed near the mangrove trees, which weregrowing not only near the water but in it, and like to spread theirroots among the thick black slime which accumulates so fast in thiscountry of rapid vegetable growth, and as rapid decomposition. In Cuba, the mangoe is the abomination of the planters, for they supply therunaway slaves with food, upon which they have been known to subsistfor months, whilst the mangroves give them shelter. A little furtherinland we found the guava, a thick-spreading tree, with smooth greenleaves. From its fruit is made guava-jelly, but as yet it was not ripeenough to eat. In the middle of the island we came upon marble-quarries. They arehardly worked now; but when they were first established, a number ofemancipados were employed there. What emancipados are, it is worthwhile to explain. They are Africans taken from captured slavers, andare set to work under government inspection for a limited number ofyears, on a footing something like that of the apprentices in Jamaica, in the interregnum between slavery and emancipation. In Cuba it isremarked that the mortality among the emancipados is frightful. Theyseldom outlive their years of probation. The explanation of this pieceof statistics is curious. The fact is that every now and then, when anold man dies, they bury him as one of the emancipados, whose registeris sent in to the Government as dead; while the negro himself goes towork as a slave in some out-of-the-way plantation where no tales aretold. We left the marble-quarries, and rode for miles over a wide savannah. The soil was loose and sandy and full of flakes of mica, and in thewatercourses were fragments of granite, brought down from the hills. Here flourished palm trees and palmettos, acacias, mimosas, andcactuses, while the mangoe and the guava tree preferred the damperpatches nearer to the coast. The hills were covered with the pine-treesfrom which the island has its name; and on the rising ground at theirbase we saw the strange spectacle of palms and fir trees growing sideby side. Where we came upon a stream, the change in the vegetation wasastonishing. It was a sudden transition from an English, plantation offir trees into the jungle of the tropics, full of Indian figs, palms, lancewood, and great mahagua[1] trees, all knotted together by endlesscreepers and parasites; while the parrots kept up a continualchattering and screaming in the tree-tops. The moment we left thenarrow strip of tropical forest that lined the stream we were in thepine wood. Here the first two or three feet of the trunks of the pinetrees were scorched and blackened by the flames of the tall drysavannah-grass, which grows close round them, and catches fire severaltimes every year. Through the pine forest the conflagration spreadsunobstructed, as in an American prairie; but it only runs along theedge of the dense river-vegetation, which it cannot penetrate. The Baños de Santa Fé are situated in a cleared space among the firtrees. The baths themselves are nothing but a cavity in the rock, intowhich a stream, at a temperature of about 80°, continually flows. Apartition in the middle divides the ladies from the gentlemen, butallows them to continue their conversation while they sit and splash intheir respective compartments. The houses are even more quaint than the bathing-establishment. Thewhole settlement consists of a square field surrounded by littlehouses, each with its roof of palm leaves and indispensable verandah. Here the Cubans come to stay for months, bathing, smoking cigarettes, flirting, gossiping, playing cards, and strumming guitars; and theyseemed to be all agreed on one point, that it was a delightfulexistence. We left them to their tranquil enjoyments, and rode back toNueva Gerona. Next morning we borrowed a gun from the engineer of the steamboat, andI bought some powder and shot at a shop where they kept two youngalligators under the counter for the children to play with. The creeksand lagoons of the island are full of them, and the negroes told usthat in a certain lake not far off there lived no less a personage than"the crocodile king"--"_el rey de los crocodilos_;" but we had no timeto pay his majesty a visit. Two of the Floridan negroes rowed us up theriver. Even at some distance from the mouth, sting-rays and jelly-fishwere floating about. As we rowed upwards, the banks were overhung withthe densest vegetation. There were mahogany trees with their curiouslop-sided leaves, the copal-plant with its green egg-like fruit, fromwhich copal oozes when it is cut, like opium from a poppy-head, palmswith clusters of oily nuts, palmettos, and guavas. When a palm-tree onthe river-bank would not grow freely for the crowding of other trees, it would strike out in a slanting direction till it reached the clearspace above the river, and then shoot straight upwards with its crownof leaves. We shot a hawk and a woodpecker, and took them home; but, not manyminutes after we had laid them on the tiled floor of our room, webecame aware that we were invaded. The ants were upon us. They werecoming by thousands in a regular line of march up our window-sill anddown again inside, straight towards the birds. When we looked out ofthe window, there was a black stripe lying across the court-yard on theflags, a whole army of them coming. We saw it was impossible to get theskins of the birds, so threw them out of the window, and the advancedguard faced about and followed them. On the sand in front of the village the Castor-oil plant flourished, the _Palma Christi_; its little nuts were ripe, and tasted so innocentthat, undeterred by the example of the boy in the Swiss FamilyRobinson, I ate several, and was handsomely punished for it. In theevening I recounted my ill-advised experiment to the white-jacketedloungers in the verandah of the inn, and was assured that I must haveeaten an odd number! The second nut, they told me with much gravity, counteracts the first, the fourth neutralizes the third, and so on adinfinitum. We made two clerical acquaintances in the Isle of Pines. One was theCura of New Gerona, and his parentage was the only thing remarkableabout him. He was not merely the son of a priest, but his grandfatherwas a priest also. The other was a middle-aged ecclesiastic, with a pleasant face and anunfailing supply of good-humoured fun. Everybody seemed to getacquainted with him directly, and to become quite confidential afterthe first half-hour; and a drove of young men followed him abouteverywhere. His reverence kept up the ball of conversation continually, and showed considerable skill in amusing his auditors and drawing themout in their turn. It is true the jokes which passed seemed to us mild, but they appeared to suit the public exactly; and indeed, the Padre wasquite capable of providing better ones when there was a market forthem. We found that though a Spaniard by birth, he had been brought up at theLazarist College in Paris, which we know as the training-school of theFrench missionaries in China; and we soon made friends with him, aseveryone else did. A day or two afterwards we went to see him inHavana, and found him hard at his work, which was the superintendenceof several of the charitable institutions of the city--the FoundlingHospital, the Lunatic Asylum, and others. His life was one of incessantlabour, and indeed people said he was killing himself with over-work, but he seemed always in the same state of chronic hilarity; and when hetook us to see the hospitals, the children and patients received himwith demonstrations of great delight. I should not have said so much of our friend the Padre, were it notthat I think there is a moral to be got out of him. I believe he may betaken as a type, not indeed of Roman Catholic missionaries in general, but of a certain class among them, who are of considerable importancein the missionary world, though there are not many of them. Taking thePadre as a sample of his class, as I think we may--judging from theaccounts of them we meet with in books, it is curious to notice, howthe point in which their system is strongest is just that in which theProtestant system is weakest, that is, in social training anddeportment. What a number of men go to India with the best intentions, and set to work at once, flinging their doctrines at the natives beforethey have learnt in the least to understand what the said natives'minds are like, or how they work, --dropping at once upon their petprejudices, mortally offending them as a preliminary step towardsarguing with them; and in short, stroking the cat of society backwardsin the most conscientious manner. By the time they have accomplishedthis satisfactory result, a man like our Cuban Padre, though he mayhave argued but little and preached even less, would have a hundrednatives bound to him by strong personal attachment, and ready to acceptanything from him in the way of teaching. We paid a regular round of visits to the Floridan settlers, and weredelighted with their pleasant simple ways. It is not much more thanthirty years since they left Florida, and many of the children bornsince have learnt to speak English. The patches of cultivated landround their cottages produce, with but little labour, enough vegetablesfor their subsistence, and to sell, procuring clothing and suchluxuries as they care for. They seemed to live happily amongthemselves, and to govern their little colony after the manner of thePatriarchs. Whether any social condition can be better for the black inhabitants ofthe West Indies, than that of these settlers, I very much doubt. Theyare not a hard-working people, it is true; but hard work in the climateof the tropics is unnatural, and can only be brought about by unnaturalmeans. That they are not sunk in utter laziness one can see by theirneat cottages and trim gardens. Their state does not correspond withthe idea of prosperity of the political economist, who would have themwork hard to produce sugar, rum, and tobacco, that they might earnmoney to spend in crockery and Manchester goods; but it is suited tothe race and to the climate. If we measure prosperity by the enjoymentof life, their condition is an enviable one. I think no unprejudiced observer can visit the West Indies withoutseeing the absurdity of expecting the free blacks to work like slaves, as though any inducement but the strongest necessity would ever bringit about. There are only two causes which can possibly make the blacksindustrious, in our sense of the word, --slavery, or a population socrowded as to make labour necessary to supply their wants. In one house in the Floridan colony we found a _ménage_ which wassurprising to me, after my experience of the United States. The fatherof the family was a white man, a Spaniard, and his wife a black woman. They received us with the greatest hospitality, and we sat in the porchfor a long time, talking to the family. One or two of the mulattodaughters were very handsome; and there were some visitors, young whitemen from the neighbouring village, who were apparently come to paytheir devoirs to the young ladies. Such marriages are not uncommon inCuba; and the climate of the island is not unfavourable for the mixednegro and European race, while to the pure whites it is deadly. TheCreoles of the country are a poor degenerate race, and die out in thefourth generation. It is only by intermarriage with Europeans, andcontinual supplies of emigrants from Europe, that the white populationis kept up. On the morning of our departure we climbed a high lull of limestone, covered in places with patches of a limestone-breccia, cemented withsandstone, and filling the cavities in the rock. All over the hill wefound doubly refracting Iceland-spar in quantities. Euphorbias, inEurope mere shrubs, were here smooth-limbed trees, with large flowers. From the top of the hill, the character of the savannahs was welldisplayed. Every water-course could be traced by its narrow line ofdeep green forest, contrasting with the scantier vegetation of the restof the plain. As we steamed out of the river, rows of brilliant red flamingos werestanding in the shallow water, fishing, and here and there a pelicanwith his ungainly beak. Our Chinese crew were having their meal of ricewhen we walked forward, and the national chopsticks were hard at work. We talked to several of them. They could all speak a little Spanish, and were very intelligent. The history of these Chinese emigrants is a curious one. Agents inChina persuade them to come out, and they sign a contract to work foreight years, receiving from three to five dollars a month, with theirfood and clothing. The sum seems a fortune to them; but, when they cometo Cuba, they find to their cost that the value of money must beestimated by what it will buy. They find that the value of a blacklabourer is thirty dollars a month, and they have practically soldthemselves for slaves; for there is no one to prevent the masters whohave bought the contract for their work from treating them in allrespects as slaves. The value of such a contract--that is, of theChinaman himself, was from £30 to £40 when we were in the island. Fortunately for them, they cannot bear the severe plantation-work. Somedie after a few days of such labour and exposure, and many more killthemselves; and the utter indifference with which they commit suicide, as soon as life seems not worth having, contributes to moderate theexactions of their masters. A friend of ours in Cuba had a Chineseservant who was impertinent one day, and his master turned him out ofthe room, dismissing him with a kick. The other servants woke theirmaster early next morning, with the intelligence that the Chinese hadkilled himself in the night, to expiate the insult he had received. Of African slaves brought into the island, the yearly number is about15, 000. All the details of the trade are matter of general notoriety, even to the exact sum paid to each official as hush-money. It costs ahundred dollars for each negro, they say, of which a gold ounce (about£3 16s. ) is the share of the Captain-general. To this must be added thecost of the slave in Africa, and the expense of the voyage; but whenthe slave is once fairly on a plantation he is worth eight hundreddollars; so it may be understood how profitable the trade still is, ifonly one slaver out of three gets through. The island itself with its creeks and mangrove-trees is most favourablefor their landing, if they can once make the shore; and the Spanishcruisers will not catch them if they can help it. If a British cruisercaptures them, the negroes are made emancipados in the way I havealready explained. Hardly any country in the world is so thoroughly in a false position asEngland in her endeavours to keep down the Cuban slave-trade, with thenominal concurrence of the Spanish government, and the real vigorousopposition of every Spaniard on the island, from the Captain-Generaldownwards. Even the most superficial observer who lands for an hour ortwo in Havana, while his steamer is taking in coals, can have evidenceof the slave-trade brought before his eyes in the tattooed faces ofnative Africans, young and middle-aged, in the streets and markets;just as he can guess, from the scored backs of the negroes, what sortof discipline is kept up among them. We slept on board the steamboat off the pier of Batabano, and therailway took us back to Havana next morning. CHAPTER II. HAVANA TO VERA CRUZ--VERA CRUZ TO MEXICO. On the 8th of March, we went on board the "Méjico" steamer, American-built, and retaining her American engineers, but in otherrespects converted into a Spanish vessel, and now lying in the harbourof Havana bound for Vera Cruz, touching at Sisal in Yucatan. At eighto'clock we weighed anchor, and were piloted through the narrow passagewhich leads out of the harbour past the castle of El Morro and the fortof Cabañas, the view of whose ramparts and batteries caused quite aflourish of trumpets among our Spanish fellow-passengers, who firmlybelieve in their impregnability. Among our fellow-passengers were a company of fifth-rate comedians, going to Merida by way of Sisal. There was nothing interesting to usabout them. Theatrical people and green-room slang vary but little overthe whole civilized world. There were two or three Spanish and Frenchtradesmen going back to Mexico. They talked of nothing but the dangersof the road, and not without reason as it proved, for they were allrobbed before they got home. Several of the rest were gamblers orpolitical adventurers, or both, for the same person very often unitesthe two professions out here. Spain and the Spanish American Republicsproduce great numbers of these people, just as Missouri breedsborder-ruffians and sympathizers. But the ruffian is a good fellow incomparison with these well-dressed, polite scoundrels, who could havegiven Fielding a hint or two he would have been glad of for thecharacters of Mr. Jonathan Wild and his friend the Count. On the morning of the third day of our voyage we reached Sisal, and assoon as the captain would let us we went ashore, in a canoe that waslike a flat wooden box. This said captain was a Catalan, and a surlyfellow, and did not take the trouble to disguise the utter contempt hefelt for our inquisitive ways, which he seemed quite to take pleasurein thwarting. It was the only place we were to see in Yucatan, acountry whose name is associated with ideas of tropical fruits, whereyou must cut your forest-path with a machete, and of vast ruins ofdeserted temples and cities, covered up with a mass of densevegetation. But here there was nothing of this kind. Sisal is amiserable little town, standing on the shore, with a great salt-marshbehind it. It has a sort of little jetty, which constitutes its claimto the title of _port_; and two or three small merchant-vessels werelying there, taking in cargoes of logwood (the staple product of thedistrict), mahogany, hides, and deerskins. The sight of these lattersurprised us; but we found on enquiry that numbers of deer as well ashorned cattle inhabit the thinly-peopled districts round the shores ofthe Mexican Gulf, and flourish in spite of the burning climate, exceptwhen a year of drought comes, which kills them off by thousands. One possible article of export we examined as closely as opportunitywould allow, namely, the Indian inhabitants. There they are, inevery respect the right article for trade:--brown-skinned, incapableof defending themselves, strong, healthy, and industrious; andthe creeks and mangrove-swamps of Cuba only three days' sail off. The plantations and mines that want one hundred thousand men to bringthem into full work, and swallow aborigines, Chinese, and negroesindifferently--anything that has a dark skin, and can be made towork--would take these Yucatecos in any quantity, and pay well forthem. And once on a sugar-estate or down a mine, when their shamregisters are regularly made out, and the Governor has had his ounce ofgold apiece for passing them, and his subordinates their respectiverights, who shall get them out again, or even find them? This idea struck us as we sat looking at the Indians hard at work, loading and unloading; and finding an intelligent Spaniard, we fell totalking with him. Indians had been carried off to Cuba, he said, butvery few, none since 1854, when two Englishmen came to the coast with aschooner on pretence of trading, and succeeded in getting clear offwith a cargo of seventy-two natives on board. But being caught in aheavy gale of wind, they put in for safety--of all places in theworld--into the British part of Belize. There some one found out whattheir cargo consisted of, the vessel was seized, the Indians sent back, and the two adventurers condemned to hard labour, one for four years, the other for two and a half. In a place where the fatigue and exposureof drill and mounting guard is death to a European soldier, this wasmost likely a way of inflicting capital punishment, slow, but prettysure. [2] When the Spaniards came to these countries, as soon as they had leisureto ask themselves what could be the origin of the people they foundthere, the answer came at once, "the lost tribes of Israel, " of course. And as we looked at these grave taciturn men, with their browncomplexions, bright eyes, and strikingly aquiline noses, it did notseem strange that this belief should have been generally held, considering the state of knowledge on such matters in those days. WeEnglish found the ten tribes in the Red men of the north; Jews havewritten books in Hebrew for their own people, to make known to themthat the rest of their race had been found in the mountains of Chili, retaining unmistakable traces of their origin and conversing fluentlyin Hebrew; and but lately they turned up, collected together andconverted to Christianity, on the shores of the Caspian. The last twotheories have their supporters at the present day. Crude as most ofthese ideas are, one feels a good deal of interest in the first inquirythat set men thinking seriously about the origin of races, and laid thefoundation of the science of ethnology. Our return on board was a long affair, for there was a stiff breeze, almost in our teeth; and our unwieldy craft was obliged to make tackafter tack before we could reach the steamer. Great Portuguesemen-of-war were floating about, waiting for prey; and we passed throughpatches of stringy gulf-weed, trailing out into long ropes. The waterwas hot, the thermometer standing at 84° when we dipped it over theside. On the morning of the 12th, when we went on deck, there was a grandsight displayed before us. No shore visible, but a heavy bank of cloudson the horizon; and, high above them, towering up into the sky, thesnowy summit of Orizaba, a hundred and fifty miles off. Before noon, we are entering the harbour of Vera Cruz. The littleisland and fort of San Juan de Ulúa just opposite the wharfs, theisland of Sacrificios a little farther to the left. A level line ofcity-wall along the water's edge; and, visible above it, the flat roofsof the houses, and the towers and cupolas of many churches. All greystone, only relieved by the colored Spanish tiles on the church-roofs, and a flag or two in the harbour. Not a scrap of vegetation to be seen, and the rays of a tropical sun pouring down upon us. Established in the Casa de Diligencias, we deliberated as to ourjourney to Mexico. The diligences to the capital, having been stoppedfor some months on account of the disturbed state of the country, hadjust begun to run again, avoiding Puebla, which was being besieged. Wewere anxious to be off at once; but Mr. Christy sagaciously remarkingthat the robbers would know of the arrival of the steamer, and wouldprobably take the first diligence that came afterwards, we booked ourplaces for the day after. We were very kindly received by the English merchants to whom mycompanion had letters, and we set ourselves to learn what was the realstate of things in Mexico. On an average, the Presidency of the Republic of Mexico had changedhands once every eight months for the last ten years; and Don IgnacioComonfort had stepped into the office in the previous December, on thenomination of his predecessor the mulatto general Alvarez, who hadretired to the southern provinces with his army. President Comonfort, with empty coffers, and scarcely any realpolitical power, had felt it necessary to make some great effort to getpopularity for himself and his government. He had therefore adopted thepolicy of attacking the _fueros_, the extraordinary privileges of thetwo classes of priests and soldiers, which had become part of theconstitution under the first viceroys, and which not even the war ofindependence, and the adoption of republican forms, ever did away with. Neither class is amenable to the civil tribunals for debt or for anyoffences. [3] The clergy have immense revenues, and much spiritualinfluence among the lower classes; and as soon as they discovered thedisposition of the new President, they took one Don Antonio Haro yTamirez, set him up as a counter-President, and installed him atPuebla, the second city of the Republic, where priests swarm, andpriestly influence is unbounded. At the same time, they tried apronunciamiento in the capital; but the President got the better ofthem after a slight struggle, and marched all his regular soldiers onPuebla. At the moment of our arrival in the country, the siege of thiscity was going on quite briskly, ten thousand men being engaged, commanded by forty-three general officers. Whenever anything disagreeable is happening in the country, Vera Cruzis sure to get its full share. A month before our arrival, one Salcedo, who was a prisoner in the castle of San Juan de Ulúa, talked mattersover with the garrison, and persuaded them to make a pronunciamento infavour of the insurgents. They then summoned the town to join theircause, which it declined doing for the present; and the castle openedfire upon it, knocking about some of the principal buildings, and doinga good deal of damage. A 30-pound shot went through the wall of ourhotel, taking off the leg of an unfortunate waiter who was cleaningknives, and falling into the patio, or inner court. A daub of freshplaster just outside our bedroom door indicated the spot; and theBritish Consul's office had a similar decoration. The Governor of thecity could offer no active resistance, but he cut off the supplies fromthe island, and in three or four days Salcedo--finding himself out ofammunition, and short of water--surrendered in a neat speech, and therevolution ended. We have but a short time to stay in Vera Cruz, so had better make ourobservations quickly; for when we come back again there will be a sunnearly in the zenith, and yellow fever--at the present moment hardlyshowing itself--will have come for the summer; under thosecircumstances, the unseasoned foreigner had better lie on his back in acool room, with a cigar in his mouth, and read novels, than go abouthunting for useful information. There are streets of good Spanish houses in Vera Cruz, built of whitecoral-rock from the reefs near the shore, but they are mildewed anddismal-looking. Outside the walls is the Alameda; and close by is aline of houses, uninhabited, mouldy, and in ruins. We asked who builtthem. "Los Españoles, " they said. Even now, when the "nortes" are blowing, and the city is comparativelyhealthy, Vera Cruz is a melancholy place, with a plague-stricken lookabout it; but it is from June to October that its name, "the city ofthe dead"--la ciudad de los muertos--is really deserved. In that seasoncomes an accumulation of evils. The sun is at its height; there is nonorth wind to clear the air; and the heavy tropical rains--more thanthree times as much in quantity as falls in England in the wholeyear--come down in a short rainy season of four months. The waterfilters through the sand-hills, and forms great stagnant lagoons; arank tropical vegetation springs up, and the air is soon filled withpestilential vapours. Add to this that the water is unwholesome; thecity too is placed in a sand-bath which keeps up a regular temperature, by accumulating heat by day and giving it out into the air by night, sothat night gives no relief from the stifling closeness of the day. Nowonder that Mr. Bullock, the Mexican traveller, as he sat in his roomhere in the hot season, heard the church-bells tolling for the deadfrom morning to night without intermission; for weeks and weeks, onecan hardly even look into the street without seeing a funeral. We turned back through the city, and walked along watching theZopilotes--great turkey-buzzards--with their bald heads and fouldingy-black plumage. They were sitting in compact rows on parapets ofhouses and churches, and seemed specially to affect the cross of thecathedral, where they perched, two on each arm, and some on the top. When some offal was thrown into the streets, they came down leisurelyupon it, one after another; their appearance and deportment remindingus of the undertaker's men in England coming down from the hearse atthe public-house door, when the funeral is over. In all tropicalAmerica these birds are the general scavengers, and there is a heavyfine for killing them. [4] Scarcely any one is about in the streets this afternoon, except a gangor two of convicts dragging their heavy chains along, sweeping andmending the streets. This is a punishment much approved of by theMexican authorities, as combining terror to evil-doers with advantageto the community. That it puts all criminals on a level, from murderersdown to vagrants, does not seem to be considered as a matter of muchconsequence. At the city-gate stands a sentry--the strangest thing I ever saw in theguise of a soldier--a brown Indian of the coast, dressed in some ragsthat were a uniform once, shoeless, filthy in the extreme, and armedwith an amazing old flint-lock. He is bad enough to look at, in allconscience, and really worse than he looks, for--no doubt--he has beenpressed into the service against his will, and hates white men andtheir ways with all his heart. Of course he will run away when he getsa chance; and, though he will be no great loss to the service, he willadd his mite to the feeling of hatred that has been growing up forthese so many years among the brown Indians against the whites and thehalf-cast Mexicans. But more of this hereafter. One step outside the gate, and we are among the sand-hills that stretchfor miles and miles round Vera Cruz. They are mere shiftingsand-mounds; and, though some of them are fifty feet high, the fiercenorth wind moves them about bodily. The Texans know these winds well, and call them "northers. " They come from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf ofMexico, right down the Continent of North America, over a level plainwith hardly a hill to obstruct their course, the Rocky Mountains andthe Alleghanies forming a sort of trough for them. When the "norte"blows fiercely you can hardly keep your feet in the streets of VeraCruz, and vessels drag their anchors or break from their moorings inthe ill-protected harbour, and are blown out to sea--lucky if theyescape the ugly coral-reefs and sand-banks that fringe the coast. Thereare a few bushes growing outside the walls, and there we found theNopal bush, the great prickly pear--the same that has establisheditself all round the shores of the Mediterranean--growing in crevicesof rocks, and cracks in lava-beds, and barren places where nothing elsewill live. But what made us notice these Nopals was, that they werecovered with what looked like little white cocoons, out of which, whenthey were pressed, came a drop of deep crimson fluid. This is thecochineal insect, but only the wild variety; the fine kind, which isused for dye, and conies from the province of Oajaca, miles off, iscovered only with a mealy powder. There the Indians cultivate greatplantations of Nopals, and spread the insects over them with immensecare, even removing them, and carrying them up into the mountains inbaskets when the rainy season begins in the plains, and bringing themback when it is over. On Friday, the 14th of March, at three o'clock in the morning, we tookour places in a strong American-built diligence, holding nine inside, and began our journey by being dragged along the railroad--which wascommenced with great energy some time ago, and got fifteen miles on itsway to the capital, at which point it has stopped ever since. When daybroke we had left the railroad, and were jolting along through aparched sandy plain, thinly covered with acacias, nopals, and otherkinds of cactus, bignonias, and the great tree-euphorbia, with which wehad been so familiar in Cuba, with its smooth limbs and huge whiteflowers. At last we reached the first hill, and began gently to ascend. The change was wonderful. Once out of the plain, we are in the midst ofa tropical forest. The trees are crowded close together, and theconvolvulus binds their branches into an impassable jungle, while fernsand creepers weave themselves into a dense mass below; and here andthere a glimpse up some deep ravine shows great tree-ferns, thirty feethigh, standing close to the brink of a mountain-stream, and flourishingin the damp shade. Indian Ranchos become more frequent as we ascend; and theinhabitants--squatting on the ground, or leaning against thedoor-posts--just condescend to glance at us as we pass, and then returnto their meditations, and their cigarettes, if they happen to have any. These ranches are the merest huts of canes, thatched with palm-leaves;and close by each a little patch of ground is enclosed by a fence ofprickly cactus, within which are growing plantains, with their largesmooth leaves and heavy ropes of fruit, the great staple of the "tierracaliente. " Our road winds along valleys and through pass after pass; and now andthen a long zig-zag brings us out of a valley, up to a higher level. The air grows cooler, we are rapidly changing our climate, andafternoon finds us in the region of the sugar-cane and thecoffee-plant. We pass immense green cane-fields, protected from thevisits of passing muleteers and peasants by a thick hedge of thornycoffee-bushes. The cane is but young yet; but the coffee-plant, withits brilliant white flowers, like little stars, is a beautiful featurein the landscape. At sunset we are rattling through the streets of the little town ofCordova. There is such a thoroughly Spanish air about the place, thatit might be a suburb of the real Cordova, were it not for the crowds ofbrown Indians in their scanty cotton dresses and great flat-brimmedhats, and the Mexican costumes of the whiter folks. Low whitewashedhouses, with large windows to the street, protected by the heavyiron-gratings, like cages, that are so familiar to travellers inSouthern Europe. Inside the grating are the ladies of the family, outside stand their male acquaintance, and energetic gossiping is goingon. The smoky little lamp inside gives us a full view of the interior. Four whitewashed walls; a table; a few stiff-backed chairs; a virgin orsaint resplendent in paint and tinsel; and, perhaps, two or threecoloured engravings, red, blue, and yellow. A few hours in the dark, and we reach Orizaba. We have changed ourclimate for the last time to-day, and have reached that district wheretobacco flourishes at an altitude of 4, 000 feet above the sea. But ofthis we see nothing, for we are off again long before daylight; and bythe time that external objects can be made out we find ourselves in anew region. A valley floored with rich alluvial soil from the hillsthat rise steeply on both sides, their tops shrouded in clouds. Signsof wonderful fertility in the fields of maize and barley along theroadside. The air warm, but full of mist, which has already penetratedour clothes and made them feel damp and sticky. "Splendid country, this, Señores, " said an old Mexican, when he had twisted himself roundon his seat to get a good stare at us. "It seems so, " said I, "judgingby the look of the fields, but it is very unpleasantly damp just now. ""Just now, " said the old gentleman, echoing my words, "it is alwaysdamp here. You see that drizzling mist; that is the chipi-chipi. Neverheard of the chipi-chipi! Why it is the riches and blessing of thecountry. Sometimes we never see the sun here for weeks at a time, andit rains a little every day nearly; but look at the fields, we getthree crops a year from them where you have but one on the fields justabove. And it is healthy, too; look at those fellows at work there. When we get up to the Llanos you will see the difference. " The valley grew narrower as we drove on; and at last, when it seemed toend in a great ravine, we began to climb the steep hill by a zig-zagroad. Soon the air grows clearer again, the sunshine appears and getsbrighter and brighter, we have left the mist behind, and are amongranges of grand steep hills, covered with the peculiar vegetation ofthe plateau, --Cactus, Opuntia, and the Agave Americana. In the troughof the valley lies a regular opaque layer of white clouds, hiding thefields and cottages from our view. We have already passed the zone ofperpetual moisture, whose incessant clouds and showers are caused bythe stratum of hot air--charged with water evaporated from thegulf--striking upon the mountains, and there depositing part of theaqueous vapour it contains. You may see the same thing happening in almost every mountainousdistrict; but seldom on so grand a scale as here, or with so littledisturbance from other agents. Yesterday was passed in the "tierracaliente, " the hot country; our journey of to-day and to-morrow isthrough the "tierra templada" and the "tierra fría, " the temperate andthe cold country. Here a change of a few hundred feet in altitude abovethe sea, brings with it a change of climate as great as many degrees oflatitude will cause, and in one day's travel it is possible to descendfrom the region of eternal snow to the utmost heat of the tropics. Ourascent is more gradual; but, though we are three days on the road, wehave sometimes scarcely time to notice the different zones ofvegetation we pass through, before we change again. To make the account of the journey from the coast to Mexico somewhatclearer, a few words must be said about the formation of the country, as shown in a profile-map or section. The interior of Mexico consistsof a mass of volcanic rocks, thrust up to a great height above thesea-level. The plateau of Mexico is 8, 000 feet high, and that of Puebla9, 000 feet. This central mass consists principally of a greyishtrachytic porphyry, in some places rich in veins of silver-ore. Thetops of the hills are often crowned with basaltic columns, and a softporous amygdaloid abounds on the outskirts of the Mexican valley. Besides this, traces of more recent volcanic action abound, in theshape of numerous extinct craters in the high plateaus, and immense"pedrigals" or fields of lava not yet old enough for their surface tohave been disintegrated into soil. Though sedimentary rocks occur inMexico, they are not the predominant feature of the country. Ridges oflimestone hills lie on the slopes of the great volcanic mass toward thecoast; and at a still lower level, just in the rise from the flatcoast-region, there are strata of sandstone. On our road from Vera Cruzwe came upon sandstone immediately after leaving the sandy plains; anda few miles further on we reached the limestone, very much as it isrepresented in Burkart's profile of the country from Tampico upwardstowards San Luis Potosi. The mountain-plateaus, such as the plains ofMexico and Puebla, are hollows filled up and floored with horizontalstrata of tertiary deposits, which again are covered by the constantlyaccumulating layers of alluvium. Our heavy pull up the mountain-side has brought us into a new scene. Every one knows how the snow lies in the valleys of the Alps, forming aplain which slopes gradually downward towards the outlet Imagine such avalley ten miles across, with just such a sloping plain, not of snowbut of earth. There has been no rain for months, and the surface of theground is parched and cracked all over. There is hardly a tree to beseen except clumps of wood on the mountain-sides miles off, --novegetation but tufts of coarse grass, among which herds ofdisconsolate-looking cattle are roaming; the vaqueros, (herdsmen) arecantering about after them on their lean horses, with their lazoshanging in coils on their left arms, and now and then calling to ordersome refractory beast who tries to get away from the herd, by sendingthe loop over his horns or letting it fall before him as he runs, andhitching it up with a jerk round his hind legs as he steps within it. But the poor creatures are too thirsty and dispirited just now to giveany sport, and the first touch of the cord is enough to bring them backto their allegiance. From the decomposed porphyry of the mountains carbonate of soda comesdown in solution to the valleys. Much of this is converted into natronby the organic matter in the soil, and forms a white crust on theearth. More of the carbonate of soda, mixed in various proportions withcommon salt, drains continually out in the streams, or filters into theground and crystallizes there. This is why there is not a field to beseen, and the land is fit for nothing but pasture. But when the rainscome on in a few months, say our friends in the diligence, this dismalwaste will be a luxuriant prairie, and the cattle will be here bythousands, for most of them are dispersed now in the lower regions ofthe tierra templada where grass and water are to be had. My companion and I climb upon the top of the diligence to spy out theland. The grand volcano of Orizaba had been hidden from us ever sincethat morning when we saw it from far out at sea, but now it rises onour left, its upper half covered with snow of dazzling whiteness, --aregular cone, for from this side the crater cannot be seen. It looks asthough one could walk half a mile or so across the valley and then gostraight up to the summit, but it is full thirty miles off. The air isheated as by a furnace, and as we jolt along the road the clouds ofdust are suffocating. We go full gallop along such road as there is, banging into holes, and across the trenches left by last year'swatercourses, until we begin to think that it must end in a generalsmash. We came to understand Mexican roads and Mexican drivers better, even before we got to the capital. Before us and behind lay wide lakes, stretching from side to side ofthe valley; but the lake behind followed us as steadily as the onebefore us receded. It was only the mirage that tantalizes travellers inthese scorched valleys, all the long eight months of the rainlessseason. It seemed beautiful at first, then monotonous; and long beforethe day was out we hated it with a most cordial and unaffected hatred. Soon a new appearance attracted our attention. First, clouds of dust, which gradually took a well-defined shape, and formed themselves intoimmense pillars, rapidly spinning round upon themselves, and travellingslowly about the plain. At one place, where several smaller valleysopened upon us, these sand-pillars, some small, some large, werepromenading about by dozens, looking much like the genie when thefisherman had just let him out of the bottle, and saw him withastonishment beginning to shape himself into a giant of monstrous size. Indeed I doubt not that the story-teller was thinking of suchsand-pillars when he wrote that wonderful description. You may see themin the East by thousands. As they moved along, they sucked up smallstones, dust, and leaves; and our driver declared that they had beenknown to take the roofs off houses, and carry flocks of sheep into theair; "but these that you see now, " said he, "are no great matter. " Weestimated the size of the largest at about four hundred feet in height, and thirty in diameter; and this very pillar, walking by chance againsta house, most decidedly got the worst of it, and had its lower limbsknocked all to pieces. When the sun grows hot, the bare earth heats the air that lies upon itso much that an upward current rises from the whole face of the valley;and to supply its place the little valleys and ravines that open intoit pour in each its stream of cooler air; and wherever two of thesestreams, flowing in different directions, strike one another, a littlewhirlwind ensues, and makes itself manifest as a sand-pillar. Thecoachman's "molino de viento, " as he called it, may very well havehappened, but it must have been a whirlwind on a large scale, caused bythe meeting of great atmospheric currents, not by the little apparatuswe saw at work. There seems to be hardly a village in the plain; and the only buildingswe see for miles are the herdsmen's houses of stone, flat-roofed, darkinside, and uninviting in their appearance, and the great cattle-pens, the corrals, which seem absurdly too large for the herds that we haveyet seen; but in two or three months there will be rain, the groundwill be covered with rank grass, the corrals will be crowded withcattle every evening; the mirage will depart when real water comes, dust and sand-pillars will be no longer to be seen, and all the ninehorses and mules of the diligence-team, floundering, splashing, andkicking, will hardly keep the heavy coach from settling downinextricably in the mire. And so on until October, and then the seasonof water, "la estación de las aguas, " will cease, and things will beagain as they are now. In the usual course of travel to the capital, the second night wouldhave been passed at Puebla. This is the second city of the Republic, and numbers some 70, 000 inhabitants. As it was then in revolt, andbesieged by the President and his army, we made a detour to the northwhen about 20 miles from it, in order to sleep for a few hours atHuamantla, a place with a most evil reputation for thieves and vermin;and about ten at night we drove into the court-yard of a dismal-lookinginn. Three or four dirty fellows stood round as we alighted, wrapped intheir serapes--great woollen blankets, the universal wear of theMexicans of the plateaus. One end of the serape was thrown across fromshoulder to shoulder, and hid the lower part of their faces; and thebroad-brimmed Mexican sombrero was slouched over their eyes; weparticularly disliked the look of them as they stood watching us andour baggage going into the inn. A few minutes after, we returned to thecourt-yard to complete our observation of them, but they were all gone. A party of Spaniards and Mexicans were at the other table in the salawhen we marched in, and as soon as we had taken off the edge of ourfierce hunger, we began to compare notes with them. "Had a pleasantjourney from Mexico?" They all answered at once, delighted to find anaudience to whom to tell their sorrows, as men always are under suchcircumstances. It appeared that they had reached Huamantla an hour ortwo before us, and to their surprise and delight no robbers hadappeared. But between the outskirts of the town and the inn, the cordsbehind the diligence were cut, and every particle of luggage haddisappeared. At the inn-gate they got out and discovered their loss. They set upon the Administrador of the diligence-company, whosympathized deeply with them, but had no more substantial comfort tooffer. They declared the driver must have been an accomplice, and thedriver was sent for, for them to wreak their fury upon. He appearedwith his mouth full of beans, and told them, as soon as he could speak, that they ought to be very thankful they had come off so easily, and, looking at them with an expression of infinite disgust, returned to hissupper; they followed his example, and seemed to have at last foundconsolation in hot dishes and Catalan wine. It was wonderful to hear ofthe fine things that were in the lost portmanteaus, --the rings, thegold watches, the rouleaux of dollars, the "papers of the utmostimportance. " I am afraid the Spanish American has not always a very strict regardfor truth. These gentlemen had indeed got off easily, as the driver said; for thelast diligence from Vera Cruz, with our steamboat acquaintances in it, had been stopped just outside this very town of Huamantla as they leftit before daylight in the morning. The robbers were but three, but theyhad plundered the unfortunate travellers as effectually as thirty couldhave done. Now, all this was very pretty to hear as a tale, but notsatisfactory to travellers who were going by the same road the nextmorning; and in the disagreeable barrack-room where our beds stood inlong lines, we, the nine passengers of the "up" diligence, held acouncil, standing, like Mr. Macaulay's senators, and there decided on amost Christian line of conduct--that when the three bore down upon us, and the muzzle of the inevitable escopeta was poked in at our window, we would descend meekly, and at the command of "boca abajo, " ("mouthdownwards, ") we would humiliate ourselves with our noses in the dirt, and be robbed quietly. Having thus decided beforehand, according to theetiquette of the road, whether we were to fight or submit, and beingtired with a long day's journey, we all turned in, and were fast asleepin a moment. It seemed that almost directly afterwards the dirtiest man possiblecame round, and shook us till we were conscious; and we washed in thecustomary saucers, by the light of a real, flaring, smoking, Spanishlamp with a beak, exactly what the Romans used in Pompeii, except thatthis is of brass, not bronze. With our eyes still half-shut we crawled into the kitchen for ourmorning chocolate, and demanded our bill. Such a bill! One of us, astout Spaniard, sent for the landlord and abused him in a set speech. The "patron" divested his countenance of every trace of expression, scratched his head through his greasy nightcap, and stood listeningpatiently. The stout man grew fiercer and fiercer, and wound up with aclimax. "If we meet with the robbers, " said he, rolling himself up inhis great cloak, "we must tell them that we have passed through yourworship's hands, and there is none left for them. " The landlord bowedgravely, saw us into the diligence, and hoped we should have afortunate journey, and meet with no novelty on the road. A "novelty" inSpanish countries means a misfortune. We met with no "novelty, " though, when we looked out of the window inthe early dawn and spied three men with muskets, following us at ashort distance, we thought our time had come, and watches and valuableswere plunged into boots and under seats, and through slits into thepadding of the diligence; but the three men came no nearer, and wesupposed them to be an escort of soldiers. When it was light thedifficulty was to recover the valuables--no easy matter, so securelyhad they been hidden. We heard afterwards of a little peculiarity which distinguished therobbers of Huamantla. It seems that no less a personage than the parishpriest was accustomed to lead his parishioners into action, like theCornish parson in old times when a ship went ashore on the coast. Whathas become of his reverence since, I do not know. He is very likelystill in his parish, carrying on his double profession, unless somebodyhas shot him. I wonder whether it is sacrilege to shoot a priest who isalso a highwayman, as it used to be to kill a bishop on the field ofbattle. We are at last on the high lands of Mexico, the districts which atleast three different races have chosen to settle in, neglecting thefertile country below. A sharp turn in the road brings its fairly outinto the plain; and then on our left are the two snowy mountains thatlie at the edge of the valley of Mexico, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, famous in all Mexican books. Like Orizaba of yesterday, they seem torise from the plain close to us; and from the valley between them therepours down upon us such a flood of icy wind, that, though windows arepulled up and great-coats buttoned round our throats, we shiverpiteously, and our teeth fairly chatter till we get out of the river ofcold air; and then comes hot sunshine and dust again. Anxious to make sure that we have really got into the land of Azteccivilization, Mr. Christy gets down from the diligence, and huntingabout for a few minutes by the road-side, returns in triumph with abroken arrowhead of obsidian. A deep channel cut by a water-coursegives us our first idea of the depth of the soil; for these plateauswere once nothing but deep hollows among the mountains, which rain andmelted snow, bringing down fragments of porphyry and basalt--partly intheir original state and partly decomposed--have filled up and formedinto plains. Signs of volcanic action are abundant. To say nothing ofthe two great mountains we have just left behind, there is a hill ofred volcanic tufa just beyond us; and still further on, though this isanticipating, our road passes over the lava-field at the foot of thelittle volcano of Santa Barbara. There is a population here at any rate, village after village; andbetween them are great plantations of maize and aloes; for this is thedistrict where the best pulque in Mexico is made, the "llanos de Apam. "It is the _Agave Americana_, the same aloe that is so common insouthern Europe, where indeed it flowers, and that grows in our gardensand used to have the reputation of flowering once in a hundred years. Ido not exaggerate when I say that we saw hundreds of thousands of themthat day, planted in long regular lines. Among them were walking theIndian "tlachiqueros, " each with his pigskin on his back, and his longcalabash in his hand, milking such plants as were in season. [Illustration: INDIAN TLACHIQUERO, COLLECTING JUICE OF THE AGAVE FORPULQUE. ] The fine buildings of the haciendas, and more especially the churches, contrast strongly with the generality of houses, all of one story, built of adobes (mud-bricks dried in the sun), with flat roofs of sandand lime resting on wooden rafters, and the naked ground for a floor, all dark, dirty, and comfortless. There are even many huts builtentirely of the universal aloe. The stems of wild aloes which have beenallowed to flower are stuck into the ground, side by side, and piecesof leaves tied on outside them with aloe-fibre. These cut leaves areset like tiles to form a roof, and pegged down with the thorns whichgrow at their extremities. Picturesque and cheap, though hardlycomfortable, for we are in the "tierra fría" now, and the mornings andevenings in winter are often bitterly cold. But the churches! Is it possible that they can belong to these wretchedfilthy little cottages. As black Sam, our driver, a runaway Texanslave, suggested, it looked as though the villagers might pull downtheir houses and locate themselves and their families in theirchurches. We thought of Mr. Ruskin, who has somewhere expressed anearnest desire that all the money and energy that England has wasted inmaking railroads, had been spent in building churches; and we wished hehad been here to see his principles carried out. I have travelled on rough roads in my time, but on such a road as thisnever. My companion refused for a time to award the premium of badnessto our thoroughfare; but, just while we were discussing the questionand recounting our experience of bone-smashing highways, we reached apass where the road consisted of a series of steps, nearly a foot indepth, down which steps we went at a swinging trot, holding on for ourlives, in terror lest the next jerk should fairly wrench our arms outof their sockets, while we could plainly hear the inside passengershowling for mercy, as they were shot up against the roof which knockedthem back into their seats. Aching all over, we reached level groundagain, and Mr. Christy withdrew his claims, and agreed that no roadanywhere else could possibly be so bad as a Mexican road; a decisionwhich later experiences only served to confirm. Our start, every time we changed horses, was a sight to see. Ninehalf-broken horses and mules, in a furious state of excitement, wereharnessed to our unwieldy machine; the helpers let go, and off theywent, kicking, plunging, rearing, biting, and screaming, into ruts andwatercourses that were like the trenches they make for gas-pipes inLondon streets, with our wheels on one side on a stone wall, and in apit on the other, and Black Sam leaning back with his feet on theboard, waiting with perfect tranquillity until the animals had got ridof their superfluous energy and he could hold them in. We were alwaysjust going to have some frightful accident, and always just missed it. The last stage before we reached Otumba, a small dusky urchin ranacross the road just before us. How Black Sam contrived to pull up Icannot tell, though, indeed, his arms were about the size of anordinary man's thighs; but he did, and they got the child out from thehorses' feet quite unhurt. It was at the inn where we stopped to breakfast that we made our firstacquaintance with the great Mexican institutions--tortillas and pulque. The pulque was being brewed on a large scale in an adjoining building. The vats were made of cow-skins (with the hair inside), supported by aframe of sticks; and in them was pulque in every stage, beginning withthe sweet aguamiel--honeywater--the fresh juice of the aloe, and thenthe same in different degrees of fermentation till we come to the_madre pulque_, the mother pulque, a little of which is used likeyeast, to start the fermentation, and which has a combined odour ofgas-works and drains. Pulque, as you drink it, looks like milk andwater, and has a mild smell and taste of rotten eggs. Tortillas arelike oat-cakes, but made of Indian corn meal, not crisp, but soft andleathery. We thought both dreadfully nasty for a day or two; then wecould just endure them; then we came to like them; and before we leftthe country we wondered how we should do without them. CHAPTER III. CITY OF MEXICO. [Illustration: VIEW OF PART OF THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. ] Some thirty years ago, Don Agustín Yturbide, the first and last Emperorof Mexico, found that he wanted a palace wherein to house hisnewly-fledged dignity; and began to build one accordingly, in the highstreet of Mexico, close to the great convent of San Francisco. It couldnot have been nearly finished when its founder was shot: and it becamethe _Hotel d'Yturbide_. We are now settled in it, in very comfortablequarters. There is a restaurant down below, where the son of the lateYturbide dines daily, and everybody points him out to us, and moralisesover him. Mr. Christy's drawer-roll of letters of introduction has produced animmediate crop of pleasant acquaintances, whose hospitality isboundless. We are not idle, far from it; and a long day's work isgenerally followed by a social dinner, and an evening spent in notingdown the results of our investigations. Prescott's _Conquest of Mexico_ has been more read in England than mosthistorical works; and the Mexico of Montezuma has a well-defined ideaattached to it. The amphitheatre of dark hills surrounding the levelplain, the two snowy mountain-peaks, the five lakes covering nearlyhalf the valley, the city rising out of the midst of the waters, milesfrom the shore, with which it was connected by its four causeways, thestraight streets of low flat-roofed houses, the numbers of canalscrowded with canoes of Indians going to and from the market, thefloating gardens moved from place to place, on which vegetables andflowers were cultivated, the great pyramid up which the Spanish armysaw their captured companions led in solemn procession, and sacrificedon the top--all these are details in the mental picture. Much of this has changed since the Spaniards first saw it. Cortes triedall ordinary means to overcome the desperate obstinacy with which theAztecs defended their capital. The Spaniards conquered wherever theywent; but, as they moved forward, the Mexicans closed in again behind, and from every house-top showers of darts, arrows, and stones werepoured down upon them. Cortes resolved upon the utter demolition of thecity. He was grieved to destroy it, he said, for it was the mostbeautiful thing in the whole world; but there was no alternative. Hemoved slowly towards the great teocalli, his fifty thousand Tlascalanallies following him, throwing down every house, and filling the canalswith the ruins. When the conquest was finished, but one district of thecity was left standing, and in it were crowded a quarter of thepopulation, miserable famished wretches, who had surrendered when theirking was taken. All that was left besides was a patch of swampy groundstrewed with fragments of walls, a few pyramids too large for presentdestruction, and such great heaps of dead bodies that it was impossibleto get from place to place without walking over them. Cortes had resolved that a new city should be built, but it was not soeasy to decide where it was to be. The Aztecs, it seemed, had notoriginally established themselves on the spot where Mexico was built. When they came down from the north country, and across the hills intothe valley of Mexico, they were but an insignificant tribe, and as yetmere savages. They settled down in one place after another, and werealways driven out by the persecutions of the neighbouring tribes. Atlast they took possession of a little group of swampy islands in thelake of Tezcuco; and then at last, safe from their enemies, theyincreased and multiplied, and became a great and powerful nation. The first beginnings of Mexico, a cluster of huts built on woodenpiles, must have borne some likeness to those curious settlements ofearly tribes in the shallow part of the lakes of Switzerland and theBritish Isles, of which numerous remains are still to be found. As thenation increased in numbers, Tenochtitlán, as the inhabitants calledtheir city (they called themselves _Tenochques_), came to be a greatcity of houses built on piles, with canals running through the straightstreets, along which the natives poled their flat-bottomed canoes. Thename which the Spaniards gave to the city, the "Venice of the NewWorld, " was appropriate, not only to its situation in the midst of thewater, with canals for thoroughfares, but also to the history of thecauses which led to its being built in such a situation. The habit of building houses upon piles, which was first forced uponthe people by the position they had chosen, was afterwards followed asa matter of taste, just as it is in Holland. Even after the Aztecsbecame masters of the surrounding country, they built towns round thelake, partly on the shore, and partly on piles in the water. TheSpanish chroniclers mention Iztapalapán, and many other towns, as builtin this way. Like the Swiss tribes, the early inhabitants of Mexicodepended much upon their fishing, for which their position gave themgreat facilities. If you look at the arms of the Mexican Republic, on a passport or asilver dollar, you will see a representation of a rock surrounded bywater. On the rock grows a cactus, and on the cactus sits an eagle witha serpent in his beak. The story is that the wandering tribe preserveda tradition of an oracle which said that when they should find aneagle, holding a serpent, and perched on a cactus growing out of arock, then they should cease their wanderings. On an island in the lakeof Tezcuco, they found eagle, serpent, cactus, and rock, as described, and they settled there in due course. What fragment of truth is hiddenin this myth it is hard to say. Tenochtitlán means "The Stone-cactusplace;" and the Aztec picture-writings express its name by a hieroglyphof a prickly pear growing on a rock. Putting this history out of thequestion, the Aztecs had excellent reasons for choosing this peculiarsite for their city; but these reasons were not equally valid in thecase of the new invaders. For them the surrounding salt-water was notneeded as a protection, and was merely a nuisance. Every year, when thelake rose, the place was flooded, with enormous damage to the propertyof the inhabitants; and sometimes an inundation of greater depth thanusual threatened as complete a destruction as Cortes and the Tlascalanshad made. At the best of times, the site was a salt-swamp, an uglyplace to build upon. And, lastly, all the fresh water must be broughtfrom the hills by aqueducts, which an enemy would cut off withoutdifficulty, as the Spaniards themselves had done during the siege. NowCortes was certainly not ignorant of all this, and he knew of manyplaces on the rising ground close by, where he could found his new cityunder more favourable circumstances. He deliberated four or five monthson the matter, and at last decided in favour of the old site, giving ashis reason that "the city of Tenochtitlán had become celebrated, itsposition was wonderful, and in all times it had been considered as thecapital and mistress of all these provinces. " The invaders were old hands at slave-driving, and so hard did theydrive the conquered Mexicans, that in four years there had arisen afine Spanish city, with massive stone houses of several storeys, havingthe indispensable inner courts, flat roofs, and grated windows, --everyman's house literally his castle, when once the great ironentrance-gates were closed. The Indians had, of course, been converteden masse, and churches were being built in all directions. The greatpyramid where Huitzilopochtli, the God of war, was worshipped, had beenrazed to the ground, and its great sculptured blocks of basalt weresunk in the earth as a foundation for a cathedral. The old lines of thestreets, running toward the four points of the compass, were kept to;and to this it is that the present Mexico is indebted for much of itsbeauty. Most of the smaller canals were filled up, and thethoroughfares widened for carriages, things of course unknown to theMexicans, who had no beasts of burden. In the suburbs the nativessettled themselves after their own fashion, baking adobes, large mudbricks, in the sun, and building with them one-storey houses with flatroofs, much as they do at the present day. And thus a new Mexico, nearly the same as that we are now exploring, came to be planted in themidst of the waters. Three centimes have elapsed since; the city hasgrown larger, churches, convents, and public buildings have increased, but the architectural character of the place has scarcely altered. Itis the situation that has changed. The lake of Tezcuco is four milesoff, though the causeways which once connected the city with the dryland still exist, and have even been enlarged. They look likerailway-embankments crossing the low ground, and serve as dykes whenthere is a flood, a casualty which still often happens. This change is interesting to the student of physical geography; andHumboldt's account of the causes which have brought it about is fulland explicit. When Mexico had been built a few years, the frightfulinundations which threatened its very existence at length awoke theSpaniards to a sense of the mistake that had been made in placingthemselves but a few feet above the lowest level of the valley, in sucha way that, from whatever point the flood might come, they were sure toget the benefit of it. The Spanish authorities at home, with theirusual sagacity, sent over peremptory orders that the city should beabandoned, and a new capital built at Tacubaya--a proposal somethinglike intimating to the inhabitants of Naples that their position, atthe foot of Mount Vesuvius, was most dangerous, and that they mustleave it and settle somewhere else. In those days the valley was acomplete basin, with no outlet--at least not one worth mentioning; andthe heavy tropical rains and the melted snow from the mountains, pouredvast quantities of water into it. Had the valley been at the level ofthe sea, it would simply have become a great lake, surrounded by hills;but at three thousand feet higher, the atmosphere is rarefied, andevaporation goes on with such rapidity as to keep the accumulation ofwater in check. So the affair had adjusted itself in this wise, thatthe land and the five lakes should divide the valley about equallybetween them. It became necessary to alter this state of things, and apassage was cut at a place where the hills were but little above thelevel of the highest lake. The history of this passage, the famous"Desague de Huehuetoca, " is instructive enough, but it has been writtenso threadbare that I cannot touch it. Suffice it to say, that by thismeans a constant outlet was made for the lake of Zumpango, the highestof the five, and for the Rio de Guatitlán, a stream which formerly raninto it. So much for one cause of the change in the present appearance of thecity. Then the Spaniards were great cutters down of forests. Theyrather liked to make their new country bear a resemblance to the aridplains of Castile, where, when you arrive in Madrid, people ask youwhether you noticed _the tree_ on the road; and moreover, as theywanted wood, they cut it, without troubling themselves to plant for thebenefit of future generations. Now, when the trees were cut down, thesmall plants which grew in their shade died too, and left the bareearth to serve as a kind of natural evaporating apparatus. And, betweenthese two causes, it has come to pass that the extent of the lakes hasbeen so much reduced, and that Mexico stands on the dry land--if, indeed, that may be called dry land, where you cannot dig a footwithout coming to water. During the Tertiary period the whole valley of Mexico was one greatlake. Whether the proportion of water to land had adjusted itselfbefore the country was inhabited, or whether during historical timesthe lakes were still gradually diminishing by the excess of evaporationover the quantity of water supplied by rain and snow, is an openquestion. At any rate the two causes I have mentioned will account forthe changes which have taken place since the conquest. Taking it as a whole, Mexico is a grand city, and, as Cortes trulysaid, its situation is marvellous. But as for the buildings, I shouldbe sorry to inflict upon any one who may read these sketches, adetailed description of any one of them. It is a thousand pities that, just at the time when the Italians and Spaniards were most zealous inchurch-building, so very questionable an architectural taste shouldhave been prevalent. The churches and convents in Mexico belong to that kind of renaissancestyle that began to flourish in southern Europe in the sixteenthcentury, and has held its ground there ever since. High façades abound, with pilasters crowned by elaborate Corinthian capitals, forming acurious contrast with the mean little buildings crouched behind thetall front. In the doors of the churches outside, and the chapelswithin, one is constantly coming upon that peculiar construction whichconsists of what would be an arch, resting on two pillars, were not thekeystone wanting. Columns with shafts elaborately sculptured, andtwisted marble pillars of the bed-post pattern, are to be seen byhundreds, very expensive in material and workmanship, but unfortunatelyvery ugly; while the numbers of puffy cherubs, inside and out, remindthe Englishman of the monuments of St. Paul's. As to the interior decoration of the churches, the richer ones arecrowded with incongruous ornaments to a wonderful degree. Gold, silver, costly marbles, jewels, stucco, paint, tinsel, and frippery are allmixed up together in the wildest manner. We found the inside of thechurches to be generally the worst part of them. The Cathedral, forinstance, is really a very grand building when seen from a littledistance, with its two high towers and its cupola behind. I was greatlyedified by finding it described in the last book of Mexican travels Ihave read, as built in the purest Doric style. The Minería, or School of Mines, is a fine building, something afterthe manner of Somerset House on a small scale. As for the famous PlazaMayor, the great square, it is a very great square indeed, large enoughto review an army in, and large enough to damage by its size the effectof the cathedral, and to dwarf the other buildings that surround itinto mere insignificance. However, one thing is certain, that we havenot come all this way to see Spanish architecture and great squares, but must look for something more characteristic. I have said we arrived in Mexico on the eve of Palm Sunday, and nextmorning we proceeded to consult with one of our newly-madeacquaintances as to our prospects for the ensuing Holy Week. Thisgentleman, a man who took a practical view of things, mentioned acircumstance which led him to expect that the affair would go off withéclat. The Mexicans, both the nearly white Mestizos and the Indians ofpure race, delight in pulque. The brown people are grave and silent intheir sober state, but pulque stirs up their sluggish blood, and theyget into a condition of positive enjoyment. But very soon after thiscomes a state of furious intoxication, and a general scuffle is acommon termination to a drinking-bout. Fortunately, the Indians are nota bloodthirsty people; and, though every man carries a knife ormachete, or--if he can get nothing better--a bit of hoop-iron tempered, sharpened, and fixed into a handle, yet nothing more serious than cuffsand scratches generally ensues. Even if severe wounds are given, theIndian has many chances in his favor, for his organization is somewhatdifferent from that of white men, and he recovers easily from woundsthat would kill any European outright. The lower orders of the half-breed population are also given topulque-drinking, but with far more serious consequences. Unlike thepure Indians, they are a hot-blooded and excitable race, anddrunkenness with them is utter madness while it lasts. Knives are drawnat the very beginning of a squabble, and scarcely an evening passeswithout one or two bodies of men killed in these drunken mêlées beingcarried to the Police Cuartel in the great square. On Sundays andholidays the number increases; but on this Palm Sunday there werefourteen, not killed in one great battle, but brought in by ones andtwos, from different parts of the city. It was this little piece ofstatistics that induced our friend to conclude that the citizens ofMexico had made up their minds to enjoy themselves thoroughly, and thatHoly Week would be a grand affair. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday ofthe Semana Santa have only this to distinguish them from ordinary days, that the churches are crowded with men and women waiting their turn atthe confessional; and that in the afternoons the old promenade of LasVigas, down in the Indian quarter by the canal of Chalco, is patronizedby fashionable Mexico, which, except on some four or five special days, frequents the new Alameda. The sight of these confessionals, soconstantly filled, prompts one to ask--why just before Easter? Justafter would be more appropriate; for as we find the Glasgow people muchworse on Sundays than on week-days, so the Mexican population, not veryvirtuous at the best of times, are specially and particularly wickedwhen the great Church-festivals come round. The name of Shrove Tuesdaysurvives in our Calendar, to remind us of the time when we also used togo to be shriven before Easter. On Thursday at noon mass is over, the bells cease to ring, the organsin the churches are silent, and all carriages disappear from thestreets, except the dusty Diligence which, like French law, "estathée, " and cares nothing for fasts or festivals. Now we come tounderstand the wonderful wooden machine like a water-wheel, which wasput up yesterday on one tower of the Cathedral. We had asked people inthe great square, just below, what it was, but could get no answerexcept that it was _la Matraca_, the rattle, for to-morrow. And now wefound that, the church bells being incapacitated, this rattle does dutyinstead, striking the hours, and occasionally going off into furiousfits of clattering, without apparent reason, for ten minutes at a time, till the two men who worked it, who were either convicts or soldiers infatigue-dress, were tired out. It was not this one rattle only that wasdisturbing the public peace that day and the next. Everybody waswalking about with a rattle, and working it like mad, and all over thecity there was a noise like the sound of the back-scratchers atGreenwich Fair, or of an American forest when the woodpeckers are busy. These little rattles stand for Judas's bones, and all good Catholicsexpress in this odd way their desire to break them. They do the samething in Italy, but it is not so prominent a part of the celebration asin Mexico, where old and young, rich and poor, all do their part in it. As soon as we found out what it all meant, we bought matracas forourselves, and joined the rest of the world in their noisy occupation. The breaking of his bones is but a preliminary measure. In the square afair is being held, in the booths of which the great articles of tradenow are Judas's bones, of many patterns, at all prices, and Judashimself in pasteboard, who is to be carried about and insulted tillSaturday morning, and then, hanging up by a string, is to burst asunderby means of a packet of powder and a slow match in his inside, andfinally to perish in a bonfire. The first sight of these pasteboard Judases convinced us of one thing, that we had unexpectedly come upon the old custom, of which ourprocessions and burning of Guy Fawkes in England are merely anadaptation. After giving up the old custom as a Popish rite, what ablight idea to revive it in this new shape, and to give the boyssomething to carry about, bang, blow up, and make a final bonfire of, and all in the Protestant interest! There was another thing to benoticed about the Judases. The makers had evidently tried to vary themas much as they could; and, by that very means, had shown howimpossible it was to them to strike out anything new. There were twotypes; one was the Neapolitan _Polichinello_, whom we have naturalisedas _Punch_; and the other the God _Pan_, with his horns, and hoofs, andtail, whom the whole Christian world has recognised as the devil, forthese many ages. Well, some took one type and some the other; and a fewtried to combine the two, of course spoiling both. But, beyond this, their power of invention could not go. They were always trying toconceal the old idea, and could do no more than to distort it. We couldsee through their flimsy pretensions to originality much as aschoolmaster recognises the extracts from the encyclopaedia in hisboys' essays. As with this Judas trade, so it is with other more important arts andsciences in this country. The old types descend, almost unchanged, fromgeneration to generation. Everything that is really Mexican is eitherAztec or Spanish. Among the Spanish types we may separate the Moorish. Our knowledge of Mexico is not sufficient to enable us to analyse theAztec civilization, so we must be content with these three classes. Iwill not go further into the question here, for occasions willcontinually occur to show how--for three centuries at least--theinhabitants of Mexico, both white and brown, have taken their ideas atsecond-hand, always copying but never developing anything. All this time my companion and I have been walking about the streets;in evening-dress, as the etiquette of the place demands, on these threedays, from the "better classes. " The Mexican ladies may beadvantageously studied just now in their church-going black silk dressand mantilla, one of the most graceful costumes in the world. It is notoften that one has the chance of seeing them out of doors, excepthurrying to and from Mass in the morning, or in carriages on theAlameda; but on these festival days one meets them by hundreds. They donot contrast favorably with the ladies of Cadiz and Seville. Themixture of Aztec blood seems to have detracted from the beauty of theSpanish race; the dryness of the atmosphere spoils their complexions;and the monstrous quantity of capsicums that are consumed at every mealcannot possibly leave the Mexican digestion in its proper state. We dined that day with Don José de A. , who, though Spanish-American bybirth, was English by education and feeling, and had known mycompanion's family well. Our dinner was half English, half Mexican; andthe favourite dishes of the country were there, to aid in ourinitiation into Mexican manners and customs. The cooks at the inns, mindful of our foreign origin, had dealt out the red pepper with asparing hand; but to-day the dish of "mole" was the genuine article, and the first mouthful set as coughing and gasping for breath, whilethe tears streamed down our faces, and Don Pepe and Don Pancho gravelycontinued their dinner, assuring us that we should get quite to like itin time. _Pepe_ and _Pancho_, by the way, are short for José andFrancisco. Dinner over, it was time to visit the churches, to whichpeople crowd by thousands, this evening and to-morrow, to see themonuments, as they are called. Pancho departed, being on duty as escortto his sisters; and we having, by Pepe's advice, left our watches andvaluables in his room, and put our handkerchiefs in our breast-pockets, started with him. Mr. Christy, always on the look-out for a new seed orplant, had taken possession of the seeds of two _mameis_, which arefleshy fruits--as big as cocoa-nuts--each containing a hard smooth seedas large as a hen's egg. These not being of great value, he put one ineach tail-pocket of his coat. When we got out, we found the streetsfull of people, hurrying from one church to another, anxious to get asmany as possible visited in the evening. We went first to the monasteryof San Francisco, close to our hotel, the largest, and perhaps therichest convent in the country. Entering through a great gate, we findourselves in a large courtyard, full of people, who are visiting--oneafter another--the four churches which the establishment contains, going in at one door and out at the other. At the door of the largestchurch, stands a tall monk, soliciting customers for the rosaries ofolive-wood, crosses, and medals from Jerusalem, which are displayed ona stall close by--shouting in a stentorian voice, every two or threeminutes, "He who gives alms to Holy Church, shall receive plenaryindulgence, and deliver one soul from purgatory. " We bought some, butthere did not seem to be many other purchasers. Indeed, we found, whenwe had been longer in the country, that a few pence would buy all sortsof church indulgences, from the permission to eat meat on fast-days upto plenary absolution in the hour of death; and the trade, once soflourishing here, is almost used up. The churches were hung with black, and lighted up; and in each was a "monument, " a kind of bower of greenbranches decorated with flowers, mirror's, and gold and silverchurch-plate, and supposed to stand for the Garden of Gethsemane. Inside was reclining a wax figure of our Saviour, gaudily dressed insilk and velvet; and there were also representations of the LastSupper, with wax-work figures as large as life. To visit and criticisethese "monuments" was the object of the sort of pilgrimage people weremaking from church to church, and they seemed thoroughly to enjoy it. It was not a superfluous precaution that we had taken, in leaving ourvaluables in a place of safety, for, on our exit from the first church, we found that Pepe had lost his handkerchief and a cigar-case, which hehad stowed away in an inner pocket, and Mr. Christy had been relievedof one of his mamei seeds by some "lepero" who probably took it for asnuff-box. His feelings must have been like those of the Englishpickpocket in Paris, when he robbed the Frenchman of the article he hadpocketed with so much care, and found it was a lump of sugar. And sorelieved of further care for our worldly goods, we went through withthe work of seeing monuments, till we were tired and disgusted with thewhole affair, and at last went home to bed. Next day, appropriate sermons in the churches, processions in theafternoon, in which wax figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary werecarried by men got up in fancy dresses as soldiers and centurions, andso called penitents, walking covered with black shrouds and veils, withsmall round holes to look through, or in the yellow dress andextinguisher cap, both with flames and devils painted on them. Theseare exactly the costumes worn in old times, the first by the familiarsof the Inquisition, and the second by the criminals it condemned; andthe sight of them set us thinking of the processions they used tofigure in, when the Holy Office was flourishing at Santo Domingo, alittle way down the street where we are standing. In the evening the Crucifixion is represented in wax in the churches, and the visiting goes on as the night before; and the next morning isthe Sábado de Gloria, the Saturday which ends Lent. We go to theJesuits' church in the morning to hear the last sermon. Since Thursdayat noon, as the organs have been silenced, harps and violins have takentheir places. The sermon is long and prosy, and we rejoice that it isthe last. Then the service of the day goes on until they come to the"Gloria in excelsis. " The organ peals out again, the blackcurtain--which has hidden the high altar--parts in the middle, anddisplays a perfect blaze of gold and jewels: all the bells in the citybegin to ring: the carriages, which have been waiting ready harnessedin court yards, pour out into the streets: the lumbering hackneycoaches go racing to the great square, striving to get the first farefor luck: the Judases, which have been hanging all the morning out ofwindows and across streets, are set light to as the first bell beginsto ring, and fizzing and popping burst all to pieces, and then arethrown into a heap in the street, where a bonfire is made of them, andthe children join hands and dance round it. So Holy Week ends. [Illustration: THE PORTER AND THE BAKER IN MEXICO. (From Models made byNative Artists)] The arrangement of the day in Mexico is this. Early in the morning yourservant knocks at your door, and brings in a little cup of coffee orchocolate and a small roll, which _desayuno_--literally breakfast--youdiscuss while dressing. Going down into the courtyard, you find yourhorse waiting for you, and off you go for an hour or two's ride, andback to a dejeuner-à-la-fourchette somewhere between ten and oneo'clock. Then you have seven or eight hours before dinner, so that agood deal of work may be got into a day so divided. Things are managedvery differently in country places, but this is the fashion in thecapital among the higher class, that is, of course, the class of peoplewho put on dress-coats in the evening. When we had been a day or two in Mexico, we took our first ride toTacubaya and Chapultepec. Mexican saddles and bridles were a novelty tous, but when we come to describe our Mexican and his appurtenances itwill be time enough to speak of them. The barricades in the streets constructed during the last revolution oftwo or three weeks back had not yet been removed, but an opening at oneside allowed men and horses to get past. Carriages had to go round, aneasy matter in a city built as this is in squares like a chess-board. The barricades mount two guns each, and as the streets are quitestraight they can sweep them in both directions, to the whole length oftheir range. As in Turin, you can look backward and forward along thestraight streets from every part of the city, and see mountains at eachend. The suburbs of the city are quite as repulsive as our firstglimpse of them led us to expect; and, as far as one could judge by theappearance of the half-caste inhabitants, it is not good to go therealone after dark. Here is the end of the aqueduct of Chapultepec, theSalto del Agua; and--crowded round it--a thoroughly characteristicgroup of women and water-carriers, filling their great earthen jarswith water, which they carry about from house to house. The women aresimply and cheaply dressed, and though not generally pretty, are verygraceful in their movements. Their dress consists of a white cottonunder-dress, a coloured cotton skirt, generally blue, brown, or grey, with some small pattern upon it, but never brilliant in colour, and arebozo, which is a small sober-coloured cotton shawl, long and narrow. This rebozo passes over the back of the head, where it is somehow fixedto a back hair-comb, and the two ends hang down over the shoulders infront; or, more often, one end is thrown over the opposite shoulder, sothat the young lady's face is set in it, like a picture in a frame. Addto this a springy step, the peculiarly unconstrained movement inwalking which comes of living in the open air and wearing a loosedress, a pleasant pale face, small features, bright eyes, small handsand feet, little slippers and no stockings, and you have as good apicture of a Mexican half-caste girl as I can give. A book of Mexicanengravings, however, will give a much better idea of her. Then we wentpast the great prison, the Acordada, and out at the gate (we hadpurposely gone out of our way to see more of the city), and so into thegreat promenade, the Pased or Alameda. The latter is the Spanish namefor this necessary appendage to every town. It comes from _álamo_, which means a poplar. Imagine a long wide level road, a mile or solong, generally so chosen as to have a fine view, with footpaths oneach side, lines of poplar trees, a fountain at each end and a statuein the middle, and this description will stand pretty nearly for almostevery promenade of the kind I have seen in Spain or Spanish America. [Illustration: WATER-CARRIER AND A MEXICAN WOMAN, AT THE FOUNTAIN. ] Tacubaya is a pleasant place on the ride of the first hills that beginto rise towards the mountain-wall of the valley. Here rich Mexicanshave country-houses in large gardens, which are interesting from theimmense variety of plants which grow there, though badly kept up, andsystematically stripped by the gardeners of the fruit as it getsripe--for their own benefit, of course. From Tacubaya we go toChapultepec (Grasshopper Mountain), which is a volcanic hill ofporphyry rising from the plain. On the top is the palace on which theviceroy Galvez expended great sums of money some seventy years ago, making it into a building which would serve either as a palace or as afortress in cases of emergency. Though the Americans charged up thehill and carried it easily in '47, it would be a very strong place inproper hands. It is a military school now. On the hill is the famousgrove of cypresses--ahuehuetes[5]--as they are called, grand trees withtheir branches hung with fringes of the long grey Spanish moss--barbaEspañola--Spanish beard. I do not know what painters think of theeffect of this moss, trailing in long festoons from the branches of thetrees, but to me it is beautiful; and I shall never forget where Ifirst saw it, on a bayou of the Mississippi, winding through the depthsof a great forest in the swamps of Louisiana. [6] In this grove ofChapultepec, there were sculptured on the side of the hill, in thesolid porphyry, likenesses of the two Montezumas, colossal in size. Forsome reason or other, I forget now what, one of the last Spanishviceroys thought it desirable to destroy them, and tried to blow themup with gunpowder. He only partially succeeded, for the two greatbas-reliefs were still very distinguishable as we rode past, thoughnoseless and considerably knocked about. We went home to breakfast with our friends, and looked at thetitle-deeds of their house in crabbed Spanish of the sixteenth century, and the great Chinese treasure-chest, still used as the strong-box ofthe firm, with an immense lock, and a key like the key of Dover castle. Fine old Chinese jars, and other curiosities, are often to be found inMexico; and they date from the time when the great galleon from Manila, which was called "el nao"--the ship--to distinguish it from all otherships, came once a year to Acapulco. After breakfast, business hours begin; so we took ourselves off tovisit the canal of Chalco, and the famous floating gardens--as they arecalled. On our way we had a chance of studying the conveyances ourancestors used to ride in, and availed ourselves of it. In books onSpanish America, written at the beginning of this century, there arewonderful descriptions of the gilt coaches, with six or eight mules, inwhich the great folks used to drive in state on the promenades. Theyare exactly the carriages that it was the height of a lady's ambitionto ride in, in the days of Sir Charles Grandison, and Mr. Tom Jones. Here, in Mexico, they were still to be found, after they haddisappeared from the rest of the habitable globe; and even now, thoughthe private carriages are all of a more modern type, there are stillleft a few of these amazing vehicles, now degraded to the cab-stand;and we got into one that was embellished with sculptured Cupids--theirfaces as much mutilated as the two Montezumas--and with the remains ofthe painting and gilding, which once covered the whole affair, justvisible in corners, like the colouring of the ceilings of the Alhambra. We had to climb up three high steps, and haul ourselves into the bodyof the coach, which hung on strong leather straps; springs belong to alater period. By the time we had got to the Paseo de las Vigas we wereglad enough to get out, wondering at the sacrifice of comfort todignity those highly respectable grandees must have made, and notsurprised at the fate of some inquisitive travellers who have done aswe did, and have been obliged to stop by the qualms of sea-sickness. Atthe bridge we chartered a canoe to Santa Anita. This Santa Anita is alittle Indian village on the canal of Chalco, and to-day there is to bea festival there. For this, however, we shall be too early, as we haveto be back in time to see Mexico turn out for a promenade on the Paseode las Vigas, and then to go out to dinner. So we must just take theopportunity of looking at the Indian population as they go up and downthe canal in canoes, and see their gardens and their houses. However, as the Indian notion of a festival consists in going to mass in themorning, and getting drunk and fighting in the afternoon, we areperhaps as well out of it. We took our passage to Santa Anita and backin a canoe--a mere flat-bottomed box with sloping sides, made of boardsput together with wooden pegs. There was a mat at the stern for us tosquat upon, and an awning over our heads. An old Indian and his sonwere the crew; and they had long poles, which they set against thebanks or the bottom of the shallow canal, and so pushed us along. Besides these two, an old woman with two little girls got in, as wewere starting--without asking our leave, by the way--and sat down atthe other end of the canoe. Of course, the old woman began to busyherself with the two little girls, in the usual occupation of old womenhere, during their idle moments; and though she left off at our earnestrequest, she evidently thought us very crotchety people for objecting. The scene on the canal was a curious one. There were numbers of boatsgoing up and down; and the Indians, as soon as they caught sight of anacquaintance, began to shout out a long string of complimentaryphrases, sometimes in Spanish and sometimes in Mexican: "How is yourworship this morning?" "I trust that I have the happiness of seeingyour worship in good health. " "If there is anything I can have thehonour of doing for your worship, pray dispose of me, " and so forth;till they are out of hearing. All this is accompanied by a taking-offof hats, and a series of low bows and complimentary grimaces. As far aswe could ascertain, it is all mere matter of ceremony. It may be anexaggeration of the formal, complimentary talk of the Spaniards, butits origin probably dates further back. The Indians here no longer appeared the same dull, melancholy men whomwe had seen in the richer quarter of the town. There they were under astrong feeling of constraint, for their language is not understood bythe whites and mestizos; and they, for their part, know but littleSpanish; and besides, there is very little sympathy between the twoclasses. One thing will shew this clearly enough. By a distinct line ofdemarcation, the Indians are separated from the rest of the population, who are at least partly white. These latter call themselves "gente derazón"--people of reason, --to distinguish themselves from the Indians, who are people without reason. In common parlance the distinction ismade thus: the whites and mixed breed are "gente"--_people_, --the brownmen being merely "Indios"--Indians--and not people at all. Here, in their own quarter, and among their own people, they seemtalkative enough. We can only tell what they are chattering about whenthey happen to speak Spanish, either for our benefit, or to show offtheir proficiency in that tongue. People who can speak the Azteclanguage say that their way of forming compound words gives constantoccasion for puns and quibbles, and that the talk of the Indians isfull of such small jokes. In this respect they differ exceedingly fromthe Spaniards, whose jests are generally about _things_, and seldomabout their _names_, as one sees by their almost always bearingtranslation into other languages. Most of the canoes were tastefully decorated with flowers, for theAztecs have not lost their old taste for ornamenting themselves, andeverything about them, with garlands and nosegays. The fruits andvegetables they were carrying to market were very English in theirappearance. Mexico is supplied with all kinds of tropical fruits, whichcome from a distance; but the district we are now in only producesplants which might grow in our own country--barley, potatoes, cabbages, parsnips, apples, pears, plums, peaches, and so forth, but scarcelyanything tropical in its character. One thing surprises us, that theIndians, in a climate where the mornings and evenings are often verychilly, should dress so scantily. The men have a general appearance ofhaving outgrown their clothes; for the sleeves of the kind ofcotton-shirt they wear only reach to their elbows, and their trousers, of the same material, only fall to their knees. To these two garmentsadd a sort of blanket, thrown over the shoulders, a pair of sandals, and a palm-leaf hat, and the man is dressed. His skin is brown, hislimbs muscular--especially his legs--his lips thick, his nose Jewish, his hair coarse, black, and hanging straight down. The woman's dress isas simple as the man's. She has on a kind of cotton sack, very short inthe sleeves, and very open at the shoulders, and some sort of a skirtor petticoat besides. Sometimes she has a folded cotton cloth on herhead, like a Roman contadina; but, generally, nothing covers her thickblack hair, which hangs down behind in long twisted tails. In old times, when Mexico was in the middle of a great lake, and theinhabitants were not strong enough to hold land on the shores, theywere driven to strange shifts to get food. Among other expedients, theytook to making little floating islands, which consisted of rafts ofreeds and brushwood, on which they heaped mud from the shores of thelakes. On the banks of the lake of Tezcuco the mud was, at first, toofull of salt and soda to be good for cultivation; but by pouring thewater of the lake upon it, and letting it soak through, they dissolvedout most of the salts, and the island was fit for cultivation, and boresplendid crops of vegetables. [7] These islands were called _chinampas_, and they were often large enough for the proprietor to build a hut inthe middle, and live in it with his family. In later times, when theMexicans came to be no longer afraid of their neighbours, the chinampaswere not of much use; and when the water was drained off, and the citystood on dry land, one would have supposed that such a troublesome andcostly arrangement would have been abandoned. The Mexican, however, ishard to move from the customs of his ancestors; and we have Humboldt'sword for it, that in his time there were some of these artificialislands still in the lake of Chalco, which the owners towed about witha rope, or pushed with a long pole. They are all gone now, at any rate, though the name of _chinampa_ is still applied to the gardens along thecanal. These gardens very much resemble the floating islands in theirconstruction of mud, heaped on a foundation of reeds and branches; andthough they are not the real thing, and do not float, they areinteresting, as the present representatives of the famous Mexicanfloating gardens. They are narrow strips of land, with a frontage offour or five yards to the canal, and a depth of one hundred, or ahundred and fifty yards. Between the strips are open ditches; and oneprincipal occupation of the proprietor seems to be bringing up mud fromthe bottom of the ditch with a wooden shovel, and throwing it on thegarden, in places where it has sunk. The reason of the narrowness ofthe strips is that he may be able to throw mud all over them from theditches on either side. While we are busy observing all these matters, and questioning ourboatmen about them, we reach Santa Anita. Here there are swampy lanesand more swampy gardens, a little village of Indian houses, three orfour pulque-shops, and a church. Outside the pulque-shops arefresco-paintings, representing Aztec warriors carousing, and draininggreat bowls of pulque. These were no specimens of Aztec art, however, but seemed to be copied (by some white or half-caste sign-painter, probably) from the French coloured engravings which represent theevents of the Conquest. These extraordinary works of art are to be seeneverywhere in this country, where, of all places in the world, onewould have thought that people would have noticed that the artist hadnot the faintest idea of what an Aztec was like, but supposed that hislimbs and face and hair were like an European's. Here, with the realAztec standing underneath, the difference was striking enough. Oneought not to be too critical about these things, however, when oneremembers the pictures of shepherds and shepherdesses that adorn ourEnglish farmhouses. We drank pulque at the sign of _The Cacique_, andliked it, for we had now quite got over our aversion to its putridtaste and smell. I wonder that our new faculty of pulque-drinking didnot make us able to relish the suspicious eggs that abound in Mexicaninns, but it had no such effect, unfortunately. Our canoe took us back to the Promenade of Las Vigas, which is a longdrive, planted with rows of trees, and extends along the last mile ortwo of the canal. Indeed, its name comes from the beam (Viga) whichswings across the canal at the place where the canoes pay toll. Thiswas the great promenade, once upon a time; but the new Alameda hastaken away all the promenaders to a more fashionable quarter, except oncertain festival days, three or four times in the year, when it is thecorrect thing for society to make a display of itself--on horseback orin carriages--in this neglected Indian quarter. We had happened uponone of these festival days; so, as we crawled along the side-path, tired and dusty, we had a good opportunity of seeing the Mexican beaumonde. The display of really good carriages was extraordinary; but itmust be recollected that many families here are content to livemiserably enough at home, if they can manage to appear in good style atthe theatre and on the promenade. This is one reason why so many of theMexicans who are so friendly with you out of doors, and in the cafés, are so very shy of letting you see the inside of their houses. Theysay, and very likely it is true, that among the richer classes, it iscustomary to put a stipulation in the marriage-contracts, that thehusband shall keep a carriage and pair, and a box at the theatre, forhis wife's benefit. The horsemen turned out in great style, and theforeigners were fully represented among them. It was noticeable thatwhile these latter generally adopted the high-peaked saddle, and thejacket, and broad-brimmed felt hat of the country, and looked as thoughthe new arrangements quite suited them, the native dandies, on theother hand, were prone to dressing in European fashion, and sittingupon English saddles--in which they looked neither secure norcomfortable. We walked home past the old Bull-ring, now replaced by a new one nearthe new promenade, and found, to our surprise, that in this quarter ofthe town many of the streets were under water. We knew that the levelof the lake of Tezcuco had been raised by a series of three very wetseasons, but had no idea that things had got so far as this. Of coursethe ground-floors had to be abandoned, and the people had made a raisedpathway of planks along tho street, and adopted various contrivancesfor getting dryshod up to their first floors; and in some places canoeswere floating in the street. The city looked like this some two hundredyears ago, when Martinez the engineer tried an unfortunate experimentwith his draining tunnel at Huehuetoca, and flooded the whole city forfive years. It was by the interference, they tell us, of the patronessof the Indians, our Lady of Guadalupe, who was brought from her owntemple on purpose, that the city was delivered from the impendingdestruction. A number of earthquakes took place, which caused theground to split in large fissures, down which the superfluous waterdisappeared. For none of her many miracles has the Virgin of Guadalupegot so much credit as for this. To be sure, it is not generallymentioned in orthodox histories of the affair, that she was brought tothe capital a year or two before the earthquakes happened. Talking of earthquakes, it is to be remembered that we are in adistrict where they are of continual occurrence. If one looks carefullyat a line of houses in a street, it is curious to see how some wallsslope inwards, and some outwards, and some are cracked from top tobottom. There is hardly a church-tower in Mexico that is not visiblyout of the perpendicular. Any one who has noticed how the walls of theCathedral of Pisa have been thrown out of the perpendicular by thesettling down of the foundations, will have an idea of the generalappearance of the larger buildings of Mexico. On different occasions thedestruction caused by earthquakes has been very great. By the way, theliability of Mexico to these shocks, explains the peculiarity of thebuilding of the houses. A modern English town with two-or-three-storiedhouses, with their thin brick walls, would be laid in ruins by a shockwhich would hardly affect Mexico. Here, the houses of several storeyshave stone walls of such thickness that they resist by sheer strength;and the one-storey mud houses, in the suburbs, are too low to suffermuch by being shaken about. A few days before we arrived here, ourfriends Pepe and Pancho were playing at billiards in the Lonja, [8] theMerchants' Exchange; and Pepe described to us the feeling of utterastonishment with which he saw his ball, after striking the other, go suddenly off at an absurd angle into a pocket. The shock of anearthquake had tilted the table up on one side. While we were inMexico there was a slight shock, which set the chandeliers swinging, but we did not even notice it. In April, a solemn procession goes fromthe Cathedral, on a day marked in the Calendar as the "Patrocinio deSeñor San Jose", to implore the "Santissimo Patriarca" to protect thecity from earthquakes (temblores). In connection with this subjectthere is an opinion, so generally received in Mexico that it is worthnotice. Everybody there, even the most educated people, will tell youthat there is an earthquake-season, which occurs in January orFebruary; and that the shocks are far more frequent than at any othertime of the year. My impression is that this is all nonsense; but Ishould like to test it with a list of the shocks that have been felt, if such a thing were to be had. It does not follow that, becausethe Mexicans have such frequent opportunities of trying the question, they should therefore have done so. In fact, experience as to popularbeliefs in similar matters rather points the other way. I recollectthat in the earthquake districts of southern Italy, when shocks were ofalmost daily occurrence, people believed that they were more frequentin the middle four hours of the night, from ten to two, than at othertimes. Of course, this proved on examination to be quite withoutfoundation. To take one more case in point. How many of ouralmanack-books, even the better class of them, contain prophecies ofwet and fine weather, deduced from the moon's quarters! How long willit be before we get rid of this queer old astrological superstition? We made a few rough observations of the thermometer and barometerduring our stay in Mexico. The barometer stands at about 22-1/2 inches, and our thermometer gave the boiling point of water at 199 degrees. Wecould never get eggs well boiled in the high lands, and attributedthis, whether rightly or not I cannot say, to the low temperature ofboiling water. [Illustration: GROUP OF ECCLESIASTICS, MEXICO. ] CHAPTER IV. TACUBAYA. PACHUCA. REAL DEL MONTE. We went one morning to the house of our friend Don Pepe, and wereinformed by the servant as we entered the courtyard that the niño, thechild, was up stairs waiting for us. "The Child" seemed an odd term toapply to a young man of five and twenty. The young ladies, in the sameway are called the ni–as, and keep the appellation until they marry. We went off with the niño to his uncle's house at Tacubaya, on therising ground above Mexico. In the garden there we found a vegetationsuch as one would find in southern Europe--figs, olives, peaches, roses, and many other European trees and flowers--growing luxuriantly, but among them the passion-flower, which produces one of the mostdelicious of fruits, the granadita, and other semi-tropical plants. Thelive creatures in the garden, however, were anything but European intheir character. There were numbers of immense butterflies of the mostbrilliant colours; and the garden was full of hummingbirds, dartingbackwards and forwards with wonderful swiftness, and dipping their longbeaks into the flowers. They call them chupa-mirtos--myrtle-suckers, and the Indians take them by blowing water upon them from a cane, andcatching them before they have recovered from the shock. One day webought a cage full of them, and tried to keep them alive in our room byfeeding them with sugar and water, but the poor little things pinedaway. In old times the Mexicans were famous for their ornaments ofhumming-bird's feathers. The taste with which they arranged feathers ofmany shades of colour, excited the admiration of the conquerors; andthe specimens we may still see in museums are beautiful things, andtheir great age has hardly impaired the brilliancy of their tints. Thiscurious art was practised by the highest nobility, and held in greatesteem, just as working tapestry used to be in Europe, only that thefeather-work was mostly done by men. It is a lost art, for one cannottake much account of such poor things as are done now, in which, moreover, the designs are European. In this garden at Tacubaya we sawfor the first time the praying Mantis, and caught him as he sat in hisusual devotional attitude. His Spanish name is "el predicador, " thepreacher. We got back to Mexico in time for the Corrida de Toros. The bull-ringwas a large one, and there were many thousands of people there; but asto the spectacle itself, whether one took it upon its merits, or merelycompared it with the bull-fights of Old Spain, it was disgusting. Thebulls were cautious and cowardly, and could hardly be got to fight; andthe matadors almost always failed in killing them; partly through wantof skill, partly because it is really harder to kill a quiet bull thana fierce one who runs straight at his assailant. To fill up the measureof the whole iniquitous proceeding, they brought in a wretch in a whitejacket with a dagger, to finish the unfortunate beasts which thematador could not kill in the legitimate way. It was evidently quitethe regular thing, for the spectators expressed no surprise at it. After the bull-fight proper was finished, there came two or threesupplementary performances, which were genuinely Mexican, and very wellworth seeing. A very wild bull was turned into the ring, where twolazadores, on beautiful little horses, were waiting for him. The bullset off at full speed after one of the riders, who cantered easilyahead of him; and the other, leisurely untying his lazo, hung it overhis left arm, and then, taking the end in his light hand, let the cordfall through the loop into a running noose, which he whirled two orthree times round his head, and threw it so neatly that it settledgently down over the bull's neck. In a moment the other end of the cordwas wound several times round the pummel of the saddle, and the littlehorse set off at full speed to get ahead of the bull. But the firstrider had wheeled round, thrown his lazo upon the ground, and just asthe bull stepped within the noose, whipped it up round his hind leg, and galloped off in a contrary direction. Just as the first lazotightened round his neck, the second jerked him by the leg, and thebeast rolled helplessly over in the sand. Then they got the lazos off, no easy matter when one isn't accustomed to it, and set him off again, catching him by hind legs or fore legs just as they pleased, andinevitably bringing him down, till the bull was tired out and no longerresisted. Then they both lazo'd him over the horns, and galloped himout, amid the cheers of the spectators. The amusements finished withthe "colear. " This is quite peculiar to Mexico, and is done on thiswise. The coleador rides after the bull, who has an idea that somethingis going to happen, and gallops off as fast as he can go, throwing outhis hind legs in his awkward bullish fashion. Now, suppose you are thecoleador, sitting in your peaked Mexican saddle, that rises behind andbefore, and keeps you in your seat without an effort on your part. Yougallop after the bull, and when you come up with him, you pull as hardas you can to keep your horse back; for, if he is used to the sport, asalmost all Mexican horses are, he is wild to get past, not noticingthat his rider has got no hold of the toro. Well, you are just behindthe bull, a little to the left of him, and out of the way of his hindlegs, which will trip your horse up if you don't take care; you takeyour right foot out of the stirrup, catch hold of the end of the bull'stail (which is very long), throw your leg over it, and so twist the endof the tail round your leg below the knee. You have either got thebridle between your teeth or have let it go altogether, and with yourleft hand you give your horse a crack with the whip; he goes forwardwith a bound, and the bull, losing his balance by the sudden jerkbehind, rolls over on the ground, and gets up, looking veryuncomfortable. The faster the bull gallops, the easier it is to throwhim over; and two boys of twelve or fourteen years of age coleared acouple of young bulls in the arena, in great style, pitching them overin all directions. The farmers and landed proprietors are immenselyfond of both these sports, which the bulls--by the way--seem to dislikemost thoroughly; but this exhibition in the bull-ring was better thanwhat one generally sees, and the leperos were loud in their expressionsof delight. When we had been a week or two in the city of Mexico, we decided uponmaking an excursion to the great silver mining district of the Real delMonte. Some of our English friends were leaving for England, and hadengaged the whole of the Diligence to Pachuca, going from thence up tothe Real, and thence to Tampico, with all the pomp and circumstance ofa train of carriages and an armed escort. We were invited to go withthem as far as Pachuca; and accordingly we rose very early on the 28thof March, got some chocolate under difficulties, and started in theDiligence, seven grown-up people, and a baby, who was very good, andwas spoken of and to as "leoncito. " On the high plateaus of Mexico, thechildren of European parents grow up as healthy and strong as at home;it is only in the districts at a lower elevation above the sea, on thecoasts for instance, that they do not thrive. Mr. G. , who was leavingMexico, was the head of a great merchant-house, and it was as acompliment to him and Mrs. G. That we were accompanied by a party ofEnglish horsemen for the first two or three leagues. Englishmen takemuch more easily to Mexican ways about horses than the Mexicans do toours, and a finer turn-out of horses and riders than our amateur escortcould hardly have been found in Mexico. There was our friend DonGuillermo, who rode a beautiful horse that had once belonged to thecaptain of a band of robbers, and had not its equal in the city forswiftness; and Don Juan on his splendid little brown horse Pancho, lazoing stray mules as he went, and every now and then galloping into ameadow by the roadside after a bull, who was off like a shot the momenthe heard the sound of hoofs. I wonder whether I shall ever see themagain, those jovial open-hearted countrymen of ours. At last ourcompanions said good-bye, and loaded pistols were carefully arranged onthe centre cushion in case of an attack, much to the edification of mycompanion and myself, as it rather implied that, if fighting were to bedone, we two should have to sit inside to be shot at without a chanceof hitting anybody in return. The hedges of the Organ Cactus are a feature in the landscape of theplains, and we first saw them to perfection on the road between Mexicoand Pachuca. This plant, the Cereus hexagonus, grows in Italy in theopen air, but seems not to be turned to account anywhere except inMexico for the purpose to which it is particularly suited. In its wildstate it grows like a candelabrum, with a thick trunk a few feet high, from the top of which it sends out shoots, which, as soon as they haveroom, rise straight upwards in fluted pillars fifteen or twenty feet inheight. Such a plant, with pillars rising side by side and almosttouching one another, has a curious resemblance to an organ with itspipes, and thence its name "órgano. " To make a fence, they break off the straight lateral shoots, of theheight required, and plant them closely side by side, in a trench, sufficiently deep to ensure their standing firmly; and it is a curioussight to see a labourer bearing on his shoulder one of these vegetablepillars, as high as himself, and carefully guarding himself against itsspines. A hedge perfectly impassable is obtained at once; the cactusrooting so readily, that it is rare to see a gap where one has died. The villagers surround their gardens with these fences of cactus, whichoften line the road for miles together. Foreigners used to point outsuch villages to us, and remark that they seemed "well organized, " asmall joke which unfortunately bears translation into all ordinaryEuropean languages, and was inflicted without mercy upon us as newcomers. We reached Pachuca early in the afternoon, and took up our quarters inthe inn there, and our friends went on to Real del Monte. This little town of Pachuca has long been a place of some importance inthe world, as regards mining-operations. The Aztecs worked silver-mineshere, as well as at Tasco, long before the Spaniards came, and theyknew how to smelt the ore. It is true that, if no better process thansmelting were known now, most of the mines would scarcely be worthworking; but still, to know how to extract silver at all was a greatstep; and indeed at that time, and for long after the Conquest, therewas no better method known in Europe. It was in this very place that aSpaniard, Medina by name, discovered the process of amalgamation withmercury, in the year 1557, some forty years after the invasion. We wentto see the place where he first worked his new process, and found itstill used as a "hacienda de beneficio" (establishment for extractingsilver from the ore. ) So few discoveries in the arts have come out ofMexico, or indeed out of any Spanish colony, that we must make the mostof this really very important method, which is more extensively usedthan any other, both in North and South America. As for the rest of theworld, it produces, comparatively, so little silver, that it isscarcely worth taking into account. We had forgotten, when we went to bed, that we were nearly sevenhundred feet higher than Mexico; but had the fact brought to ourremembrance by waking in the middle of the night, feeling very cold, and finding our thermometer marking 40 degrees Fahr. ; whereupon wecovered ourselves with cloaks, and the cloaks with the strips of carpetat our bedsides, and went to sleep again. We had hired, of the French landlord, two horses and a mozo to guideus, and sorry hacks they were when we saw them in the morning. It wasdelightful to get a little circulation into our veins by going at thebest gallop our horses would agree to; for we were fresh from hotcountries, and not at all prepared for having our hands and feet numbedwith cold, and being as hoarse as ravens--for the sore throat which isthe nuisance of the district, and is very severe upon new comers, hadnot spared us. Evaporation is so rapid at this high altitude that ifyou wet the back of your hand it dries almost instantly, leaving asmart sensation of cold. One may easily suppose, that when people havebeen accustomed to live under the ordinary pressure of the air, theirthroats and lungs do not like being dried up at this rate; besidestheir having, on account of the rarity of the air, to work harder inbreathing, in order to get in the necessary quantity of oxygen. Coughs seem very common here, especially among the children, thoughpeople look strong and healthy, but in the absence of proper statisticsone cannot undertake to say whether the district is a healthy one ornot. For a wonder we have a good road, and this simply because the Real delMonte Company wanted one, and made it for themselves. How unfortunateall Spanish countries are in roads, one of the most important firststeps towards civilization! When one has travelled in Old Spain, onecan imagine that the colonists did not bring over very enlightenedideas on the subject; and as the Mexicans were not allowed to holdintercourse with any other country, it is easy to explain why Mexico isall but impassable for carriages. But if the money--or half of it--thathas been spent in building and endowing churches and convents had beendevoted to road-making, this might have been a great and prosperouscountry. For some three hours we rode along among porphyritic mountains, gettinghigher at every turn, and enjoying the clear bright air. Now and thenwe met or passed a long recua (train) of loaded mules, taking care tokeep the safe side of the road till we were rid of them. It is notpleasant to meet a great drove of horned cattle in an Alpine pass, butI really think a recua of loaded mules among the Andes is worse. Aknowing old beast goes first, and the rest come tumbling after himanyhow, with their loads often projecting a foot or two on either side, and banging against anybody or anything. Then, wherever the road isparticularly narrow, and there is a precipice of two or three hundredfeet to fall over, one or two of them will fall down, or get theirpacks loose, and so block up the road, and there is a general scrimmageof kicking and shoving behind, till the arrieros can get thingsstraight again. At last we reach the top of a ridge, and see the littlesettlement of Real del Monte below us. It is more like a Cornish miningvillage than anything else; but of course the engine-houses, chimneys, and mine-sheds, built by Cornishmen in true Cornish fashion, go a longway towards making up the resemblance. The village is built on theawkwardest bit of ground possible, up and down on the side of a steepravine, one house apparently standing on the roof of another; and ittakes half a mile of real hard climbing to get from the bottom of thetown to the top. We put up our horses at a neat little inn kept by an old Englishwoman, and walked or climbed up to the Company's house. We made several newacquaintances at the Real, though we left within a few hours, intendingto see the place thoroughly on our return. One peculiarity of the Casa Grande--the great house of the Company--wasthe warlike appearance of everybody in it. The clerks were posting upthe ledgers with loaded revolvers on the desk before them; themanager's room was a small arsenal, and the gentlemen rode out forexercise, morning and evening, armed to the teeth. Not that there isanything to be apprehended from robbers--indeed I should like to seeany of the Mexican ladrones interfering with the Cornish miners, whowould soon teach them better manners. I am inclined to think there is apositive pleasure in possessing and handling guns and pistols, whetherthey are likely to be of any use or not. Indeed, while travellingthrough the western and southern States of America, where such thingsare very generally carried, I was the possessor of a five-barrelledrevolver, and admit that I derived an amount of mild satisfaction fromcarrying it about, and shooting at a mark with it, that amplycompensated for the loss of two dollars I incurred by selling it to aJew at New Orleans. We rode on to Regla, soon finding that our guide had never been therebefore; so, next morning, we kept the two horses and dismissed him withignominy. A fine road leads from the Real to Regla, for all thesilver-ore from the mines is conveyed there to have the silverseparated from it. My notes of our ride mention a great water-wheel:sections of porphyritic rocks, with enormous masses of alluvial soillying upon them: steep ravines: arroyos, cut by mountain-streams, andforests of pine-trees--a thoroughly Alpine district altogether. AtRegla it became evident that our letter of introduction was not a merecomplimentary affair. There is not even a village there; it is only agreat hacienda, belonging to the Company, with the huts of the workmenbuilt near it. The Company, represented by Mr. Bell, received us withthe greatest hospitality. Almost before the letter was opened ourhorses and mozo were off to the stables, our room was ready, and ourdinner being prepared as fast as might be. What a pleasant evening wehad, after our long day's work! We had a great wood-fire, and sat byit, talking and looking at Mr. Bell's photographs and minerals, whichserve as an amusement in his leisure-hours. The Company's Administradorleads rather a peculiar life here. There is no want of work orresponsibility; he has two or three hundred Indians to manage, almostall of whom will steal and cheat without the slightest scruple, if theycan but get a chance; he has to assay the ores, superintend a varietyof processes which require the greatest skill and judgment, and he isin charge of property to the value of several hundred thousand pounds. Then a man must have a constitution of iron to live in a place wherethe air is so rarefied, and where the temperature varies thirty andforty degrees between morning and noon. As for society, he must find itin his own family; for even the better class of Mexicans are on sodifferent a level, intellectually, from an educated Englishman, thattheir society bores him utterly, and he had rather be left in solitudethan have to talk to them. Well, it is a great advantage to travellersthat circumstances fix pleasant people in such out-of-the-way places. One necessary part of a hacienda is a church. The proprietors arecompelled by law to build one, and pay the priest's fees for mass onSundays and feast-days. Now, almost all the English one meets withengaged in business, or managing mines and plantations, are Scotch, andone may well suppose that there is not much love lost between them andthe priests. The father confessor plays an important part in the greatsystem of dishonesty that prevails to so monstrous an extent throughoutthe country. He hears the particulars of the thefts and cheatings thathave been practised on the proprietor who builds his church and paysfor his services, and he complacently absolves his penitents inconsideration of a small penance. Not a word about restitution; andjust a formal injunction to go and sin no more, which neither priestnor penitent is very sincere about. The various evils of the RomanCatholic system have been reiterated till the subject has becometiresome, but this particular practice is so contrary to the simplestnotions of morality, and has produced such fearful effects on thecharacter of this nation, that one cannot pass it by without notice. Ifthe Superintendent should roast the parish priest in front of theoxidising furnace, till he confessed all he knew about the thefts ofhis parishioners from the Company, he would tell strange stories, --howJuan Fernandez carried off sixpennyworth of silver in each car everyday for a month; and how Pedro Alvarado (the Indian names have almostdisappeared except in a few families, and Spanish names have beensubstituted) had a hammer with a hollow handle, like the stick thatSancho Panza delivered his famous judgment about, and carried awaysilver in it every day when he left work; and how Vasco Nuñez stole theiron key from the gate (which cost two dollars to replace), walkingtwenty miles and losing a day's work in order to sell it, andeventually getting but twopence for it; and plenty more stories of thesame kind. The Padre at Regla, we heard, was not given to preachingsermons, but had lately favoured his congregation with a very strikingone, to the effect that the Company paid him only three dollars a timefor saying mass, and that he ought to have four. Almost every traveller who visits Mexico enlarges on the dishonestywhich is rooted in the character of the people. That they are worse nowin this respect than they were before the Conquest is highly probable. Their position as a conquered and enslaved people, tended, as it alwaysdoes, to foster the slavish vices of dissimulation and dishonesty. Thereligion brought into the country by the Spanish missionaries concerneditself with their belief, and left their morals to shift forthemselves, as it does still. In the mining-districts stealing is universal. Public feeling among theIndians does not condemn it in the least, quite the contrary. To stealsuccessfully is considered a triumph, and to be found out is nodisgrace. Theft is not even punishable. In old times a thief might beput in the stocks; but Burkart, who was a mining-inspector for manyyears, says that in his time, some twenty years ago, tins wasabolished, and I believe the law has not been altered since. It is amiserable sight to see the Indian labourers searched as they come outof the mines. They are almost naked, but rich ore packs in such a smallcompass, and they are so ingenious in stowing it away, that thedoorkeepers examine their mouths and ears, and their hair, andconstantly find pieces that have been secreted, while a far greaterquantity escapes. It is this system of thieving that accounts for theexistence of certain little smelting-sheds, close to the works of theCompany, who look at them with such feelings as may be imagined. Theseplaces profess to smelt ore from one or two little mines in theneighbourhood, but their real object is no secret. They buy the stolenbits of rich ore from the Indian labourers, giving exactly half thevalue for it. Of course, we must not judge these Mexican labourers as though we had avery high standard of honesty at home. That we should see workmensearched habitually in England, at the doors of our nationaldock-yards, is a much greater disgrace to us. And not merely adisgrace, but a serious moral evil, for to expose an honest man to sucha degradation is to make him half a thief already. People who know the Indian population best assure us that their livesare a perpetual course of intrigue and dissimulation. Always trying topractise some small fraud upon their masters, and even upon their ownpeople, they are in constant fear that every one is trying to overreachthem. They are afraid to answer the simplest question, lest it shouldbe a trap laid to catch them. They ponder over every word and action oftheir European employers, to find out what hidden intrigue liesbeneath, and to devise some counter-plot. Sartorius says that when hehas met an Indian and asked his name, the brown man always gave a falseone, lest the enquirer should want to do him some harm. Never did any people show more clearly the effects of ages of servitudeand oppression; but, hopeless as the moral condition of this miningpopulation seems, there is one favourable circumstance to be put onrecord. The Cornish miners, who have been living among them for years, have worked quite perceptibly upon the Indian character by the exampleof their persevering industry, their love of saving, and their uttercontempt for thieves and liars. Instead of squandering their wages, orburying them in the ground, many of the Indian miners take theirsavings to the Banks; and the opinions of the foreigners aregradually--though very slowly--altering the popular standard ofhonesty, the first step towards the moral improvement of the Mexicanpopulation. In the morning we went off for an excursion, having got a lively youngfellow from the hacienda in exchange for our stupid mozo. There washoar frost on the ground, and the feeling of cold was intense at first;but the sun began to warm the ground about eight o'clock, and we weresoon glad to fasten our great coats and shawls to our saddles. Threeleagues took us to the town of Atotonilco[9] el Grande, which gives itsname to the plateau we were crossing. Here we are no longer in thevalley of Mexico, which is separated from this plain by the mountainsof the Real del Monte. We rode on two leagues more to the village ofSoquital[10] where, it being Sunday, we found the inhabitants--mostlyIndians--amusing themselves by standing in the sun, doing nothing. Ican hardly say "doing nothing, " though, for we went into the tienda, orshop, and found a brisk trade going on in raw spirits. _Tienda_, inSpanish, means a tent or booth. The first shops were tents or booths atfairs or in market-places; and thence "tienda" came to mean a shop ingeneral; a derivation which corresponds with that of the word "shop"itself. Such of the population as had money seemed to drop in atregular intervals for a dram, which consisted of a small wine-glassfulof white-corn-brandy, called _chinguerito_. We tasted some, while thepeople at the shop were frying eggs and boiling beans for ourbreakfast; and found it so strong that a small sip brought tears intoour eyes, to the amusement of the bystanders. It seemed that everybodywas drinking who could afford it; from the old men and women to thebabies in their mothers' arms; everybody had a share, except those whowere hard up, and they stood about the door looking stolidly at thedrinkers. There was nothing like gaiety in the whole affair; only asort of satisfaction appeared in the face of each as he took his dose. It is the drinkers of pulque who get furiously drunk, and fight; hereit is different. These drinkers of spirits are not much given to thatenormous excess that kills off the Red Indians; indeed, they are seldomdrunk enough to lose their wits, and they never have delirium tremens, which would come upon a European, with much less provocation. They getinto a habit of daily--almost hourly--dram-drinking, and go on, yearafter year, in this way; seeming, as far as we could judge, to live along while, such a life as it is. As we mounted our horses and rode on, we agreed that we had seldom seen a more melancholy and depressingsight. We met some arrieros, who had brought up salt from the coast; and they, seeing that we were English, judged we had something to do with mines, and proposed to sell us their goods. The price of salt here is actuallythree-pence per lb. , in a district where its consumption is immense, asit is used in refining the silver ore. It must be said, however, thatthis is an unusual price; for the muleteers have been so victimised bytheir mules being seized, either by the government or the rebels (oneseems about as bad as the other in this respect), that they must have ahigh price to pay them for the risk. Generally seven reals, or 3s. 6d. Per arroba of 25 lbs. Is the price. This salt is evaporated in thesalinas of Campeche, taken by water to Tuzpan, and then brought up thecountry on mules' backs--each beast carrying 300 lbs. Of course, thissalt is very coarse and very watery; all salt made in this way is. Itsuits the New Orleans people better to import salt from England, thanto make it in this way in the Gulf of Mexico, though the water there isvery salt, and the sun very hot. The fact, that it pays to carry salton mules' backs, tells volumes about the state of the country. At thelowest computation, the mules would do four or five times as much workif they were set to draw any kind of cart--however rough--on acarriageable road. It is true that there is some sort of road from hereto Tampico, but an English waggoner would not acknowledge it by thatname at all; and the muleteers are still in possession of most of thetraffic in this district, as indeed they are over almost all thecountry. It was mid-day by this time; and, as we could not get to the Rio Grandewithout taking our chance for the night in some Indian rancho, weturned back. The heat had become so oppressive that we took off ourcoats; and Mr. Christy, riding in his shirt-sleeves and holding a whiteumbrella over his head, which he had further protected with a turban, declared that even in the East he had not had so fatiguing a ride. Wepassed through Soquital, and there the natives were idling and drinkingspirits as before, and seemed hardly to have moved since we left. Thisplateau of Atotonilco el Grande, called for shortness Grande, is, likemost of the high plains of Mexico, composed mostly of porphyry andobsidian, a valley filled up with débris from the surroundingmountains, which are all volcanic, embedded in reddish earth. Themountain-torrents--in which the water, so to speak, comes down all atonce, not flowing in a steady stream all the year round as inEngland--have left evidences of their immense power in the ravines withwhich the sides of the hills, from their very tops downward, arefluted. These fluted mountain-ridges resemble the "Kamms" (combs) of the SwissAlps, called so from their toothed appearance. We had met numbers of Indians, bringing their wares to the Sundaymarket in the great square of Atotonilco el Grande; and when we reachedthe town on our way home, business was still going on briskly; so weput up our horses, and spent an hour or two in studying the people andthe commodities they dealt in. It was a real old-fashioned Indianmarket, very much such as the Spaniards found when they firstpenetrated into the country. A large proportion of the people couldspeak no Spanish, or only a few words. The unglazed pottery, palm-leafmats, ropes and bags of aloe-fibre, dressed skins, &c. , were just thesame wares that were made three centuries ago; and there is noimprovement in their manufacture. This people, who rose in threecenturies from the condition of wandering savages to a height ofcivilization that has no equal in history--considering the shortness ofthe time in which it grew up--have remained, since the Conquest, without making one step in advance. They hardly understand any reasonfor what they do, except that their ancestors did things so--theytherefore must be right. They make their unglazed pottery, and carry itfive and twenty miles to market on their heads, just as they used to dowhen there were no beasts of burden in the country. The same with theirfruits and vegetables, which they have brought great distances, up themost difficult mountain-paths, at a ruinous sacrifice of time andtrouble, considering what a miserable sum they will get for them afterall, and how much even of this will be spent in brandy. By working on ahacienda they would get double what their labour produces in this way, but they do not understand this kind of reasoning. They cultivate theirlittle patches of maize, by putting a sharp stick into the ground, anddropping the seed into the hole. They carry pots of water to irrigatetheir ground with, instead of digging trenches. This is the morecurious, as at the time of the Conquest irrigation was much practisedby the Aztecs in the plains, and remains of water-canals still exist, showing that they had carried the art to great perfection. They bringlogs of wood over the mountains by harnessing horses or mules to them, and dragging them with immense labour over the rough ground. The ideaof wheels or rollers has either not occurred to them, or is consideredas a pernicious novelty. It is very striking to see how, while Europeans are bringing the newestmachinery and the most advanced arts into the country, there isscarcely any symptom of improvement among the people, who still holdfirmly to the wisdom of their ancestors. An American author, Mayer, quotes a story of a certain people in Italy, as an illustration of thefeeling of the Indians in Mexico respecting improvements. In thisdistrict, he says that the peasants loaded their panniers withvegetables on one side, and balanced the opposite pannier by filling itwith stones; and when a traveller pointed out the advantage to begained by loading both panniers with vegetables, he was answered thattheir forefathers from time immemorial had so carried their produce tomarket, that they were wise and good men, and that a stranger showedvery little understanding or decency who interfered in the establishedcustoms of a country. I need hardly say that the Indians are utterlyignorant; and this of course accounts to a great extent for theirobstinate conservatism. There were several shops round the market-place at Grande, and thebrandy-drinking was going on much as at Soquital. The shops in thesesmall towns are general stores, like "the shop" in coal- andiron-districts in England. It is only in large towns that the differentretail-trades are separated. One thing is very noticeable in thesecountry stores, the certainty of finding a great stock of sardines inbright tin boxes. The idea of finding _Sardines à l'huile_ in Indianvillages seemed odd enough; but the fact is, that the difficulty ofgetting fish up from the coast is so great that these sardines are notmuch dearer than anything else, and they go a long way. Montezuma'smethod of supplying his table with fresh fish from the gulf, by havingrelays of Indian porters to run up with it, is too expensive forgeneral use, and there is no efficient substitute. It is in consequenceof this scarcity of fish, that Church-fasts have never been verystrictly kept in Mexico. [Illustration: HIEROGLYPHICS. ] The method of keeping accounts in the shops--which, it is to beremembered, are almost always kept by white or half-white people, hardly ever by Indians--is primitive enough. Here is a score which Icopied, the hieroglyphics standing for dollars, half-dollars, medios orhalf-reals, cuartillos or quarter-reals, and tlacos--or clacos--whichare eighths of a real, or about 3/4d. While account-keeping amongthe comparatively educated trades-people is in this condition, one can easily understand how very limited the Indian notions ofcalculation are. They cannot realize any number much over ten; andtwenty--cempoalli--is with them the symbol of a great number, as a hundred was with the Greeks. There is in Mexico a mountaincalled in this indefinite way "Cempoatepetl"--the twenty-mountain. Sartorius mentions the Indian name of the many-petaledmarigold--"cempoaxochitl"--the twenty-flower. We traded for sometrifles of aloe-fibre, but soon had to count up the reckoning withbeans. I have delayed long enough for the present over the Indians and theirmarket; so, though there is much more to be said about them, I willonly add a few words respecting the commodities for sale, and thenleave them for awhile. There seemed to be a large business doing in costales (bags) made ofaloe-fibre, for carrying ore about in the mines. True to the traditionsof his ancestors, the Indian much prefers putting his load in a bag onhis back, to the far easier method of wheeling it about. Lazos sold atone to four reals, (6d. To 2s. ) according to quality. There are twokinds of aloe-fibre; one coarse, _ichtli_, the other much finer, _pito_; the first made from the great aloe that produces pulque, theother from a much smaller species of the same genus. The stones withwhich the boiled maize is ground into the paste of which the universaltortillas are made were to be had here; indeed, they are made in theneighbourhood, of the basalt and lava which abound in the district. Themetate is a sort of little table, hewn out of the basalt, with fourlittle feet, and its surface is curved from the ends to the middle. Themetalpile is of the same material, and like a rolling-pin. Theold-fashioned Mexican pottery I have mentioned already. It isbeautifully made, and very cheap. They only asked us nine-pence for agreat olla, or boiling-pot, that held four or five gallons, and nodoubt this was double the market-price. I never so thoroughly realizedbefore how climate is altered by altitude above the sea as in noticingthe fruits and vegetables that were being sold at this little market, within fifteen or twenty miles of which they were all grown. There werewheat and barley, and the piñones (the fruit of the stone-pine, whichgrows in Italy, and is largely used instead of almonds); and from theserepresentatives of temperate climates the list extended to bananas andzapotes, grown at the bottom of the great barrancas, 3, 000 or 4, 000feet lower in level than the plateau, though in distance but a fewmiles off. Three or four thousand miles of latitude would not give agreater difference. It would never do to be late, and break our necks in one of the awkwardwater-courses that cut the plateau about in all directions; so westarted homewards, soon having to unfasten great-coats and shawls fromour saddles, to keep out the cold of the approaching sunset; and so wegot back to the hospitable hacienda, and were glad to warm ourselves atthe fire. Next morning, we went off to get a view of the great barranca of Regla. A ride over the hills brought us to a wood of oaks, with their branchesfringed with the long grey Spanish moss, and a profusion of epiphytesclinging to their bark, some splendidly in flower, showing thefantastic shapes and brilliant colours one sees in Englishorchid-houses. Cactuses of many species complete the picture of thevegetation in this beautiful spot. This is at the top of the barranca. Then imagine a valley a mile or two in width, with sides almostperpendicular and capped with basaltic pillars, and at the bottom astrip of land where the vegetation is of the deepest green of thetropics, with a river winding along among palm-trees and bananas. Thisgreat barranca is between two and three thousand feet deep, and theview is wonderful. We went down a considerable way by a zig-zag road, my companion collecting armfuls of plants by the way, but unfortunatelylosing his thermometer, which could not be found, though a long huntfor it produced a great many more plants, and so the trouble was notwasted. The prickly pear was covered with ripe purple fruit a littleway down, and we refreshed ourselves with them, I managing--in myclumsiness--to get into my fingers two or three of the little sheavesof needles which are planted on the outside of the fruit, and thusproviding myself with occupation for leisure moments for three or fourdays after in taking them out. Many species of cactus, and the nopal, or prickly pear, especially, arefull of watery sap, which trickles out in a stream when they arepierced. In these thirsty regions, when springs and brooks are dry, thecattle bite them to get at the moisture, regardless of the thorns. Onthe north coast of Africa the camels delight in crunching the juicyleaves of the same plant. I have often been amused in watching thecamel-drivers' efforts to get their trains of laden beasts along thenarrow sandy lanes of Tangier, between hedges of prickly pears, wherethe camels with their long necks could reach the tempting lobes on bothsides of the way. In this thirsty season, while the cattle in the Mexican plains derivemoisture from the cactus, the aloe provides for man a substitute forwater. It frequently happened to us to go from rancho to rancho askingfor water in vain, though pulque was to be had in abundance. To attempt any description of the varied forms of cactus in Mexicowould be out of the question. In the northern provinces alone, botanists have described above eight hundred species. The most strikingwe met with were the prickly pear (cactus opuntia), the órgano, thenight-blowing cereus, the various mamillarias--dome-shaped moundscovered with thorns, varying in diameter from an inch to six or eightfeet--and the greybeard, _el viejo, _ "the old man, " as our guide calledthem, upright pillars like street-posts, and covered with greywool-like filaments. Getting to the top of the ravine again, we found an old Indian milkingan aloe, which flourishes here, though a little further down theclimate is too hot for it to produce pulque. This old gentleman had along gourd, of the shape and size of a great club, but hollow inside, and very light. The small end of this gourd was pushed in among thealoe-leaves into the hollow made by scooping out the inside of theplant, and in which the sweet juice, the aguamiel, collects. By havinga little hole at each end of the gourd, and sucking at the large end, the hollow of the plant emptied itself into the Acocote, (in properMexican, _Acocotl_, Water-throat), as this queer implement is called. Then the Indian stopped the hole at the end he had been sucking at, with his finger, and dexterously emptied the contents of the gourd intoa pig-skin which he carried at his back. We went up with the old man tohis rancho, and tested his pulque, which was very good, though we couldnot say the same of his domestic arrangements. It puzzled us not alittle to see people living up at this height in houses built ofsticks, such as are used in the hot lands, and hardly affording anyprotection from the weather, severe as it is here. The pulque is takento market in pig-skins, which, though the pig himself is taken out ofthem, still retain his shape very accurately; and when nearly full ofliquor, they roll about on their backs, and kick up the little dumpylegs that are left them, in the most comical and life-like way. When wewent away we bought the old man's acocote, and carried it home intriumph, and is it not in the Museum at Kew Gardens to this day? _(Seethe illustration at page 36. )_ At the hacienda of Regla are to be seen on a large scale most of theprocesses which are employed in the extraction of silver from theore--the _beneficio_, or making good, as it is called. In the great yard, numbers of men and horses were walking round andround upon the "tortas, " tarts or pies, as they are called, consistingof powdered ore mixed with water, so as to form a circular bed of mud afoot deep. To this mud, sulphate of copper, salt, and quicksilver areadded, and the men and mules walk round and round in it, mixing itthoroughly together, a process which is kept up, with occasionalintervals of rest, for nearly two months. By that time the whole of thesilver has formed an amalgam with the mercury, and this amalgam isafterwards separated from the earth by being trampled under water introughs. We were surprised to find that men and horses could pass theirlives in wading through mud containing mercury in a state of finedivision without absorbing it into their bodies, but neither men norhorses suffer from it. We happened to visit the melting-house one evening, while silver andlead were being separated by oxidizing the lead in a reverberatoryfurnace. Here we noticed a curious effect. The melted litharge ran fromthe mouth of the furnace upon a floor of damp sand, and spread over itin a sheet. Presently, as the heat of the mass vaporized the water inthe sand below, the sheet of litharge, still slightly fluid, began toheave and swell, and a number of small cones rose from its surface. Some of these cones reached the height of four inches, and then burstat the top, sending out a shower of red-hot fragments. I removed one ofthese cones when the litharge was cool. It had a regidar funnel-shapedcrater, like that which Vesuvius had until three or four years ago. The analogy is complete between these little cones and those on thelava-field at the foot of the volcano of Jorullo, the celebrated"hornitos;" the concentric structure of which, as described by Burkart, proves that they were formed in precisely the same manner. Untillately, the formation of the great cone of Jorullo was attributed tothe same kind of action as the hornitos, but later travellers haveestablished the fact that this is incorrect. One of the De Saussurefamily, who was in Mexico a few years back, describes Jorullo asconsisting of three terraces of basaltic lava, which have flowed oneabove another from a central orifice, the whole being surmounted by acone of lapilli thrown up from the same opening, from which also laterstreams of lava have issued. The celebrated cascade of Regla is just behind the hacienda. There is asort of basin, enclosed on three sides by a perpendicular wall ofbasaltic columns, some eighty feet high. On the side opposite theopening, a mountain stream has cut a deep notch in this wall, and poursdown in a cascade. The basaltic pillars rest upon an undisturbed layerof basaltic conglomerate five feet thick, and that upon a bed of clay. The place is very picturesque; and two great Yuccas which project overthe waterfall, crowned with their star-like tufts of pointed leaves, have a strange effect. These basalt-columns are very regular, with fromfive to eight sides; and are almost black in colour. They have acuriously well-defined circular core in the middle, five or six inchesin diameter. This core is light grey, almost white. The Indians bringdown numbers of short lengths or joints of the columns, and they areused at the hacienda in making a primitive kind of ore-crushing mill, in which they are dragged round and round by mule-power, on a flooralso of basalt. When we had visited the falls we took leave of our hospitable friend, and set off to return to the Real. We stopped at San Miguel, another ofthe haciendas of the Company, where the German barrel-process isworked. Just behind the hacienda is the Ojo de Agua--the Eye ofWater--a beautiful basin, surrounded by a green sward and a wood ofoaks and fir-trees. A little stream takes its rise from the springwhich bubbles up into this basin, and the name "Ojo de Agua, " is ageneral term applied to such fountain-heads. When one looks down from ahigh hill upon one of these Eyes of Water, one sees how the name cameto be given, and indeed, the idiom is thousands of years older than theSpanish tongue, and belongs as well to the Hebrew and Arabic. A Mexicancalls a lake _atezcatl_, Water-Mirror, an expressive word, whichreminds one of the German _Wasserspiegel_. Soon after nightfall we got back to the English inn, and went to bedwithout any further event happening, except the burning of someouthouses, which we went out to see. The custom of roofing houses withpine-shingles ("tacumeniles"), and the general use of wood for buildingall the best houses, make fires very common here. During the few dayswe spent in the Real district, I find in my notebook mention of threefires which we saw. We spent the next day in resting, and in visitingthe mine-works near at hand. The day after, an Englishman who had livedmany years at the Real offered to take us out for a day's ride; and theCompany's Administrador lent us two of his own horses, for the poorbeasts from Pachuca could hardly have gone so far. The first place wevisited was Peñas Cargadas, the "loaded rocks. " Riding through a thickwood of oaks and pines, we came suddenly in view of several sugar-loafpeaks, some three hundred feet high, tapering almost to a point at thetop, and each one crowned with a mass of rocks which seem to have beenbalanced in unstable equilibrium on its point, --looking as though thefirst puff of wind would bring them down. The pillars were ofporphyritic conglomerate, which had been disintegrated and worn away bywind and rain; while the great masses resting on them, probably ofsolid porphyry, had been less affected by these influences. It was themost curious example of the weathering of rocks that we had ever seen. From Peñas Cargadas we rode on to the farm of Guajalote, where theCompany has forests, and cuts wood and burns charcoal for the mines andthe refining works. Don Alejandro, the tenant of the farm, was aScotchman, and a good fellow. He could not go on with us, for he hadinvited a party of neighbours to eat up a kid that had been cooked in ahole in the ground, with embers upon it, after Sandwich Island fashion. This is called a _barbacoa_--a barbecue. We should have liked to be atthe feast, but time was short, so we rode on to the top of Mount Jacal, 12, 000 feet above the sea, where there was a view of mountains andvalleys, and heat that was positively melting. Thence down to the Cerrode Navajas, the "hill of knives. " It is on the sides of this hill thatobsidian is found in enormous quantities. Before the conquerorsintroduced the use of iron, these deposits were regularly mined, andthis place was the Sheffield of Mexico. We were curious to see all that was to be seen; for Mr. Christy'sMexican collection, already large before our visit, and destined tobecome much larger, contained numbers of implements and weapons of thisvery peculiar material. Any one who does not know obsidian may imaginegreat masses of bottle-glass, such as our orthodox ugly wine-bottlesare made of, very hard, very brittle, and--if one breaks it with anyordinary implement--going, as glass does, in every direction but theright one. We saw its resemblance to this portwine-bottle-glass in anodd way at the Ojo de Agua, where the wall of the hacienda was armed atthe top, after our English fashion, apparently with bits of oldbottles, but which turned out to be chips of obsidian. Out of thisrather unpromising stuff the Mexicans made knives, razors, arrow- andspear-heads, and other things, some of great beauty. I say nothing ofthe polished obsidian mirrors and ornaments, nor even of the curiousmasks of the human face that are to be seen in collections, for thesewere only laboriously cut and polished with jewellers' sand, to us acommon-place process. [Illustration: STONE SPEAR-HEADS AND OBSIDIAN KNIVES AND ARROW-HEADS, FROM MEXICO. 1. Flame shaped Arrow-head; obsidian: Teleohuacán. 2. Arrow-head; opake obsidian: Teleohuacán. 3. Knife or Razor of Obsidian;shown in two aspects; Mexico. 4. Leaf-shaped Knife or Javelin-head;obsidian: from Real Del Monte. 5. Spear-head of Chalcedony; one of apair supposed to be spears of State: found in excavating for the CasaGrande, Tezcuco. (This peculiar opalescent chalcedony occurs asconcretions, sometimes of large size, in the trachytic lavas ofMexico. )] Cortes found the barbers at the great market of Tlatelolco busy shavingthe natives with such razors, and he and his men had experience ofother uses of the same material in the flights of obsidian-headedarrows which "darkened the sky, " as they said, and the more deadlywooden maces stuck all over with obsidian points, and of the priests'sacrificial knives too, not long after. These things were not cut andpolished, but made by chipping or cracking off pieces from a lump. Thisone can see by the traces of conchoidal fracture which they all show. The art is not wholly understood, for it perished soon after theConquest, when iron came in; but, as far as the theory is concerned, Ithink I can give a tolerably satisfactory account of the process ofmanufacture. In the first place, the workman who makes gun-flints couldprobably make some of the simpler obsidian implements, which were nodoubt chipped off in the same way. The section of a gun-flint, with itsone side flat for sharpness and the other side ribbed for strength, isone of the characteristics of obsidian knives. That the flint knives ofScandinavia were made by chipping off strips from a mass is proved bythe many-sided prisms occasionally found there, and particularly bythat one which was discovered just where it had been worked, with theknives chipped off it lying close by, and fitting accurately into theirplaces upon it. Now to make the case complete, we ought to find such prisms in Mexico;and, accordingly, some months ago, when I examined the splendid Mexicancollection of Mr. Uhde at Heidelberg, I found one or two. No one seemedto have suspected their real nature, and they had been classed asmaces, or the handles of some kind of weapon. [Illustration: FLUTED PRISM OF OBSIDIAN: THE CORE FROM WHICH FLAKESHAVE BEEN STRUCK OFF. ] I should say from memory that they were seven or eight inches long, andas large as one could conveniently grasp; and one or both of them, asif to remove all doubt as to what they were, had the stripping off ofribbons not carried quite round them, but leaving an intermediate striprough. There is another point about the obsidian knives which requiresconfirmation. One can often see, on the ends of the Scandinavian flintknives, the bruise made by the blow of the hard stone with which theywere knocked off. I did not think of looking to this point when at Mr. Uhde's museum, but the only obsidian knife I have seen since seems tobe thus bruised at the end. [Illustration: AZTEC KNIVES OR RAZORS. LONG NARROW FLAKES OF OBSIDIAN, HAVING A SINGLE FACE ON THE ONE SIDE AND THREE FACETS ON THE OTHER. ] Once able to break his obsidian straight, the workman has got on a longway in his trade, for a large proportion of the articles he has to makeare formed by planes intersecting one another in various directions. But the Mexican knives are generally not pointed, but turned up at theend, as one may bend up a druggist's spatula. This peculiar shape isnot given to answer a purpose, but results from the natural fracture ofthe stone. Even then, the way of making several implements or weapons is notentirely clear. We got several obsidian maces or lance-heads--one aboutten inches long--which were taper from base to point, and covered withtaper flutings; and there are other things which present greatdifficulties. I have heard on good authority, that somewhere in Peru, the Indians still have a way of working obsidian by laying a bone wedgeon the surface of a piece, and tapping it till the stone cracks. Such aprocess may have been used in Mexico. We may see in museums beautiful little articles made in thisintractable material, such as the mirrors and masks I have mentioned, and even rings and cups. But, as I have said, these are merelapidaries' work. The situation of the mines was picturesque; grand hills of porphyriticrock, and pine-forest everywhere. Not far off is the broad track of ahurricane, which had walked through it for miles, knocking the greattrees down like ninepins, and leaving them to rot there. The vegetationgave evident proof of a severe climate; and yet the heat and glare ofthe sun were more intolerable than we had ever felt it in the region ofsugar-canes and bananas. About here, some of the trachytic porphyrywhich forms the substance of the hills had happened to have cooled, under suitable conditions, from the molten state into a sort of slag orvolcanic glass, which is the obsidian in question; and, in places, thisvitreous lava--from one layer having flowed over another which wasalready cool--was regularly stratified. The mines were mere wells, not very deep; with horizontal workings intothe obsidian where it was very good and in thick layers. Round aboutwere heaps of fragments, hundreds of tons of them; and it was clear, from the shape of these, that some of the manufacturing was done on thespot. There had been great numbers of pits worked; and it was fromthese "minillas, " little mines, as they are called, that we first gotan idea how important an element this obsidian was in the old Azteccivilization. In excursions made since, we travelled over wholedistricts in the plains, where fragments of these arrows and kniveswere to be found, literally at every step, mixed with morsels ofpottery, and here and there a little clay idol. Among the heaps offragments were many that had become weathered on the upper side, andhad a remarkable lustre, like silver. Obsidian is called _bizcli_ bythe Indians, and the silvery sort is known as _bizcli platera_. [11]They often find bits of it in the fields; and go with great secrecy andmystery to Mr. Bell, or some other authority in mining matters, andconfide to him their discovery of a silver-mine. They go away angry andunconvinced when told what their silver really is; and generally cometo the conclusion that he is deceiving them, with a view of throwingthem off the scent, that he may find the place for himself, and cheatthem of their share of the profits--just what their own miserablemorbid cunning would lead them to do under such circumstances. [Illustration: MEXICAN ARROW-HEADS OF OBSIDIAN. ] The family-likeness that exists among the stone tools and weapons foundin so many parts of the world is very remarkable. The flint-arrows ofNorth America, such as Mr. Longfellow's arrow-maker used to work at inthe land of the Dacotahs, and which, in the wild northern states ofMexico, the Apaches and Comanches use to this day, might be easilymistaken for the weapons of our British ancestors, dug up on the banksof the Thames. It is true that the finish of the Mexican obsidianimplements far exceeds that of the chipped flint and agate weapons ofScandinavia, and still more those of England, Switzerland, and Italy, where they are dug up in such quantities, in deposits of alluvial soil, and in bone-caves in the limestone rocks. But this higher finish we mayattribute partly to the superiority of the material; for the Mexicansalso used flint to some extent, and their flint weapons are as hard todistinguish by inspection as those from other parts of the world. Wemay reasonably suppose, moreover, that the skill of the Mexicanartificer increased when he found a better material than flint to workupon. Be this as it may, an inspection of any good collection of sucharticles shows the much higher finish of the obsidian implements thanof those of flint, agate, and rock-crystal. They say there is aningenious artist who makes flint arrow-heads and stone axes for thebenefit of English antiquarians, and earns good profits by it: I shouldlike to give him an order for ribbed obsidian razors and spear-heads; Idon't think he would make much of them. [Illustration: AZTEC KNIFE OF CHALCEDONY, MOUNTED ON A WOODEN HANDLE, WHICH IS SHAPED LIKE A HUMAN FIGURE WITH ITS FACE APPEARING THROUGH ANEAGLE-HEAD MASK, AND HAS BEEN INLAID WITH MOSAIC WORK OF MALACHITE, SHELL, AND TURQUOISE. LENGTH 12-1/2 INCHES. ] The wonderful similarity of character among the stone weapons found indifferent parts of the world has often been used by ethnologists as ameans of supporting the theory that this and other arts were carriedover the world by tribes migrating from one common centre of creationof the human species. The argument has not much weight, and a largerview of the subject quite supersedes it. We may put the question in this way. In Asia and in Europe the use ofstone tools and weapons has always characterized a very low state ofcivilization; and such implements are only found among savage tribesliving by the chase, or just beginning to cultivate the ground and toemerge from the condition of mere barbarians. Now, if the Mexicans gottheir civilization from Europe, it must have been from some peopleunacquainted with the use of iron, if not of bronze. Iron abounds inMexico, not only in the state of ore, but occurring nearly pure inaerolites of great size, as at Cholula, and at Zacatecas, not far fromthe great ruins there; so that the only reason for their not using itmust have been ignorance of its qualities. The Arabian Nights' story of the mountain which consisted of a singleloadstone finds its literal fulfilment in Mexico. Not far from Huetamo, on the road towards the Pacific, there is a conical hill composedentirely of magnetic iron-ore. The blacksmiths in the neighbourhood, with no other apparatus than their common forges, make it directly intowrought iron, which they use for all ordinary purposes. Now, in supposing civilization to be transmitted from one country toanother, we must measure it by the height of its lowest point, as wemeasure the strength of a chain by the strength of the weakest link. The only civilization that the Mexicans can have received from the OldWorld must have been from some people whose cutting implements were ofsharp stone, consequently, as we must conclude by analogy, some verybarbarous and ignorant tribe. From this point we must admit that the inhabitants of Mexico raisedthemselves, independently, to the extraordinary degree of culture whichdistinguished them when Europeans first became aware of theirexistence. The curious distribution of their knowledge shows plainlythat they found it for themselves, and did not receive it bytransmission. We find a wonderful acquaintance with astronomy, even tosuch details as the real cause of eclipses, --and the length of the yeargiven by intercalations of surprising accuracy; and, at the same time, no knowledge whatever of the art of writing alphabetically, for theirhieroglyphics are nothing but suggestive pictures. They had earned theart of gardening to a high degree of perfection; but, though there weretwo kinds of ox, and the buffalo at no great distance from them, in thecountries they had already passed through in their migration from thenorth, they had no idea of the employment of beasts of burden, nor ofthe use of milk. They were a great trading people, and had money ofseveral kinds in general use, but the art of weighing was utterlyunknown to them; while, on the other hand, the Peruvians habituallyused scales and weights, but had no idea of the use of money. To return to the stone knives; the Mexicans may very well have inventedthe art themselves, as they did so many others; or they may havereceived it from the Old World. The things themselves prove nothingeither way. The real proof of their having, at some early period, communicated withinhabitants of Europe or Asia rests upon the traditions current amongthem, which are recorded by the early historians, and confirmed by theAztec picture-writings; and upon several extraordinary coincidences inthe signs used by them in reckoning astronomical cycles. Further on Ishall allude to these traditions. On the whole, the most probable view of the origin of the Mexicantribes seems to be the one ordinarily held, that they really came fromthe Old World, bringing with them several legends, evidently the sameas the histories recorded in the book of Genesis. This must have been, however, at a time, when they were quite a barbarous, nomadic tribe;and we must regard their civilization as of independent and far latergrowth. We rode back through the woods to Guajalote, where the Mexican cook hadmade us a feast after the manner of the country, and from herexperience of foreigners had learnt to temper the chile to oursusceptible throats. Decidedly the Mexicans are not without ideas inthe matter of cookery. We stayed talking with the hospitable DonAlejandro and his sister till it was all but dark, and then rode backto the Real, admiring the fire-flies that were darting about bythousands, and listening to our companion's stories, which turned onrobberies and murders---as stories are apt to do in wild places afterdark. But, save an escape from being robbed some twenty years back, andthe history of an Indian who was murdered just here by some of his ownpeople, for a few shillings he was taking home, our friend had not muchreason to give for the two huge horse-pistols ho carried, ready foraction. His story of the death of a German engineer in these parts isworth recording here. He was riding home one dark night, with acompanion; and, trusting to his knowledge of the country, tried a shortcut through the woods, among the old open mines near the Regla road. They had quite passed all the dangerous places, he thought, so he gavehis horse the spur, and plunged sheer down a shaft, hundreds of feetdeep. His friend pulled up in time, and got home safely. We had one more day among the mines, and then went back to Pachuca, andnext day to Mexico in the Diligence. Everywhere the same hospitalityand good-natured interest in us and our doings, often shown by peoplewith whom we had hardly the slightest acquaintance. Travelling here isvery different from what it is in a country on which the shadow ofMurray's Handbook has fallen. Almost all the interest Europe takes in Mexico, politically andcommercially, turns upon the exportation of silver. The gold, cochineal, and vanilla are of small account. It is the silver dollarsthat pay for the Manchester goods, woollens, hardware, and many otherthings--those ubiquitous boxes of sardines à l'huile, for instance. TheMexicans send to Europe some five millions sterling in silver everyyear, that is, about twelve shillings apiece for all the population. Itis just about what their government spends annually in promoting themaladministration of the country (and, looking at the matter in thatpoint of view, they don't do their work badly for the money). Theincome of the Mexican church is not quite so much, but not far off. Baron Humboldt has expressed a hope that, at some future day, theMexicans will turn their attention to producing articles of realintrinsic value, and not those which are merely a sign to represent it. He tells us, quite feelingly, how the Peace of Amiens stopped theworking of the iron-mines that had been opened when they could get noiron from abroad; for, when trade was reopened, people preferred buyingin Europe probably a better article at one-third the price. He evenhopes an enlightened government will encourage (that is, protect) moreuseful industries. This was written fifty years ago, though. If anenlightened government will give people some security for life andproperty, and make reasonable laws, and execute them, --leaving men ofbusiness to find out for themselves how it suits them to employ theircapital, it seems probable that the balance between articles of realvalue and articles of imaginary value will adjust itself, perhapsbetter than an enlightened government could do it. The Mexicangovernment has, unfortunately, followed Humboldt's advice in somerespects. Cotton goods, woollens, and hardware are thus protected. Wemay sum up the statistics of the Mexican cotton-manufacture in a roughway thus, --taking merely into question the coarse cotton cloth called_manta_, and used principally by the Indians. We may reckon roughlythat for this article alone the Mexicans have to pay a million sterlingannually more than they could get it for if there were noprotection-duty. The only advantage anybody gets by this is that acertain part of the population is employed in a manufacture unsuited tothe country, and is thus taken away from work that may be doneprofitably. The actual amount of money paid in wages to the class ofoperatives thus forced into existence is much _less_ than the amountwhich the country forfeits for the sake of making its manta at home. Thus a sum actually amounting to a third of the annual taxation of thecountry is thrown away upon this one article; and more goes the sameway, to encourage similar unprofitable manufactures. With respect to the silver-mines, it is stated, on competent authority, that the northern States of Mexico are very rich in silver; but thereis scarcely any population, and that consisting mostly of Red Indianswho will not work. When this district becomes a territory of the UnitedStates--as seems almost certain, this silver will, no doubt, be worked. We may make three periods in the history of Mexican silver-mining. Before the Conquest, the Aztecs worked the silver-ore at Tasco andother places; and were very familiar with silver, though they did notvalue it much. Under the Spaniards, the working of silver became theprominent industry of the country; and, until the Mexican Independence, the production steadily increased. The Spaniards invented amalgamationby the _patio_-process, a most, important improvement. Then came abovetwenty years of confusion, when little was done. But when the Republichad fairly got under way, and the country was in some measure open toforeigners, Europe, especially England, in hot haste to take advantageof the opportunity, sent over engineers and machinery, and great sumsof money, much of which was quite wasted, to the hopeless ruin of agreat part of the adventurers. The improvements and the machinery remained, however; and the minespassed into other hands. Of late years the companies have been doingvery well, and now export nearly as much silver as during the latteryears of the Spanish government--nearly, but not quite. The financialhistory of the Real del Monte Company is worth putting down. Theoriginal English company spent nearly one million sterling on it, without getting any dividend. They sold it to two or three Mexicans forabout twenty-seven thousand pounds, and the Mexicans spent eightythousand more on it, and then began to make profits. The annual profitis now some £200, 000. I have said that the modern Mexican Indian has but little idea ofarithmetic. This was not the case with his ancestors, who had a curiousnotation, serving for the highest numbers. The Indians of the presentday use the old Aztec numerals, and from these there is something to belearnt. Baron Humboldt, speaking of the Muysca Indians of South America, saysthat their word for eleven is _quihicha ata_, that is, "foot one;"meaning that they have counted all their fingers, and are beginningtheir toes. He proceeds to compare the Persian words, _pentcha_, hand, and _pendj_, five, as being connected with one another, and givesvarious other curious instances of finger-numeration. We may carry thetheory further. The Zulu language reckons from one up to five, and thengoes on with _tatisitupe_ ("take the thumb"), meaning _six_;_tatukomba_ ("take the pointer, " or forefinger), meaning _seven_, andso on. The Vei language counts from one up to nineteen, and for twentysays _mo bande_--"a person is finished"--that is, both fingers andtoes. I venture to add another suggestion. Eichhoff gives a Sanskritword for finger, "daiçini" (taken apparently from _pra-deçinî_, forefinger), and which corresponds curiously with "daçan, " ten; and wehave the same resemblance running through many of the Indo-Europeanlanguages, as [Greek: deka] and [Greek: daktylos], _decem_ and_digitus_; German, _Zehn_ and _Zehe_, and so on. Here the Mexican numerals will afford us a new illustration. Of themeaning of the first four of them--_çe, ome, yei, nahui_--I can give noidea, any more than I can of the meaning of the words one, two, three, four, which correspond to them; but the Mexican for _five_ is_macuilli_, "hand-depicting. " Then we go on in the dark as far as_ten_, which is _matlactli_, "hand-half, " as I think it means, (from_tlactli_, half); and this would mean, not the halving of a hand, butthe half of the whole person, which you get by counting his hands only. The syllable _ma_, which means "hand, " makes its appearance in thewords five and ten, and no where else; just as it should do. When wecome to twenty, we have _cempoalli_, "one counting;" that is, one wholeman, fingers and toes--corresponding to the Vei word for twenty, "aperson is finished. " I think we need no more examples to show that people--in almost allcountries--reckon by fives, tens, or twenties, merely because theybegan to count upon their fingers and toes. If the strong man who hadsix fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, had invented asystem of numeration, it would have gone in twelves, nearly like theduodecimals which our carpenters use; unless, indeed, he had beenstupid after the manner of very strong men, and not gone beyond sixes. We see how the Romans, though they inherited from their Easternancestors a numeration by tens up to _decem_, and then beginning again_undecim_, &c. , yet when they began to write a notation could get nofarther than five--I. , II. , III. , IV. , V. ; and then on again, VI. , VII. , up to ten, from ten to fifteen, and so on. There is a very curious vulgar error which prevails, even among peoplewho have a good practical acquaintance with arithmetic. It is that thenumber _ten_ has some special virtue which fits it for counting up to. The fact is that ten is not the best number for the purpose; you canhalve it, it is true, but that is about all you can do with it, for itsbeing divisible by five is of hardly any use for practical purposes. _Eight_ would be a much better number, for you can halve it three timesin succession; and _twelve_ is perhaps the most convenient numberpossible, as it will divide by two, three, and four. It is thisconvenient property that leads tradesmen to sell by dozens, andgrosses, rather than by tens and hundreds. If we used eights or twelvesinstead of tens for numeration, we might of course preserve all theadvantages of the Indian or Arabic numerals; in the first case, weshould discard the ciphers 8 and 9, and reckon 5, 6, 7, 10; and in thesecond case, we should want two new ciphers for ten and eleven; and 10would stand for twelve, and 11 for thirteen. Our happening to have tenfingers has really led us into a rather inconvenient numerical system. [Illustration: AZTEC HEAD, IN TERRA COTTA. (PROBABLY EITHER AHOUSEHOLD-GOD OR A VOTIVE OFFERING). ] * * * * * NOTE. The unique Knife figured at page 101 and two masks incrusted with asimilar mosaic work (of turquoise and obsidian) are in Mr. Christy'scollection; and a mask and head of similar workmanship are in thecollection at Copenhagen. These are the only known examples of thisadvanced style of Aztec art. The whole once belonged probably to one set, brought to Europe soonafter the Conquest of Mexico. The two at Copenhagen were obtained at aconvent in Rome; and, of the other three, two were for a long period ina collection at Florence, and the other was obtained at Bruges, whereit was most probably brought by the Spaniards during their rule in theLow Countries. CHAPTER V. MEXICO. GUADALUPE. [Illustration: THE ROBES WORN BY THE WOMEN OF MEXICO; AND THE SERAPEWORN BY THE MEN. ] While we were away at the Real del Monte, the news had reached Mexicothat Puebla had capitulated, and that the rebel leader had fled. Thevictory was celebrated in the capital with the most triumphal entries, harangues, bull-fights, and illuminations done to order. If you had ahouse in one of the principal streets, the police would make youilluminate it, whether you liked or not. The newspapers loudlyproclaimed the triumph of the constitutional principle, and theinauguration of a reign of law and order that was never to cease. As for the newspapers, indeed, one looked in vain in them for any freeexpression of public opinion. They were all either suppressed, orconverted into the merest mouthpieces of the government. The telegraphwas under the strictest surveillance, and no messages were allowed tobe sent which the government did not consider favourable to theirinterests; a precaution which rather defeated itself, as the peoplesoon ceased to believe any public news at all. In all these mean littleshifts, which we in England consider as the special property ofdespotic governments, the authorities of the Mexican Republic showedthemselves great proficients. We were left, therefore, to form what idea we could of the real stateof Mexican affairs, from the private information received by ourfriends. Just for once it may be worth while to give a few details, notbecause the people engaged were specially interesting, but because theaffair may serve to give an idea of the condition of the country. President Comonfort, not a bad sort of man, as it seemed, but not"strong enough for the place, " and with an empty treasury, tried tomake a stand against the clergy and the army, who stood firm againstany attempt at reform--knowing, with a certain instinct, that, if anyreal reform once began, their own unreasonable privileges would soon beattacked. So the clergy and part of the army set up an anti-president, one Haro; and he installed himself at Puebla, which is the second cityof the Republic, and there Comonfort besieged him. So far I havealready described the doings of the "reaccionarios. " The newspapers gave wonderful accounts of attacks and repulses, andreckoned the killed on both sides at 2, 500. There were 10, 000 regulartroops, and 10, 000 irregulars (very irregular troops indeed); and thesewere commanded by a complete regiment of officers, and _forty_generals. This is reckoning both sides; but as, on pretty goodauthority (Tejada's statistical table), the troops in the Republic areonly reckoned at 12, 000, no doubt the above numbers are muchexaggerated. As for the 2, 500 killed, the fact is that the siege was amere farce; and, judging by what we heard at the time in Mexico, andsoon afterwards in Puebla itself, 25 was a much more correct estimate:and some facetious people reduced it, by one more division, to two anda half. The President had managed, by desperate efforts, to borrow somemoney in Mexico, on the credit of the State, at sixty per cent. ; and itseems certain that it was this money, judiciously administered to someof Haro's generals, that brought about the flight of theanti-president, and the capitulation of Puebla. The termination of theaffair, according to the newspapers, was, that the rebel army wereincorporated with the constitutional troops; that their officers--500in number--were reduced to the ranks for a term of years; that a hotpursuit was made after the fugitive Haro; and that, as it was notoriousthat the clergy had found the money for the rebellion, it wasconsidered suitable that they should pay the expenses of the other sidetoo; and an order was made on the church-estates of the district tothat effect. Of course, it was an understood thing that the officersthus degraded would desert at the first opportunity, and thus theGovernment would be rid of them. As for Haro, it is not probable thatthey ever intended to catch him; and they were very glad when hedisguised himself in sailor's clothes, and shipped himself offsomewhere. When the Mexicans first took to civil wars, the victoriousleader used to finish the contest by having his adversary shot. At thetime of our visit, this fashion had gone out; and the victor treatedthe vanquished with great leniency, not unmindful of the time when hemight be in a like situation himself. Whether the President ever got much of the forced contribution from theclergy, I cannot say. At any rate, they have turned him out since; andfor a very poor government have substituted mere chaotic anarchy, asMr. Carlyle would call it. While the siege was going on, all thecommerce between Vera Cruz and the capital was interrupted, and, ofcourse, trade and manufacturing felt the effects severely. Nothingshews the capabilities of the country more clearly than the fact that, in spite of its distracted state and continual wars, its industrialinterests seem to be gaining ground steadily, though very slowly. Theevil of these ceaseless wars and revolutions is not that great battlesare here fought, cities destroyed, and men sacrificed by thousands. Perhaps in no country in the world are "decisive victories, ""sanguinary engagements, " "brilliant attacks, " and the like, got overwith less loss of life. Incredible as it may seem to any one who knowshow many civil wars and revolutions occur in the history of the countryfor the last four or five years, I should not wonder if the number ofpersons killed during that time in actual battle was less than thenumber of those deliberately assassinated, or killed in privatequarrels. Cheap as Mexican revolutions are in actual bloodshed, we must recollectwhat they bring with them. Thousands of deserters prowling about thecountry, robbing and murdering, and spreading everywhere the preciouslessons they have learnt in barracks. We know something in England ofthe good moral influence that garrisons and recruiting sergeants carryabout with them; and can judge a little what must be the result of thespreading of numbers of these fellows over a country where there isnothing to restrain their excesses! As for the soldiers themselves, onedoes not wonder at their deserting, for they are in great part pressedmen, earned off from their homes, and shut up in barracks till theyhave been drilled, and are considered to be tamed; and moreover theirpay, as one may judge from the general state of the military finances, is anything but regular. People who understand such matters, say thatthe Mexicans make very good soldiers, and fight well and steadily whenwell trained and well officered. They are able to march surprisingdistances, day after day, to live cheerfully on the very minimum offood, and to sleep anyhow. This we could judge for ourselves. One thingthere is, however, that they strongly object to, and that is to bemoved much beyond the range of their own climate. The men of the plainsare as susceptible as Europeans to the ill effects of the climate ofthe tierra caliente; and the men of the hot lands cannot bear the coldof the high plateaus. Travellers in the United States make great fun of the profusion ofcolonels and generals, and tell ludicrous stories on the subject. Thereis also talk of the absurd number of officers in the Spanish-Americanarmies, but we should not, by any means, confound the two things. Inthe United States it is merely a harmless exhibition of vanity, and anamusing comment on their own high-minded abnegation of mere titles. InSpanish America it indicates a very real and serious evil indeed. Don Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, in his statistical chart for 1856, quotedabove, estimates the soldiers in the Republic at 12, 000, and theofficers at 2, 000, not counting those on half-pay. One officer to everysix men; and among them sixty-nine generals. These are not mere militiaheroes, walking about in fine uniforms, but have actual commissionsfrom some one of the many governments that have come and gone, and areentitled to their pay, which they get or do not get, as may happen. Only a fraction of them know anything whatever about the art of war. They were political adventurers, friends or relatives of some one inpower, or simply speculators who bought their commissions as a sort ofillegitimate Government Annuities. The continual rebellions orpronunciamientos have increased the number of officers still further. Comonfort's notion of degrading all the officers of the rebel army wasa new and bold experiment. A very common course had been, when apronunciamiento had been made anywhere against the then existinggovernment, and a revolutionary army had been raised, for anamalgamation to take place between the two forces; intrigue and briberyand mutual disinclination to fight bringing matters to this peacefulkind of settlement. In this case, it was usual for the rebel officersto retain their self-conferred dignities. I think this body of soldierless officers is one of the mosttroublesome political elements at work in the Republic. The politicalagitators are mostly among them; and it is they, more than any otherclass, who are continually stirring up factions and makingpronunciamientos (what a pleasant thing it is that we have never had tomake an English word for "pronunciamiento"). Several times, effortshave been made to reduce the Army List to decent proportions, but afresh crop always springs up. In the "lowest depth" of mismanagement to which Mexican militaryaffairs have sunk, the newspapers still triumphantly refer to countrieswhich surpass them in this respect, and, at the time of our arrival, were citing the statistics of the Peruvian Republic, where there are ageneral and twenty officers to every sixty soldiers, and as many navalofficers as seamen. These officers are not subject to the civil administration at all, whatever they may do. They have their _fuero_, their private charter, and are only amenable to their own tribunals, just as the clergy are totheirs. To the ill effects of the presence of such armies and suchofficers in the country, we must add the continual interruptions tocommerce arising from the distracted state of the republic, and theuncertain tenure by which every one holds his property, not to say hislife; and this, in its effect on the morale of the whole country, isworse than the positive suffering they inflict. So much for soldiering, for the present. We leave the President trying, with the aid of hisCongress, to organize the government, and set things straightgenerally. This August assembly is selected from the people byuniversal suffrage, in the most approved manner, and ought to be a veryimportant and useful body, but unfortunately can do nothing but talkand issue decrees, which no one else cares about. In consequence of the alarming increase of highway-robbery, steps aretaken to diminish the evil. It is made lawful to punish such offenderson the spot, by Lynch law. This is all. You may do justice on him whencaught, but really you must catch him yourself. Sober citizens are evenregretting the days of Santa Ana (recollect, I speak now of 1856, andthey might regret him still more in 1860. ) He was a great scoundrel, itis true; but he sent down detachments of soldiery to where the robberspractised their profession, and garotted them in pairs, till the roadswere as safe as ours are in England. A President who sells states andpockets the money may have even that forgiven him in consideration ofroads kept free from robbers, and some attempt at an effectual police. There is a lesson in this for Mexican rulers. The Congress professed to be hard at work cleaning out the Augeanstable of laws, rescripts, and proclamations, and making a workingconstitution. We went to see them one day, and heard talking going on, but it all came to nothing. Of one thing we may be quite sure, that ifthis unlucky country ever does get set straight, it will not be done bya Mexican Congress sitting and cackling over it. On our return from the Real, we spent two days at the house of anEnglish friend at Tisapán, at the edge of the great Pedrigal, orlava-field, which lies south of the capital. It was across thislava-field that a part of the American army marched in '47, anddefeated a division of the Mexican forces encamped at Contrevas. On thesame day the American army attacked the Mexicans who held a stronglyfortified position at Churubusco, some four miles nearer Mexico, androuted the main army there. They beat them again at Molino del Rey, carried the hill of Chapultepec by storm, and then entered the citywithout meeting with further resistance; though the Mexicans, afterthey had formally yielded possession of the city, disgraced themselvesby assassinating stray Americans, stabbing them in the streets, andlazoing them from the tops of the low mud houses in the suburbs. An acquaintance of ours in Mexico met some American soldiers, with acorporal, in the street close to his house, and asked them in. Presently the corporal sent one of the men off into the next street toexecute some commission; but half an hour elapsed, and the man notreturning, the corporal went out to see what was the matter. He cameback presently, and remarked that some of those cursed Mexicans hadstabbed the man as he was turning the corner of the street, and lefthim lying there. "So, " said the corporal, "I may as well finish hisbrandy and water for him;" he did so accordingly, and the men went hometo their quarters. The American soldiers were, as one may imagine, a rough lot. Only thesmaller part of them were born Americans, the rest were emigrants fromEurope; to judge by what we heard of them--both in the States and inMexico--the very refuse of all the scoundrels in the Republic; but theywere well officered, and rigid discipline was maintained. Soeffectually were they kept in order, that the Mexicans confessed thatit was a smaller evil to have the enemy's forces marching through thecountry, than their own army. An elaborate account of the American invasion is given in Mayer's'Mexico. ' To those who do not care for details of military operations, there are still points of interest in the history. That ten thousandAmericans should have been able to get through the mountain-passes, andto reach the capital at all, is an astonishing thing; and after that, their successes in the valley of Mexico follow as a matter of course. They could never have crossed the mountains but for a combination ofcircumstances. The inhabitants generally displayed the most entire indifference;possibly preferring to sell their provisions to the Americans, insteadof being robbed of them by their own countrymen. Add to this, that theMexican officers showed themselves grossly ignorant of the art of war;and that the soldiers, though they do not seem to have been deficientin courage, were badly drilled and insubordinate. One would not havewondered at the army being in such a condition---in a country that hadlong been in a state of profound peace; but in Mexico a standing armyhad been maintained for years, at a great expense, and continual civilwars ought to have given people some ideas about soldiering. We mayjudge, from the events of this war, that Mexico might be kept in goodorder by a small number of American troops. The mere holding of thecountry is not the greatest difficulty in the question of Americanannexation. One thing that struck our friends at Tisapán, among their experiencesof the war, was the number of dead bodies of women and children thatwere found on the battle-fields. A crowd of women follow close in therear of a Mexican army; almost every soldier having some woman whobelongs to him, and who carries a heavy load of Indian corn and babies, and cooks tortillas for her lord and master. The number of these poorcreatures who perished in the war was very great. We spent much of our time at Tisapán in collecting plants, andexploring the lava-field, and the cañada, or ravine, that leads up intothe mountains that skirt the valley of Mexico. I recollect oneinteresting spot we came to in riding through the pine-forest on thenorthern slope of the mountains, where the course of a torrent, nowdry, ran along a mere narrow trench in the hard porphyritic rock, someten or fifteen feet wide, until it had suddenly entered a bed ofgravel, where it had hollowed out a vast ravine, four hundred feet wideand two hundred deep, the inlet of the water being, in proportion, assmall as the pipe that serves to fill a cistern. Such places are common enough in the south of Europe, but seldom on sogrand a scale as one finds them in this country, where the floods comedown from the hills with astounding suddenness and violence. Mr. L. Hadexperience of this one day, when he had got inside his waterwheel, toinspect its condition, the water being securely shut off, as hethought. However, an aversada--one of these sudden freshets--came down, quite without notice; and enough water got into the channel to set thewheel going, so as to afford its proprietor a very curious and excitingride, after the manner of a squirrel in a revolving cage, until thepeople succeeded in drawing off the water. It was after our return from Tisapán that we paid a visit to Our Ladyof Guadalupe, rather an important personage in the history of Mexicanchurch-matters. The way lies past Santo Domingo, the church of the HolyOffice, and down a long street where live the purveyors of all thingsfor the muleteers. Here one may buy mats, ropes, pack-saddles--whichthe arrieros delight to have ornamented with fanciful designs andinscriptions, lazos, and many other things of the same kind. Passingout through the city-gate, we ride along a straight causeway, whichextends to Guadalupe. A dull road enough in itself, but theinterminable strings of mules and donkeys, bringing in pig-skins fullof pulque, are worth seeing for once; and the Indians, trudging out andin with their various commodities, are highly picturesque. On a building at the side of the causeway we notice "Estación deMéjico" (Mexico Station) painted in large letters. As far as we couldobserve, this very suggestive sign-board is the whole plant of theRailway Company at this end of the line. A range of hills ends abruptlyin the plain, at a place which the Indians called Tepeyacac, "end ofthe hill" (literally "at the hill's nose"). Our causeway leads to thisspot; and there, at the foot and up the slope of the hill, are builtthe great cathedral and other churches and chapels, altogether a vastand imposing collection of buildings; and round these a considerabletown has grown up, for this is the great place of pilgrimage in thecountry. The Spaniards had brought a miraculous picture with them, NuestraSeñora de Remedios, which is still in the country, and many pilgrimsvisit it; but Our Lady of Guadalupe is a native Mexican, and decidedlyholds the first rank in the veneration of the people. In the great church there is a picture mounted in a gold frame of greatvalue. Its distance from the altar-rails, and the pane of glass whichcovers it, prevent one's seeing it very well. This was the moreunfortunate, as, according to my history, the picture is in itselfevidently of miraculous origin, for the best artists are agreed that nohuman hand could imitate the drawing or the colour! It appears that theAztecs, long before the arrival of the Spaniards, had been in the habitof worshipping--in this very place--a goddess, who was known as_Teotenantzin_, "mother-god, " or _Tonantzin_, "our mother. " Ten yearsafter the Conquest, a certain converted Indian, Juan Diego (John James)by name, was passing that way, and to him appeared the Virgin Mary. Shetold him to go to the bishop, and tell him to build her a temple on theplace where she stood, giving him a lapful of flowers as a token. Whenthe flowers were poured out of the garment, in presence of the bishop, the miraculous picture appeared underneath, painted on the apronitself. The bishop accepted the miracle with great unction; the templewas built, and the miraculous image duly installed in it. Its name of"Santa Maria de Guadalupe, " was not, as one might imagine, taken fromthe Madonna of that name in Spain (of course not!), but wascommunicated by Our Lady herself to another converted Indian. She toldhim that her title was to be _Santa Maria de Tequatlanopeuh_, "SaintMary of the rocky hill, " of which hard word the Spaniards made"Guadalupe, "--just as they had turned Quauhnahuac into Cuernavaca, andQuauhaxallan into Guadalajara, substituting the nearest word of Spanishform for the unpronounceable Mexican names. This at least is theingenious explanation given by my author, the Bachelor Tanco, Professorof the Aztec language, and of Astrology, in the University of Mexico, in the year 1666. The bishop who authenticated the miracle was no lessa person than Fray Juan de Zumarraga, whose name is well known inMexican history, for it was he who collected together all the Aztecpicture-writings that he could find, "quite a mountain of them, " saythe chroniclers, and made a solemn bonfire of them in the great squareof Tlatelolco. The miracles worked by the Virgin of Guadalupe, and bycopies of it, are innumerable; and the faith which the lower orders ofMexicans and the Indians have in it is boundless. On the 12th of December, the Anniversary of the Apparition is kept, andan amazing concourse of the faithful repair to the sanctuary. Heller, aGerman traveller who was in Mexico in 1846, saw an Indian taken to thechurch; he had broken his leg, which had not even been set, and hesimply expected Our Lady to cure him without any human intervention atall. Unluckily, the author had no opportunity of seeing what became ofhim. The great miracle of all was the deliverance of Mexico from thegreat inundation of 1626, and the fact is established thus. The citywas under water, the inhabitants in despair. The picture was brought tothe Cathedral in a canoe, through the streets of Mexico; and betweenone and two years afterwards the inundation subsided. _Ergo_, it wasthe picture that saved the city! For centuries a fierce rivalry existed between the Spanish Virgin, called "de Remedios, " and Our Lady of Guadalupe; the Spaniardssupporting the first, and the native Mexicans the second. A note ofHumboldt's illustrates this feeling perfectly. He relates that wheneverthe country was suffering from drought, the Virjen do Remedios wascarried into Mexico in procession, to bring rain, till it came to besaid, quite as a proverb, _Hasta el agua nos debe venir de laGachupina_--"We must get even our water from that Spanish creature. " Ifit happened that the Spanish Madonna produced no effect after a longtrial, the native Madonna was allowed to be brought solemnly in by theIndians, and never failed in bringing the wished-for rain, which alwayscame sooner or later. It is remarkable that the Spanish party, who werethen all-powerful, should have allowed their own Madonna to be placedat such a disadvantage, in not having the last innings. I need hardlysay that the shrine of Guadalupe is monstrously rich. The Chapter hasbeen known to lend such a thing as a million or two of dollars at atime, though most of their property is invested on landed security. They are allowed to have lotteries, and make something handsome out ofthem; and they even sell medals and prints of their patroness, whichhave great powers. You may have plenary indulgence in the hour of deathfor sixpence or less. We drank of the water of the chalybeate spring, bought sacred lottery-tickets, which turned out blanks, and tickets forindulgences, which, I greatly fear, will not prove more valuable; andso rode home along the dusty causeway to breakfast. As means of learning what sort of books the poorer classes in Mexicopreferred, we overhauled with great diligence the book-stalls, of whichthere are a few, especially under the arcades (Portales) near the greatsquare. The Mexican public have not much cheap literature to read; andthe scanty list of such popular works is half filled with Our Lady ofGuadalupe, and other miracle-books of the same kind. Father Ripalda'sCatechism has a large circulation, and is apparently the one in generaluse in the country. Zavala speaks of this catechism as containing themaxims of blind obedience to king and pope; but my more modern editionhas scarcely anything to say about the Pope, and nothing at all aboutthe government. Of late years, indeed, the Pope has not counted formuch, politically, in Mexico; and on one occasion his Holiness found, when he tried to interfere about church-benefices, that his authoritywas rather nominal than real. On the whole, nothing in the Catechismstruck me so much as the multiplication-table, which, to my unspeakableastonishment, turned up in the middle of the book; a table of fractionsfollowed; and then it began again with the Holy Trinity. To continue our catalogue; there are the almanacks, which contain rulesfor foretelling the weather by the moon's quarters, but none of theother fooleries which we find in those that circulate in England amongthe less educated classes. It is curious to notice how the taste forputting sonnets and other dreary poems at the beginnings and ends ofbooks has survived in these Spanish countries. What used to be known inEngland as "a copy of verses" is still appreciated here, and almanacks, newspapers, religious books, even programmes of plays and bull-fights, are full of such dismal compositions. We ought to be thankful that thefashion has long since gone out with us (except in the religions tract, where it still survives). It is not merely apropos of sonnets, but ofthousands of other things, that in these countries one is brought, in amanner, face to face with England as it used to be; and very triflingmatters become interesting when viewed in this light. The last item inthe list comprises translations, principally of French novels, thosebeing preferred in which the agony is "piled up" to the highest point. German literature is represented by the "Sorrows of Werter. " Of course, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is widely circulated here, as it is everywhere incountries not given to the "particular vanity" attacked in it. One need hardly say that both literature and education are at a verylow ebb in Mexico. Referring to Tejada again, I find that he reckonsthat in the capital, out of a population of 185, 000, there are 12, 000scholars at primary schools; but of course, as in other countries, alarge proportion of these children attend so irregularly that they canhardly learn anything. For the country generally, he estimates onechild receiving instruction out of thirty-seven inhabitants, a verysignificant piece of statistics. Efforts are being made, especially inthe capital, to raise the population out of this state. Mr. Christytook much trouble in investigating the subject, with the assistance ofour friend Don José Miguel Cervantes, the head of the Ayuntamiento, orMunicipal Council. This gentleman, with a few others, has been doingmuch up-hill work of this kind for years past, establishing schools, and trying to make head against the opposition of the priests and theindifference of the people, as yet with but small success. It seems hard to be always attacking the Roman Catholic clergy, but ofone thing we cannot remain in doubt, --that their influence has had moreto do than anything else with the doleful ignorance which reignssupreme in Mexico. For centuries they had the education of the countryin their hands, and even at this day they retain the greater share ofit. The training which the priests themselves receive will thereforegive one some idea of what they teach their scholars. Unluckily, theircourse of instruction was stereotyped ages ago, when learned mendevoted themselves to writing huge books on divinity, casuistry, logic, and metaphysics; concealing their ignorance of facts under anaffectation of wisdom and clouds of long words; demonstrating how manymillions of angels could dance on a needle's point; writing treatises"_de omni re scibili_, " and on a good many things unknowable also; andteaching their admiring scholars the art of building up sham argumentson any subject, whether they know anything about it or not. This is avery vicious system of training for a man's mind, the more especiallywhen it is supposed to set him up with a stock of superior knowledge;and this is what the Roman Catholic clergy have been learning, generation after generation, in Mexico and elsewhere. Of course, thereare plenty of exceptions, particularly among the higher clergy; but, sofar as I have been able to ascertain, education in clerical schools hasgenerally been of this kind. It is instinctive to talk a little, as oneoccasionally finds an opportunity of doing, to some youth just out ofthese colleges. I recollect speaking to a young man who had just leftthe Seminario of Mexico, where he had been through a long course oftheology and philosophy. He was astonished to hear that bull-fightingand colearing were not universally practised in Europe; and, when hisfather began to question me about the Crimean war, the younggentleman's remarks showed that he had not the faintest idea whereEngland and France were, nor how far they were from one another. I happened, not long ago, to visit a celebrated monastic college inSouth Italy, where they educated, not ordinary mortals, but only youngmen of noble birth; and here I took particular care in inspecting thelibrary, judging that, though the scholars need not learn all that wasthere, yet that no department of knowledge would be taught there thatwas not represented on the library-shelves. What I saw fully confirmedall that I had previously seen and heard about the monastic learning ofthe present day. There were to be seen many fine manuscripts, andblack-letter books, and curious old editions of great value, good storeof classics (mostly Latin, however), works of the Fathers by thehundred-weight, and quartos and folios of canon-law, theology, metaphysics, and such like, by the ton. But it seemed that, in theestimation of the librarians, the world had stood still since the timeof Duns Scotus; for, of what we call positive knowledge, except alittle arithmetic and geometry, and a few very poor histories, I sawnothing. It is easy to see how one result of the clerical monopoly ofeducation has therefore come about--that the intellectual standard isvery low in Mexico. The Holy Office, too, has had its word to say inthe matter. This institution had not much work to do in burningIndians, who were anything but sceptical in their turn of mind, and, indeed, were too much like Theodore Hook, and would believe "forty, ifyou pleased. " They even went further, and were apt to believe not onlywhat the missionaries taught them, but to cherish the memory of theirold gods into the bargain. It was three centuries after the Conquest, that Mr. Bullock got the goddess Teoyaomiqui dug up in Mexico; and theold Indian remarked to him that it was true the Spaniards had giventhem three very good new gods, but it was rather hard to take away alltheir old ones. At any rate, the functions of the Inquisition weremostly confined to working the _Index Expurgatorius_, and suppressingknowledge generally, which they did with great industry until not longago. Here, then, are two causes of Mexican ignorance, and a third may bethis; that Mexico was a colony to which the Spaniards generally came tomake their fortunes, with a view of returning to their own land; andthis state of things was unfavourable to the country as regards theprogress of knowledge, as well as in other things. CHAPTER VI. TEZCUCO. Across the lake of Tezcuco is Tezcuco itself, a great city and thecapital of a kingdom at the time of the Conquest, and famous for itspalaces and its learned men. Now it is an insignificant Spanish town, built, indeed, to a great extent, of the stones of the old buildings. Mr. Bowring, who has evaporating-works at the edge of the lake, andlives in the "Casa Grande"--the Great House, just outside Tezcuco, hasinvited us to pay him a visit; so we get up early one April morning, and drive down to the street of the Solitude of Holy Cross (Calle de laSoledad de Santa Cruz). There we find Mr. Millard, a Frenchman, who isan _employé_ of Mr. Bowling's, and is going back to Tezcuco with us;and we walk down to the canal with him, half a dozen Indian porterswith baskets following us, and trotting along in the queer shufflingway that is habitual to them. At the landing-place we find a number ofcanoes, and a crowd of Indians, men and women, in scanty cottongarments which show the dirt in an unpleasant manner. A canoe is goingto Tezcuco, a sort of regular packet-boat, in fact; and of this canoeMr. Millard has retained for us three the stern half, over which isstretched an awning of aloe-fibre cloth. The canoe itself is merely alarge shallow box, made of rough planks, with sloping prow and stern, more like a bread-tray in shape than anything else I can think of. There is no attempt at making the bows taper, and indeed the Indiansstoutly resist this or any other innovation. In the fore part of thecanoe there is already a heap of other passengers, lying like bait in abox, and when we arrive the voyage begins. The crew are ten in number; the captain, eight men, and an old woman incharge of the tortillas and the pulque-jar. All these are brown people;in fact, the navigation of the lakes is entirely in the hands of theIndians, and "reasonable people" have nothing to do with it. Reasonablepeople--"gente de razón"--being, as I have said before, those who haveany white blood in them; and republican institutions have not in theleast effaced the distinction. So it comes to pass that the canoe-traffic is carried on in much thesame way as it was in Montezuma's time. There is one curiousdifference, however. These canoes are all poled about the lakes andcanals; and I do not think we saw an Indian oar or paddle in the wholevalley of Mexico. In the ancient picture-writings, however, the Indiansare paddling their canoes with a kind of oar, shaped at the end likeone of our fire-shovels. But, as we have seen, the distribution of landand water has altered since those days; and the lakes, far greater inextent, were of course several feet deeper all over the present beds;and even at a short distance from the city poling would have beenimpossible. I suspect that the Aztecs originally used both poles andpaddles, and that the latter went out of use when the water becameshallow enough for the pole to serve all purposes. Otherwise, we mustsuppose that the Mexicans, since the Spanish Conquest, introduced a newinvention; which is not easy to believe. We had first to get out of the canal, and fairly out into the lake. This was the more desirable, as the canal is one of the drains of thecity, an office that it fills badly enough, seeing that there isscarcely any fall of water from the lower quarters of the city to thelake. I never saw water-snakes in numbers to compare with those in thecanal, and by the side of it. They were swimming in the water, wriggling in and out; and on the banks they were writhing in heaps, like our passengers forward. Two of our crew tow us along, and we aresoon clear of the canal, and of the salt-swamp that extends on bothsides of it, where the bottom of the lake was in old times. Once fairlyout, we look round us. We see Mexico from a new point of view, andbegin to understand why the Spaniards called it the Venice of the NewWorld. Even now, though the lake is so much smaller than it was then, the city, with its domes and battlemented roofs, seems to rise from thewater itself, for the intervening flat is soon foreshortened intonothing. At the present moment it is evident that the level of the lakeis much higher than usual. A little way off, on our right, is the Peñónde los Baños--"the rock of baths"--a porphyritic hill forced up byvolcanic agency, where there are hot springs. It is generally possibleto reach this hill by land, but the water is now so high that the rockhas become an island as it used to be. When the first two brigantines were launched on the Lake of Tezcuco bythe Spaniards, Cortes took Montezuma with him to sail upon the lake, soon leaving the Aztec canoes far behind. They went to a Peñón or rockyhill where Montezuma preserved game for his own hunting, and not eventhe highest nobility were allowed to hunt there on pain of death. TheSpaniards had a regular battue there; killing deer, hares, and rabbitstill they were tired. This Peñón may have been the Peñón de los Bañoswhich we are just passing, but was more probably a similar hill alittle further off, of larger extent, now fortified and known as ElPeñón, the Hill. Both were in those days complete islands at somedistance from the shore. Now that we are out of the canal, our Indians begin to pole us along, thrusting their long poles to the bottom of the shallow lake, andwalking on two narrow planks which extend along the sides of the canoefrom the prow to the middle point. Four walk on each plank, each manthrowing up his pole as he gets to the end, and running back up themiddle to begin again at the prow. The dexterity with which they swingthe poles about, and keep them out of each other's way, is wonderful;and, as seen from our end of the canoe, looks like a kind ofexaggerated quarter-staff playing, only nobody is ever hit. The great peculiarity of the lake of Tezcuco is that it is a salt lake, containing much salt and carbonate of soda. The water is quite brackishand undrinkable. How it has come to be so is plain enough. The streamsfrom the surrounding mountains bring down salt and soda in solution, derived from the decomposed porphyry; and as the water of the lake isnot drained off into the sea, but evaporates, the solid constituentsare left to accumulate in the lake. In England, I think, we have no example of this; but the Dead Sea, theCaspian, the Great Salt Lake of Utah, and even the Mediterranean, havevarious salts accumulated in solution in the same way. It seems to me, that, by taking into account the proportion of soluble materialcontained in the water that flows down from the mountains, the probablequantity of water that flows down in the year, and the proportion ofsalt in the lake itself, some vague guess might be made as to the timethis state of things has been lasting. I have no data, unfortunately, even for such a rough calculation as this, or I should like to try it. In spite of the splendid climate, a great portion of the Valley ofMexico is anything but fertile; for the soil is impregnated with saltand soda, which in many places are so abundant as to form, when thewater evaporates, a white efflorescence on the ground, which is called_tequesquite_, and regularly collected by the Indians. Some of it isstopped on its way down from the higher ground, by the evaporation ofthe water that was carrying it; and some is left by the lake itself, inits frequent floodings of the ground in its neighbourhood. So small isthe difference of level between the lake and the plain that surroundsit, that the slightest rise in the height of the water makes an immensedifference in the size of the lake; and even a strong wind will drivethe water over great tracts of ground, from which it retires when thegale ceases. It must have been this, or something similar, that setCortes upon writing home to Spain that the lakes were like inland seas, and even had tides like the ocean. Of course, this impregnation withsalts is ruinous to the soil, which will produce nothing in such placesbut tufts of coarse grass; and the shores of the lake are the mostdismal districts one can imagine. All the lakes, however, are not sosalt as Tezcuco; Chalco, for instance, is a fresh-water lake, and therethe fertility of the shores is very great, as I have already hadoccasion to notice. As soon as the novelty of this kind of travelling had worn off, webegan to find it dull, and retired under our awning to breakfast andbitter beer; which latter luxury, thanks to a suitable climate and anEnglish brewer, is very well understood in Mexico, and is even acceptedas a great institution by the Mexicans themselves. We were just getting into a drowsy state, when an unusual bustle amongthe crew brought us out of our den, and we found that three hours ofassiduous poling had taken us half-way across the lake, just sixmiles--a good test of the value of the Aztec system of navigation. Herewas a wooden cross set up in the water; and here, from time out ofmind, the boatmen have been used to sing a little hymn to the Madonna, by whose favour we had got so far, and hoped to get safe to the end ofour voyage. Very well they sang it too, and the scene was as strikingas it was unexpected to us. It seemed to us, however, to be making agreat matter of crossing a piece of water only a few feet deep; but Mr. Millard assured us, that when a sudden gale came on, it was aparticularly unpleasant place to be afloat in a Mexican canoe, which, being flat-bottomed, has no hold at all on the water, and from itsshape is quite unmanageable in a wind. He himself was once caught inthis way, and kept out all night, with a "heavy sea" on the lake, theboat drifting helplessly, and threatening to overturn every moment, andthat in places where the water was quite deep enough to drown them all. The Indians lost their heads entirely, and throwing down their polesfell on their knees, and joined in the chorus with the women andchildren and the rest of the helpless brown people, beating theirbreasts, and presenting medals and prints of our Lady of Guadalupe toeach wave as it dashed into them. The wind dropped, however, and Mr. Millard got safe to Tezcuco next morning; but, instead of receivingsympathy for his misfortunes when he got there, found that the idea ofa tempest on the lake was reckoned a mere joke, and that thedrawing-room of the Casa Grande had been decorated with a fancyportrait of himself, hanging to the half-way cross, with his legs inthe water, and underneath, a poetical description of his sufferings tothe tune of "_Malbrouke s'en va-t-en guerre, ne sais quand reviendra_. " More poling across the lake, and then another little canal, alsoconstructed since the diminishing of the water of the lake (which oncecame close to the city), and along which our Indians towed us. Thencame a short ride, which brought us to the Casa Grande, where Mrs. Bowring received us with overflowing hospitality. We went off presentlyinto the town, to see the glassworks. In a country where all thingsimported have to be carried in rough waggons, or on mules' backs, andover bad roads, it would be hard if it did not pay to make glass; and, accordingly, we found the works in full operation. The soda is producedat Mr. Bowling's works close by, the fuel is charcoal from themountains, and for sand they have a substitute, which I never heard ofor saw anywhere else. It seems that a short distance from Tezcuco thereis a deposit of hydrated silica, which is brought down in great blocksby the Indians; and this, when calcined, answers the purpose perfectly, as there is scarcely any iron in it. In its natural state it resemblesbeeswax in colour. It is worth while to describe the Casa Grande, which is strikinglydifferent from our European notions of the "great house" of thevillage. As we enter by the gate, we find ourselves in a patio--an openquadrangle surrounded by a covered walk--a cloister in fact, into whichopen the rooms inhabited by the family. The second quadrangle, whichopens into the first, is devoted to stables, kitchen, &c. The outerwall which surrounds the whole is very thick, and the entire buildingis built of mud bricks baked in the sun, and has no upper storey atall. It is a Pompeian house on a large scale, and suits the climateperfectly. The Aztec palaces we read so much of were built in just thesame way. The roofs slope inwards from the sides of the quadrangle, anddrain into the open space in the middle. One afternoon, a tremendoustropical rain-storm showed us how necessary it was to have the coveredwalk round the quadrangle raised considerably above this open square inthe middle, which a few minutes of such rain converted into a pond. As for ourselves, we spent many very pleasant days at the Casa Grande, and thoroughly approved of the arrangement of the house, except thatthe four corners of the patio were provokingly alike, and the doors ofthe rooms also, so that we were as much bothered as the captain of theforty thieves to find our own doors, or any door except Mr. Millard's, whose name was indicated--with more regard to pronunciation thanspelling--with a 1 and nine 0's chalked on it. In spite of a late evening spent in very pleasant society, we were upearly next morning, ready for an excursion to the Pyramids ofTeotihuacán, some sixteen miles off, or so, under the guidance of oneof Mr. Bowring's men. The road lies through the plain, between greatplantations of magueys, for this is the most renowned district in theRepublic for the size of its aloes, and the quality of the pulque thatis made from them. We stopped sometimes to examine a particularly largespecimen, which might measure 30 feet round, and to see the juice, which had collected in the night, drawn out of the great hollow thathad been cut to receive it, in the heart of the plant. The Indians havea great fancy for making crosses, and the aloe lends itselfparticularly to this kind of decoration. They have only to cut off sixor eight inches of one leaf, and impale the piece on the sharp point ofanother, and the cross is made. Every good-sized aloe has two or threeof these primitive religious emblems upon it. Several little torrent-beds crossed the road, and over them were thrownold-fashioned Spanish stone bridges, as steep as the Rialto, or thebridge on the willow-patterned plates. Before going to see the pyramids, we visited the caves in the hill-sidenot far from them, whence the stone was brought to build them. It is_tetzontli_, the porous amygdaloid which abounds among the porphyritichills, a beautiful building-stone, easily worked, and durable. Therewas a large space that seemed to have been quarried out bodily, andinto this opened numerous caves. We left our horses at the entrance, and spent an hour or two in hunting the place over. The ground wascovered with pieces of obsidian knives and arrow-heads, and fragmentsof what seemed to have been larger tools or weapons; and we foundnumbers of hammer-heads, large and small, mostly made of greenstone, some whole, but most broken. We find two sorts of stone hammers in Europe. Solid hammers belong tothe earliest period. They are made of longish rolled pebbles; some areshaped a little artificially, and are grooved round to hold the handle, which was a flexible twig bent double and with the two ends tiedtogether, so as to keep the stone head in its place. The hammers of alater period of the "stone age" are shaped more like the iron ones oursmiths use at the present day, and they have a hole bored in the middlefor the handle. In Brittany, where Celtic remains are found in suchabundance, it is not uncommon to see stone hammers of the latter kindhanging up in the cottages of the peasants, who use them to drive innails with. They have an odd way of providing them with handles, bysticking them tight upon branches of young trees, and when the branchhas grown larger, and has thus rivetted itself tightly on both sides ofthe stone head, they cut it off, and carry home the hammer ready foruse. Though the Mexicans carried the arts of knife and arrow-making andsculpturing hard stone to such perfection, I do not think they everdiscovered the art of making a hole in a stone hammer. The handles ofthe axes shown in the picture-writings are clumsy sticks swelling intoa large knob at one end, and the axe-blade is fixed into a hole in thisknob. Some of the Mexican hammers seem to have had their handles fixedin this way; while others were made with a groove, in the same manneras the earlier kind of European stone hammers just described. When we consider the beauty of the Mexican stonecutter's work, it seemswonderful that they should have been able to do it without iron tools. It is quite clear that, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, they usedbronze hatchets, containing that very small proportion of tin whichgives the alloy nearly the hardness of steel. We saw many of thesehatchets in museums, and Mr. Christy bought some good specimens in acollection of antiquities which had belonged to an old Mexican, who gotthem principally from the suburb of Tlatelolco, in the neighbourhood ofthe ancient market-place of the city. Such axes were certainly commonamong the ancient Mexicans. One of the items of the hieroglyphictribute-roll in the Mendoza Codex is eighty bronze hatchets. A story told by Bernal Diaz is to the point. He says that he and hiscompanions, noticing that the Indians of the coast generally carriedbright metal axes, the material of which looked like gold of a lowquality, got as many as six hundred such axes from them in the courseof three days' bartering, giving them coloured glass-beads in exchange. Both sides were highly satisfied with their bargain; but it all came tonothing, as the chronicler relates with considerable disgust, for thegold turned out to be copper, and the beads were found to be trash whenthe Indians began to understand them better. Such hard copper axes asthese have been found at Mitla, in the State of Oajaca, where theruined temples seem to form a connecting link between the monuments ofTeotihuacán and Xochicalco and the ruined cities of Yucatan andChiapas. We want one more link in the chain to show the use of the same kind oftools from Mexico down to Yucatan, and this link we can supply. In LordKingsborough's great work on Mexican Antiquities there is onepicture-writing, the Dresden Codex, which is not of Aztec origin atall. Its hieroglyphics are those of Palenque and Uxmal; and in thismanuscript we have drawings of hatchets like those of Mexico, and fixedin the same kind of handles, but of much neater workmanship. But here we come upon a difficulty. It is supposed that the pyramids ofTeotihuacán, as well as most of the great architectural works of thecountry, were the work of the Toltec race, who quitted this part of thecountry several centuries before the Spanish Conquest. It seemsincredible that bronze should have been in use in the country for solong a time, and not have superseded so bad a material as stone forknives and weapons. We have good evidence to show that in Europe theintroduction of bronze was almost simultaneous with the complete disuseof stone for such purposes. It is true that Herodotus describes theembalmers, in his time, as cutting open the bodies with "an Ethiopicstone" though they were familiar with the use of metal. Indeed theflint knives which he probably meant may be seen in museums. But thispeculiar usage was most likely kept up for some mystical reason, anddoes not affect the general question. Almost as soon as the Spaniardsbrought iron to Mexico, it superseded the old material. The "bronzeage" ceased within a year or two, and that of iron began. The Mexicans called copper or bronze "tepuztli, " a word of ratheruncertain etymology. Judging from the analogous words in languagesallied to the Aztec, it seems not unlikely that it meant originally_hatchet_ or _breaker_, just as "itztli, " or obsidian, appears to havemeant originally _knife_. [12] When the Mexicans saw iron in the hands of the Spaniards, they calledit also "tepuztli, " which thus became a general word for metal; andthen they had to distinguish iron from copper, as they do at thepresent day, by calling them "_tliltic_ tepuztli, " and "_chichiltic_tepuztli;" that is, "black metal, " and "red metal. " When the subject of the use of bronze in stone-cutting is discussed, asit so often is with special reference to Egypt, one may doubt whetherpeople have not underrated its capabilities, when the proportion of tinis accurately adjusted to give the maximum hardness; and especiallywhen a minute portion of iron enters into its composition. Sir GardnerWilkinson relates that he tried the edge of one of the Egyptian mason'schisels upon the very stone it had evidently been once used to cut, andfound that its edge was turned directly; and therefore he wonders thatsuch a tool could have been used for the purpose, of course supposingthat the tool as he found it was just as the mason left it. This, however, is not quite certain. If we bury a brass tool in a damp placefor a few weeks, it will be found to have undergone a curious molecularchange, and to have become quite soft and weak, or, as the workmen callit, dead. We ought to be quite sure whether lying for centimes underground may not have made some similar change in bronze. I have seen many prickly pears in different places, but never suchspecimens as those that were growing among the stones in this oldquarry. They had gnarled and knotted trunks of hard wood, and were asbig as pollard-oaks; their age must have been immense; but, unfortunately, one could not measure it, or it would have been a goodcriterion of the age of the quarry, which had not only been excavatedbut abandoned before their time. In one of the caves was a humanskeleton, blanched white and clean, and near it some one has stuck across, made of two bits of stick, in the crevices of a heap of stones. Returning to the entrance of the quarry, well loaded with stone hammersand knives, we sat down to breakfast, in a cave, where our man hadestablished himself with the horses. An attempt on my part to cutGerman sausage with an obsidian knife proved a decided failure. We had already been struck by the appearance of the two pyramids ofTeotihuacán, when we passed by Otumba on our way to Mexico. The hillswhich skirt the plain are so near them as to diminish their apparentsize; but even at a distance they are conspicuous objects. Now, when wecame close to them, and began by climbing to their summits, and walkinground their terraces, to measure ourselves against them, we begangradually to realize their vast bulk; and this feeling continually grewupon us. Modern architecture strives to unite the greatest possibleeffect with the least cost; and the modern churches of southern Europeand Spanish America, with their fine tall facades fronting the street, and insignificant little buildings behind, show this idea in itsfullest development. Pyramids are built with no such object, and makebut little show in proportion to their vast mass of material; but thenone gets from them a sense of solid magnitude that no other buildinggives, however vast its proportions may be. Neither of us had ever seenthe Egyptian pyramids. Even in Mexico these of Teotihuacán are not thelargest; for, though the pyramid of Cholula is no higher, it covers farmore ground. Were these monuments in Egypt, they would only rank, fromtheir size, in the second class. As has often been remarked, such buildings as these can only be raisedunder peculiar social conditions. The ruler must be a despoticsovereign, and the mass of the people slaves, whose subsistence andwhose lives are sacrificed without scruple to execute the fancies ofthe monarch, who is not so much the governor as the unrestricted ownerof the country and the people. The population must be very dense, or itwould not bear the loss of so large a proportion of the working class;and vegetable food must be exceedingly abundant in the country, to feedthem while engaged in this unprofitable labour. We know how great was the influence of the priestly classes in Egypt, though the pyramids there, being rather tombs than temples, do notprove it. In Mexico, however, the pyramids themselves were the temples, serving only incidentally as tombs; and their size proves that--asrespects priestly influence--the resemblance between the two people isfully carried out. Like the Egyptian pyramids, these fronted the four cardinal points. Their shape was not accurately pyramidal, for the line from base tosummit was broken by three terraces, or perhaps four, runningcompletely round them; and at the top was a flat square space, wherestood the idols and the sacrificial altars. This construction closelyresembled that of some of the smaller Egyptian pyramids. Flights ofstone steps led straight up from terrace to terrace, and the processionof priests and victims made the circuit of each before they ascended tothe one above. The larger of the two teocallis is dedicated to the Sun, has a base ofabout 640 feet, and is about 170 feet high. The other, dedicated to theMoon, is rather smaller. These monuments were called _teocallis_, not because they werepyramids, but because they were temples; "Teocalli" means "god'shouse"--(_teotl_, god, _calli_, house), a name which the travellerhears explained for the first time with some wonder; and Humboldtcannot help adverting to its curious correspondence with [Greek: theoukalia], _dei cella_. Another odd coincidence is found in the Aztec namefor their priests, _papahua_, the root of which _papa_, (the _hua_, ismerely a termination). In the Old World the word _Papa_, Pope, orPriest, was connected with the idea of father or grandfather, but theAztec word has no such origin. When the Aztecs abandoned their temples, and began to build Christianchurches, they called them also "teocallis, " and perhaps do so to thisday. The heavy tropical rains have to a great extent broken the sharpness ofthe outline of these structures, and brought them more nearly to theshape of real pyramids than they were originally; but, as we climbed uptheir sides, we could trace the terraces without any difficulty, andeven flights of steps. The pyramids consist of an outer casing of hewn stone, faced andcovered with smooth stucco, which has resisted the effects of time andbad usage in a wonderful manner. Inside this casing were adobes, stones, clay, and mortar, as one may see in places where the exteriorhas been damaged, and by creeping into the small passage which leadsinto the Temple of the Moon. Both pyramids are nearly covered with acoating of debris, full of bits of obsidian arrows and knives, andbroken pottery. On the teocalli of the moon we found a number of recentsea-shells, which mystified us extremely; and the only explanation wecould give of their presence there was that they might have beenbrought up as offerings. A passage in Humboldt, which I met with longafter, seems to clear up the mystery. Speaking of the great teocalli ofthe city of Mexico, he says, quoting an old description, that the Moonhad a little temple in the great courtyard, which was built of shells. Those that we found may be the remains of a similar structure on thetop of the pyramid. Prickly pears, aloes, and mesquite bushes have overgrown the pyramidsin all directions, as though they had been mere natural hills. InSicily one may see the lava fields of Etna planted with prickly pears:in the ordinary course of things, it requires several centuries beforeeven the surface of this hard lava will disintegrate into soil; but theroots of the cactus soon crack it, and a few years suffice to break itup to a sufficient depth to allow of vineyards being planted upon it. Here the same plant has in the same way affected the porous amygdaloidwith which the pyramids are faced, and has cut up the surface sadly;but the vegetation which covers them will at any rate defend them fromthe rains, and now centuries will make but little change in theappearance of these remarkable buildings. Near Nice there is a hill which gives a wonderfully correct idea of theappearance of the terraced teocallis of Mexico, as they must havelooked before time effaced the sharpness of their lines. Where thevalley of the Paglione and that of St. Andre meet, the hill betweenthem terminates in a half pyramid, the angle of which lies toward thesouth; and the inhabitants--as their custom is in southern Europe, haveturned the two slopes to account, by building them up into terraces, toprevent the soil they have laboriously carried up from being swept downby the first heavy rain. Seen from the proper point of view theresemblance is complete. From the south side of the Temple of the Moon runs an avenue ofburial-mounds, the Micaotli, "the path of the dead. " On these mounds, and round the foot of the pyramids themselves, the whole population ofthe once great city of Teotihuacán and its neighbourhood used tocongregate, to see the priests and the victims march round the terracesand up the stairs in full view of them all. Standing here, one couldimagine the scene that Cortes and his men saw from their camp, outsideMexico, on that dreadful day when the Mexicans had cut off theirretreat along the causeways, and taken more than sixty Spanishprisoners. Bernal Diaz was there, and tells the tale how they heardfrom the city the great drum of Huitzilopochtli sending forth a strangeand awful sound, that could be heard for miles, and with it many hornsand trumpets; and how, when they had looked towards the great teocalli, they saw the Mexicans dragging up the prisoners, pushing and beatingthem as they went, till they had got them up to the open space at thetop, "where the cursed idols stood. " Then they put plumes of featherson their heads, and fans in their hands, and made them dance before theidol; and when they had danced, they threw them on their backs on thesacrificial stone that stood there, and, sawing open their breasts withknives of stone, they tore out their hearts, and offered them up insacrifice; and the bodies they flung down the stairs to the bottom. More than this the Spaniards cannot have seen, though Diaz describesthe rest of the proceedings as though they had been done in his sight;but it was not the first time they had witnessed such things, and theyknew well enough what was happening down below, --how the butchers werewaiting to cut up the carcases as they came down, that they might becooked with chile, and eaten in the solemn banquet of the evening. The day was closing in by this time; and our man was waiting with thehorses at the foot of the great pyramid; and with him an Indian, whomwe had caught half an hour before, and sent off with a real to buypulque, and to collect such obsidian arrows and clay heads as were tobe found at the ranchos in the neighbourhood. Near the place we started from, two or three Indians were diligently atwork at their stone-quarry, that is to say, they were laboriouslybringing out great hewn stones from the side of the pyramid, to buildtheir walls with; and indeed we could see in every house for milesround stones that had come from the same source, as was proved by thestucco still remaining upon them, smoothed like polished marble, andpainted dull red with cinnabar. As I write this, it brings to my recollection an old Roman trophy inNorth Italy, built--like these pyramids--of a shell of hewn stone, filled with rough stones and cement, now as hard as the rock itself. There I saw the inhabitants of the town which stands at its foot, carrying off the great limestone blocks, but first cutting them up intopieces of a size that they could move about, and build into theirhouses. Here and there, in this little Italian town, there were to beseen in the walls letters of the old inscription which were once uponthe trophy; and the age of the houses shewed that the monument hadserved as a quarry for centuries. As we rode home, we noticed by the sides of the road, and where ditcheshad been cut, numbers of old Mexican stone-floors covered with stucco. The earth has accumulated above them to the depth of two or three feet, so that their position is like that of the Roman pavements so oftenfound in Europe; and we may guess, from what we saw exposed, how greatmust be the number of such remains still hidden, and how vast apopulation must once have inhabited this plain, now almost deserted. Two days afterwards we came back. In the ploughed fields in theneighbourhood we made repeated trials whether it was possible to standstill in any spot where there was no relic of old Mexico within ourreach; but this we could not do. Everywhere the ground was full ofunglazed pottery and obsidian; and we even found arrows and clayfigures that were good enough for a museum. When we left England, weboth doubted the accounts of the historians of the Conquest, believingthat they had exaggerated the numbers of the population, and the sizeof the cities, from a natural desire to make the most of theirvictories, and to write as wonderful a history as they could, ashistorians are prone to do. But our examination of Mexican remains sooninduced us to withdraw this accusation, and even made us inclined toblame the chroniclers for having had no eyes for the wonderful thingsthat surrounded them. I do not mean by this that we felt inclined to swallow the monstrousexaggerations of Solis and Gomara and other Spanish chroniclers, whoseemed to think that it was as easy to say a thousand as a hundred, andthat it sounded much better. But when this class of writers are setaside, and the more valuable authorities severely criticised, it doesnot seem to us that the history thus extracted from these sources ismuch less reliable than European history of the same period. There is, perhaps, no better way of expressing this opinion than to say that whatwe saw of Mexico tended generally to confirm Prescott's History of theConquest, and but seldom to make his statements appear to usimprobable. There are other mounds near the pyramids, besides the Micaotli. Twosides of the Pyramid of the Sun are surrounded by them; and there aretwo squares of mounds at equal distances, north and south of it, besides innumerable scattered hillocks. There are some sculpturedblocks of stone lying near the pyramids, and inside the smaller one isburied what appears to be a female bust of colossal size, with themouth like an oval ring, so common in Mexican sculptures. The same abundance of ancient remains that we found here characterizesthe neighbourhood of all the Mexican monuments in the country, with onecurious exception. Burkart declares that in the vicinity of theextensive remains of temples known as _Los Edificios_, near Zacatecas, no traces of pottery or of obsidian were to be found. Before going away, we held a solemn market of antiquities. We satcross-legged on the ground, and the Indian women and children broughtus many curious articles in clay and obsidian, which we bought anddeposited in two great bags of aloe-fibre which our man carried at hissaddle-bow. Among the articles we bought were various pipes or whistlesof pottery, _pitos_, as they are called in Spanish, and just as we weremounting our horses to ride off, a lad ran to the top of one of themounds, and blew on one of these pipes a long dismal note that could beheard a mile off. Our friends had filled our heads so full of robbersand ambushes, that we made sure it was a signal for some one who waswaiting for us, and the more so as the boy ran off as soon as he hadblown his blast; and when we looked round for the people whoseantiquities we had been buying, they had all disappeared. But nothingcame of it, and we got safely back to Tezcuco. As usual, we spent acapital evening, and separated late. The owner of the glass-works, whohad been spending the evening with us, had an adventure on his roadhome. He was peaceably riding along, when two men rushed out frombehind the corner of the street, and shouted "_alto ahí_!" (halte-là). He thought they were robbers, and started at a gallop. His hat flewoff, and the men sent two bullets singing past his head, which sent himon quicker than ever, till he reached his house. There he got hispistols, and came back armed to the teeth to fetch the hat, which laywhere it had fallen. The supposed robbers turned out, on enquiry nextday, to have been national guards, patrolling the street; but certainlytheir proceedings were rather questionable. We had an unpleasant visit the same night. The custom of the CasaGrande was that after dark a watchman patrolled all night, giving along blast every quarter of an hour on one of these same dolefulMexican whistles, to show that ho was not sleeping on his rounds. Thiswas for the outside. Inside the house, _pour surcroît de précaution_, aservant came round to see that every one was in his room; and havingsatisfied himself of this, let loose in the courtyard two enormousbulldogs, which were the terror of the household and of the wholeneighbourhood. On this particular night, a noise at our own door wokeme from a sound sleep; and I had the pleasure of seeing a creature walkdeliberately in, looking huge and terrific in the moonlight. The beasthad been into the stable two nights before, and had pinned a cow whichwas there, keeping his hold upon her till next morning, when he was gotoff by the keeper. With this specimen of the bulldog's abilities freshin my recollection, I preferred not making any attempt to resent hisimpertinent intrusion, but lay still, till he had satisfied himselfwith walking about the room and sniffing at our beds, when he lay downon my carpet; I soon fell asleep again, and next morning he was gone. The foreigners in Mexico seem to delight in fierce bull-dogs. The CasaGrande at Tezcuco is not by any means the only place where they formpart of the garrison. One English acquaintance of ours in the Capitalkept two of these beasts up in his rooms, and not even the servantsdared go up, unless the master was there. Every one who has read Prescott's 'Mexico' will recollectNezahualcoyotl, the king of Tezcuco; and the palaces he built there forhis wives, and his poets, and the rest of his great court. Thesepalaces were built chiefly of mud bricks; and time and the Spaniardshave dealt so hardly with them, that even their outlines can no longerbe traced. Traces of two large teocallis are just visible, and Mr. Bowring has some burial mounds in his grounds which will be examinedsome day. There is a Mexican calendar built into the wall of one of thechurches; and, as we walked about the streets of the present town, wenoticed stones that must have been sculptured before the Spaniardsbrought in their broken-down classic style, and so stopped thedevelopment of native art. As for the rest of old Tezcuco, it has"become heaps. " Wherever they dig ditches or lay the foundations ofhouses, you may see the ground full of its remains. As I said before, when speaking of the stuccoed floors nearTeotihuacán, the accumulation of alluvial soil goes on very rapidly andvery regularly all over the plains of Mexico and Puebla, whereeverything favours its deposit; and the human remains preserved in itare so numerous that its age may readily be seen. We noticed this inmany places, but in no instance so well as between Tezcuco and thehacienda of Miraflores. There a long ditch, some five feet deep, hadjust been cut in anticipation of the rainy season. As yet it was dry, and, as we walked along it, we found three periods of Mexican historydistinctly traceable from one end to the other. First came merealluvium, without human remains. Then, just above, came fragments ofobsidian knives and bits of unglazed pottery. Above this again, a thirdlayer, in which the obsidian ceased, and much of the pottery was stillunglazed; but many fragments were glazed, and bore the unmistakableSpanish patterns in black and yellow. It is a pity that these alluvial deposits, which give such goodevidence as to the order in which different peoples or different statesof society succeeded one another on the earth, should be so valuelessas a means of calculating the time of their duration; but one caneasily see that they must always be so, by considering how thethickness of the deposits is altered by such accidents as the formationof a mud-bank, or the opening of a new channel, --things that must becontinually occurring in districts where this very accumulation isgoing on. The only place where any calculation can be based upon itsthickness is on the banks of the Nile, where its accumulations roundthe ancient monuments may perhaps give a criterion as to the time whichhas elapsed since man ceased to clear away the deposits of theriver. [13] As an instance of the tendency of alluvial deposits to entomb suchmonuments of former ages, I must mention the temple of Segeste, whichstands on a gentle slope among the hills of northern Sicily. I hadheard talk of the graceful proportions of this Doric temple, built bythe Greek colonists; and great was my surprise, on first coming insight of it, to see a pediment supported by two rows of short squatcolumns, without bases, and rising directly from the ground. A nearerinspection showed the cause of this extraordinary distortion. The wholeslope had risen full six feet during the 2500 years, or so, that haveelapsed since its desertion; and the temple now stands in a largeoblong pit, which has lately been excavated. As we left the spot, andturned to see it again a few yards off, the beautiful symmetry of thewhole had disappeared again. To return to Tezcuco. Some three or four miles from the town stands thehill of Tezcotzinco, where Nezahualcoyotl had his pleasure-gardens; andto this hill we made an excursion early one morning, with Mr. Bowringfor our guide. We did not go first to Tezcotzinco itself, but toanother hill which is connected with it by an aqueduct of immense size, along which we walked. The mountains in this part are of porphyry, andthe channel of the aqueduct was made principally of blocks of the samematerial, on which the smooth stucco that had once covered the whole, inside and out, still remained very perfect. The channel was carried, not on arches, but on a solid embankment, a hundred and fifty or twohundred feet high, and wide enough for a carriage-road. The hill itself was overgrown with brushwood, aloes, and prickly pears, but numerous roads and flights of steps cut in the rock weredistinguishable. Not far below the top of the hill, a terrace runscompletely round it, whence the monarch could survey a great part ofhis little kingdom. On the summit itself I saw sculptured blocks ofstone; and on the side of the hill are two little circular baths, cutin the solid rock. The lower of the two has a flight of steps down toit; the seat for the bather, and the stone pipe which brought thewater, arc still quite perfect. His majesty used to spend his afternoons here on the shady side of thehill, apparently sitting up to his middle in water, like a frog, if onemay judge by the height of the little seat in the bath. If, as somewriters say, these were only tanks with streams of running water, andnot baths at all, why the steps cut in their sides, which are justlarge enough and high enough for a man to sit in? No water has comethere for centuries now; and the morning-sun nearly broiled us, till wegot into a sort of cave, excavated in the hill, it is said, with anidea of finding treasure. It seems there was once a Mexican calendarcut in the rock at this spot; and some white people who were interestedin such matters, used to come to see it, and poke curiously about insearch of other antiquities. Naturally enough, the Indians thought thatthey expected to find treasure; and with a view of getting the firstchance themselves, they cut down the calendar, and made this largeexcavation behind it. Here we sat in the shade, breakfasting, and hearing Mr. Bowring'sstories of the art of medicine as practised in the northern states ofMexico, where decoction of shirt is considered an invaluable specificwhen administered internally; and the recognised remedy for lumbago isto rub the patient with the drawers of a man named John. No doubt thelatter treatment answers very well! [Illustration: OLD MEXICAN BRIDGE NEAR TEZCUCO. ] There is an old Mexican bridge near Tezcuco which seems to be theoriginal _Puente de las Bergantinas_, the bridge where Cortes had thebrigantines launched on the lake of Tezcuco. This bridge has a span ofabout twenty feet, and is curious as showing how nearly the Mexicanshad arrived at the idea of the arch. It is made in the form of a roofresting on two buttresses, and composed of slabs of stone with theedges upwards, with mortar in the interstices; the slabs beingsufficiently irregular in shape to admit of their holding together, like the stones of a real arch. One may now and then see in Europe theroofs of small stone hovels made in the same way; but twenty feet is animmense span for such a construction. I have seen such buildings inNorth Italy, in places where the limestone is so stratified as tofurnish rough slabs, three or four inches thick, with very littlelabour in quarrying them out. In Kerry there are ancient houses andchurches roofed in the same way. What makes the Tezcuco bridge morecurious is that it is set askew, which must have made its constructionmore difficult. The brigantines which the Spaniards made, and transported over themountains in such a wonderful manner, fully answered their purpose, forwithout them Mexico could hardly have been taken. After the Conquestthey were kept for years, for the good service they had done; butvessels of such size do not seem to have been used upon the lake sincethen; and I believe the only sailing craft at present is Mr. Bowring'sboat, which the Indians look at askance, and decidedly decline toimitate. It is true that, somewhere near the city, there is moored alittle steamer, looking quite civilized at a distance. It never goesanywhere, however; and I have a sort of impression of having heard thatwhen it was first made they got up the steam once, but the conduct ofthe machinery under these circumstances was so extraordinary andfrantic that no one has ventured to repeat the experiment. Before we left Tezcuco, we went in a boat to explore Mr. Bowring'ssalt-works, which are rather like the salines of the South of France. Patches of the lake are walled off, and the water allowed to evaporate, which it does very rapidly under a hot sun, and with only three-fourthsof the pressure of air upon it that we have at the sea-level. Thelake-water thus concentrated is run into smaller tanks. It containscarbonate and sesquicarbonate of soda, and common salt. The addition oflime converts the sesquicarbonate of soda into simple carbonate, andthis is separated from the salt by taking advantage of their differentpoints of crystallization. The salt is partly consumed, and partly usedin the extraction of silver from the ore, and the soda is bought by thesoap-makers. Humboldt's remarks on the small consumption of salt in Mexico arecurious. The average amount used with food is only a small fraction ofthe European average. While the Tlascalans were at war with the Aztecs, they had to do without salt for many years, as it was not produced intheir district. Humboldt thinks that the chile which the Indiansconsume in such quantities acts as a substitute. It is to be rememberedthat the soil is impregnated with both salt and natron in many of theseupland districts, and the inhabitants may have eaten earth containingthese ingredients, as they do for the same purpose in several places inthe Old World. We disembarked after sailing to the end of these great evaporatingpans, and found horses waiting to take us to the Bosque del Contador. This is a grand square, looking towards the cardinal points, andcomposed of ahuehuetes, grand old deciduous cypresses, many of themforty feet round, and older than the discovery of America. Mycompanion, not content with buying collections at secondhand, wished tohave some excavations made on his own account, and very judiciouslyfixed on this spot, where, though there were no buildings standing, theappearance of the ground and the mounds in the neighbourhood, togetherwith the historical notoriety of the place, made it probable thatsomething would be found to repay a diligent search. This expectationwas fully realized, and some fine idols of hard stone were found, withan infinitude of pottery and small objects. When I look through my notes about Tezcuco, I do not find much more tomention, except that a favourite dish here consists of flies' eggsfried. These eggs are deposited at the edge of the lake, and theIndians fish them out and sell them in the market-place. So large isthe quantity of these eggs, that at a spot where a little streamdeposits carbonate of lime, a peculiar kind of travertine is formingwhich consists of masses of them imbedded in tho calcareous deposit. The flies[14] which produce these eggs are called by the Mexicans"_axayacatl_" or "water-face. " There was a celebrated Aztec king whowas called Axayacatl; and his name is indicated in the picture-writingsby a drawing of a man's face covered with water. The eggs themselvesare sold in cakes in the market, pounded and cooked, and also in lumps_au naturel_, forming a substance like the roe of a fish. This is knownby the characteristic name of "_ahuauhtli_", that is "water-wheat. "[15] The last thing we did at Tezcuco, was to witness the laying down of anew line of water-pipes for the saltworks. This I mention because ofthe pipes, which were exactly those introduced into Spain by the Moorsand brought here by tho Spaniards. These pipes are of glazedearthenware, taper at one end, and each fitting into the large end ofthe next. The cement is a mixture of lime, fat, and hair, which getshard and firm when cold, but can be loosened by a very slightapplication of heat. A thousand years has made no alteration in the wayof making these pipes. Here, however, the ground is so level that onegreat characteristic of Moorish waterworks is not to be seen. I meanthe water-columns which are such a feature in the country roundPalermo, and in other places where the system of irrigation introducedby the Moorish invaders is still kept up. These are square pillarstwenty or thirty feet high, with a cistern at the top of each, intowhich the water from the higher level flowed, and from which otherpipes carried it on; the sole object of the whole apparatus being tobreak the column of water, and reduce the pressure to the thirty orforty feet which the pipes of earthenware would bear. This subject of irrigation is very interesting with reference to thefuture of Mexico. We visited two or three country-houses in theplateaux, where the gardens are regularly watered by artificialchannels, and the result is a vegetation of wonderful exuberance andbeauty, converting these spots into oases in the desert. On the lowerlevels of the tierra templada where the sugar-cane is cultivated, acostly system of water-supply has been established in the haciendaswith the best results. Even in the plains of Mexico and Puebla, thegrain-fields are irrigated to some small degree. But notwithstandingthis progress in the right direction, the face of the country shows themost miserable waste of one of the chief elements of the wealth andprosperity of the country, the water. In this respect, Spain and the high lands of Mexico may be comparedtogether. There is no scarcity of rain in either country, and yet bothare dry and parched, while the number and size of their torrent-bedsshow with what violence the mountain-streams descend into lakes orrivers, rather agents of destruction than of benefit to the land. Strangely enough, both countries have been in possession of races whounderstood that water was the very life-blood of the land, and workedhard to build systems of arteries to distribute it over the surface. Inboth countries, the warlike Spaniards overcame these races, andirrigating works already constructed were allowed to fall to ruin. When the Moriscos were expelled from their native provinces ofAndalusia and Granada, their places were but slowly filled up withother settlers, so that a great part of their aqueducts andwatercourses fell into decay within a few years. These new colonists, moreover, came from the Northern provinces, where the Moorish system ofculture was little understood; and, incredible as it may seem, thoughthey must have had ocular evidence of the advantages of artificialirrigation, they even neglected to keep in repair the water-channels ontheir own ground. Now the traveller, riding through Southern Spain, maysee in desolate barren valleys remains of the Moorish works whichcentimes ago brought fertility to grain-fields and orchards, and madethe country the garden of Europe. There was another nation who seem to have far surpassed both Moors andAztecs in the magnitude of their engineering-works for this purpose. The Peruvians cut through mountains, filled up valleys, and carriedwhole rivers away in artificial channels to irrigate their thirstysoil. The historians' accounts of these water-works as they were, andeven travellers' descriptions of the ruins that still remain, fill uswith astonishment. It seems almost like some strange fatality that thisnation too should have been conquered by the same race, the ruin of itsgreat national works following immediately upon the Conquest. Spain is rising again after long centuries of degradation, and isdeveloping energies and resources which seem likely to raise it highamong European nations, and the Spaniards are beginning to hold theirown again among the peoples of Europe. But they have had to pay dearlyfor the errors of their ancestors in the great days of Charles theFifth. The ancient Mexicans were not, it is true, to be compared with theSpanish Arabs or the Peruvians in their knowledge of agriculture andthe art of irrigation; but both history and the remains still to befound in the country prove that in the more densely populated parts ofthe plains they had made considerable progress. The ruined aqueduct ofTetzcotzinco which I have just mentioned was a grand work, serving tosupply the great gardens of Nezahualcoyotl, which covered a large spaceof ground and excited the admiration of the Conquerors, who soondestroyed them, it is said, in order that they might not remain toremind the conquered inhabitants of their days of heathendom. Such works as these seem, however, not to have extended overwhole provinces as they did in Spain. In the thinly peopledmountain-districts, the Indians broke up their little patches of groundwith a hoe, and watered them from earthen jars, as indeed they do tothis day. The Spaniards improved the agriculture of the country by introducingEuropean grain, and fruit-trees, and by bringing the old Roman plough, which is used to this day in Mexico as in Spain, where two thousandyears have not superseded its use or even altered it. Against theseimprovements we must set a heavy account of injury done to the countryas regards its cultivation. The Conquest cost the lives of severalhundred thousand of the labouring class; and numbers more were takenaway from the cultivation of the land to work as slaves for theconquerors in building houses and churches, and in the silver-mines. When the inhabitants were taken away, the ground went out ofcultivation, and much of it has relapsed into desert. Even before theConquest, Mexico had been suffering for many years from incessant wars, in which not only thousands perished on the field of battle, but theprisoners sacrificed annually were to be counted by thousands more, while famine carried off the women and children whose husbands andfathers had perished. But the slaughter and famine of the first yearsof the Spanish Conquest far exceeded anything that the country hadsuffered before. At the time of the Conquest of Mexico the Spaniards let the nativeirrigating-works fall into decay; and they took still more activemeasures to deprive the land of its necessary water, by theirindiscriminate destruction of the forests on the hills that surroundthe plains. When the trees were cut down, the undergrowth soonperished, and the soil which had served to check the descending watersin their course was soon swept away. During the four rainy months, eachheavy shower sends down a flood along the torrent-bed which flows intoa river, and so into the ocean, or, as in the Mexican valley, into asalt lake, where it only serves to injure the surrounding land. In bothcases it runs away in utter waste. In later years the Spanish owners of the soil had the necessity of thesystem impressed upon them by force of circumstances; and large sumswere spent upon the construction of irrigating channels, even in theoutlying states of the North. In the American territory recently acquired from Mexico history hasrepeated itself in a most curious way. We learn from Froebel, theGerman traveller, that the new American settlers did not take kindly tothe system of irrigation which they found at work in the country. Theywere not used to it, and it interfered with their ideas of liberty byplacing restrictions upon their doing what they pleased on their ownland. So they actually allowed many of the water-canals to fall intoruins. Of course they soon began to find out their mistake, and areprobably investing heavily in water-supply by this time. We ought notto be too severe upon the Spaniards of the sixteenth century for aneconomical mistake which we find the Americans falling into undersimilar circumstances in the nineteenth. CHAPTER VII. CUERNAVACA. TEMISCO. XOCHICALCO. [Illustration: SPANISH-MEXICAN SADDLE AND ITS APPURTENANCES. ] Much too soon, as we thought, the day came when we had arranged toleave Tezcuco and return to Mexico, to prepare for a journey into thetierra caliente. On the evening of our return to the capital there wasa little earthquake, but neither of us noticed it; and thus we lost ourone chance, and returned to England without having made acquaintancewith that peculiar sensation. The purchase of horses and saddles and other equipments for ourjourney, gave us an opportunity of poking about into out-of-the-waycorners of the city, and seeing some new phases of Mexican life; andcertainly we made the most of the chance. We made acquaintance withhorse-dealers, who brought us horses to try in the courtyard of thegreat house of our friends the English merchants in the CalleSeminario, and there showed off their paces, walking, pacing, andgalloping. To trot is considered a disgusting vice in a Mexican horse;and the universal substitute for it here is the _paso_, a queershuffling run, first, the two legs on one side together, and then theother two. You jolt gently up and down without rising in the stirrups;and when once you are used to it the paso is not disagreeable, and itis well suited to long mountain-journeys. Horses in the United Statesare often trained to this gait, and are known as "pacing" horses. Another peculiarity in the training of Mexican horses is, that many ofthem are taught to "rayar, " that is, to put their fore-feet out afterthe manner of mules going down a pass; and slide a short distance alongthe ground, so as to stop suddenly in the midst of a rapid gallop. Topractise the horses in this feat, the jockey draws a lino ("_raya_") onthe ground, and teaches them to stop exactly as they reach it, andwhirl round in the opposite direction. This performance is often to beseen on the paseo, and other places, where smart young gentlemen liketo show off themselves and their horses; but it is only a fancy trick, and they acknowledge that it spoils the animal's fore-legs. After much bargaining and chaffering we bought three horses forourselves and our man Antonio, giving eight, seven, and four pounds forthem. This does not seem much to give for good hackneys, as these were;but they were not particularly cheap for Mexico. While we were atTezcuco, Mr. Christy used to ride one of Mr. Bowring's horses, a prettylittle chestnut, which carried him beautifully, and had cost justeleven dollars, or forty-six shillings. It had been bought of thehorse-dealers who come down every year from the almost uninhabitedstates of Chihuahua, Durango, and Cohahuila, on the American frontier, where innumerable herds of horses, all but wild, roam over boundlessprairies, feeding on the tall coarse grass. Their keep costs so little, that the breeders are not compelled, as in England, to break them inand sell them at the earliest possible moment, and they let the youngcolts roam untamed till they are five or six years old. Their greatstrength and power of endurance in proportion to their size is in greatmeasure to be ascribed to this early indulgence. It is very clear that when a horse is to be sold for somewhere betweentwo and six pounds, the breeder cannot afford to spend much time inbreaking him in. The rough-rider lazos him, puts on the bridle with itssevere bit, and springs upon his back in spite of kicking and plunging. The horse gallops furiously off across country of his own accord, butwhen his pace begins to flag, the great vaquero spurs come intorequisition, and in an hour or two he comes back to the corral deadbeat and conquered once for all. It is easy to teach him his pacesafterwards. The anquera--as it is called--is put on his haunches, tocure him of trotting, and to teach him the paso instead. It is aleather covering fringed with iron tags, which is put on behind thesaddle, and allows the horse to pace without annoying him; but theleast approach to a trot brings the pointed tags rattling upon hishaunches. We bought one of these anqueras at Puebla. It was very old, and curiously ornamented with carved patterns. In the last century, these anqueras were a regular part of Mexican horse-equipment; but now, except in horse-breaking yards or old curiosity-shops, they are seldomto be seen. Almost all the Mexican horses descend from the Arab breed--the gentlestand yet the most spirited in the world, which have not degeneratedsince the Spaniards brought them over in the early days of theConquest, but retain unchanged their small graceful shape, theirswiftness, and their power of bearing fatigue. There seem really to beno large horses bred in the country. Instead of jolting about in acarriage drawn by eight or ten mules, with harness covered with silverand gold--as rich Mexicans used to do, the proper thing now is to havea pair of tall carriage-horses, like ours in England; and these arebrought at great expense from the United States, and by the side of thegraceful little Mexicans they look as big and as clumsy as elephants. Our saddles were of the old Moorish pattern, of monstrous size andweight, very comfortable for the rider, but, I fear, much less so forthe horse, whose back often gets sadly galled, in spite of the thickpadding and the two or three blankets that are put on underneath. Thesesaddles run into high peaks behind and before, so that you can hardlyfall out of them, even when you go to sleep in the saddle on a longjourney, as many people habitually do. In front, the saddle rises intoa pummel which is made of hard wood, and is something like a largemushroom with its stalk. Round this the end of the lazo is wound, afterthe noose has been thrown. All Mexican saddles are provided with theseheads in front, and have, moreover, several pairs of little thongsattached to them on each side, which serve to tie on bags, whips, water-gourds, and other odds and ends. Behind the seat of the saddleare more straps, where cloaks and serapes are fastened; and in case ofneed even a carpet-bag will travel there. We were in the habit ofreturning from our expeditions with our horses so covered with theplants and curiosities we had collected, that it became no easy matterto get our legs safely over the horses' backs, into their proper placesamong the clusters of miscellanea. Our acquaintances used to compare usto the perambulating butchers' shops, which are a feature in Mexicanstreets, and consist of a horse with a long saddle covered with hooks, and on every hook a joint. The flaps of our saddles, the great spatterdashes that protected ourfeet from the mud, and the broad stirrup-straps were covered withcarved and embossed patterns; indeed almost all leather-work isdecorated in this way, and the saddle-makers delight in ornamentingtheir wares with silver plates and bosses; so that it was notsurprising that our saddles and bridles should have cost, thoughsecond-hand, nearly as much as the horses. In books of travels in Mexico up to the beginning of the presentcentury, one of the staple articles of wondering description was thegorgeous trappings of the horses, and the spurs, bits, and stirrups ofgold and silver. The costumes have not changed much, but the taste forsuch costly ornaments has abated; and it is now hardly respectable tohave more than a few pounds worth of bullion on one's saddle or aroundone's hat, or to wear a hundred or so of buttons of solid gold down thesides of one's leather trousers, with a very questionable cottoncalzoncillo underneath. The horses' bits are made with a ring, which pinches the under-lip whenthe bridle is tightened, and causes great pain when it is pulled at allhard. At first sight it seems cruel to use such bits, but the systemworks very well; and the horses, knowing the power their rider has overthem, rarely misbehave themselves. One rides along with the loop at theend of the twisted horse-hair bridle hanging loose on one finger, sothat the horse's mouth is much less pulled about than with the bridleswe are accustomed to in England. When it is necessary to guide thehorse, the least pressure is enough; but, as a general rule, the littlefellow can find his way as well as his rider can. We used continuallyto let our reins drop on our horses' necks, and jog on careless of pitsand stumbling-blocks. I have even seen my companion take out hispocket-book, and improve the occasion by making notes and sketches ashe went. [Illustration: SPANISH-MEXICAN BIT, WITH ITS RING AND CHAINS. LENGTH 9INCHES, WIDTH 5-1/2 INCHES. ] The distance from Mexico to Vera Cruz is about two hundred and fiftymiles, and what the roads are I have in some measure described. RafaelBeraza, the courier of the English Mission at Mexico, used to ride thiswith despatches regularly once a month in forty hours, and occasionallyin thirty-five. He changed horses about every ten or fifteen miles; andnow and then, when, overcome by sleep, he would let the boy whoaccompanied him to the next stage ride first, his own horse following, and the rider comfortably dozing as he went along. As for our own equipment, Mr. Christy adopted the attributes of theeastern traveller when he came into the country, the great umbrella, the veil, and the felt hat with a white handkerchief over it. As forme, my wardrobe was scanty; so, when my travelling coat wore out at theelbows and my trousers were sat through--like the little bear's chairin the story, I replaced the garments with a jacket of chamois leather, and a pair of loose trousers made of the same, after the manner of thecountry. Then came a grey felt hat, as stiff as a boiler-plate, and ofmore than quakerish lowness of crown and broadness of brim, butsecularized by a silver serpent for a hatband; also, a red silk sash, which--fastening round the waist--held up my trousers, and interferedwith my digestion; lastly, a woollen serape to sleep under, and to wearin the mornings and evenings. This is the genuine ranchero costume, andit did me good service. Indeed, ever since my Mexican journey I haveconsidered that George Fox decidedly showed his good sense by dressinghimself in a suit of leather; much more so than the people who laughedat him for it. In the country, all Mexicans--high and low--wear this national dress;and in this they are distinguished from the Indians, who keep to thecotton shirts and drawers, and the straw hats of their ancestors. Inthe towns, it is only the lower classes who dress in the rancherocostume, for "nous autres" wear European garments and follow the lastParis fashion, with these exceptions--that for riding, people wearjackets and calzoneras of the national cut, though made of cloth, andthat the Mexican hat is often worn even by people who adopt no otherparts of the costume. There never were such hats as these forawkwardness. The flat sharp brims of passers-by are always threateningto cut your head off in the streets. You cannot get into a carriagewith your hat on, nor sit there when you are in. But for walking andriding under a fierce sun, they are perhaps better than anything elsethat can be used. The Mexican blanket--the serape--is a national institution; It is widerthan a Scotch plaid, and nearly as long, with a slit in the middle; andit is woven in the same gaudy Oriental patterns which are to be seen onthe prayer-carpets of Turkey and Palestine to this day. It is worn as acloak, with the end flung over the left shoulder, like the Spanish_capa_, and muffling up half the face when its owner is chilly or doesnot wish to be recognized. When a heavy rain comes down, and he is onhorseback, he puts his head through the slit in the middle, and becomesa moving tent. At night he rolls himself up in it, and sleeps on a mator a board, or on the stones in the open air. Convenient as it is, the serape is as much tabooed among the"respectable" classes in the cities as the rest of the nationalcostume. I recollect going one evening after dark to the house of ourfriends in the Calle Seminario with my serape on, and nearly having tofight it out with the great dog Nelson, who was taking charge of hismaster's room. Nelson knew me perfectly well, and had sat that verymorning at the hotel-gate for half an hour, holding my horse, while acrowd of leperos stood round, admiring his size and the gravity of hisdemeanour as he sat on the pavement, with the bridle in his mouth. Butthat a man in a serape should come into his master's room at dusk was athing he could not tolerate, till the master himself came in, andsatisfied his mind on the subject. As I said, the equipment of ourselves and our three horses took us intoa variety of strange places, for we bought the things we wanted pieceby piece, when we saw anything that suited us. Among other places wewent to the Baratillo, which is the Rag-Fair and Petticoat Lane ofMexico, and moreover the emporium for whips, bridles, bits, old spurs, old iron, and odds and ends generally. The little shops are arranged inlong lines, after the manner of the eastern bazaar; and theshopkeepers, when they are not smoking cigarettes outside, are sittingin their little dens, within arms-length of all the wares they have tosell. Here we found what we had come for, and much more too, in the wayof wonderful old spurs, combs, boxes, and ornaments; so that we cameseveral times more before we left the country, and never withoutcarrying away some curious old relic. Mexico, as everybody knows, is decidedly a thievish place. The shopsare all shut at dark, after the _Oración_, for fear of thieves. Ladiesused to wear immense tortoise-shell combs at the back of their heads, where the mantilla is fastened on; but, when it became a regular tradefor thieves to ride on horseback through the streets, and pull out thecombs as they went, the fashion had to be given up. These curiouslycarved and ornamented combs are still preserved as curiosities, and webought several of them. While we were in Mexico, they knocked a man down in the great square atnoon-day, robbed him, and left him there for dead. The square is solarge, and the sun was so hot, that the police--whose head-quarters areunder the arches in that very square--could not possibly walk across tosee what was going on!--_moral_, if you will have the distinction ofhaving the largest square in the world, you must take the consequences. Of course, where thieving is so general, the market for stolen goodsmust be a place of considerable trade, and this Baratillo is one of theprincipal depôts for such wares. One may realize here the story of thecitizen, in the old book, who had his wig stolen at the beginning ofhis walk through London, and found it hanging up for sale a littlefurther on. Here the deserter comes to sell his uniform and hisricketty old flintlock. Small blame to him. I would do the same myselfif I were in his place, and were compelled to serve under one rascallypolitical adventurer against another rascally political adventurer--tosay nothing of being treated like a dog, half-starved, and not paid atall, except by a sort of half license to plunder. "Those poor soldiers!we can't pay them, you know, and they must live somehow. " I have abused the Mexicans for being thieves, and not without reason, though, as regards ourselves personally, we never lost anything excepta great brand-new waterproof coat which my companion had brought withhim, promising to himself that under its shelter he should bid defianceto the daily rain-storms of the wet season. As we dismounted from theDiligence in Mexico, in the courtyard of the hotel, some one relievedhim of it. We did not know of the Baratillo in those days, or wouldhave gone to look for it there. At the time of our visit it was toolate, for if it ever had been there, the Mexicans understand too wellthe value of an English "ulli, " as they call them, to let it hang longfor sale. "Ulli" is not a borrowed word, but the genuine Aztec name forIndia-rubber, which was used to make playing-balls with, long beforethe time of Columbus. I mentioned the water-bottles as part of our equipment. They aregourds, which are throttled with bandages while young, so as to makethem grow into the shape of bottles with necks. Then they are hung upto dry; and the inside being cleaned out through a small hole near thestalk, they are ready for use, holding two or three pints of water. Acouple of inches of a corn-cob (the inside of a ear of Indian corn)makes a capital cork; and the bottle is hung by a loop of string to thepummel of the saddle, where it swings about without fear of breaking. One may see gourds, prepared in just the same way, in Italy, hanging upunder the eaves of the little farm-houses, among the festoons of redand yellow ears of Indian corn; and indeed the gourd-bottle is aregular institution of Southern Europe. We sent Antonio on with the horses to Cuernavaca, and started by theDiligence early one morning, accompanied by one of our English friends, whom I will call--as every-one else did--Don Guillermo. It is theregular thing here, as in Spain, to call everybody by his or herChristian name. You may have known Don Antonio or Don Felipe for weeksbefore you happen to hear their surnames. The road ran at first over the plain, among great water-meadows, withherds of cattle pasturing, and fields of wheat and maize. Ploughing wasgoing on, after the primitive fashion of the country, with two oxenyoked to each plough. The yoke is fastened to the horns of the oxen, and to the centre of the yoke a pole is attached. At the other end ofthis pole is the plough itself, which consists of a wooden stake withan iron point and a handle. The driver holds the handle in one hand andhis goad in the other (a long reed with an iron point), and so theytoil along, making a long scratch as they go. A man follows the plough, and drops in single grains of Indian corn, about three feet apart. Thefurrows are three feet from one another, so that each stalk occupiessome nine square feet of ground. When the plants are growing up theydig between them, and heap up round each stalk a little mound of earth. We passed many little houses consisting of one square room, built ofmud-bricks, with mud-mortar stuck full of little stones; withoutwindows, but generally possessing the luxury of a chimney, with acouple of bricks forming an arch over it to keep out the rain. Glimpsesof men smoking cigarettes at the doors, half-naked brown childrenrolling in the dirt, and women on their knees inside, hard at workgrinding the corn for those eternal tortillas. At San Juan de Dios Mr. Christy climbed to the top of the Diligence, behind the conductor, who sat with a large black leather bag full ofstones on the footboard before him. Whenever one of the nine mulesshowed a disposition to shirk his work, a heavy stone came flying athim, always hitting him in a tender place, for long practice had madethe conductor almost as good a shot as the goat-herds in the mountains, who are said to be able to hit their goats on whichever horn theyplease, and so to steer them straight when they seem inclined to stray. But our conductor simply threw the stones, whereas the goat-herd usesthe aloe-fibre honda, or sling, that one sees hanging by dozens in theMexican shops. We pass near Churubusco, and along the line by which the American armyreached Mexico. The field of lava which they crossed is close at ourright hand; and just on the other side of it lie Tisapán and our friendDon Alejandro's cotton-factory. On our left are the freshwater-lakes ofXochimilco and Chalco, which had risen several feet, and flooded thevalley in their neighbourhood. Between us and the great mountain-chainthat forms the rim of the valley, lies a group of extinct volcanos, from one of which descends the great lava-field. Passing in full view of these picturesque craters, now mostly coveredwith trees and brushwood, we begin to ascend, and are soon among theporphyritic range that forms a wall between us and the land ofsugar-canes and palms. Along the road towards Mexico came long files ofIndians, dressed in the national white cotton shirts and short drawersand sandals, made like Montezuma's, though not with plates of gold onthe soles, such as that monarch's sandals had. Some of these Indiansare bringing on their backs wood and charcoal from the pine-foresthigher up among the mountains, and some have fastened to their backslight crates full of live fowls or vegetables; others are carrying uptropical fruits from the tierra caliente below, zapotes and mameis, nisperos and granaditas, tamarinds and fresh sugar-canes. These peopleare walking with their loads thirty or forty miles to market: but theirrace have been used as beasts of burden for ages, and they don't mindit. Bright blue and red birds, and larger and more brilliant butterfliesthan are seen in Europe, show that, though we are among fields of wheatand maize, we are in the tropics after all. As the road rises we getviews of the broad valley, with its lakes and green meadows, and thegreat white haciendas with their clumps of willows, theirchurch-towers, and the clusters of adobe huts surrounding them--likethe peasants' cottages in feudal Europe, crowding up to the baron'scastle. Our mules begin to flag as we toil up the steep ascent; but theconductor rattles the stones in his black bag, and as the ominous soundreaches their ears, they start off again with renewed vigour. We passSan Mateo, a village of charcoal-burners, where a large and splendidstone church, with its tall dark cypresses, stands among the huts ofreeds and pine-shingles that form the village. [Illustration: INDIANS BRINGING CHARCOAL, &C. TO MEXICO. ] Trains of mules are continually passing with their heavy loads of woodand charcoal, bales of goods and barrels of aguardiente de caña, whichis rum made from the sugar-cane, but not coloured like that which comesto England. The men are continually rushing backwards and forwardsamong their beasts, which are not content with kicking and biting, andbanging against one another, but are always trying to lie down in theroad; and one of the principal duties of the arriero is constantly tokeep an eye on all his beasts at once, and, when he sees one preparingto lie down, to be beforehand with him, and drive him on by a furiousshower of blows, kicks, and curses. Certainly, the Mexican mules arethe finest and strongest in the world; and, though they are just asobstinate here as elsewhere, they are worth two or three times as muchas horses. Our road lies through a forest of pines and oaks, which reaches to thesummit of the pass, where stands a wretched little village, La Guarda. There we had a thoroughly Mexican breakfast, with pulque in talltumblers, and endless successions of tortillas, coming in hot and hotfrom the kitchen, where we could see brown women with bare arms, andblack hair plaited in long tails, kneeling by the charcoal fire, andindustriously patting out fresh supplies, and baking them rapidly on ahot plate. The _pièce de résistance_ was a stew, bright red withtomatas, and hot as fire with chile; and then came the _frijoles_--theblack beans--without which no Mexican, high or low, considers a mealcomplete. The walls of the room were decorated with highly colouredengravings, one of which represented an engagement between a Spanishand an English fleet, in which the English ships are being boarded bythe victorious Spaniards, or are being blown up in the background. Where the engagement was I cannot recollect. People in Mexico, to whomI mentioned this remarkable historical event, assured me that there arestill to be seen pictures of the destruction of the English fleet bythe French and Spaniards in the Bay of Trafalgar! Mexico was always, until the establishment of the republic, profoundlyignorant of European affairs. In the old times, when the intercoursewith the mother-country was by the great ship, "el nao, " which cameonce a year, the government at home could have just such newscirculated through the country as seemed proper and convenient to them. We see in our own times how despotic governments can mystify theirsubjects, and distort contemporary history into what shape they please. But in Spanish America the system was worked to a greater extent thanin any other country I have heard of; and the undercurrent of populartalk, which spreads in France and Russia things and opinions not to befound in the newspapers, had in Mexico but little influence. Scarcelyany Mexican travelled, scarcely any foreigner visited the country, andthe Spaniards who came to hold offices and make fortunes were all inthe interest of the old country; so the Mexicans went on, until thebeginning of this century, believing that Spain still occupied the sameposition among the nations of Europe that it had held in the days ofCharles the Fifth. While my companion was outside the Diligence, Don Guillermo and I wereleft to the conversation of an Italian fellow-passenger. One finds suchcharacters in books, but never before or since have I seen the reality. He might have been the original of the great Braggadoccio. Hisconversation was like a chapter out of the autobiography of hiscountryman Alfieri. He had accompanied the Italian nobleman who was killed in an affraywith the Mexican robbers, some years ago, and on that occasion hisdefence had been most heroic. He himself had shot several of therobbers; till at last, his friend being killed, the rest of the partyyielded to the overwhelming numbers of the brigands, and he ran off tofetch assistance! Whenever he was riding along a Mexican road, and any suspicious-lookingperson asked him for a light, his habit was to hand him his cigar stuckin the muzzle of a pistol; "and they always take the hint, " he said, "and see that it won't do to interfere with us. " Alone, he had beenattacked by three armed men, but with a pistol in each hand he hadcompelled them to retreat. But this was not all; our champion wasvictorious in love as well as in arms. Like the great Alfieri, to whomI have compared him, in every country where he travelled, the mostbeautiful and distinguished ladies hardly waited for him to ask beforethey cast themselves at his feet. Refusing the rich jewels that heoffered them, they declared that they loved him for himself alone. Weeks after, we were talking to our friend Mr. Del Pozzo, the Italianapothecary in the Calle Plateros, and happened to ask him if he wereacquainted with his heroic countryman. Whereupon the apothecary wentoff into fits of unextinguishable laughter, and told us how our friendreally had been in the skirmish he described, and had nobly run awayalmost before a shot was fired, leaving his friends to fight it out. Anhour or two after, he was found shaking with terror in a ditch. To return to our road. The forest is on both sides of the Sierra; butit is on the southern slope, over which we look down from the pass, that the pines attain their fullest size and beauty; for here they areas grand as in the Scandinavian forests, with all the beauty of thepine-trees on the Italian hills. The pass, with its deep forestskirting the road, has been a resort of robbers for many years; and thedriver pointed out to my companion a little grassy dell by theroad-side, from which forty men had rushed out and plundered theDiligence just ten days before. With his mind just prepared, one mayimagine his feelings when he caught sight of some twenty wild-lookingfellows in all sorts of strange garments, with the bright sunshinegleaming on the barrels of their muskets. A man was riding a little infront of us, and as he approached the others they descended, and rangedthemselves by the side of the road. They were only the guard, afterall, and such a guard! Their thick matted black hair hung about overtheir low foreheads and wild brown faces. Some had shoes, some hadnone, and some had sandals. They had straw hats, glazed hats, no hats, leather jackets and trousers, cotton shirts and drawers, or drawerswithout any shirt at all; and--what looked worst of all--some hadragged old uniforms on, like deserters from the army, and there are noworse robbers than they. When the Diligence reached them, the guardjoined us; some galloping on before, some following behind, whoopingand yelling, brandishing their arms, and dashing in among the trees andout into the road again. Every now and then my friend outside got aglimpse down the muzzle of a musket, which did not add to his peace ofmind. At last we got through the dangerous pass, and then we made asubscription for the guard, who departed making the forest ring againwith war-whoops, and firing off their muskets in our honour until wewere out of hearing. The top of the pass is 12, 000 feet above the sea, but the clouds seemedas high as ever above us, and the swallows were flying far up in theair. Three thousand feet lower we were in a warmer region, among oaksand arbutus; and here, as in our higher latitudes, the climate is farhotter than on the northern slope at the same height. Bananas are to befound at an elevation of 9, 000 feet, three times the height at whichthey ceased on the eastern slope, as we came up from Vera Cruz. Thisdifference between the two slopes depends, in part, on the differentquantity of sunshine they receive, which is of some importance, although we are within the tropics. But the sheltering of the southernsides from the chilling winds from the north still further contributesto give their vegetation a really tropical character. We felt the heat becoming more and more intense as we descended, andwhen we reached Cuernavaca we lay down in the beautiful garden of theinn, among orange-trees and cocoanut-palms, listening to the pleasantcool sound of running water, and looking down into the great barrancawith its perpendicular walls of rock, and the luxuriant vegetation ofthe tierra caliente covering the banks of the stream that flowed farbelow us. We could easily shout to the people on the other edge of theravine, but it would have taken hours of toiling down the steep pathsand up again before we could have reached them. Here our horses were waiting for us; and an hour or two's ride broughtus to the great sugar-hacienda of Temisco, where we were to pass thenight, for towns and inns are few and far between in Mexico when oneleaves the more populous mountain-plateaus. So much the better, for mycompanion had provided himself with letters of introduction, and we hadalready seen something of hacienda life, and liked it. As we approached Temisco, we saw upon the slopes, immense fields ofsugar-cane, now grown into a dense mass, five or six feet high, mostpleasant to look upon for the delicate green tint of the leaves thatbelongs to no other plant. The colour of our English turf is beautiful, and so are the tints of our English woods in spring, but our fields ofgrain have a dull and dingy green compared to the sugar-cane and theyoung Indian corn. In this beautiful valley we cannot charge theinhabitants with entirely neglecting the irrigation of the land. Indeed, the culture of the sugar-cane cannot be carried on without it, and the cost of the watercourses on the large estates has been verygreat. Unfortunately, even here agriculture is not flourishing. Thesmall number of the white inhabitants, and the distracted state of thecountry make both life and property very insecure; and the brown peopleare becoming less and less disposed to labour on the plantations. It is true that most of these channels were made in old times; littlenew is done now, and I could make a long list of estates that were oncebusy and prosperous, giving employment to thousands of the Indianinhabitants, and that are now over-grown with weeds and falling toruin. Entering the iron gate of the hacienda, we found ourselves in animmense courtyard, into which open all the principal buildings of theestate, the house of the proprietor, the church--which forms anecessary part of every hacienda--the crushing-mill, and theboiling-houses. Into the same great patio open the immense stables forthe many riding-horses and the many hundreds of mules that carry thesugar and rum over the mountains to market, and the tienda, the shop ofthe estate, through which almost all the money paid to the labourerscomes back to the proprietor in exchange for goods. A mountain offresh-cut canes stood near the door of the trapiche (thecrushing-mill); and a gang of Indians were constantly going backwardsand forwards carrying them in by armfuls; while a succession of muleswere continually bringing in fresh supplies from the plantation toreplenish the great heap. The court-yard was littered all over, knee-deep, with dry cane-trash; and mules, just freed from theirgalling saddles, were rolling on their backs in it, kicking with alltheir legs at once, and evidently in a state of high enjoyment. Part ofone side of the square was a sort of wide cloister, and in it stoodchairs and tables. Here the business of the place was transacted, and the Administradorcould look up from his ledger, and see pretty well what was going onall over the establishment. It is very common for the owners of these haciendas to be absentees, and to leave the entire control of their estates to the administradors;but at Temisco, which is much better managed than most others, this isnot the case, and the son of the proprietor generally lives there. Hewas out riding, so we sent our horses to the stable, and lounged abouteating sugar-canes till he should return. Presently he came, a youngman in a broad Mexican hat and white jacket and trousers, mounted on asplendid little horse, with his saddle glittering with silver, everyinch a planter. He welcomed us hospitably, and we sat down together inthe cloister looking out on the courtyard. Evening was closing in, andall at once the church-bell rang. Crowds of Indian labourers in theirwhite dresses came flocking in, hardly distinguishable in the twilight, and the sound of their footsteps deadened as they walked over the drystubble that covered the ground. All work ceased, every one uncoveredand knelt down; while, through the open church-doors, we heard theIndian choir chanting the vesper hymn. In the haciendas of Mexico everyday ends thus. Many times I heard the Oración chanted at nightfall, butits effect never diminished by repetition, and to my mind it has alwaysseemed the most impressive of religious services. Then the Administrador seated himself behind a great book, and thecalling over the "raya" began. Every man in turn was called by name, and answered in a loud voice, "I praise God!;" then saying how much hehad earned in the day, for the Administrador to write down. "JuanFernandez!"--"_Alabo a Dios, tres reales y medio_:" "I praise God, oneand ninepence. " "José Valdes!"--"I praise God, eighteen pence, andsixpence for the boy;" and so on, through a couple of hundred names. Then came, not unacceptably, a little cup of pasty chocolate and a longroll for each of us. Then Don Guillermo and our host talked about theirmutual acquaintances in Mexico, and we asked questions aboutsugar-planting, and walked about the boiling-house, where thenight-gang of brown men were hard at work stirring and skimming at theboiling-pans, and ladling out coarse unrefined sugar into littleearthen bowls to cool. This common sugar in bowls is very generallyused by the poorer Mexicans. The sugar-boilers were naked excepting acotton girdle. These men were very strong, and with great powers ofendurance, but they did not at all resemble the strong men of Europewith their great muscles standing up under their skin, the men inMichael Angelo's pictures, or the Farnese Hercules. They are equallyunlike the thin wiry Arabs, whose strength seems so disproportionate totheir lean little bodies. The pure Mexican Indian is short and sturdy; and, until you haveobserved the peculiarities of the race, you would say he was too stoutand flabby to be strong. But this appearance is caused by the immensethickness of his skin, which conceals the play of his muscles; and inreality his strength is very great, especially in the legs and thighs, and in the muscles that are brought into action in carrying burdens. Sartorius used to observe the Indian miners bringing loads of abovefive-hundred-weight up a hundred fathoms of mine-ladders, which consistof trunks of trees fixed slanting across the shaft, with notches cut inthem for steps. As I have said before, it is not the mere training of the individualthat has produced this remarkable development of the power of carryingloads. The centuries before the Conquest, when there were no beasts ofburden, had gradually produced a race whose bodies were admirablyfitted for such work; and the persistency with which they have clung totheir old habits has done much to prevent their losing thispeculiarity. To complete the description of the Indians which I have been led intoby speaking of the sugar-boilers, --they are chocolate-brown in colour, with curved noses, straight black hair hanging flat round their headsand covering their wonderfully low foreheads, and occasionally a scantyblack beard. Their faces are broadly oval, their eyes far apart, andthey have wide mouths with coarse lips. Not bad faces on the whole, butheavy and unexpressive. At ten o'clock came a heavy supper, the substantial meal of the day, and immediately afterwards we went to bed, and dreamt such dreams asmay be imagined. We were off early in the morning with a wizened oldmestizo to guide us to the ruins of Xochicalco, which are on this veryestate of Temisco. The estate is forty miles across, however, and it isa long ride to the ruins. After we leave the fields of sugar-cane, wesee scarcely a hut, nor a patch of cultivated ground. At last we get toXochicalco, and find ourselves at the foot of a hill, some four hundredfeet in height, extraordinarily regular in its conical shape, more sothan any natural hill could be, unless it were the cone of a volcano. At different heights upon this hill, we could see from below broadterraces running round and round it. A little nearer we came upon agreat ditch. The sides had fallen in, in many places; sometimes it wasquite filled up, and everywhere it was overgrown with thick brushwood, as was the hill itself. It seems that this ditch runs quite round thebase of the hill, and is three miles long. Climbing up through thethicket of thorny bushes and out upon the terraces, it became quiteevident that the hill had been artificially shaped. The terraces werebuilt up with blocks of solid stone, and paved with the same. On theneighbouring hills we could discern traces of more terrace-roads of thesame kind; there must be many miles of them still remaining. But it was when we reached the summit, that we found the mostremarkable part of the structure. The top has been cut away so as toform a large level space, which was surrounded by a stone wall, now inruins. Inside the inclosure are several mounds of stone, doubtlessburial-places, and all that is left of the pyramid. Ruined and defacedas it is, I shall never forget our feelings of astonishment andadmiration as we pushed our way through the bushes, and suddenly cameupon it. We were quite unprepared for anything of the kind; all we knewof the place when we started that morning being that there were somecurious old ruins there. The pyramid was composed of blocks of hewn stone, so accurately fittedtogether as hardly to show the joints, and the carving goes on withoutinterruption from one block to another. Some of these blocks are eightfeet long, and nearly three feet wide. They were laid together withoutmortar, and indeed, from the construction of the building, none wasrequired. The first storey is about sixteen feet high, including theplinth at the bottom. Above the plinth comes a sculptured group offigures, which is repeated in panels all round the pyramid, twice oneach side. Each panel occupies a space thirty feet long by ten inheight, and the bas-reliefs project three or four inches. There is achief, dressed in a girdle, and with a head-dress of feathers just likethose of the Red Indians of the north. Below the girdle he terminatesin a scroll. In the middle of the group is what may perhaps be apalm-tree, with a rabbit at its foot. Close to the tree, and reachingnearly to the same height, is a figure with a crocodile's head wearinga crown, and with drapery in parallel lines, like the wings of thecreatures in the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Indeed this may very likely be aconventional representation of the robes of feather-work socharacteristic of Mexico. [Illustration: SCULPTURED PANEL. From the ruined Pyramid of Xochicalco. (After Nebel. )] Above these bas-reliefs is a frieze between three and four feet high, with another sculptured panel repeated eight times on each side of thepyramid. This remarkable sculpture represents a man sitting barefootand crosslegged. On his head is a kind of crown or helmet, with a plumeof feathers; and from the front of this helmet there protrudes aserpent, just where in the Egyptian sculptures the royal basilisk isfixed on the crowns of kings and queens. The eyes of this personage areprotected by round plates with holes in the middle, held on by a strapround the head, like the coloured glasses used in the United States tokeep off the glare of the sun, and known as "goggles. " In front of thisfigure are sculptured a rabbit and some unintelligible ornaments orweapons. "Rabbit" may have been his name. The frieze is surmounted by a cornice; and above the cornice of thesecond storey enough remains to show that it was covered with reliefs, in the same way as the first There were five storeys originally: theothers have only been destroyed about a century. The former proprietorof the hacienda of Temisco pulled down the upper storeys, and carriedaway the blocks of stone to build walls and dams with. The perfect execution of the details in the bas-reliefs and theaccuracy with which they are repeated show clearly that it was not somuch want of skill as the necessity of keeping to the conventional modeof representing objects that has given so grotesque a character to theMexican scriptures. Certain figures became associated with religion andastrology in Mexico, as in many other countries; and the sculptor, though his facility in details shows that he could have made far betterfigures if he had had a chance, never had the opportunity, for he wasnot allowed to depart from the original rude type of the sacred object. Humboldt remarks that the same undeviating reproduction of fixed modelsis as striking in the Mexican sculptures done since the Conquest. Theclumsy outlines of the rude figures of saints brought from Europe inthe 16th century were adopted as models by the native sculptors, andhave lasted without change to this day. It is evident that Xochicalco answered several purposes. It was afortified hill of great strength, also a sacred shrine, and aburial-place for men of note, whose bodies, no doubt, still lie underthe ruined cairns near the pyramid. The magnitude of the ditch and theterraces, as well as the great size of the blocks of stone brought upthe hill without the aid of beasts of burden, indicate a largepopulation and a despotic government. The beauty of the masonry andsculpture show that the people who erected this monument had made nosmall progress in the arts. We must remember, too, that they had noiron, but laboriously cut and polished the hardest granite and porphyrywith instruments of stone and bronze; we can hardly tell how. The resemblances which people find between Assyrian and Egyptiansculptures and the American monuments are of little value, and do notseem sufficient to ground any argument upon. When slightly civilizedraces copy men, trees, and animals in their rude way, it would be hardif there were not some resemblance among the figures they produce. Withreference to their ornamentation, it is true that what is called the"key-border" is quite common in Mexico and Yucatan, and that on thisvery pyramid the panels are divided by a twisted border, which wouldnot be noticed as peculiar in a "renaissance" building. But the modelof this border may have been suggested--on either side of the globe--bycreepers twined together in the forest, or by a cord doubled andtwisted, such as is represented in one of the commonest Egyptianhieroglyphs. The cornice which finishes the first storey of the pyramid is afamiliar pattern, but nothing can be concluded from these simplegeometrical designs, which might be invented over and over again bydifferent races when they began to find pleasure in tracing ornamentaldevices upon their buildings. Upon the tattooed skins of savages suchdesigns may be seen, and the patterns were certainly in use among thembefore they had any intercourse with white men. This is the viewHumboldt takes of these coincidences. That both the Egyptian king andthe Mexican chief should wear a helmet with a serpent standing out fromit just above the forehead, is somewhat extraordinary. Now, who built Xochicalco? Writers on Mexico are quite ready with theiranswer. They tell us that, according to the Mexican tradition, thecountry was formerly inhabited by another race, who were called_Toltecâ_, or, as we say, _Toltecs_, from the name of their city, _Tollan_, "the Reed-swamp;" and that they were of the same race as theAztecs, as shown by the names of their cities and their kings beingAztec words; that they were a highly civilized people, and brought intothe country the arts of sculpture, hieroglyphic painting, greatimprovements in agriculture, many of the peculiar religious rites sincepractised by other nations who settled after them in Mexico, and thefamous astronomical calendar, of which I shall speak afterwards. Theparticular Toltec king to whom the Mexican historians ascribe thebuilding of Xochicalco was called Nauhyotl, that is to say, "FourBells, " and died A. D. 945. We are further told that just about the time of our Norman Conquest, the Toltecs were driven out from the Mexican plateau by famine andpestilence, and migrated again southward. Only a few families remained, and from them the Aztecs, Chichemecs, and other barbarous tribes bywhom the country was re-peopled, derived that knowledge of the arts andsciences upon which their own civilization was founded. It was by thisToltec nation--say the Mexican writers--that the monuments ofXochichalco, Teotihuacán, and Cholula were built. In their architecturethe Aztecs did little more than copy the works left by theirpredecessors; and, to this day, the Mexican Indians call a builder a_toltecatl_ or _Toltec_. If we consider this circumstantial account to be anything but a meretissue of fables, the question naturally arises--what became of theremains of the Toltecs when they left the high plains of Mexico? Atheory has been propounded to answer this question, that they settledin Chiapas and Yucatan, and built Palenque, Copan, and Uxmal, and theother cities, the ruins of which lie imbedded in the tropical forest. At the time that Prescott wrote his History of the Conquest, such atheory was quite tenable; but the new historic matter lately made knownby the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg has given a different aspect to thequestion. Without attempting to maintain the credibility of thiswriter's history as a whole, I cannot but think that he has given ussatisfactory grounds for believing that the ruined cities of CentralAmerica were built by a race which flourished long before the Toltecs;that they were already declining in power and civilization in theseventh century, when the Toltecs began to flourish in Mexico; and thatthe present Mayas of Yucatan are their degenerate descendants. What I have seen of Central American and Mexican antiquities, and ofdrawings of them in books, tends to support the Abbé Brasseur deBourbourg's view of the history of these countries. Traces ofcommunication between the two peoples are to be found in abundance, butnothing to warrant our holding that either people took its civilizationbodily from the other. My excuse for entering into these details mustbe that some of the facts I have to offer are new. A bas-relief at Kabah, described in Mr. Stephens' account of his secondjourney, bears considerable resemblance to that on the so-called"sacrificial stone" of Mexico; and the warrior has the characteristicMexican _maquahuitl_, or "Hand-wood, " a mace set with rows of obsidianteeth. A curious ornament is met with in the Central American sculptures, representing a serpent with a man's face looking out from between itsdistended jaws; and we find a similar design in the Aztecpicture-writings, sculptures, and pottery. A remarkable peculiarity in the Aztec picture-writings is that thepersonages represented often have one or more figures of tonguessuspended in mid-air near their mouths, indicating that they arespeaking, or that they are persons in authority. Such tongues are to beseen on the Yucatan sculptures. One of the panels on the Pyramid of Xochicalco seems to have a bearingupon this subject, I mean that of the cross-legged chief, of which Ihave just spoken. In the first place, sitting cross-legged is not an Aztec custom. I donot think we ever saw an Indian in Mexico sitting cross-legged. In thepicture-writings of the Aztecs, the men sit doubled up, with theirchins almost touching their knees; while the women have their legstucked under them, and their feet sticking out on the left side. On theother hand, this attitude is quite characteristic of the Yucatansculptures. At Copan there is an altar, with sixteen chiefs sittingcross-legged round it; and, moreover, one of them has a head-dress verymuch like that of the Xochicalco chief (except that it has no serpent), and others are more or less similar; while I do not recollect anythinglike it in the Mexican picture-writings. The curious perforatedeye-plates of the Xochicalco chief, which he wore--apparently--to keeparrows and javelins out of his eyes, are part of the equipment of theAztec warrior in the picture-writings, while Palenque and Copan seemedto afford no instance of them; so that in two peculiarities theremarkable sculpture before us seems to belong rather to Yucatan thanto Mexico, and in one to Mexico rather than to Yucatan. It is not even possible in all cases to distinguish Central Americansculptures from those of Mexican origin. Among the numerous stonefigures in Mr. Christy's museum, some are unmistakably of CentralAmerican origin, and some as certainly Mexican; but beside these, thereare many which both their owner and myself, though we had handledhundreds of such things, were obliged to leave on the debatable groundbetween the two classes. So much for the resemblances. But the differences are of much greaterweight. The pear-shaped heads of most of the Central American figures, whose peculiar configuration is only approached by the wildestcaricatures of Louis Philippe, are perfectly distinctive. So are thehieroglyphics arranged in squares, found on the sculptures of CentralAmerica and in the Dresden Codex. So is the general character of thearchitecture and sculpture, as any one may see at a glance. It is quite true that the so-called Aztec Astronomical Calendar was inuse in Central America, and that many of the religious observances inboth countries, such as the method of sacrificing the human victims, and the practice of the worshippers drawing blood from themselves inhonour of the gods, are identical. But there were several ways in whichthis might have been brought about, and it is no real proof that thecivilization of either country was an offshoot from that of the other. To consider it as such would be like arguing that the negroes of Cubaand the Indians of Yucatan had derived their civilization one from theother, because both peoples are Roman Catholics, and use the samealmanac. On the whole I am disposed to conclude that the civilizationsof Mexico and Central America were originally independent, but thatthey came much into contact, and thus modified one another to no smallextent. At the risk of being prosy, I will mention the _a priori_ grounds uponwhich we may argue that the civilization of Central America did notgrow up there, but was brought ready-made by a people who emigratedthere from some other country. There is a theory afloat, that it isonly in temperate climates that barbarous nations make much progress incivilizing themselves. In tropical countries the intensity of the heatmakes man little disposed for exertion, and the luxuriance of thevegetation supplies him with the little he requires. In suchclimates--say the advocates of this theory--man acknowledges thesupremacy of nature over himself, and gives up the attempt to shape herto his own purposes; and thus, in these countries, the inhabitants goon from generation to generation, lazily enjoying their existence, making no effort, and indeed feeling no desire to raise themselves inthe social scale. Upon this theory, therefore, when we find a highcivilization in hot countries, as in the plains of India, we have toaccount for it by supposing an immigration of races bringing theircivilization with them from more temperate climates. This theory ofcivilization favours the idea of the Central American cities havingbeen built by a people from Mexico. The climate of the Mexicanhighlands, which may be taken in a rough way to correspond with that ofNorth Italy, is well suited to a nation's development. But the citiesof Yucatan and Chiapas, though geographically not far removed from theMexican plateau, are brought by their small elevation above the seainto a very different climate. They are in the land of tropical heatand the rankest vegetation, in the midst of dense forests wherepestilential fevers and overwhelming lassitude make it almostimpossible for Europeans to live, and where the Indians who stillinhabit the neighbourhood of the ruined cities are the merest savagessunk in the lowest depths of lazy ignorance. If this climate-theory of progress have any truth in it, no barbaroustribe could have raised itself in such a country to the social statewhich is indicated by the ruins of such temples and cities. They musthave been settlers from some more temperate region. While wandering about the hill of Xochicalco we came upon a spot thatstrongly excited our curiosity. It was simply a small paved oval spacewith a little altar at one end, and, lying round about it, somefragments of what seemed to have been a hideous grotesque idol of bakedclay. Perhaps it was a shrine dedicated to one of the inferior deities, such as often surrounded the greater temples; for, in Mexico, astronomy, astrology, and religion had become mixed up together, asthey have been in other quarters of the globe, and even theastronomical signs of days and months had temples of their own. Xochicalco means "In the House of Flowers. " The word"flower, "--_xochitl_, --is often a part of the names of Mexican placesand people, such as the lake of Xochimilco--"In the Flower-plantation. "_Tlilxochitl_, literally "black flower, " is the Aztec name for vanilla, so that the name of that famous Mexican historian, Ixtlilxochitl, whosename sticks in the throats of readers of Prescott, means"Vanilla-face. " Why the place was called "In the House of Flowers" isnot clear. The usual explanation seems not unlikely, that it wasbecause offerings of flowers and first-fruits were made upon itsshrines. The Toltecs, say the Mexican chroniclers, did not sacrificehuman victims; and it was not until long after other tribes had takenpossession of their deserted temples, that the Aztecs introduced thecustom by sacrificing their prisoners of war. It seems odd, however, that one of the Toltec kings should have been called Topiltzin, whichwas the title of the chief priest among the Aztecs, whose duty it wasto cut open the breasts of the human victims and tear out their hearts. The Indians always delighted in carrying flowers in their solemnprocessions, crowning themselves with garlands, and decorating theirhouses and temples with them; and, while they worshipped their godsaccording to the simple rites which tradition says their prophet, Quetzalcoatl, ("Feathered Snake, ") appointed, before he left them andembarked in his canoe on the Eastern ocean, no name could have beenmore appropriate for their temple. This pleasant custom did notdisappear after the Conquest; and to this day the churches in theIndian districts are beautiful with their brilliant garlands andnosegays, and are as emphatically "houses of flowers" as were thetemples in ages long past. Since writing the above notice of the Pyramid of Xochicalco, I havecome upon a new piece of evidence, which, if it may be depended on, proves more about the history of this remarkable monument than all therest put together. Dupaix made a drawing of the ruins at Xochicalco in1805, which is to be found in Lord Kingsborough's 'Antiquities ofMexico, ' and among the sculptures of the upper tier of blocks isrepresented a reed, with its leaves set in a square frame, with threesmall circles underneath; the whole forming, in the most unmistakableway, the sign 3 Acatl (3 Cane) of the Mexican Astronomical Calendar. Now it must be admitted that Dupaix's drawing of these ruins is mostgrossly incorrect; but still no amount of mere carelessness in anartist will justify us in supposing him to have invented and put in outof his own head a design so entirely _sui generis_ as this. It does noteven follow that the drawing is wrong because the sign may not be foundthere now; for it was in an upper tier, and no doubt many stones havebeen removed since 1805, for building-purposes. If the existence of the sign 3 Acatl on the pyramid may be consideredas certain, it will fit in perfectly with the accounts of the Mexicanhistorians, who state that Xochicalco was built by a king of the Toltecrace, and also that the Aztecs adopted the astronomical calendars ofyears and days in use among the Toltecs. It was afternoon when we left Xochicalco and rode on over a gentlyundulating country, crossing streams here and there, and had ourbreakfast at Miacatlán under a shed in front of the village shop, whereall the activity of the little Indian town seemed to be concentrated. By the road-side were beautiful tamarind-trees with their dark greenfoliage, and the mamei-tree as large as a fine English horse-chestnut, and not unlike it at a distance. On the branches were hanging the greatmameis, just like the inside of cocoa-nuts when the inner shell hasbeen cracked off. It appeared that Nature was not acquainted with M. DeLa Fontaine's works, or she would probably have got a hint from thefable of the acorn and the pumpkin, and not have hung mameis andcocoa-nuts at such a dangerous height. [Illustration: AZTEC HEAD IN TERRA-COTTA. (From Mr. Christy'sCollection. )] CHAPTER VIII. COCOYOTLA. CACAHUAMILPÁN. CHALMA. OCULAN. TENANCINGO. TOLUCA. [Illustration: IXTCALCO CHURCH. ] A little before dark we came to the hacienda of Santa Rosita deCocoyotla, another sugar-plantation which was to be our head-quartersfor some days to come. We presented our letter of introduction from theowner of the estate, and the two administradors received us with openarms. We were conducted into the strangers' sleeping-room, a longbarrack-like apartment with stone walls and a stone floor that seemedrefreshingly dark and cool; we could look out through its barredwindows into the garden, where a rapid little stream of water runningalong the channel just outside made a pleasant gurgling sound. Appearances were delusive, however, and it was only the changefrom the outside that made us feel the inside cool and pleasant. Fordays our clothes clung to us as if we had been drowned, and thepocket-handkerchiefs with which we mopped our faces had to be hung onchair-backs to dry. Except in the early morning, there was no coolnessin that sweltering place. In one corner of our room I discerned a brown toad of monstrous sizesquatting in great comfort on the damp flags. He was as big as atrussed chicken, and looked something like one in the twilight. Wepointed him out to the administrador, who brought in two fiercewatchdogs, but the toad set up his back and spirted his acrid liquor, and the dogs could not be got to go near him. We stirred him up with abamboo and drove him into the garden, but he left his portrait paintedin slime upon our floor. The Indian choir chanted the Oración as we had heard it the nightbefore at Temisco, and then came the calling over of the raya. Afterthat we walked about the place, and sat talking in the open corridor. Owners of estates, and indeed all white folks living in this part ofthe country were beginning to feel very anxious about their position, and not without reason. Ordinary political events excite but littleinterest in these Indian districts, and so trifling a matter as arevolution and a change of people in power does not affect themperceptibly. The Indians are absolutely free, and have their votes andtheir civil privileges like any other citizens. All that the owners ofthe plantations ask of them is to work for high wages, and hithertothey have done this, but for years it has been becoming more and moredifficult to get them to work. All they do with the money when they getit, is to spend it in drinking and gambling, if they are of anextravagant turn of mind; or to bury it in some out-of-the-way place, if they are given to saving. If they were whites or half-caste Mexicansthey would spend their money upon fine clothes and horses, but theIndian keeps to the white cotton dress of his fathers, and is neverseen on horseback. Now this being the case, it does not seemunreasonable that they should not much care about working hard formoney that is of so little use to them when they have got it, and thatthey should prefer living in their little huts walled with canes andthatched with palm-leaves, and cultivating the little patch ofgarden-ground that lies round it--which will produce enough fruit andvegetables for their own subsistence, and more besides, which they cansell for clothes and tobacco. A day or two of this pleasant easy workat their own ground will provide this, and they do not see why theyshould labour as hired servants to get more. This is bad enough, thinkthe hacendados, but there is worse behind. The Indians have been oflate years becoming gradually aware that the government of the countryis quite rotten and powerless, and that in their own districts atleast, the power is very much in their own hands, for the few scatteredwhites could offer but slight resistance. The doctrine of "America forthe Americans" is rapidly spreading among them, and active emissariesare going about reminding them that the Spaniards only got their landsby the right of the strongest, and that now is the time for them toreassert their rights. The name of Alvarez is circulated among them, as the man who is to leadthem in the coming struggle--Alvarez the mulatto general, whose hideousportrait is in every print-shop in Mexico. He was President beforeComonfort, and is now established with his Indian regiments in the hotpestilential regions of the Pacific coast. The undisguised contempt with which the Indians have been treated forages by the whites and the mestizos has not been without its effect. The revolution, and the abolition of all legal distinctions of castestill left the Indians mere senseless unreasoning creatures in the eyesof the whiter races; and, if the original race once get the upper hand, it will go hard with the whites and their estates in these parts. Onlya day or two before we came down from Mexico, the government hadendeavoured to quarter some troops in one of the little Indian townswhich we passed through on our way from Temisco. But the inhabitantssaluted them with volleys of stones from the church-steeple and thehouse-tops, and they had to retreat most ignominiously into their oldquarters among "reasonable people. " I have put down our notions on the "Indian Question, " just as theypresented themselves to us at the time. The dismal forebodings of theplanters seem to have been fulfilled to some extent at least, for weheard, not long after our return to Europe, that the Indians hadplundered and set fire to numbers of the haciendas of the southcountry, and that our friends the administradors of Cocoyotla hadescaped with their lives. The hacienda itself, if our information iscorrect, which I can hardly doubt, is now a blackened deserted ruin. At supper appeared two more guests besides ourselves, apparentlytraders carrying goods to sell at the villages and haciendas on theroad. In such places the hacienda offers its hospitality to alltravellers, and there was room in our caravanserai for yet morevisitors if they had come. Our beds were like those in general use inthe tropics, where mattresses would be unendurable, and even thepillows become a nuisance. The frame of the bed has a piece of coarsecloth stretched tightly over it; a sheet is laid upon this, and anothersheet covers the sleeper. This compromise between a bed and a hammockanswers the purpose better than anything else, and admits of somecirculation of air, especially when you have kicked off the sheet andlie fully exposed to the air and the mosquitos. I cannot say that it is pleasant to wake an hour or two after going tobed, with your exact profile depicted in a wet patch on the pillow; noris it agreeable to become conscious at the same time of an intolerableitching, and to find, on lighting a candle, that an army of small antsare walking over you, and biting furiously. These were my experiencesduring my first night at Cocoyotla; and I finished the night, lyinghalf-dressed on my bed, with the ends of my trousers-legs tied closewith handkerchiefs to keep the creatures out. But when we got into oursaddles in the early morning, we forgot all these little miseries, andstarted merrily on our expedition to the great stalactitic cave ofCacahuamilpán. Our day's journey had two objects; one was to see the cave, and theother to visit the village close by, --one of the genuine unmixed Indiancommunities, where even the Alcalde and the Cura, the temporal andspiritual heads of the society, are both of pure Indian blood, andwhite influence has never been much felt. [Illustration: INDIANS MAKING & BAKING TORTILLAS. (After Models made bya Native Artist. )] A ride of two or three hours from the hacienda brought us into amountainous district, and there we found the village of Cacahuamilpánon the slope of a hill. In the midst of neat trim gardens stood thelittle white church, and the ranches of the inhabitants, cottages ofone room, with walls of canes which one can see through in alldirections, and roofs of thatch, with the ground smoothed and troddenhard for a floor. Everything seemed clean and prosperous, and there wasa bright sunny look about the whole place; but to Englishmen, accustomed to the innumerable appliances of civilized life, it seemssurprising how very few and simple are the wants of these people. Theinventory of their whole possessions will only occupy a few lines. The_metate_ for grinding or rubbing down the maize to be patted out intotortillas, a few calabashes for bottles, and pieces of calabashes forbowls and cups, prettily ornamented and painted, and hanging on pegsround the walls. A few palm-leaf mats (petates) to sleep upon, somepots of thin unglazed earthenware for the cooking, which is done over awood-fire in the middle of the floor. A chimney is not necessary inhouses which are like the Irishman's coat, consisting principally ofholes. A wooden box, somewhere, contains such of the clothes of thefamily as are not in wear. There is really hardly anything I can thinkof to add to this catalogue, except the agricultural implements, whichconsist of a wooden spade, a hoe, some sharp stakes to make the drillswith, and the machete--which is an iron bill-hook, and serves forpruning, woodcutting, and now and then for less peaceful purposes. Sometimes one sees women weaving cotton-cloth, or _manta_, as it iscalled, in a loom of the simplest possible construction; or sitting attheir doors in groups, spinning cotton-thread with the _malacates_, andapparently finding as much material for gossip here as elsewhere. The Mexicans spun and wove their cotton-cloth just in this way beforethe Conquest, and malacates of baked clay are found in great numbers inthe neighbourhood of the old Mexican cities. They are simple, like verylarge button-moulds, and a thin wooden skewer stuck in the hole in themiddle makes them ready for use. Such spindles were used by thelake-men of Switzerland, but the earthen heads were not quite the samein shape, being like balls pierced with a hole, as are those at presentused in Mexico. The Indians here had not the dull sullen look we saw among those whoinhabit the colder regions; and, though belonging to the same race, they were better formed and had a much freer bearing than their lessfortunate countrymen of the colder districts. Our business in the village was to get guides for the cavern. Whilesome men were gone to look for the Alcalde, we walked about thevillage, and finally encamped under a tree. One of our men had got us abag full of fruit, --limes, zapotes, and nisperos, which last are alarge kind of medlar, besides a number of other kinds of fruit, whichwe ate without knowing what they were. Though rather insipid, the limesare deliciously refreshing in this thirsty country; and they do noharm, however enormously one may indulge in them. The wholeneighbourhood abounds in fruit, and its name _Cacahuamilpán_ means "theplantation of _cacahuate_ nuts. " It soon became evident that the Alcalde was keeping us waiting as amatter of dignity, and to show that, though the white men might be heldin great estimation elsewhere, they did not think so much of them inthis free and independent village. At last a man came to summon us to asolemn audience. In a hut of canes, the Alcalde, a little lame Indian, was sitting on a mat spread on the ground in the middle, with hisescribano or secretary at his left hand. Other Indians were standingoutside at the door. The little man scarcely condescended to take anynotice of us when we saluted him, but sat bolt upright, positivelybursting with suppressed dignity, and the escribano inquired in a loudvoice what our business was. We told him we wanted guides to the cave, which he knew as well as we did; but instead of answering, he began totalk to the Alcalde. We quite appreciated the pleasure it must havebeen to the two functionaries to show off before us and their assembledcountrymen, who were looking on at the proceedings with great respect;and we had not minded affording them this cheap satisfaction; but atlast the joke seemed to be getting stale, so we proceeded some to sitand some to lie down at full length, and to go on eating limes in thepresence of the August company. Thereupon they informed us what wouldbe the cost of guides and candles, and we eventually made a bargainwith them and started on foot. On looking at the map of the State of Mexico, there is to be seen ariver which stops suddenly on reaching the mountains of Cacahuamilpán, and begins again on the other side, having found a passage for itselfthrough caves in the mountain for six or seven miles. Not far from theplace where this river flows out of the side of the hill, is a pathwhich leads to the entrance of the cave. A long downward slope broughtus into the first great vaulted chamber, perhaps a quarter of a milelong and eighty feet high; then a long scramble through a narrowpassage, and another hall still grander than the first. At the end ofthis hall is another passage leading on into another chamber. Beyondthis we did not go. As it was, we must have walked between one and twomiles into the cavern, but people have explored it to twice thisdistance, always finding a repetition of the same arrangement, greatvaulted chambers alternating with long passages almost choked by fallenrocks. In one of the passages, I think the last we came to, the roaringof the river in its subterranean bed was distinctly audible below us. Excepting the great cave of Kentucky, I believe there is no stalactiticcavern known so vast and beautiful as this. The appearance of thelargest hall was wonderful when some twenty of our Indian guidesstationed themselves on pinnacles of stalagmite, each one holding up ablazing torch, while two more climbed upon a great mass at one endcalled the altar, and burnt Bengal lights there; the rest stood at theother extremity of the cave sending up rockets in rapid succession intothe vaulted roof, and making the millions of grotesque incrustationsglitter as if they had been masses of diamonds: All the quaint shapesthat are found in such caverns were to be seen here on the grandestscale, columns, arched roof, organ-pipes, trees, altars, and squattingmonsters ranged in long lines like idols in a temple. There may verywell be some truth in the notion that the origin of Gothic architecturewas in stalactites of a limestone cavern, so numerous and perfect arethe long slender columns crowned with pointed Gothic arches. Our procession through the cave was a picturesque one. We carried longwax altar-candles and our guides huge torches made of threads ofaloe-fibre soaked in resin and wrapped round with cloth, in appearanceand texture exactly like the legs and arms of mummies. As we went, theIndians sang Mexican songs to strange, monotonous, plaintive tunes, orraced about into dark corners shouting with laughter. They talked aboutadventures in the cave, to them of course the great phenomenon of thewhole world; but it did not seem, as far as we could hear, that theyassociated with it any recollections of the old Aztec divinities andthe mystic rites performed in their honour. No fossil bones have been found in the cavern, nor human remains exceptin one of the passages far within, where a little wooden cross stillmarks the spot where the skeleton of an Indian was found. Whether hewent alone for mere curiosity to explore the cave, or, what is morelikely, with an idea of finding treasure, is not known; nothing iscertain but that his candle was burnt out while he was still far fromthe entrance, and that he died there. I said no fossil remains had beenfound, but the level floors of the great halls are continually beingraised by fresh layers of stalagmite from the water dropping from theroof, and no one knows what may lie under them. These floors are inmany places covered with little loose concretions like marbles, andthese concretions in the course of time are imbedded in the horizontallayers of the same material. As we left the entrance hall and began to ascend the sloping passagethat leads to daylight, we saw an optical appearance which, had we notseen it with our own eyes, we could never have believed to be a naturaleffect of light and shade. To us, still far down in the cave, theentrance was only illuminated by reflected light; but as the Indiansreached it, the direct rays of sunlight fell upon them, and their whitedresses shone with an intense phosphoric light, as though they had beenself-luminous. It is just such an effect that is wanting in ourpictures of the Transfiguration, but I fear it is as impossible topaint it upon canvas as to describe it in words. Next morning our friend Don Guillermo said good-bye to us, and startedto return post-haste to his affairs in the capital. We stayed a fewdays longer at Cocoyotla, never tiring of the beautiful garden with itsgroves of orange-trees and cocoanut-palms, and the river which, runningthrough it, joins the stream that we heard rushing along in the cavern, to flow down into the Pacific. On Sunday morning the priest arrived on an ambling mule, the favouriteclerical animal. They say it is impossible to ride a mule unless youare either an arriero or a priest. Not that it is by any meansnecessary, however, that he should ride a mule. I shall not soon forgetthe jaunty young monk we saw at Tezcuco, just setting out for a countryfestival, mounted on a splendid little horse, with his frock tucked up, and a pair of hairy goat-skin _chaparreros_ underneath, a broad Mexicanhat, a pair of monstrous silver spurs, and a very large cigar in hismouth. The girls came out of the cottage doors to look at him, as hemade the fiery little beast curvet and prance along the road; and hewas evidently not insensible to the looks of admiration of these youngladies, as they muffled up their faces in their blue rebozos and lookedat him through the narrow opening. Nearly two hundred Indians crowded into the church to mass, and wentthrough the service with evident devotion. There are no more sincereCatholics in the world than the Indians, though, as I have said, theyare apt to keep up some of their old rites in holes and corners. Theadministradors did not trouble themselves to attend mass, but went onposting up their books just outside the church-door; in this, as in agreat many other little matters, showing their contempt for the brownmen, and adding something every day to the feeling of dislike they areregarded with. We speak of the Indians still keeping up their ancient superstitiousrites in secret, as we often heard it said so in Mexico, though weourselves never saw anything of it. The Abbé Clavigero, who wrote inthe last century, declares the charge to be untrue, except perhaps in afew isolated cases. "The few examples of idolatry, " he says, "which canbe produced are partly excusable; since it is not to be wondered atthat rude uncultured men should not be able to distinguish theidolatrous worship of a rough figure of wood or stone from that whichis rightly paid to the holy images. " (There are people who would quiteagree with the good Abbé that the distinction is rather a difficult oneto make. ) "But how often has prejudice against them declared things tobe idols which were really images of the saints, though shapeless ones!In 1754 I saw some images found in a cave, which were thought to beidols; but I had no doubt that they were figures representing themystery of the Holy Nativity. " A good illustration of the wholesale way in which the early Catholicmissionaries went about the work of conversion is given in a remark ofClavigero's. There is one part of the order of baptism which proceedsthus: "Then the Priest, wetting his right thumb with spittle from hismouth, and touching therewith in the form of a cross the right ear ofthe person to be baptized, &c. " The Mexican missionaries, it seems, hadto leave out this ceremony, from sheer inability to provide enough ofthe requisite material for their crowds of converts. After mass we rode out to a mound that had attracted our attention aday or two before, and which proved to be a fort or temple, or probablyboth combined. There were no remains to be found there except the usualfragments of pottery and obsidian. Then we returned to the hacienda tosay good-bye to our friends there, before starting on our journey backto Mexico. All the population were hard at work amusing themselves, andthe shop was doing a roaring trade in glasses of aguardiente. TheIndian who had been our guide for some days past had opened a Montébank with the dollars we had given him, and was sitting on the groundsolemnly dealing cards one by one from the bottom of a dirty pack, acrowd of gamblers standing or sitting in a semicircle before him, silently watching the cards and keeping a vigilant eye upon theirstakes which lay on the ground before the banker. Other parties werebusy at the same game in other parts of the open space before the shop, which served as the great square for the colony. Under the arcades in front of the shop a fandango was going on, thoughit was quite early in the afternoon. A man and a woman stood facingeach other, an old man tinkled a guitar, producing a strange, endless, monotonous tune, and the two dancers stamped with their feet, and movedtheir arms and bodies about in time to the music, throwing themselvesinto affected and voluptuous attitudes which evidently met with theapproval of the bystanders, though to us, who did not see with Indianeyes, they seemed anything but beautiful. When the danseuse had tiredout one partner, another took his place. An admiring crowd stood roundor sat on the stone benches, smoking cigarettes, and looking on gravelyand silently, with evident enjoyment. Just as we saw it, it would go onprobably through half the night, one couple, or perhaps two, keeping itup constantly, the rest looking on and refreshing themselves from timeto time with raw spirits. Though inferior to the Eastern dancing, itresembled it most strikingly, my companion said. It has little to dowith the really beautiful and artistic dancing of Old Spain, but seemsto be the same that the people delighted in long before they ever saw awhite man. Montezuma's palace contained a perfect colony ofprofessional dancers, whose sole business was to entertain him withtheir performances, which only resembled those of the Old World becausehuman nature is similar everywhere, and the same wants and instinctsoften find their development in the same way among nations totallyseparated from each other. We left the natives to their amusement, and started on our twenty milesride. By the time the evening had fairly begun to close in upon us, wecrossed the crest of a hill and had a dim view of a valley below us, but there were no signs of Chalma or its convent. We let our horsesfind their way as well as they could along the rocky path, and got downinto the valley. A light behind us made us turn round, and we saw agrand sight. The coarse grass on a large hill further down the valleyhad been set fire to, and a broad band of flame stretched right acrossthe base of the hill, and was slowly moving upwards towards its top, throwing a lurid glare over the surrounding country, and upon theclouds of smoke that were rising from the flames. Every now and then weturned to watch the line of fire as it rose higher and higher, till atlast it closed in together at the summit with one final blaze, and leftus in the darkness. We dismounted and stumbled along, leading ourhorses down the precipitous sides of the deep ravines that run into thevalley, mounting again to cross the streams at the bottom, andclambering up on the other side to the level of the road. At last aturn in the valley showed lights just before us, and we entered thevillage of Chalma, which was illuminated with flaring oil-lamps in thestreets, where men were hard at work setting up stalls and booths ofplanks. It seemed there was to be a fair next day. They showed us the way to the _meson_[16] and there we left Antoniowith the horses, while the proprietor sent an idiot boy to show us theway to the convent, for our inspection of the meson decided us at onceon seeking the hospitality of the monks for the night. We climbed upthe hill, went in at the convent-gate, across a courtyard, along a dimcloister, and through another door where our guide made his way out bya different opening, leaving us standing in total darkness. After atime another door opened, and a good-natured-looking friar came in witha lamp in his hand, and conducted us upstairs to his cell. I think ourfriend was the sub-prior of the convent. His cell was a very comfortablebachelor's apartment, in a plain way, vaulted and whitewashed, with goodchairs and a table and a very comfortable-looking bed. We sat talking with him for a long while, and heard that the fair nextday would be attended by numbers of Indians from remote places amongthe mountains, and that at noon there would be an Indian dance in thechurch. It is not the great festival, however, he said. That is once ayear; and then the Indians come from fifty miles round, and stay hereseveral days, living in the caves in the rock just by the town, buyingand selling in the fair, attending mass, and having solemn dances inthe church. We asked him about the ill feeling between the Indians andthe whites. He said that among the planters it might be as we said, butthat in the neighbourhood of his convent the respect and affection ofthe Indians for the clergy, whether white or Indian, was as great asever. Then we gossipped about horses, of which our friend was evidentlyan amateur, and when the conversation flagged, he turned to the tablein the middle of the room and handed us little bowls made ofcalabashes, prettily decorated and carved, and full of sweetmeats. There were ten or twelve of these little bowls on the table, each witha different kind of "tuck" in it. We inquired where all those goodthings came from, and learnt that making them was one of the favouriteoccupations of the Mexican nuns, who keep their brethren in themonasteries well supplied. At last the good monk went away to hisduties and left us, when I could not resist the temptation of having alook at the little books in blue and green paper covers which werelying on the table with the sweetmeat-bowls and the venerable oldmissal. They proved to be all French novels done into Spanish, and"Notre-Dame de Paris" was lying open (under a sheet of paper); so Iconclude that our visit had interrupted the sub-prior while deep inthat improving work. Presently a monk came to conduct us down into the refectory, and therethey gave us an uncommonly good supper of wonderful Mexican stews, red-hot as usual, and plenty of good Spanish wine withal. The greatdignitaries of the cloister did not appear, but some fifteen or twentymonks were at table with us, and never tired of questioning us--exactlyin the same fashion that the ladies of the harem questioned Doña Juana. We delighted them with stories of the miraculous Easter fire atJerusalem, and the illumination of St. Peter's, of the Sistine chapeland the Pope, and we parted for the night in high good humour. Next morning a monk attached himself to us as our cicerone, a fineyoung fellow with a handsome face, and no end of fun in him. Now that we saw the convent by daylight, we were delighted with thebeauty of its situation. The broad fertile valley grows narrower andnarrower until it becomes a gorge in the mountains; and here theconvent is built, with the mountain-stream running through itsbeautiful gardens, and turning the wheel of the convent-mill before itflows on into the plain to fertilize the broad lands of the reverendfathers. When we had visited the gardens and the stables, our young monk broughtus back to the great church of the convent, where we took our placesnear the monks, who had mustered in full force to be present at thedancing. Presently the music arrived, an old man with a harp, and awoman with a violin; and then came the dancers, eight Indian boys withshort tunics and head-dresses of feathers, and as many girls with whitedresses, and garlands of flowers on their heads. The costumes wereevidently intended to represent the Indian dresses of the days ofMontezuma, but they were rather modernized by the necessity of wearingvarious articles of dress which would have been superfluous in oldtimes. They stationed themselves in the middle of the church, oppositethe high altar, and, to our unspeakable astonishment, began to dancethe polka. Then came a waltz, then a schottisch, then another waltz, and finally a quadrille, set to unmitigated English tunes. They dancedexceedingly well, and behaved as though they had been used to Europeanball-rooms all their lives. The spectators looked on as though it wereall a matter of course for these brown-skinned boys and girls to haveacquired so singular an accomplishment in their out-of-the-way villageamong the mountains. As for us we looked on in open-mouthedastonishment; and when, in the middle of the quadrille, the harp andviolin struck up no less a tune than "The King of the CannibalIslands, " we could hardly help bursting out into fits of laughter. Werestrained ourselves, however, and kept as grave a countenance as therest of the lookers-on, who had not the faintest idea that anything oddwas happening. The quadrille finished in perfect order; each dancertook his partner by the hand and led her forward; and so, forming aline in front of the high altar, they all knelt down, and the rest ofthe congregation followed their example; there was a dead silence inthe church for about the space of an Ave Maria, then everyone rose, andthe ceremony was over. [17] Our young monk asked permission of his superior to take us out for awalk, and we went down together to the convent-mill. There we saw themill, which was primitive, and the miller, who was burly; and alsosomething much more worth seeing, at least to our young acquaintance, who tucked up his skirts and ran briskly up a ladder into the upperregions, calling to us to follow him. A door led from the granary intothe miller's house, and the miller's daughter happened, of courseentirely by chance, to be coming through that way. A very pretty girlshe was too, and I never in my life saw anything more intensely comicthan the looks of intelligence that passed between her and the youngfriar when he presented us. It was decidedly contrary to good monasticdiscipline it is true, and we ought to have been shocked, but it was sointolerably laughable that my companion bolted into the granary toexamine the wheat, and I took refuge in a violent fit of coughing. Ournerves had been already rudely shaken by the King of the CannibalIslands, and this little scene of convent-life fairly finished us. We asked our young friend what his day's work consisted of, and how heliked convent-life. He yawned, and intimated that it was very slow. Weenquired whether the monks had not some parochial duties to perform, such as visiting the sick and the poor in their neighbourhood. Heevidently wondered whether we were really ignorant, or whether we were"chaffing" him, and observed that that was no business of their's, thecuras of the villages did all that sort of thing. "Then, what have youto do?" we said. "Well, " he said, "there are so many services everyday, and high mass on Sundays and holidays; and besides that, there's--well, there isn't anything particular. It's rather a dulllife. I myself should like uncommonly to go and travel and see theworld, or go and fight somewhere. " We were quite sorry for the youngfellow when we shook hands with him at parting, and he left us to goback to his convent. We had been clambering about the hill, seeing the caves with which itis honeycombed, but at present they were uninhabited. At the time ofthe great festival, when they are full of Indian families, the scenemust be a curious one. The monks had hospitably pressed us to stay till their mid-day meal, but we preferred having it at the shop down in the village, so as tostart directly afterwards. Here the people gave us a regular reception, entertained us with their best, and could not be prevailed upon toaccept any payment whatever. The proprietor of the meson sat downbefore the barley-bin which served him for a desk, and indited a longand eloquent letter of introduction for us to a friend of his inOculan, who was to find a night's lodging for us. Before he sealed upthe despatch he read it to us in a loud voice, sentence by sentence. Itmight have been an autograph letter from King Philip to some foreignpotentate. Armed with this important missive, we mounted our horses, shook hands with no end of well-wishers, and rode off up the valley. For a little while our path lay through a sort of suburb of Chalma, houses lying near one another, each surrounded by a pleasant garden, and both houses and people looking prosperous and cheerful. Ourdirections for finding the way were simple enough. We were to go up thevalley past the Cerra de los Atambores, "the hill of drums, " and thegreat _ahuehuete_. What the Cerra de los Atambores might be, we couldnot tell, but when we had followed the valley for an hour or so, itcame into view. On the other side of the stream rose a precipitouscliff, several hundred feet high, and near the top a perpendicular wallof rock was carved with rude designs. People have supposed, it seems, that these carvings represented drums, and hence the name. Had we known of the place before, we should have made an effort toexplore it, and copy the sculptured designs; but now it was too late, and from the other side of the valley we could not make out more thanthat there seemed to be a figure of the sun among them. A little further on we came to the "Ahuehuete. " The name means adeciduous cypress, a common tree in Mexico, and of which we had alreadyseen such splendid specimens in the grove near Tezcuco, and in the woodof Chapoltepec. This was a remarkable tree as to size, some sixty feetround at the lower part where the roots began to spread out. A copiousspring of water rose within the hollow trunk itself, and ran downbetween the roots into the little river. All over its spreadingbranches were fastened votive offerings of the Indians, hundreds oflocks of coarse black hair, teeth, bits of coloured cloth, rags, andmorsels of ribbon. The tree was many centuries old, and had probablyhad some mysterious influence ascribed to it, and been decorated withsuch simple offerings long before the discovery of America. In Brittanythe peasants still keep up the custom of hanging up locks of their hairin certain chapels, to charm away diseases; and there it is certainthat the Christians only appropriated to their own worship placesalready held sacred in the estimation of the people. Oculan is a dismal little place. We found the great man of the villagestanding at his door, but our letter to him was dishonoured in the mostdecided manner. He read the epistle, carefully folded it up andpocketed it, then pointed in the direction of two or three houses onthe other side of the way, and saying he supposed we might get alodging over there, he wished us good-day and retired into his ownpremises. The landlord of "over there" was very civil. He had a shedfor the horses, and could give us palm-mats to sleep upon on the floor, or on the shop-counter, which was very narrow, but long enough for usboth; and this latter alternative we chose. We walked up to the top of a hill close by the village, and weresurveying the country from thence, keeping a sharp look-out all thewhile for Mexican remains in the furrows. For a wonder, we foundnothing but some broken spindle-heads; but, while we were thusoccupied, two Indians suddenly made their appearance, each with his_machete_ in his hands, and wanted to know what we were doing on theirland. We pacified them by politeness and a cigar apiece, but we werestill evidently objects of suspicion, and they were quite relieved tosee us return to the village. There, an old woman cooked us hard-boiledeggs and tortillas, and then we went tranquilly to bed on our counter, with our saddles for pillows, and our serapes for bed-clothes. All the way from Cocoyotla our height above the sea had been graduallyincreasing; and soon after we started from Oculan next morning, we cameto the foot of one of the grand passes that lead up into the highlands, where the road mounts by zig-zag turns through a splendid forestof pines and oaks, and at the top of the ascent we were in a broadfertile plain as high or higher than the valley of Mexico. It was likeEngland to ride between large fields of wheat and barley, and to pickblackberries in the hedges. It was only April, and yet the grain wasalmost ready for the sickle, and the blackberries were fully ripe. Fresh green grass was growing in the woods under the oak-trees, and thebanks were covered with Alpine strawberries. We are in the great grain-district of the Republic. Wheat is grown forthe supply of the large towns, and barley for the horses. Green barleyis the favourite fodder for the horses in the Mexican highlands, and inthe hotter districts the leaves of young Indian corn. Oats are to beseen growing by chance among other grain, but they are nevercultivated. Though wheat is so much grown upon the plains, it is notbecause the soil and climate are more favourable than elsewhere forsuch culture. In the plains of Toluca and Tenancingo the yield of wheatis less than the average of the Republic, which is from 25- to 30-fold, and in the cloudy valleys we passed through near Orizaba it is muchgreater. Labour is tolerably cheap and plentiful here, however; andthen each large town must draw its supplies of grain from theneighbouring districts, for, in a country where it pays to carry goodson mules' backs, it is clear that grain cannot be carried far tomarket. In the question of the population of Mexico, one begins to speculatewhy--in a country with a splendid climate, a fertile soil, and almostunlimited space to spread in, the inhabitants do not increase one-halfso fast as in England, and about one-sixth as fast as their neighboursof the United States. One of the most important causes which tend tobring about this state of things is the impossibility of conveyinggrain to any distance, except by doubling and trebling its price. Thedisastrous effects of a failure of the crop in one district cannot beremedied by a plentiful harvest fifty miles off; for the peasants, already ruined by the loss of their own harvest, can find neither moneynor credit to buy food brought from a distance at so great an expense. Next year may be fruitful again, but numbers die in the interval, andthe constitutions of a great proportion of the children never recoverthe effects of that one year's famine. We left the regular road and struck up still higher into the hills, riding amongst winding roads with forest above and below us, and greatorchids of the most brilliant colours, blue, white, and crimson, shining among the branches of the oak-trees. The boughs were oftenbreaking down with the bulbs of such epiphytes; but as yet it was earlyin the season, and only here and there one was in flower. At the top ofthe hill, still in the midst of the woods, is the Desierto, "thedesert, " the place we had selected for our noon-day halt. There aremany of these Desiertos in Mexico, founded by rich people in old times. They are a kind of convent, with some few resident ecclesiastics, andnumbers of cells for laymen who retire for a time into this secludedplace and are received gratuitously. They spend a week or two in prayerand fasting, then confess themselves, receive the sacrament, and returninto the world. The situation of this quiet place was well chosen inthe midst of the forest, and once upon a time the cells used to be fullof penitents; but now we saw no one but the old porter, as we walkedabout the gardens and explored the quadrangle and the rows of cells, each with a hideous little wood-cut of a martyr being tortured, uponthe door. Thence we rode down into the plain, looking down, as we descended, upona hill which seemed to be an old crater, rising from the level ground;and then our path lay among broad fields where oxen were ploughing, andacross marshes covered with coarse grass, until we came to the quaintlittle town of Tenancingo. There we found the _meson_; and the landlordhanded us the key of our room, which was square, whitewashed, and witha tiled floor. There was no window, so we had to keep the door open forlight. The furniture consisted of three articles, --two low tables onfour legs, made of rough planks, and a bracket to stick a candle in. The tables were beds after the manner of the country; but, as a specialattention to us, the patron produced two old mattresses; the firstsight of them was enough for us, and we expelled them with shouts ofexecration. We had to go to a shop in the square to get some supper;and on our return, about nine o'clock, our man Antonio remarked that hewas going to sleep, which he did at once in the following manner. Hetook off his broad-brimmed hat and hung it on a nail, tied a red cottonhandkerchief round his head, rolled himself up in his serape, lay downon the flags in the courtyard outside our door, and was asleep in aninstant. We retired to our planks inside and followed his example. The next afternoon we reached Toluca, a large and prosperous town, butwith little noticeable in it except the arcades (portales) along thestreets, and the hams which are cured with sugar, and are famous allover the Republic. Our road passed near the Nevado de Toluca, anextinct snow-covered volcano, nearly 15, 000 feet above the sea. Itconsists entirely of grey and red porphyry, and in the interior of itscrater are two small lakes. We were not sorry to take up our quartersin a comfortable European-looking hotel again, for roughing it is muchless pleasant in these high altitudes--where the nights and morningsare bitterly cold--than in the hotter climate of the lower levels. Our next day's ride brought us back to Mexico, crossing the corn-landof the plain of Lerma, where the soil consists of disintegratedporphyry from the mountains around, and is very fertile. Lerma itselfis the worst den of robbers in all Mexico; and, as we rode through thestreet of dingy adobe houses, and saw the rascally-looking fellows whowere standing at the doors in knots, with their horses ready saddledand bridled close by, we got a very strong impression that thereputation of the place was no worse than it deserved. After Lerma, there still remained the pass over the mountains which border thevalley of Mexico; and here in the midst of a dense pine-forest is LasCruzes, "the crosses, " a place with an ugly name, where severalrobberies are done every week. We waited for the Diligence at somelittle glass-works at the entrance of the pass, and then let it go onfirst, as a sop to those gentlemen if they should be out that day. Isuppose they knew pretty accurately that no one had much to lose, forthey never made their appearance. [Illustration: SPANISH-MEXICAN SPURS. _From 5 to 6 inches long, withrowels from 2-1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. The broad instep-strap ofembossed leather is also shewn. (From Mr. Christy's Collection)_] CHAPTER IX. ANTIQUITIES. PRISON. SPORTS. [Illustration: STATUE OF THE MEXICAN GODDESS OF WAR (OR OF DEATH), TEOYAOMIQUI. _(After Nebel). Height of the original, about Nine Feet_. ] It was like getting home again to reach Mexico, we had so many friendsthere, though our stay had been so short. We were fully occupied, forweeks of hard sight-seeing are hardly enough to investigate the objectsof interest to be found in the city. We saw these things under the bestauspices, for Mr. Christy had letters to the Minister of PublicInstruction and other people in authority, who were exceedingly civil, and did all they could to put us in the way of seeing everything wewished. Among the places we visited, the Museum must have some notice. It is in part of the building of the University; but we were rathersurprised, when we reached the gate leading into the court-yard, to bestopped by a sentry who demanded what we wanted. The lower storey hadbeen turned into a barrack by the Government, there being a want ofquarters for the soldiers. As the ground-floor under the cloisters isused for the heavier pieces of sculpture, the scene was somewhatcurious. The soldiers had laid several of the smaller idols down ontheir faces, and were sitting on the comfortable seat on the small oftheir backs, busy playing at cards. An enterprising soldier had builtup a hutch with idols and sculptured stones against the statue of thegreat war-goddess Teoyaomiqui herself, and kept rabbits there. Thestate which the whole place was in when thus left to the tender merciesof a Mexican regiment may be imagined by any one who knows what a dirtyand destructive animal a Mexican soldier is. The guardians of the Museum have treated it even worse. People who knowhow often the curators of the Museums of southern Europe are ready tosell anything not very likely to be missed will not be astonished tohear of the same thing being done to a great extent some six or eightyears before our visit. The stone known as the statue of the war-goddess is a huge block ofbasalt covered with sculptures. The antiquaries think that the figureson it stand for different personages, and that it is threegods, --Huitzilopochtli the god of war, Teoyaomiqui his wife, andMictlanteuctli the god of hell. It has necklaces of alternate heartsand dead man's hands, with death's heads for a central ornament. At thebottom of the block is a strange sprawling figure, which one cannot seenow, for it is the base which rests on the ground; but there are twoshoulders projecting from the idol, which show plainly that it did notstand on the ground, but was supported aloft on the tops of twopillars. The figure carved upon the bottom represents a monster holdinga skull in each hand, while others hang from his knees and elbows. Hismouth is a mere oval ring, a common feature of Mexican idols, and fourtusks project just above it. The new moon laid down like a bridge formshis forehead, and a star is placed on each side of it. This is thoughtto have been the conventional representation of Mictlanteuctli (Lord ofthe Land of the Dead), the god of hell, which was a place of utter andeternal darkness. Probably each victim as he was led to the altar couldlook up between the two pillars and see the hideous god of hell staringdown upon him from above. There is little doubt that this is the famous war-idol which stood onthe great teocalli of Mexico, and before which so many thousands ofhuman victims were sacrificed. It lay undisturbed underground in thegreat square, close to the very site of the teocalli, until sixty yearsago. For many years after that it was kept buried, lest the sight ofone of their old deities might be too exciting for the Indians, who, asI have mentioned before, had certainly not forgotten it, and secretlyornamented it with garlands of flowers while it remained above ground. The "sacrificial stone, " so called, which also stands in the court-yardof the Museum, was not one of the ordinary altars on which victims weresacrificed. These altars seem to have been raised slabs of hard stonewith a protuberant part near one end, so that the breast of the victimwas raised into an arch, which made it more easy for the priest to cutacross it with his obsidian knife. The Breton altars, where the slabwas hollowed into the outline of a human figure, have some analogy tothis; but, though there were very many of these altars in differentcities of Mexico, none are now known to exist. The stone we are nowobserving is quite a different thing, a cylindrical block of basaltnine feet across and three feet high: and Humboldt considers it to bethe stone described by early Spanish writers, and called _temalacatl_(spindle-stone) from its circular shape, something like a distaff-head. Upon this the captive chiefs stood in the gladiatorial fights whichtook place within the space surrounding the great teocalli. Slightlyarmed, they stood upon this raised platform in the midst of the crowdof spectators; and six champions in succession, armed with betterweapons, came up to fight with them. If the captive worsted hisassailants in this unequal contest, he was set free with presents; butthis success was the lot of but few, and the fate of most was to beoverpowered and dragged off ignominiously to be sacrificed likeordinary prisoners. On the top of the stone is sculptured an outline ofthe sun with its eight rays, and a hollow in the centre, whence agroove runs to the edge of the stone, probably to let the blood rundown. All round it is an appropriate bas-relief repeated several times. A vanquished warrior is giving up his stone-sword and his spears to hisconqueror, who is tearing the plumed crest from his head. The above explanation by Humboldt is a plausible one. But in CentralAmerica altars not unlike this, and with grooves upon the top, stand infront of the great stone idols; and this curious monument may have beennothing after all but an ordinary altar to sacrifice birds and smallanimals upon. [Illustration: THREE VIEWS OF A SACRIFICIAL COLLAR. _Carved out of hardmottled greenstone. (In Mr. Christy's Collection. ) This is 17 incheslong, and varies from 11 to 16 inches in width. The arms are 4 incheswide and 3 inches deep; and are 8 inches apart at about half theirlength. _] Señor Leon Ramirez, the curator, had come to the Museum to meet us, andwe went over the collection of smaller objects, which are kept upstairs in glass-cases, --at any rate out of the way of the soldiers. Here are the stone clamps shaped like the letter U, which were put overthe wrists and ankles of the victims, to hold them down on thesacrificial stone. They are of hard stone, very heavy and covered withcarvings. It is remarkable that, though the altars for human sacrificesare no longer to be found, these accessory stone clamps, or yoke-likecollars, are not uncommon. A fine one from Mr. Christy's collection isfigured. _(See opposite page. )_ The obsidian knives and arrow-heads are very good, but these I havespoken of already, as well as of the stone hammers. The axes andchisels of stone are so exactly like those found in Europe that it isquite impossible to distinguish them. The bronze hatchet-blades arethin and flat, slightly thickened at the sides to give them strength, and mostly of a very peculiar shape, something like a T, but still moreresembling the section of a mushroom cut vertically through the middleof the stalk. The obsidian mask is an extraordinary piece of work, considering thedifficulty of cutting such a material. It was chipped into a rudeoutline, and finished into its exact shape by polishing down withjeweller's sand. The polish is perfect, and there is hardly a scratchupon it. At least one of the old Spanish writers on Mexico gives thedetails of the process of cutting precious stones and polishing themwith _teoxalli_ or "god's sand. " Masks in stone, wood, and terra-cottaare to be seen in considerable number in museums of Mexicanantiquities. Their use is explained by passages in the old Mexicanwriters, who mention that it was customary to mask the idols on theoccasion of the king being sick, or of any other public calamity; andthat men and women wore masks in some of the religious ceremonies. Afine mask of brown lava (from Mr. Christy's collection), which has beencoloured, is here figured. _(See illustration. )_ The mirrors ofobsidian have the same beautifully polished surface as the obsidianmask shows; and those made of nodules of pyrites, cut and polished, areworth notice. The Mexicans were very skilful in making pottery; and of course thereis a good collection here of terra-cotta vases, little altars andincense-dishes, rattles, flageolets, and whistles, tobacco-pipes andmasks. Some of the large vases, which were formerly filled with skullsand bones, are admirable in their designs and decorations; and manyspecimens are to be seen of the red and black ware of Cholula, whichwas famous at the time of the Conquest, and was sent to all parts ofthe country. The art of glazing pottery seems only to have beenintroduced by the Spaniards, and to this day the Indians hardly care touse it. The terra-cotta rattles are very characteristic. They havelittle balls in them which shake about, and they puzzled us much as theapple-dumpling did good King George, for we could not make out veryeasily how the balls got inside. They were probably attached veryslightly to the inside, and so baked and then broken loose. We oftengot little balls like schoolboys' marbles, among lots of Mexicanantiquities, and these were most likely the balls out of brokenrattles. Burning incense was always an important part of the Mexican ceremonies. When the white men were on their march to the capital, the inhabitantsused to come out to meet them with such plates as we saw here, and burncopal before the leaders; and in Indian villages to this day theprocession on saints' days would not be complete without men burningincense, not in regular censers, but in unglazed earthen platters suchas their forefathers used. [Illustration: THE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF AN AZTEC MASK. _Sculptured outof hard brown lava. Twelve inches high; ten inches wide. (From Mr. Christy's Collection. )_] Our word _copal_ is the Mexican _copalli_. There are a few otherMexican words which have been naturalized in our European languages, ofcourse indicating that the things they represent came from Mexico. _Ocelotl_ is _ocelot_; _Tomatl_ is _tomata_; _Chilli_ is the Spanish_chile_ and our _chili_; _Cacahuatl_ is _cacao_ or cocoa; and_Chocolatl_, the beverage made from the cacao-bean with a mixture ofvanilla, is our chocolate. Cacao-beans were used by the Mexicans as money. Even in Humboldt'stime, when there was no copper coinage, they were used as small change, six for a halfpenny; and Stephens says the Central Americans use themto this day. A mat in Mexican is _petlatl_, and thence a basket made ofmatting was called _petlacalli_--"mathouse. " The name passed to theplaited grass cigar-cases that are exported to Europe; and now in Spainany kind of cigar-case is called a _petaca_. The pretty little ornamented calabashes--used, among other purposes, for drinking chocolate out of--were called by the Mexicans _xicalli_, aword which the Spaniards made into _jícara_, and now use to mean achocolate-cup; and even the Italians have taken to it, and call atea-cup a _chicchera_. There is a well-known West Indian fruit which we call an _avocado_ or_alligator-pear_, and which the French call _avocat_ and the Spaniards_aguacate_. All these names are corruptions of the Aztec name of thefruit, _ahuacatl_. Vanilla and cochineal were first found in Mexico; but the Spaniards didnot adopt the unpronounceable native names, _tlilxochitl_ and_nocheztli_. Vanilla, _vainilla_, means a little bean, from _vaina_, which signifies a scabbard or sheath, also a pod. _Cochinilla_ is from_coccus_, a berry, as it was at first supposed to be of vegetableorigin. The Aztec name for cochineal, _nocheztli_, means"cactus-blood, " and is a very apt description of the insect, which hasin it a drop of deep crimson fluid, in which the colouring matter ofthe dye is contained. The turkey, which was introduced into Europe from Mexico, was called_huexolotl_ from the gobbling noise it makes. (It must be rememberedthat x and j in Spanish are not the same letters as in English, but ahard guttural aspirate, like the German ch). The name, slightly alteredinto _guajalote_, is still used in Mexico; but when these birds werebrought to Europe, the Spaniards called them peacocks (_pavos_). To getrid of the confusion, it became necessary to call the real peacock"_pavón_" (big peacock), or "_pavo real_" (royal peacock). The Germanname for a turkey, "Wälscher Hahn, " "Italian fowl, " is reasonable, forthe Germans got them from Italy; but our name "turkey" is wonderfullyabsurd. There may be other Mexican words to be found in our language, but notmany. The Mexicans were cultivating maize and tobacco when theSpaniards invaded the country, and had done so for ages; but thesevegetables had been found already in the West India islands, and hadgot their name from the language of Hayti, _mahiz_ and _tabaco_; thelatter word, it seems, meaning not the tobacco itself, but the cigarsmade of it. I do not recollect anything else worthy of note that Europe hasborrowed from Ancient Mexico, except Botanic Gardens, and dishes madeto keep hot at dinner-time, which the Aztecs managed by having a pan ofburning charcoal underneath them. To return to the Museum. There are stamps in terra-cotta withgeometrical patterns, for making lines and ornaments on the vasesbefore they were baked, and for stamping patterns upon the cotton clothwhich was one of their principal manufactures, as it is now. Connectedwith the same art are the _malacates_, or winders, which I have alreadydescribed. Little grotesque heads made of baked clay, like those I havementioned as being found in such immense numbers on the sites of oldMexican cities, are here by hundreds. I think there were, besides, someof the moulds, also in terra-cotta, in which they were formed; at anyrate, they are to be seen, so that making the little heads must havebeen a regular trade. What they were for is not so easy to say. Somehave bodies, and are made with flat backs to stand against a wall, andthese were probably idols. The ancient Mexicans, we read, hadhousehold-gods in great numbers, and called them _Tepitotons_, "littleones. " The greatest proportion, however, are mere heads which never hadhad bodies, and will not stand anyhow. They could not have beenpersonal ornaments, for there is nothing to fasten them on by. They arerather a puzzle. I have seen a suggestion somewhere, that when a manwas buried, each surviving member of his family put one of these headsinto his grave. This sounds plausible enough, especially as both maleand female heads are found. One shelf in the museum is particularly instructive. We called it the"Chamber of Horrors, " after the manner of Marlborough House, and itcontains numbers of the sham antiquities, the manufacture of which is aregular thing in Mexico, as it is in Italy. They are principally vasesand idols of earthenware, for the art of working obsidian is lost, andthere can be no trickery about that[18]; and as to the hammers, chisels, and idols in green jade, serpentine, and such like hardmaterials, they are decidedly cheaper to find than to make. The Indiansin Mexico make their unglazed pottery just as they did before theConquest, so that, if they imitate real antiques exactly, there is nopossibility of detecting the fraud; but when they begin to work fromtheir own designs, or even to copy from memory, they are almost sure toput in something that betrays them. As soon as the Spaniards came, they began to introduce drawing as itwas understood in Europe; and from that moment the peculiarities ofMexican art began to disappear. The foreheads of the Mexican races areall very low, and their painters and sculptors even exaggerated thispeculiarity, to make the faces they depicted more beautiful, --soproducing an effect which to us Europeans seems hideously ugly, butwhich is not more unnatural than the ideal type of beauty we see in theGreek statues. After the era of the Spaniards we see no more of suchforeheads; and the eyes, which were drawn in profiles as one sees themin the full face, are put in their natural position. The short squatfigures become slim and tall; and in numberless little details ofdress, modelling, and ornament, the acquaintance of the artist withEuropean types is shown; and it is very seldom that the moderncounterfeiter can keep clear of these and get back to the old standard. Among the things on the condemned shelf were men's faces too correctlydrawn to be genuine, grotesque animals that no artist would ever havedesigned who had not seen a horse, head-dresses and drapery that wereEuropean and not Mexican. Among the figures in Mayer's _Mexico_, a vaseis represented as a real antique, which, I think, is one of the worstcases I ever noticed. There is a man's head upon it, with longprojecting pointed nose and chin, a long thin pendant moustache, an eyedrawn in profile, and a cap. It is true the pure Mexican raceoccasionally have moustaches, but they are very slight, not like this, which falls in a curve on both sides of the mouth; and no Mexican ofpure Indian race ever had such a nose and chin, which must have beenmodelled from the face of some toothless old Spaniard. Mention must be made of the wooden drums--_teponaztli_--of which somefew specimens are still to be seen in Mexico. Such drums figured in thereligious ceremonies of the Aztecs, and one often hears of them inMexican history. I have mentioned already the great drum which BernalDiaz saw when he went up the Mexican teocalli with Cortes, and which hedescribes as a hellish instrument, made with skins of great serpents;and which, when it was struck, gave a loud and melancholy sound, thatcould be heard at two leagues' distance. Indeed, they did afterwardshear it from their camp a mile or two off, when their unfortunatecompanions were being sacrificed on the teocalli. The Aztec drums, which are still to be seen, are altogether of wood, nearly cylindrical, but swelling out in the middle, and hollowed out ofsolid logs. Some have the sounding-board made unequally thick indifferent parts, so as to give several notes when struck. All areelaborately carved over with various designs, such as faces, head-dresses, weapons, suns with rays, and fanciful patterns, amongwhich the twisted cord is one of the commonest. Besides the drums which are preserved in museums, there are others, carefully kept in Indian villages, not as curiosities, but asinstruments of magical power. Heller mentions such a _teponaztli_, which is still preserved among the Indians of Huatusco, an Indianvillage near Mirador in the tierra templada, where the inhabitants havehad their customs comparatively little altered by intercourse withwhite men. They keep this drum as a sacred instrument, and beat it onlyat certain times of the year, though they have no reason to give fordoing so. It is to be regretted that Heller did not take a note of theparticular days on which this took place; for the times of the Mexicanfestivals are well known, and this information would have settled thequestion whether the Indians of the present day have really anydefinite recollection of their old customs. Drums of this kind do not belong exclusively to Mexico. Among all thetribes of North America they were one of the principal "properties"used by the Medicine-men in their ceremonies; and among the tribeswhich have not been christianized they are still to be found in use. After we left Mexico, Mr. Christy visited some tribes in the Hudson'sBay Territory; and on one occasion, happening to assist at a festivalin which just such a wooden drum was used, he bought it of theMedicine-man of the tribe, and packed it off triumphantly to hismuseum. A few picture-writings are still to be seen in the Museum, which, withthe few preserved in Europe, are all we have left of these interestingrecords, of which there were thousands upon thousands in Mexico andTezcuco. Some were burnt or destroyed during the sieges of the cities, some perished by mere neglect, but the great mass was destroyed byarchbishop Zumarraga, when he made an attempt--and, to some extent, asuccessful one--to obliterate every trace of heathenism, by destroyingall the monuments and records in the country. One of thepicture-writings hanging on the wall is very probably the same that wassent up from Vera Cruz to Montezuma, with figures of the newly-arrivedwhite men, their ships and horses, and their cannons with fire andsmoke issuing from their mouths. Another shows a white man beingsacrificed, of course one of the Spanish prisoners. The pictorialhistory of the migration of the Aztecs is here, and a list of tributespaid to the Mexican sovereign; the different articles being drawn withnumbers against each, to show the quantities to be paid, as in theEgyptian inscriptions. Lord Kingsborough's great work containsfac-similes of several Mexican manuscripts, and in Humboldt's _Vues desCordillères_ some of the most remarkable are figured and described. One of the most curious of the Aztec picture-writings is in theBodleian Library, and in fac-simile in Lord Kingsborough's _Antiquitiesof Mexico_. In it are shown, in a series of little pictures, theeducation of Mexican boys and girls, as prescribed by law. The childfour days old is being sprinkled with water, and receiving its name. Atfour years old they are to be allowed one tortilla a meal, which isindicated by a drawing above their heads, of four circles representingyears, and one cake; and the father sends the son to carry water, whilethe mother shows the daughter how to spin. A tortilla is like anoat-cake, but is made of Indian corn. At seven years old the boy is taken to learn to fish, while the girlspins; and so on with different occupations for one year after another. At nine years old the father is allowed to punish his son fordisobedience, by sticking aloe-points all over his naked body, whilethe daughters only have them stuck into their hands; and at elevenyears old, both boy and girl were to be punished by holding their facesin the smoke of burning capsicums. At fifteen the youth is married by the simple process of tying thecorner of his shirt to the corner of the bride's petticoat (thusliterally "splicing" them, as my companion remarked). And so on; afterscenes of cutting wood, visiting the temples, fighting and feasting, wecome to the last scene of all, headed "_seventy years_, " and see an oldman and woman reeling about helplessly drunk with pulque; fordrunkenness, which was severely punished up to that age, was toleratedafterwards as a compensation for the sorrows and infirmities of thelast period of life. Astrological charts formed a large proportion of thesepicture-writings. Here, as elsewhere, we may trace the origin ofastrology. The signs of the days and years were represented, forconvenience sake, by different animals, and objects, like the signs ofthe Zodiac which we still retain. The signs remained after the historyof their origin was lost; and then--what more natural than to imaginethat the symbols handed down by their wise ancestors had somemysterious meaning, connected with the days and years they stood for;and then, that a man's destiny had to do with the names of the signsthat "prevailed" at his birth? There is little to be seen here or elsewhere, of one kind of work inwhich the Mexicans excelled perhaps more than in any other, thegoldsmith's work. Where are the calendars of solid gold and silver--asbig as great wheels, and covered with hieroglyphics, and the cups andcollars, the golden birds, beasts, and fishes? The Spaniards who sawthem record how admirable their workmanship was, and they were goodjudges of such matters. Benvenuto Cellini saw some of these things, andwas filled with admiration. They have all gone to the melting-potcenturies ago! How important the goldsmith's trade was accounted in oldtimes is shown by a strange Aztec law. It was no ordinary offence tosteal gold and silver. Criminals convicted of this offence were nottreated as common thieves, but were kept till the time when thegoldsmiths celebrated their annual festival, and were then solemnlysacrificed to their god Xipe;[19] the priests flaying their bodies, cooking and eating them, and walking about dressed in their skins, aceremony which was called _tlacaxipehualiztli_, "the man-flaying. " Museums of Mexican antiquities are so much alike, that, in general, onedescription will do for all of them. Mr. Uhde's Museum at Heidelberg isa far finer one than that at Mexico, except as regards thepicture-writings. I was astonished at the enormous quantity of stoneidols, delicately worked trinkets in various hard stones and even inobsidian, terra-cotta tobacco-pipes, figures, and astronomicalcalendars, &c. , displayed there. Mr. Christy's collection is richer than any other in small sculpturedfigures from Central America. It contains a squatting female figure inhard brown lava, like the one in black basalt which is drawn inHumboldt's _Vues des Cordillères_, and there called (I cannot imaginewhy) an Aztec priestess. Above all, it contains what I believe to bethe three finest specimens of Aztec decorative art which exist in theworld. One of these is the knife of which the figure at page 101 givessome faint idea, the other two being a wooden mask overlaid withmosaic, and a human skull decorated in the same manner, of which a moreparticular description will be found in the Appendix. There are twokinds of Aztec articles in Mr. Christy's collection which I did notobserve either at Mexico or Heidelberg. These are bronze needles, resembling our packing-needles, and little cast bronze bells, calledin Aztec _yotl_, not unlike small horse-bells made in England at thepresent day; these are figured in the tribute-lists in thepicture-writings. [Illustration: ANTIQUE BRONZE BELLS FROM MEXICO. _Such as are oftensculptured on Aztec Images. _] Apropos of the mammoth bones preserved in the Mexican Museum, I mustinsert a quotation from Bernal Diaz. It is clear that the traditions ofgiants which exist in almost every country had their origin in thediscovery of fossil bones, whose real character was not suspected untila century ago; but I never saw so good an example of this as in theTlascalan tradition, which my author relates as follows. --"And they"(the Tlascalan chiefs) "said that their ancestors had told them that, in times past, there lived amongst them in settlements men and women ofgreat size, with huge bones; and, as they were wicked and of evildispositions, they (the ancestors of the Tlascalans) fought againstthem and killed them; and those who were left died out. And that wemight see what stature they were of, they brought a bone of one ofthem, and it was very big, and its height was that of a man ofreasonable stature; it was a thigh-bone, and I (Bernal Diaz) measuredmyself against it, and it was as tall as I am, who am a man ofreasonable stature; and they brought other pieces of bones like thefirst, but they were already eaten through and rotted by the earth; andwe were all amazed to see those bones, and held that for certain therehad been giants in that land; and our captain, Cortes, said to us thatit would be well to send the great bone to Castile, that His Majestymight see it; and so we did send it by the first messengers who went. " Among other things belonging to the Spanish period is the banner, withthe picture of the Virgin, which accompanied the Spanish army duringthe Conquest. Authentic or not, it is certainly very well painted. There is a suit of armour said to have belonged to Cortes. Itsgenuineness has been doubted; but I think its extreme smallness seemsto go towards proving that it is a true relic, for Bullock saw the tombof Cortes opened some thirty years ago, and was surprised at the smallproportions of his skeleton. Specimens of the pottery and glass nowmade in the country, and other curiosities, complete the catalogue ofthis interesting collection. The Mexican calendar is not in the Museum, but is built into the wallof the cathedral, in the Plaza Mayor. It is sculptured on the face of asingle block of basalt, which weighs between twenty and thirty tons, and must have been transported thirty miles by Mexican labourers, forthe stone is not found nearer than that distance from the city; andthis transportation was, of course, managed by hand-labour alone, asthere were no beasts of burden. We know pretty well the whole system of Mexican astronomy from thiscalendar-stone and a few manuscripts which still exist, and from theinformation given in the work of Gama the astronomer and other writers. The Aztecs and Tezcucans who used it, did not claim its invention astheir own, but said they had received it from the Toltecs, theirpredecessors. The year consisted of 365 days, with an intercalation of13 days for each cycle of 52 years, which brought it to the same lengthas the Julian year of 365 days 6 hours. The theory of Gama, that theintercalation was still more exact, namely, 12-1/2 days instead of 13, seems to be erroneous. Our reckoning only became more exact than this when we adopted theGregorian calendar in 1752, and the people marched about the streets inprocession, crying "Give us back our eleven days!" Perhaps this is notquite a fair way of putting the case, however, for the new style wouldhave been adopted in our country long before, had it not been a Romishinstitution. It was the deliberate opinion of the English, as of peoplein other Protestant countries, that it was much better to have thealmanack a few days wrong than to adopt a Popish innovation. One oftenhears of the Papal Bull which settles the question of the earth'sstanding still. The history of the Gregorian calendar is not a badset-off against it on the other side. At any rate, the new style wasnot introduced anywhere until sixty or seventy years after thediscovery of Mexico, and five hundred years after the introduction ofthe Toltec calendar in Mexico. The Mexican calendar-stone should be photographed on a large scale, andstudied yet more carefully than it has been, for only a part of thedivided circles which surround it have been explained. It should bephotographed, because, to my certain knowledge, Mayer's drawing givesthe year, above the figure of the sun which indicates the date of thecalendar, quite wrongly; and yet, presuming on his own accuracy, heaccuses another writer of leaving out the hieroglyph of the wintersolstice. What is much more strange is, that Humboldt's drawing in thesmall edition of the _Vues des Cordillères_ is wrong in both points. The drawing in Nebel's great work is probably the best. As to the waxmodels which Mr. Christy and I bought in Mexico, in the innocence ofour hearts, a nearer inspection showed that the artist, observing thatthe circle of days would divide more neatly into sixteen parts thaninto twenty, had arranged his divisions accordingly; apparently leavingout the four hieroglyphics which he considered the ugliest. The details made out at present on the calendar are as follows:--thesummer and winter solstices, the spring and autumn equinoxes, the twopassages of the Sun over the zenith of Mexico, and some dates whichpossibly belong to religious festivals. The dates of the twozenith-transits are especially interesting; for, as they vary with thelatitude, they must have been made out by actual observation in Mexicoitself, and not borrowed from some more civilised people in the distantcountries through which the Mexicans migrated. This fact alone issufficient to prove a considerable practical knowledge of astronomy. Besides this, the Mexican cycle of fifty-two years seems to beindicated in the circle outside the signs of days, and also the days inthe priestly year of 260 days; but to make these numbers, we must allowfor the compartments supposed to be hidden by the projecting rays ofthe sun. The arrangement of the Mexican cycle of fifty-two years is verycurious. They had four signs of years, _tochtli, acatl, tecpatl_, and_calli_, --_rabbit, canes, flint_, and _house_; and against these signsthey ranged numbers, from 1 to 13, so that a cycle exactly correspondsto a pack of cards, the four signs being the four suits, thirteen ofeach. Now, any one would suppose that in making such a reckoning, theywould first take one suit, count _one, two, three_, &c. In it, up to13, and then begin another suit. This is not the Mexican idea, however. Their reckoning is 1 _tochtli_, 2 _acatl_, 3 _tecpatl_, &c. , just as itmay be made with the cards thus: ace of hearts, two of diamonds, 3 ofspades, 4 of clubs, 5 of hearts, 6 of diamonds, and so on through thepack. The correspondence between the cycle of 52 years, divided among 4signs, and our year of 52 weeks, divided among 4 seasons, is alsocurious, though as entirely accidental as the resemblance to the packof cards, for the Mexican week (if we may call it so) consisted of 5days instead of 7, which to a great extent nullifies the comparison. The reckoning of days is still more cumbrous. It consists of the daysof the week written in succession from 1 to 13, underneath these the 20signs of days, and underneath these again another series of 9 signs; sothat each day was distinguished by a combination of a number and twosigns, which combination could not belong to any other day. The date of the year at the top of the calendar is 13 _acatl_ (13canes), which stands for 1479, 1427, 1375, 1323, and so on, subtracting52 years each time. Now, why was this year chosen? It was not thebeginning of a cycle, but the 26th year; and so, in ascertaining themeaning of the dates on the calendar, allowance has to be made for sixdays which have been gained by the leap-years only being adjusted atthe end of the cycle; but this certainly offers no advantage whatever;and if an arbitrary date had been chosen to start the calendar with, ofcourse it would have been the first year of a cycle. The year may havebeen chosen in commemoration of the foundation of Mexico orTenochtitlán, which historians give as somewhere about 1324 or 1325. The sign 13 _acatl_ would stand for 1323. It is more likely that thedate merely refers to the year in which the calendar was put up. Assuch a massive and elaborate piece of sculpture could only belong tothe most flourishing period of the Aztec empire, the year indicatedwould be 1279, nine years before the building of the great pyramidclose by. Baron Humboldt's celebrated argument to prove the Asiatic origin of theMexicans is principally founded upon the remarkable resemblance of thissystem of cycles in reckoning years to those found in use in differentparts of Asia. For instance, we may take that described by Hue andGabet as still existing in Tartary and Thibet, which consists of oneset of signs, _wood, fire, earth_, &c. , combined with a set of names ofanimals, _mouse, ox, tiger_, &c. The combination is made almost exactlyin the same way as that in which the Aztecs combine their signs andnumbers, as for instance, the year of the fire-pig, the iron-hare, &c. If these were simple systems of counting years, or even if, althoughdifficult, they had some advantages to offer, we might suppose that twodifferent races in want of a system to count their years by, haddevised them independently. But, in fact, both the Asiatic and theMexican cycles are not only most intricate and troublesome to work, butby the constant liability to confound one cycle with another, they leadto endless mistakes. Hue says that the Mongols, to get over thisdifficulty, affix a special name to all the years of each king's reign, as for instance, "the year Tao-Kouang of the fire-ram;" apparently notseeing that to give the special name and the number of the year of thereign, and call it the 44th year of Tao-Kouang, would answer the samepurpose, with one-tenth of the trouble. Not only are the Mexican and Asiatic systems alike in the singularprinciple they go upon, but there are resemblances in the signs usedthat seem too close for chance. [20] The other arguments which tend toprove that the Mexicans either came from the Old World or had in someway been brought into connexion with tribes from thence, areprincipally founded on coincidences in customs and traditions. We mustbe careful to eliminate from them all such as we can imagine to haveoriginated from the same outward causes at work in both hemispheres, and from the fact that man is fundamentally the same everywhere. Totake an instance from Peru. We find the Incas there calling themselves"Child of the Sun, " and marrying their own sisters, just as theEgyptian kings did. But this proves nothing whatever as to connexionbetween the two people. The worship of the Sun, the giver of light andheat, may easily spring up among different people without any externalteaching; and what more natural, among imperfectly civilized tribes, than that the monarch should claim relationship with the divinity? Andthe second custom was introduced that the royal race might be keptunmixed. Thus, when we find the Aztecs burning incense before their gods, kings, and great men, and propitiating their deities with human sacrifices, wecan conclude nothing from this. But we find them baptizing theirchildren, anointing their kings, and sprinkling them with holy water, punishing the crime of adultery by stoning the criminals to death, andpractising several other Old World usages of which I have alreadyspoken. We must give some weight to these coincidences. Of some of the supposed Aztec Bible-traditions I have already spoken inno very high terms. There is another tradition, however, resting uponunimpeachable evidence, which relates the occurrence of a series ofdestructions and regenerations of the world, and recalls in the moststriking manner the Indian cosmogony; and, when added to the argumentfrom the similarity of the systems of astronomical notation of Mexicoand Asia, goes far towards proving a more or less remote connectionbetween the inhabitants of the two continents. There is another side to the question, however, as has been statedalready. How could the Mexicans have had these traditions and customsfrom the Old World, and not have got the knowledge of some of thecommonest arts of life from the same source? As I have said, they donot seem to have known the proper way of putting the handle on to astone-hammer; and, though they used bronze, they had not applied it tomaking such things as knives and spear-heads. They had no beasts ofburden; and, though there were animals in the country which theyprobably might have domesticated and milked, they had no idea ofanything of the kind. They had oil, and employed it for variouspurposes, but had no notion of using it or wax for burning. Theylighted their houses with pine-torches; and in fact the Aztec name fora pine-torch--_ocotl_--was transferred to candles when they wereintroduced. Though they were a commercial people, and had several substitutes formoney--such as cacao-grains, quills of gold-dust, and pieces of tin ofa particular shape, they had no knowledge of the art of weighinganything, but sold entirely by tale and measure. This statement, madeby the best authorities, their language tends to confirm. After theConquest they made the word _tlapexouia_ out of the Spanish "peso, " andalso gave the meaning of weighing to two other words which mean properly_to measure_ and _to divide equally_. Had they had a proper word oftheir own for the process, we should find it. The Mexicans scarcely everadopted a Spanish word even for Spanish animals or implements, if theycould possibly make their own language serve. They called a sheep an_ichcatl_, literally a "_thread-thing_, " or "_cotton_": a gun a"_fire-trumpet_:" and sulphur "_fire-trumpet-earth_. " And yet, a peopleignorant of some of the commonest arts had extraordinary knowledge ofastronomy, and even knew the real cause of eclipses, [21] and representedthem in their sacred dances. Set the difficulties on one side of the question against those on theother, and they will nearly balance. We must wait for further evidence. Our friend Don José Miguel Cervantes, the President of theAyuntamiento, took us one day to see the great prison of Mexico, theAcordada. As to the prison itself, it is a great gloomy building, withits rooms and corridors arranged round two courtyards, one appropriatedto the men, the other to the women. A few of the men were at workmaking shoes and baskets, but most were sitting and lying about in thesun, smoking cigarettes and talking together in knots, the young oneshard at work taking lessons in villainy from the older hands; just theold story. Offenders of all orders, from drunkards and vagrants up to highwayrobbers and murderers, all were mixed indiscriminately together. But weshould remember that in England twenty years ago it was usual forprisons to be such places as this; and even now, in spite of modelprisons and severe discipline, the miserable results of ourprison-system show, as plainly as can be, that when we have caught ourcriminal we do not in the least know how to reform him, now that ourcolonists have refused him the only chance he ever had. It is bad enough to mix together these men under the most favourablecircumstances for corrupting one another. Every man must come out worsethan he went in; but this wrong is not so great as that which theuntried prisoners suffer in being forced into the society of condemnedcriminals, while their trials drag on from session to session, throughthe endless technicalities and quibbles of Spanish law. We made rather a curious observation in this prison. When one enterssuch a place in Europe, one expects to see in a moment, by the facesand demeanour of the occupants, that most of them belong to a specialcriminal class, brought up to a life of crime which is their onlypossible career, belonging naturally to police-courts and prisons, herding together when out of prison in their own districts and theirown streets, and carefully avoided by the rest of society. You may knowa London thief when you see him; he carries his profession in his faceand in the very curl of his hair. Now in this prison there was nothingof the kind to be seen. The inmates were brown Indians and half-bredMexicans, appearing generally to belong to the poorest class, but justlike the average of the people in the streets outside. As my companionsaid, "If these fellows are thieves and murderers, so are our servants, and so is every man in a serape we meet in the streets, for all we cantell to the contrary. " There was positively nothing at all peculiarabout them. If they had been all Indians we might have been easily deceived. Nothing can be more true than Humboldt's observation that the Indianface differs so much from ours that it is only after years ofexperience that a European can learn to distinguish the varieties offeature by which character can be judged of. He mistakes peculiaritieswhich belong to the race in general for personal characteristics; andthe thickness of the skin serves still more to mask the expression oftheir faces. But the greater part of these men were Mexicans of mixedIndian and Spanish blood, and their faces are pretty much European. The only explanation we could give of this identity of character insidethe prison and outside is not flattering to the Mexican people, but Ireally believe it to be true. We came to the conclusion that theprisoners did not belong to a class apart, but that they were atolerably fair specimen of the poorer population of the table-lands ofMexico. They had been more tempted than others, or they had been moreunlucky, and that was why they were here. There were perhaps a thousand prisoners in the place, two men to onewoman. Their crimes were--one-third, drunken disturbance and vagrancy;another third, robberies of various kinds; a fourth, wounding andhomicides, mostly arising out of quarrels; leaving a small residue forall other crimes. Our idea was confirmed by many foreigners who had lived long in thecountry and had been brought into personal contact with the people. Every Mexican, they said, has a thief and a murderer in him, which theslightest provocation will bring out. This of course is anexaggeration, but there is a great deal of truth in it. The crimes inthe prison-calendar belong as characteristics to the population ingeneral. Highway-robbery, cutting and wounding in drunken brawls, anddeliberate assassination, are offences which prevail among thehalf-white Mexicans; while stealing is common to them and the pureIndian population. We noticed several instances of bigamy, a crimewhich Mexican law is very severe upon. As far as we could judge by theamount of punishment inflicted, it is a greater crime to marry twowomen than to kill two men. In one gallery are the cells for criminalscondemned to death, but the occupants were allowed to mix freely withthe rest of the prisoners, and they seemed comfortable enough. Everybody knows how much in England the condition of a prisoner dependson the disposition of the governor in office and the system in voguefor the moment. The mere words of his sentence do not indicate at allwhat his fate will be. He comes in--under Sir John--to light labour, much schoolmaster and chaplain, and the expectation of aticket-of-leave when a fraction of his time is expired. All at once SirJames supersedes Sir John, and with him comes in a régime of hard work, short rations, and the black hole. If he had been "in" a month sooner, he would have been "out" now with those more fortunate criminals, hislate companions. Things ought not to be so in England, but we need hardly wonder attheir being still worse in Mexico in this respect as in all others. There have been twenty changes of government in ten years, andsometimes extreme severity has been the rule, which may change at aday's notice into the extreme of mildness. In Santa Ana's time theutmost rigour of the law prevailed. Our friends in the Calle Seminario, as they came back from their morning's ride in the Paseo, had to passthrough the great square; and used to see there, day after day, pairsof garotted malefactors sitting bolt upright in the high wooden chairsthey had just been executed in, with a frightful calm look on theirdead faces. For the last year or so all this had ceased, and there had scarcelybeen an execution. It seems that one principal reason of this lenity isthat the government is too weak to support its judges; and that theministers of justice are actually intimidated by threats mysteriouslyconveyed to witnesses and authorities, that, if such or such a criminalis executed, his friends have sworn to avenge his death, and are on thelook-out, every man with his knife ready. To political offences thesame mercy is extended. In the early times of the war of independence, and for years afterwards, when one leader caught an officer on theother side, he had him tried by a drum-head court-martial, and shot. Since then it has come to be better understood that civil war is wagedfor the benefit of individuals who wish for their turn of power andtheir pull at the public purse; and the successful leader spares hisopponent, not caring to establish a precedent which might prove so veryinconvenient to himself. We were taken to see the garotte by the President, who took it out ofits little mahogany case, into which it was fitted like any othersurgical instrument. We noticed that it was rusty, and indeed it hadnot been used for many months. It is not worth while to describe it. Mexican law well administered is bad enough, not essentially unjust, but hampered with endless quibbles and technicalities, quite justifyingthe Spanish proverb, "_Mas vale una mala composición que un buenpleito_, "--a bad compromise is better than a good lawsuit. As thingsstand now, the law of any case is the least item in the account, thereare so many ways of working upon judges and witnesses. Bribery firstand foremost; and--if that fails--personal intimidation, politicalinfluence, private friendship, and the _compadrazgo_. Naturally, if youhave a lawsuit or are tried for a crime, you should lay a goodfoundation. This is done by working upon the _Juez de primerainstancia_, who corresponds in some degree to the _Juge d'instruction_in France. This functionary is wretchedly paid, so that a small sum isacceptable to him; and, moreover, the records of the case, as tried byhim, form the basis of all future litigation, so that it is very badeconomy not to get him into proper order. If you do not, it will costyou three times as much afterwards. If your suit is with a soldier or apriest, the ordinary tribunals will not help you. These twoclasses--the most influential in the community--have their _fuero_, their special jurisdiction; and woe to the unfortunate civilian whoattacks them in their own courts! Don Miguel Lerdo do Tejada, whose sense of humour occasionally peepsout from among his statistics, remarks gravely that "the clergy has itsspecial legislation, which consists of the Sacred Volumes, the decisionof General and Provincial Councils, the Pontifical Decretals, anddoctrines of the Holy Fathers. " Of what sort of justice is dealt out inthat court, one may form some faint idea. One of our friends in Mexico had a house which was too large for him, and in a moment of weakness he let part of it to a priest. Two yearsafterwards, when we made his acquaintance, he was hard at work trying, not to get his rent, he had given up that idea long before, but to getthe priest out. I believe that, eventually, he gave him somethinghandsome to take his departure. I have often quoted Don Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, and shall do so again. His statistics of the country for 1856 are given in a broad sheet, andseem to be generally reliable. The annual balance-sheet of the countryhe sums up in three lines-- Annual Expenditure . . . . . . 25, 000, 000 dollars. Annual Revenue . . . . . . . . 15, 000, 000 dollars. ---------- Annual Deficit . . . . . . . . 10, 000, 000 dollars. The President of the Ayuntamiento was a pleasant person to know, amongthe dishonest, intriguing Mexican officials. He received but little payin return for a great deal of hard work; but he liked to be in officefor the opportunities it afforded him of improving the condition of thepoor of the city. It was a sight to see the prisoners crowd round himas he entered the court. They all knew him, and it was quite evidentthey all considered him as a friend. In what little can be done for theignorant and destitute under the unfavourable circumstances of thecountry, Don Miguel has had a large share; but until an orderlygovernment, that is, a foreign one, succeeds to the present anarchy, not very much can be done. I mentioned the word "_compadrazgo_" a little way back. The thingitself is curious, and quite novel to an Englishman of the present day. The godfathers and godmothers of a child become, by their participationin the ceremony, relations to one another and to the priest whobaptizes the child, and call one another ever afterwards _compadre_ and_comadre_. Just such a relationship was once expressed by the word"gossip, " "God-sib, " that is "akin in God. " Gossip has quitedegenerated from its old meaning, and even "sib, " though good Englishin Chaucer's time, is now only to be found in provincial dialects; butin German "sipp" still means "kin. " In Mexico this connexion obliges the compadres and comadres tohospitality and honesty and all sorts of good offices towards oneanother; and it is wonderful how conscientiously this obligation iskept to, even by people who have no conscience at all for the rest ofthe world. A man who will cheat his own father or his own son will keepfaith with his _compadre_. To such an extent does this influence becomemixed up with all sorts of affairs, and so important is it, that it isnecessary to count it among the things that tend to alter the course ofjustice in the country. The French have the words _compère_ and _commère_; and it is curious toobserve that the name of _compère_ is given to the confederate of thejuggler, who stands among the crowd, and slyly helps in the performanceof the trick. We went one day to the Hospital of San Lazaro. I have mentioned theword "_lepero_" as applied to the poor and idle class of half-casteMexicans. It is only a term of reproach, exactly corresponding to the"_lazzarone_" of Naples, who resembles the Mexican lepers in his socialcondition, and whose name implies the same thing; for, of course, SaintLazarus is the patron saint of lepers and foul beggars. There are somefew real lepers in Mexico, who are obliged by law to be shut up in thishospital. We rather expected to see something like what one reads ofthe treatment of lepers which prevailed in Europe until a few yearsago--shutting them up in dismal dens cut off from communication withother human beings. We were agreeably disappointed. They were confined, it is true, but in a spacious building, with court-yard and garden;their nurses and attendants appeared to be very kind to them; and itseems that many charitable people come to visit the inmates, and bringthem cigars and other small luxuries, to relieve the monotony of theirdismal lives. Some had their faces horribly distorted by the falling ofthe corners of the eyes and mouth, and the disappearance of thecartilage of the nose; and a few, in whom the disease had terminated ina sort of gangrene, were frightful objects, with their featuresscarcely distinguishable; but in the majority of cases the leprosy hadcaused a gradual disappearance of the ends of the fingers and toes, andeven of the whole hands and feet. The limbs thus mutilated looked asthough the parts which were wanting had been amputated, and the woundhad quite healed over, but it is caused by a gradual absorption withoutwound and without pain. As every one knows, leprosy of these kinds washeld until quite lately to be dangerously contagious; but, fortunatelyfor the poor creatures themselves, this is quite clearly proved to befalse, and the lepers are only shut up that they may have no children, for the affection appears to be hereditary. It was early one morning, when we were going out to breakfast atTisapán, that Don Juan recounted to us his experience of garrottedmalefactors sitting dead in their chairs in the great square acrosswhich we were riding. "It was really almost enough to spoil a fellow'sbreakfast, " he added pathetically. Though an Englishman, and onlyarrived in the country a few years before, Don Juan was as clever withthe lazo as most Mexicans, and could _colear_ a bull in great style. Indeed, we had started early that morning in order to have time enoughto look at the bulls in the _potreros_--the great grass-meadows--thatlie for miles outside the city, and which are made immensely fertile byflooding from time to time. Wherever we saw a bull in the distance, DonJuan and his grand little horse _Pancho_ plunged over a bank andthrough a gap, and we after him. No one ever leaps anything in thiscountry, indeed the form of the saddle puts it out of the question. Oneor two bulls looked up as we entered the enclosure, and bolted intoother fields, pushing in among the thorns of the aloes which formedclose hedges of fixed bayonets round the meadows. At last Don Juan cutoff the retreat of an old bull, and galloping after him like mad, flungthe running loop of the lazo over his horns, at the same time windingthe other end round the pummel of his saddle. The bull was stillstanding on all four legs, pulling with all its might against Pancho. Galloping after him, so as to slacken the end of the lazo, we contrivedto transfer it from Don Juan's saddle to mine. Now my own horsehappened to be a little lame, and I was riding a poor little blackbeast whose bones really seemed to rattle in his skin. Ouracquaintances in the Paseo had been quite facetious about him, recommending us to be careful and not to smoke up against him, for fearwe should blow him over, and otherwise whetting their wit upon him. Heacquitted himself very creditably, however, and when the bull began topull against him, he leant over on the other side, as if he had beengalloping round a circus; and the bull could not move him an inch. Itwas quite evident that it was not his first experiment. In the meantime Don Juan had dropped the noose of my lazo just before the bull'snose, and presently that animal incautiously put his foot into it, whenDon Juan whipped it up round his leg and went off at full gallop. Mylittle black horse knew perfectly well what had happened, though hishead was exactly in the opposite direction; and he tugged with all hismight, and leant over more than ever. The two lazos tightened with atwang, as though they had been guitar-strings; and in a moment theunfortunate bull was rolling with all his legs in the air, in the midstof a whirlwind of dust. Having thus humiliated him we let him go, andoff he went at full speed. All this time the proprietor of the fieldwas tranquilly standing on a bank, looking on. Far from raging at usfor treating his property in this free and easy manner, he returned oursalutation when we rode up to him, and, addressing our sportingcountryman, said, "Well done, old fellow, come another day and tryagain. " Our whole ride to Tisapán was enlivened by a series of Don Juan'sexploits. He raced after bulls, got hold of their tails, and colearedthem over into the dust. He lazo'd everything in the road, frommilestones and trunks of trees upwards; and I shall never forget ourmeeting with a great mule which was trotting along the road without aburden, --just as he passed us, our companion slipped the noose roundhis hind leg, and the beast went down as if he had been shot, themuleteers pulling up on purpose to have a good open-mouthed laugh atthe incident. We seemed to be in rather a sporting line that day, for, after ourreturn from Tisapán, Don Juan and I went to see a cockfight. In Mexico, as in Cuba and all Spanish America, this is the favourite sport of thepeople. In Cuba, the principal shopkeeper in every village keeps thecockpit--the "_plaza de gallos_. " The people from the whole districtround about come in on Sunday to the village, with a triple object;_first_, to hear mass; _secondly_, to buy their supplies for theensuing week; and _thirdly_, to spend the afternoon in cockfighting, atwhich amusement it is easy to win or lose two or three hundred poundsin an afternoon. The custom that the cockpit brings to the shop morethan repays the proprietor for the expense and trouble of keeping it. In Cuba, the spurs of the cock are artificially pointed by paring witha penknife, but the Mexican way of arming them is even more abominable. [Illustration: STEEL COCK-SPURS (8 inches long), WITH SHEATH ANDPADDING. ] Each bird has a sharp steel knife three or four inches long, just likea little scythe-blade, fastened over the natural spur before the fightcommences. A leather sheath covers the weapon while the cocks are beingput into the ring, and held with their beaks almost touching till theyare furious. Then they are drawn back to opposite sides of the ring, the sheaths are taken off, and they fly at one another, givingdesperate cuts with the steel blades. The cockpit was a small round wooden shed, with the ring in the middle, and circular benches round it, rising one above another. The place wasfull of people, mostly Mexicans of the lower orders, smoking, betting, and talking sporting-slang. The betting was surprising, when onecompared its amount with the appearance of the spectators, among whomthere was hardly a decent coat to be seen. Every now and then, a dirtyscoundrel in a shabby leather jacket would walk round the ring with ahandful of gold, offering the odds--ten to five, ten to seven, ten tonine, or whatever they might be, in gold ounces, which coins are worthabove three pounds apiece. Cockfighting is such a passion here that we thought it as well to seeit for once. Santa Ana, now he has retired from politics, spends histime at Carthagena pretty much entirely in this his favourite sport, which forms one of the great items among the pleasures and excitementsof a Mexican life. We saw a couple of mains fought, in which thevictorious birds were dreadfully mangled, while the vanquished wereliterally cut to pieces; as much money changed hands as we should havethought sufficient to buy up the whole of the people present, cockpitand all. Then, being both agreed that it was a disgusting sight, wewent away. Before we left Mexico we were taken by our man Antonio to a cutler'sshop, where the principal trade seemed to be the making of these_cuchillos_ to arm the cocks with. We bought a couple of pairs of them, and had them carefully fitted up. The old cutler was quite delighted, and remarked that foreigners must acknowledge that there were somethings which were done better in Mexico than anywhere else. I fear weleft him under the pleasing impression that we were taking home theblades to introduce as models in our own benighted country. The Mexican is a great gambler. Bad fortune he bears with the greatestequanimity. You never hear of his committing suicide after being ruinedat play; he just goes away, and sets to work to earn enough for a freshstake. The government have tried to put down gambling in the State ofMexico, but not with much success. For three days in the year, however, at the festival of San Agustín de las Cuevas, public gambling-tablesare tolerated, though soldiers and officials are strictly forbidden toplay, an injunction which they carefully set at nought. Oddly enough, the government, while doing all it could to keep its own functionariesaway from the _monte_ table, did not scruple to send a military escortto convoy the bankers with their bags of gold from Mexico to SanAgustín. On one of the three days, Mr. Christy and I went there. Therewas a great crowd, this time mostly a well-dressed one, and the cockpitwas on a large scale. But of course the great attraction was the_monte_, which was being played everywhere, the stakes in some placesbeing coppers, in others silver, while more aristocratic establishmentswould allow no stake under a gold ounce. Dead silence prevailed inthese places, and the players seemed to pride themselves upon notshowing the slightest change in their countenances, whether they won orlost. The game itself is very simple, and has some points ofresemblance to that of lansquenet, known in Europe. The first two cardsin the pack, say a four and a king, are laid down, face up, on thetable, and the gamblers put down their money against one or the other. Then the _croupier_ deals the cards out slowly and solemnly one afteranother, calling out their names as they fall, until he comes--say to aking; when those who have betted on the king have their stakes doubled, and the others lose theirs. The banker has a great advantage tocompensate him for his expense and risk. If the first card which isthrown out be one of the two numbers on the table, the banker withholdsa quarter of the stake he would otherwise have lost, paying only astake and three-quarters, instead of two stakes. Now, as there areforty cards in a Spanish pack, two of which have been already thrownout, the chances for a throw favourable to the banker are about one insix, so that he may reckon on an average profit of about two per cent, on all the money staked. As for the players, they sat round the table, carefully noticing thecourse of the games, and regulating their play accordingly, as they doat Baden-Baden and Hombourg. I suppose that now and then thesescientific calculators must be told that their whole theory of chancesis the most baseless delusion, but they certainly do not believe it;and at any rate this curious pseudo-science of winning by skill atgames of pure chance will last our time, if not longer. On some tables there were as much as three or four thousand goldounces. This struck us the more because we had often tried to get goldcoin for our own use, instead of the silver dollars, the generalcurrency of the country, of which twenty pounds' worth to carry home ona hot day was enough to break one's heart. We often tried to get gold, but the answer was always that what little there was in the country wasin the hands of the gamblers, whose operations could not be worked on alarge scale without it. The prevalence of mining, as a means of getting wealth, has contributedgreatly to make the love of gambling an important part of the nationalcharacter. Silver-mining in the old times was a most hazardousspeculation, and people engaged in it used to make and lose greatfortunes a dozen times in their lives. The miners worked not on fixedwages, but for a share of the produce, and so every man became agambler on his own account. To a great extent the same evils prevailnow, but two things have tended to lessen them. Poor ores are nowworked profitably which used to be neglected by the miners; and, asthese ores occur in almost inexhaustible masses, their mining is a muchless speculative affair than the old system of mining for rich veins. Moreover, the men are, in some of the largest mines, paid by the day, so that their life has become more regular. In many places, however, the work is still done on shares by the miners, who pass their lives inalternations of excessive riches and all kinds of extravagance, succeeded by times of extreme poverty. An acquaintance of ours was telling us one day about the lives of thesemen. One week, a party of three miners had come upon a very rich bit ofore, and went away from the _raya_, each man with a handkerchief fullof dollars. This was on Saturday evening. On Monday morning ourinformant went out for a ride, and on the road he met three dirtyhaggard-looking men, dressed in some old rags; one of the three cameforward, taking off the sort of apology for a hat which he had on, andsaid, "Good morning, Señor Doctor, would you mind doing us the favourof lending us half a dollar to get something to eat?" They were thethree successful miners; and when, a few days afterwards, the man whohad asked for the money came back to return it, the Doctor inquiredwhat had happened. It seemed that the three, as soon as they had received their money onSaturday, got a lift to the nearest town, and there rigged themselvesout with new clothes, silver buttons, five-pound serapes, and a horsefor each, with magnificent silver mountings to the saddle and spurs. Here they have dinner, and lots of pulque, and swagger about outsidethe door, smoking cigarettes. There, quite by chance, an acquaintancemeets them, and admires the horses, but would like to see their pacestried a little outside the town. So they pace and gallop along for halfa mile or so; when, also quite accidentally, they find two men sittingoutside a rancho, playing at cards. The two men--strangely enough--areold acquaintances of the curious friend, and they produce a bowl ofcool pulque from within, which our miners find quite refreshing afterthe ride. Thereupon they sit down to have a little game at _monte_, then more pulque, then more cards; and when they awake the nextmorning, they find themselves possessed of a suit of old rags, with nomoney in the pockets. They had dim recollections of losing--firstmoney, then horses, and lastly clothes, the night before; but--as theywere informed by the old woman, who was the only occupant of the placebesides themselves--their friends had been obliged to go away on urgentbusiness, and could not be so impolite as to disturb them. So theywalked back to the mines, ragged and hungry, and borrowed the doctor'shalf-dollar. [Illustration: LEATHER SANDALS, WORN BY THE NATIVE INDIANS. ] CHAPTER X. TEZCUCO. MIRAFLORES. POPOCATEPETL. CHOLULA. [Illustration: WALKING AND RIDING COSTUMES IN MEXICO. _(After Nebel. )_] The wet season was fast coming on when we left Mexico for the lasttime. We had to pass through Vera Cruz, where the rain and the yellowfever generally set in together; so that to stay longer would have beentoo great a risk. Our first stage was to Tezcuco, across the lake in a canoe, just as wehad been before. We noticed on our way to the canoes, a church, apparently from one to two centuries old, with the following doggerelinscription in huge letters over the portico, which shows that thedogma of the Immaculate Conception is by no means a recent institutionin Mexico: _Antes de entrar afirma con tu vida, S. Maria fué sin pecado concebida:_ Which may be translated into verse of equal quality, _Confess on thy life before coming in, That blessed Saint Mary was conceived without sin. _ Nothing particular happened on our journey, except that a well-dressedMexican turned up at the landing-place, wanting a passage, and as wehad taken a canoe for ourselves, we offered to let him come with us. Hewas a well-bred young man, speaking one or two languages besides hisown; and he presently informed us that he was going on a visit to arich old lady at Tezcuco, whose name was Doña Maria Lopez, or somethingof the kind. When we drove away from the other end of the lake, towardsTezcuco, we took him as far as the road leading to the old lady'shouse; when he rather astonished us by hinting that he should like togo on with us to the Casa Grande, and could walk back. At the sametime, it struck us that the youth, though so well dressed, had noluggage; and we began to understand the queer expression of thecoachman's face when he saw him get into the carriage with us. So westopped at the corner of the road, and the young gentleman had to getout. At the Casa Grande, our friends laughed at us immensely when we toldthem of the incident, and offered us twenty to one that he would cometo ask for money within twenty-four hours. He came the same evening, and brought a wonderful story about his passport not being _en règle_, and that unless we could lend him ten dollars to bribe the police, heshould be in a dreadful scrape. We referred him to the master of thehouse, who said something to him which caused him to departprecipitately, and we never saw him again; but we heard afterwards thathe had been to the other foreigners in the neighbourhood with varioushistories. We made more enquiries about him in the town, and itappeared that his expedition to Tezcuco was improvised when he saw usgoing down to the boat, and of course the visit to the rich old ladywas purely imaginary. Now this youth was not more than eighteen, andlooked and spoke like a gentleman. They say that the class he belongedto is to be counted rather by thousands than by hundreds in Mexico. They are the children of white Creoles, or nearly white mestizos; theyget a superficial education and the art of dressing, and with thisslender capital go out into the world to live by their wits, until theyget a government appointment or set up as political adventurers, and sohave a chance of helping themselves out of the public purse, which isnaturally easier and more profitable than mere sponging uponindividuals. One gets to understand the course of Mexican affairs muchbetter by knowing what sort of raw material the politicians arerecruited from. We saw some good things in a small collection of antiquities, on thissecond visit to Tezcuco. Among them was a nude female figure inalabaster, four or five feet high, and--comparatively speaking--of highartistic merit. Such figures are not common in Mexico, and they aresupposed to represent the Aztec Venus, who was called _Tlazolteocihua_, "Goddess of Pleasure. " A figure, laboriously cut in hard stone, representing a man wearing a jackal's head as a mask, was supposed tobe a figurative representation of the celebrated king of Tezcuco, _Nezahualcoyotl_, "hungry jackal, " of whom Mexican history relates thathe walked about the streets of his capital in disguise, after themanner of the Caliph in the Arabian Nights. The explanation isplausible, but I think not correct. The _coyote_ or jackal was a sacredanimal among the Aztecs, as the Anubis-jackal was among the Egyptians. Humboldt found in Mexico the tomb of a coyote, which had been carefullyinterred with an earthen vase, and a number of the little cast-bronzebells which I noticed in the last chapter. The Mexicans used actuallyto make a kind of fetish--or charm--of a jackal's skin, prepared in apeculiar way, and called by the same name, _nezahualcoyotl_, and verylikely they do so still. From this fetish the king's name was, nodoubt, borrowed; and it is not improbable that the whole story of theking's walking in disguise may have grown up out of his name being thesame as that of the figure we saw, muffled up in a jackal's skin. It is curious that the jackal, or the human figure in a jackal-mask, should have been an object of superstitious veneration both in Mexicoand in Egypt. This, the extraordinary serpent-crown of Xochicalco, andthe pyramids, are the three most striking resemblances to be foundbetween the two countries; all probably accidental, but not the lessnoteworthy on that account. The collection contained a number of spherical beads in green jade, highly polished, and some as large as pigeon's eggs. They were found inan alabaster box, of such elaborate and beautiful workmanship that theowner deemed it worthy to be presented as a sort of peace-offering tothe wife of President Santa Ana. The word _coyotl_ in the name of the Tezcucan king is the present word_coyote_--a jackal. Though unknown in English, it has passed, withseveral Spanish words, into what we may call the American dialect ofour language. Prairie-hunters and Californians have introduced severalother words in this way, such as _ranch_, _gulch, corral_, &c. The word _lariat_ one is constantly meeting with in books aboutAmerican prairies. A horse-rope, or a lazo, is called in Spanish_reata_; and, by absorbing the article, _la reata_ is made into lariat, just as such words as _alligator_, _alcove_, and _pyramid_ were formed. The flexible leather riding-whip or _cuarta_ is apparently the _quirt_that some American politicians use in arguing with their opponents. Our last day at Tezcuco was spent in packing up antiquities to be sentto England, the express orders of the Government against suchexportation to the contrary notwithstanding. Next morning we rode offto Miraflores, passing on our way the curious stratum of alluvial soilcontaining pottery, &c. , which I have described already. Miraflores isa cotton-factory, in the opening of a picturesque gorge just at theedge of the plain of Mexico. The machinery is American, for the milldates from the time when it was considered expedient to prohibit theexportation of cotton-mill machinery from England; and having begunwith American work, it naturally suits them to go on with it. It isdriven by a great Barker's mill, which works in a sort of well, havingan outlet into the valley, and roars as though it would tear the placedown. It is not common to see this kind of machine working on a largescale; but here, with a great fall of water, it does very well. Otherwise the place was like an ordinary cotton-factory, and one cannotbe surprised at people thinking that such establishments are a sourceof prosperity to the country. They see a population hard at work andgetting good wages, masters making great profits, and no end of balesgoing off to town; and do not consider that half the price of the clothis wasted, and that the protection-duty sets the people to work whichthey cannot do to advantage, while it takes them away from occupationswhich their country is fit for. Next morning took us to Amecameca, a town in a little plain at the footof Popocatepetl, whose snow-covered top towers high up in the clouds, like Mont Blanc over Sallanches. We had at one time cherished hopes ofgetting to the top of this grand volcano, but had heard such frightfulreports of difficulties and dangers that we had concluded not to domore than look at it from a distance, the more especially as there hadbeen a heavy fall of snow upon it a day or two before. We presented ourletter to the Spaniard who kept the great shop at Amecameca, and askedhim, casually, about the mountain. He assured us that the surface ofthe snow would be frozen over, and that instead of being a disadvantagethe fall of snow was in our favour, for it was easier to climb overfrozen snow than up a loose heap of volcanic ashes. So we sent for theguide, a big man, who used to manage the sulphur-workings in the crateruntil that undertaking was given up. He set to work to get things readyfor the expedition, and we strolled out for a walk. Close by the town is a "sacred mount, " with little stations, and on oneday in the year numbers of pilgrims come to visit the place. Near thetop, the Indian lad who came with us showed us the mouth of a cavern, which leads by subterranean passages under the sea to Rome--as cavernsnot unfrequently do in Roman Catholic countries! What was more worthnoticing was that here there was a cypress-tree, covered with votiveofferings, like the great ahuchuete in the valley above Chalma; so thatit is likely that the place was sacred long before chapels and stationswere built upon it. Our guide told us that whenever a man touched thetree, all feeling of weariness left him. How characteristic thissuperstition is of a nation of carriers of burdens! In the afternoon we started--ourselves, our guide, and an Indian tocarry cloaks, &c. Up the mountain. We soon left the cultivated region, and entered upon the pine-forest, which we never left during ourafternoon journey. One of the first showers of the rainy season camedown upon us as we rode through the forest. It only lasted half anhour, but it was a deluge. In a shower of the same kind at Tezcuco, aday or two before, rain to the amount of 1-1/10 inches fell in thehour. By dusk we reached the highest habitation in North America, theplace where the sulphur used to be sublimed from the pumice broughtdown from the crater. This place was shut up, for the undertaking hasbeen abandoned; but in a _rancho_ close by we found some Indian womenand children, and there we took up our quarters. The _rancho_ was acircular hut, built and thatched with reeds, though in the midst of apine-forest; and presently a smart shower began, which came in upon usas though the roof had been a sieve. The Indian women were kneeling all the evening round the wood-fire inthe centre of the hut, baking _tortillas_ and boiling beans and coffeein earthen pots. The wood was green, and the place was full ofsuffocating smoke, except within eighteen inches of the ground, wherelay a stratum of purer air. We were obliged to lie down at once, uponmats and serapes, for we could not exist in the smoke; and as often aswe raised ourselves into a sitting posture, we had to dive down again, half suffocated. The line of demarcation was so accurately drawn thatit was like the Grotto del Cane, only reversed. After a primitive supper in earthen bowls, we lay round the fire, listening to the talk of our men and the Indian women. It was mostlyabout adventures with wolves, and about the sulphur-workings, nowdiscontinued. The weather had cleared, and as we lay we could see thestars shining in through the roof. About three in the morning I awoke, feeling bruised all over, as was natural after sleeping on a mat on theground. Moreover, the fire had gone out, and it was horribly cold, aswell it might be at 13, 000 feet above the sea. I shook some one up tomake up the fire, and went out into the open air. It was nearly fullmoon; but the moonlight was very different from what we can see inEngland, even on the clearest nights. On the plateau of Mexico, therarity and dryness of the air are such that distant objects are seenfar more distinctly than at the level of the sea, and the Europeantraveller's measurements of distance by the eye are always too small. The sunlight and moonlight, for the same reason, are more intense thanat lower levels. Here, at about the same elevation as the top of theJungfrau, the effect was far more striking, and I shall never forgetthe brilliant flood of light that illuminated that grand scene. Fardown below I could see the plain, with houses and fields dimly visible. At the bottom of the slope began the dark pine-forest, which envelopedthe mountains up to the level at which I stood, and there broke into anuneven line, with straggling patches running up a few hundred feethigher in sheltered crevices. Above the forest came a region of barevolcanic sand, and then began the snow. The highest peak no longerlooked steep and pointed as from below, but seemed to rise from thedarker line of sand in a gentle swelling curve up into the sky. Theredid not seem to be a speck or a wrinkle on this smooth snowy dome, thebrilliant whiteness of which contrasted so wonderfully with the darkpine-forest below. About seven in the morning we started on horseback, rode up across thesandy district, and entered upon the snow. After we left the pines, small bushes and tufts of coarse Alpine grass succeeded. Where rocks ofbasaltic lava stood out from the heaps of crumbling ashes, after thegrass had ceased, lichens--the occupants of the highest zone--werestill to be seen. Before we reached the snow, we were in the midst ofutter desolation, where no sign of life was visible. From this point wesent back the horses, and started for the ascent of the cone. On ouryesterday's ride we had cut young pine-trees in the forest, foralpenstocks; and we tied silk handkerchiefs completely over our faces, to keep off the glare of the sun. Our guide did the same; but theIndian, who had been many times before up to the crater to get sulphur, had brought no protection for his face. We marched in a line, the guidefirst, sounding the depth of the snow with his pole, and keeping asnearly as he could along ridges just covered with snow, where we didnot sink far. It was from the lower part of the snow that we began tounderstand the magnificent proportions of Iztaccihuatl--the "WhiteWoman, " the twin mountain which is connected with Popocatepetl by animmense col, which stretches across below the snow-line. This mountainis not conical like Popocatepetl, but its shoulders are broader, andbreak into grand peaks, like some of the _Dents_ of Switzerland, and ithas no crater. [22] Indeed, the two mountains, joined together likeSiamese twins, look as though they had been set up, side by side, toillustrate the two contending theories of the formation of volcanos. Von Buch and Humboldt might have made Iztaccihuatl on the "upheavaltheory, " by a force pushing up from below, without breaking through thecrust to form a crater; while Poulett Scrope was building Popocatepetlon the "accumulation theory, " by throwing up lava and volcanic ashesout of an open vent, until he had formed a conical heap some fivethousand feet high, with a great crater at the top. As we toiled slowly up the snow, we took off our veils from time totime, to look more clearly about us. The glare of the sun upon the snowwas dazzling, and its intense whiteness contrasted wonderfully with thecloudless dark indigo-blue of the sky. Between twelve and one wereached the edge of the crater, 17, 884 feet above the sea. The ridgeupon which we stood was only a few feet wide, and covered with snow;but it seemed that there was still heat enough to keep the crateritself clear, for none lay on the bottom, or in clefts on the steepsides. The crater was oval, full a mile in its longest diameter, and perhaps700 to 800 feet in depth; and its almost perpendicular walls ofbasaltic lava are covered with red and yellow patches of sublimedsulphur. We climbed a little way down into it to get protection fromthe wind, but to descend further unassisted was not possible, so we satthere, with our legs dangling down into the abyss. Part of the_malacate_, or winder, used by the Indians in descending, was stillthere; but it was not complete, and even if it had been, so many monthshad elapsed since it was last used that we should not have cared to tryit. It consisted of a rope of hide, descending into the bottom of thecrater in a slanting direction; and the sulphur-collectors were loweredand drawn up it by a windlass, in a basket to which another rope wasattached. A few years back, the volcano used to send up showers ofashes, and even large stones; but now it has sunk to the condition of amere _solfatara_, sending out, from two crevices in the floor, greatvolumes of sulphurous acid and steam, with a loud roaring noise. Thesulphur-working merely consisted in looking for places where thepumice-stone was fully impregnated with sulphur, and breaking outpieces, which were hauled up in the basket. The chief risk which thelabourers ran was from the terrific snow-storms, which come on suddenlyand without the slightest notice. Men at work collecting sulphur haveonce or twice been caught by such storms in parts of the crater at adistance from the rope, and buried in the snow. The appearance of the "White Woman, " but little lower than the pointwhere we stood, was very grand, but all other objects looked small. Thetwo great plains of Mexico and Puebla, with their lakes and towns, werelaid out like a map; and the ranges of mountains which hem them in madethem look like Roman encampments surrounded by earthworks. Even nowthat the lakes have shrunk to a fraction of their former size, we couldsee the fitness of the name given in old times to the Valley of Mexico, _Anahuac_, that is, "By the Water-side. " The peaks of Orizaba andPerote were conspicuous to the east; to the north lay thesilver-mountains of Pachuca; and to the south-west a darker shade ofgreen indicated the forests and plantations of the _tierra caliente_, below Cuernavaca. It was a novel sensation to be at an altitude where the barometerstands at 15-1/2 inches, so that the pressure on our lungs was hardlymore than one-half what we are accustomed to in England; but we did notexperience much inconvenience from it. The last thousand feet or so hadbeen very hard work, and we were obliged to stop every few steps, buton the comparatively level edge of the crater we felt no difficulty inmoving about. _Popocatepetl_ means "Smoking Mountain. " The Indians naturally enoughconsidered it to be the abode of evil spirits, and told Cortes and hiscompanions that they could never reach the top. One of the Spaniards, Diego Ordaz, tried to climb to the summit, and got as far as the snow;whereupon he returned, and got permission to put a burning mountain inhis coat of arms, in commemoration of the exploit! If, as he declared, a high wind was blowing, and showers of ashes falling, his turning backwas excusable, though his bragging was not. He seems to have afterwardstold Bernal Diaz that he got to the top, which we know, by Cortes'letters to Spain, was not true. A few years later, Francesco Montanowent up, and was lowered into the crater to get sulphur. When Humboldtrelates the story, in his _New Spain_, he seems incredulous about this;but since the _Essai Politique_ was written the same thing has beenregularly done by the Indians, as the merest matter of business, untilthe crater has been fairly worked out. We took our last look at Mexico from the ridge of the crater, and, descending twenty feet at a stride, soon reached the bottom of thecone. As far as we could see, the substance of the hill seemed to be ofbasaltic lava, which was mostly covered with the _lapilli_ which I havespoken of before as ashes and volcanic sand. Even before we reached thepine-forest there was evidence of the action of water, which hadcovered the slope of the mountain with beds of thick compact tufa, composed of these lapilli mixed with fragments of lava. Thewater-courses had cut deep channels through these beds, and down intothe rock below; so that the streams from the melted snow rushed downbetween walls of lava, in which traces of columnar structure wereobservable. The snow we had travelled over was sometimes dry and powdery, andsometimes hard and compact. There were no glaciers, and no glacier-ice, properly so called. It never rains at this elevation; and, thoughevaporation goes on rapidly with half the pressure taken off the air, and a great increase in the intensity of the sun's rays, the snoweither passes directly into vapour, or carries the water offinstantaneously, as it is formed. Only so much water seems to beproduced and re-frozen as suffices to make the snow hard, and in somefavourable places near the rocks to form lumps of ice, and some ofthose great icicles which the Spaniards brought down from the mountainon their first expedition, so greatly astonishing their companions. When we reached the rancho we thought of passing another night there;but the Indians who had gone down to the valley for corn had notreturned, and everything was eaten up except beans, which are all verywell as accessories to dinner, but our English digestions could notstand living upon them; so we started at once for San Nícolas de losRanchos. Our ride was down a deep ravine, by the side of amountain-torrent coming down from the snows of Popocatepetl; and, whenwe stopped now and then to look behind us, we had one of the grandestviews which I have ever witnessed. The elements of the picture weresimple enough. A deep gorge at our feet, with a fierce torrent rushingdown it, dark pine-trees all round us, and above us--on either side--asnow-covered mountain towering up into the sky. We were just in thetrack of the Spanish invaders, who crossed most likely by this veryroad between the two volcanos; and they record the amazement which theyfelt that in the tropics snow should be unmelted upon the mountains. A few hours riding down the steep descent, and we were in the flatplain of Puebla. There were our two mountains behind us, but now theylooked as we had so often seen them before from a distance. The powerof realizing their size was gone, and with it most of their grandeurand beauty. Nothing was left us but a vivid recollection of thewonderful scenes that were before us a few hours ago, impressions notlikely to be ever effaced from our minds, where the picture of thegreat snowy cone seen in the bright moonlight, and the descent betweenthe mountains, remain indelibly impressed as the types of all that ismost grand and impressive in the scenery of lofty mountains. We slept at San Nícolas de los Ranches, "St. Nicholas of the huts, "where the shopkeeper, to whom we had a letter, insisted upon turningout of his own room for us, and treated us like princes. The reason ofour often being provided with letters to the shopkeepers in smallplaces, was, that they are the only people who have houses fit forentertaining travellers. Many of them are very rich, and in the UnitedStates they would call themselves merchants. Next morning our Indiancarrier, who had ascended the mountain without a veil, was brought inby our guide, a pitiful object. All the skin of his face was peelingoff, and his eyes were frightfully inflamed, so that he was all butblind, and had to be led about. Fortunately, this blindness only lastsfor a time, and no doubt he got well in a few days. We rode through the plain to Cholula. Our number was now four; for, besides Antonio, we had engaged another servant a few days before. Wewanted some one who knew this district well; and when a friend of oursmentioned that there was a young man to be had who had a good horse andwas a smuggler by profession, we engaged him directly, and he proved agreat acquisition. Of course, from the nature of his trade, he knewevery bypath between Mexico and the tobacco-districts towards which wewere going; he was always ready with an expedient whenever there was adifficulty, he was never tired and never out of temper. As for themorality of his peculiar profession, it probably does harm to thehonesty of the people; but, considering it as a question of abstractjustice, we must remember that almost the whole of the taxes which theMexicans are compelled to pay to the general government are utterlywasted upon paying officials who do nothing but intrigue, and keepingup armies which--far from being a protection to life and property--area permanent and most destructive nuisance. The contract betweengovernment and subject ought to be a two-sided one; and when thegovernment so entirely misuses the taxes paid by the people, I am quiteinclined to sympathize with the subjects who will not pay them if theycan help it. We scarcely entered the town of Cholula, which is a poor place now, though it was a great city at the time of the Spanish Conquest. TheSpanish city of Puebla, only a few miles off, quite ruined it. We went straight to the great pyramid, which lies close to the town, and which had been rising before us like a hill during the last milesof our journey. This extraordinary structure is perhaps the oldest ruinin Mexico, and certainly the largest. A close examination of itsstructure in places where the outline is still to some extentpreserved, and a comparison of it with better preserved structures ofthe same kind, make it quite clear that it was a terraced _teocalli_, resembling the drawing called the "Pyramid of Cholula, " in Humboldt's_Vues des Cordillères_. But let no one imagine that the well-definedand symmetrical structure represented in that drawing is in the leastlike what we saw, and from which Humboldt made the rough sketch, whichhe and his artist afterwards "idealized" for his great work. At thepresent day, the appearance of the structure is that of a shapelesstree-grown hill; and until the traveller comes quite close to it he maybe excused for not believing that it is an artificial mound at all. The pyramid is built of rows of bricks baked in the sun, and cementedtogether with mortar in which had been stuck quantities of smallstones, fragments of pottery, and bits of obsidian knives and weapons. Between rows of bricks are alternate layers of clay. It was built infour terraces, of which traces are still to be distinguished; and isabout 200 feet high. Upon the platform at the top stand some trees anda church. The sides front the four cardinal points, and the base lineis of immense length, over thirteen hundred feet, so that the ascent isvery gradual. When we reached Cholula we sent the two men to enquire in theneighbourhood for antiquities, of which numbers are to be found inevery ploughed field round. At the top of the pyramid we held a market, and got some curious things, all of small size however. Among them wasa mould for making little jackal-heads in the clay, ready for baking;the little earthen heads which are found in such quantities in thecountry being evidently made by wholesale in moulds of this kind, notmodelled separately. We got also several terra-cotta stamps, used inold times for stamping coloured patterns upon the native cloth, andperhaps also for ornamenting vases and other articles of earthenware. Cholula used to be a famous place for making pottery, and itsred-and-black ware was famous at the time of the Conquest, but thetrade now seems to have left it. We were struck by observing that, though there was plenty of coloured pottery to be found in theneighbourhood of the pyramid, the pyramid itself had only fragments ofuncoloured ware imbedded in its structure; which seems to prove that itwas built before the art of colouring pottery was invented. They have cut a road through one corner of the pyramid, and thiscutting exposed a chamber within. Humboldt describes this chamber asroofed with blocks, each overlapping the one before, till they can bemade to meet by a block of ordinary size. This is the false arch socommon in Egypt and Peru, and in the ruined cities of Central America. Every child who builds houses with a box of bricks discovers it forhimself. The bridge at Tezcuco, already described, is much moreremarkable in its structure. Whether our inspection was careless, orwhether the chamber has fallen in since Humboldt's time, I cannot say, but we missed this peculiar roof. There are several legends about the Pyramid of Cholula. That recordedby Humboldt on the authority of a certain Dominican friar, Pedro de losRios, I mention--not because of its intrinsic value, which is veryslight, but because it will enable us to see the way in which legendsgrew up under the hands of the early missionaries, who were delightedto find fragments of Scripture-history among the traditions of theAncient Mexicans, and who seem to have taken down from the lips oftheir converts, as native traditions, the very Bible-stories that theyhad been teaching them, mixed however with other details, of which itis hard to say whether they were imagined on purpose to fill up gaps inthe story, or whether they were really of native traditional origin. Pedro de los Rios' story tells us that the land of Anahuac wasinhabited by giants; that there was a great deluge, which devastatedthe earth; that all the inhabitants were turned into fishes, exceptseven who took refuge in a cave (apparently with their wives). Yearsafter the waters had subsided, and the earth had been re-peopled bythese seven men, their leader began to build a vast pyramid, whose topshould reach to heaven. He built it of bricks baked in the sun, whichwere brought from a great distance, passing them from hand to hand by afile of men. The gods were enraged at the presumption of these men, andthey sent down fire from heaven upon the pyramid, which caused itsbuilding to be discontinued. It is stated that at the time of theSpanish Conquest, the inhabitants of Cholula preserved with greatveneration a large aerolite, which they said was the thunderbolt thatfell upon the top of the pyramid when the fire struck it. The history of the confusion of tongues seems also to have existed inthe country, not long after the Conquest, having very probably beenlearnt from the missionaries; but it does not seem to have beenconnected with the Tower-of-Babel legend of Cholula. Something like itat least appears in the Gemelli table of Mexican migrations, reproducedin Humboldt, where a bird in a tree is sending down a number of tonguesto a crowd of men standing below. I think we need not hesitate in condemning the legend of Cholula, whichI have just related, as not genuine, or at least as partly of latefabrication. But we fortunately possess another version of it, whichshows the legend to have developed itself farther than was quitediscreet. A MS. History, written by Duran in 1579, and quoted by theAbbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, relates that people built the pyramid toreach heaven, finding clay or mud _("terre glaise")_ and a very sticky_bitumen ("bitume fort gluant")_, with which they began at once tobuild, &c. This is evidently the slime or bitumen of the Book ofGenesis; but I believe I may safely assert that the Mexicans never usedbitumen for any such purpose, and that it is not found anywhere nearCholula. The Aztec historians ascribe the building of the Pyramid of Cholula tothe prophet Quetzalcoatl. The legends which relate to this celebratedpersonage are to be found in writers on Mexican history, and, morefully than elsewhere, in the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg's work. I am inclined to consider Quetzalcoatl a real personage, and not amythical one. He is said to have been a white, bearded man, to havecome from the East, to have reigned in Tollan, and to have been drivenout from thence by the votaries of human sacrifices, which he opposed. He took refuge in Cholollan, now called Cholula (which means the "placeof the fugitive"), and taught the inhabitants to work in metals, toobserve various fasts and festivals, to use the Toltec calendar of daysand years, and to perform penance to appease the gods. A relic of the father of Quetzalcoatl is said to have been kept untilafter the Spanish Conquest, when it was opened, and found to contain aquantity of fair human hair. The prophet himself departed from Cholula, and put to sea in a canoe, promising to return. So strong was thebelief in the tradition of these events among the Aztecs, that when theSpaniards appeared on the coast, they were supposed to be of the raceof the prophet, and the strange conduct of Montezuma to Cortes is to beascribed to the influence of this belief. There is a singular legend, mentioned by the Abbé Brasseur deBourbourg, of a white man, with a hooded robe and white beard, bearinga cross in his hand, who lands at Tehuantepec (on the Pacific coast ofMexico), and introduces among the Indians auricular confession, penance, and vows of chastity. The coming of white, bearded men from the East, centuries before theSpanish invasion in the 16th century, and the introduction of new artsand rites by them in Mexico, is as certain as most historical events ofwhich we have only legendary knowledge. As to who they were I cannotoffer an opinion. There are, however, one or two points connected withthe presence of the Irish and Northmen in America in the 9th andfollowing centuries--a period not very far from that ascribed toQuetzalcoatl--which are worthy of notice. The Scandinavian antiquarians make the "white-man's land"_(Hvitramannaland)_ extend down as far as Florida, on the very Gulf ofMexico. It is curious to notice the coincidence between the remark ofBernal Diaz, that the Mexicans called their priests _papa_ (moreproperly _papahua_), and that in the old Norse Chronicle, which tellsof the first colonization of Iceland by the Northmen, and relates thatthey found living there "Christian men whom the Northmen call _Papa_. "These latter are shown by the context to have been Irish priests. TheAztec root _teo (teo-tl, God)_ comes nearer to the Greek and Latin, butis not unlike the Irish _dia_, and the Norse _ty-r_. The Aztec root_col_ (charcoal) is exactly the Norse _kol_ (our word _coat_), but notso near to the Irish _gual_. It is desirable to notice suchcoincidences, even when they are too slight to ground an argument upon. This seems to be the proper place to mention the many Christiananalogies to be found in the customs of the ancient Aztecs. Children were sprinkled with water when their names were given to them. This is certainly true, though the statement that they believed thatthe process purified them from original sin is probably a monkishfiction. Water was consecrated by the priests, and was supposed thus toacquire magical qualities. In the coronation of kings, anointing waspart of the ceremony, as well as the use of holy water. The festival ofAll Souls' Day reminds us of the Aztec feasts of the Dead in the autumnof each year; and in Mexico the Indians still keep up some of their oldrites on that day. There was a singular rite observed by the Aztecs, which they called the _teoqualo_, that is, "the eating of the god. " Afigure of one of their gods was made in dough, and after certainceremonies they made a pretence of killing it, and divided it intomorsels, which were eaten by the votaries as a kind of sacred food. We may add to the list the habitual use of incense in the ceremonies:the existence of monasteries and nunneries, in which the monks worelong hair, but the nuns had their hair cut off: and the use of thecross as a religious emblem in Mexico and Central America. Less certain is the recorded use of knotted scourges in performingpenance, and the existence of a peculiar kind of auricular confession. It is difficult to ascribe this mass of coincidences to mere chance, and not to see in them traces of connexion, more or less remote, withChristians. Perhaps these peculiar rites came, with the Mexican systemof astronomy, from Asia; or perhaps the white, bearded men from theEast may have brought them. It is true that such a supposition runsquite counter to the argument founded on the ignorance of the Mexicansof common arts known in Europe and Asia. We should have expectedChristian missionaries to have brought with them the knowledge of theuse of iron, and the alphabet. Perhaps our increasing knowledge of theancient Mexicans may some day allow us to adopt a theory which shall atleast have the merit of being consistent with itself; but at presentthis seems impossible. CHAPTER XI. PUEBLA. NOPALUCÁN. ORIZABA. POTRERO. [Illustration: VIEW OF THE VOLCANO ORIZABA. ] We reached Puebla in the afternoon, and found it a fine Spanish city, with straight streets of handsome stone houses, and paved withflag-stones. We rather wondered at the _pasadizos_, a kind of archedstone-pavement across the streets at short intervals, very muchimpeding the progress of the carriages, which had to go up and downthem upon inclined planes. In the evening we saw the use of themhowever, for a shower of rain came down which turned every street intoa furious river within five minutes after the first drop fell. For halfan hour the pasadizos did their duty, letting the water pass throughunderneath, while passengers could get across the streets dryshod. Atlast, the flood swept clear along, over bridges and all; but this onlylasted a few minutes, and then the way was practicable again. Themoveable iron bridges on wheels, which are to be seen standing in thestreets of Sicilian cities, ready to be wheeled across them for thebenefit of foot-passengers whenever the carriage-way is flooded, are onthe whole a better arrangement. We should never have thought, from looking at Puebla, that it had justbeen undergoing a siege; for, beyond a few patches of whitewash in thegreat square, where the cannon-balls had knocked the houses about, there were no traces of it. We made many enquiries about the siege, and found nothing to invalidateour former estimate of twenty-five killed, --one per cent of the numberstated in the government manifestos. Among the casualties we heard ofan Englishman who went out to see the fun, and was wounded in aparticularly ignominious manner as he was going back to his house. Revolutions and sieges form curious episodes in the life of the foreignmerchants in the Republic. Their trade is flourishing, perhaps, --plentyof buyers and good prices; and hundreds of mules are on the road, bringing up their wares from the coast. All at once there is apronunciamiento. The street-walls are covered with proclamations. Halfthe army takes one side, half the other; and crowds of volunteers andself-made officers join them, in the hope of present pillage or futureemolument. Barricades appear in the streets; and at intervals there isto be heard the roaring of cannon, and desultory firing of musketryfrom the flat roofs, killing a peaceable citizen now and then, butdoing little execution on the enemy. Trade comes to a dead stop. Our merchant gets his house well furnishedwith provisions, shuts the outer shutters, locks up the great gates, and retires into seclusion for a week or a fortnight, or a month ortwo, as may be. At the time we were there he used to run no great risk, for neither party was hostile to him; and if a stray cannon-ball didhit his house, or the insurgents shot his cook going out on anexpedition in search of fresh beef, it was only by accident. Having no business to do, the counting-house would probably take stock, and balance the books; but when this is finished there is little to bedone but to practice pistol-shooting and hold tournaments in thecourt-yard, and to teach the horses to rayar; while the head of thehouse sits moodily smoking in his arm-chair, reckoning up how many ofhis debtors would be ruined, and wondering whether the loaded muleswith his goods had got into shelter, or had been seized by one party orthe other. At last the revolution is over. The new president is inaugurated withpompous speeches. The newspapers announce that now the glorious reignof justice, order, and prosperity has begun at last. If the millenniumhad come, they could not make much more talk about it. Our unfortunatefriend, coming out of his den only to hear dismal news of runawaydebtors and confiscated bales, has to illuminate his house, and set togetting his affairs into something like order again. Since we left the country things have got even worse. Formerly, allthat the foreign merchants had to suffer were the incidental miseriesof a state of civil war. Now, the revolutionary leaders put them inprison; and, if threats are not sufficient, they get forced loans outof them, much as King John did out of his Jews. Even in times of peace, foreign goods must be dear in Mexico. In acountry where they have to be carried nearly three hundred miles onmules' backs, and where credit is so long that the merchant can neverhope to see his money again in less than two years, he cannot beexpected to sell very cheaply. But the continual revolutions and theinsecurity of property make things far worse, and one almost wondershow foreign trade can go on at all. One of our friends in Mexico had three or four hundred mules coming upthe country laden with American cotton for his mill, just when Haro'srevolution began. He got off much better than most people, however;for, greatly to the disgust of the legitimate authorities, he went downinto the enemy's camp, and gave the revolutionary chief a dollar a baleto let them go. As may be supposed, commercial transactions have often very curiousfeatures here. Strange things happen in the eastern states; but peoplethere say that they are nothing to the doings on the Pacific coast, where the merchants get up a revolution when their ships appear in theoffing, and turn out the Custom-house officers, who do not enter upontheir functions again until the rich cargos have started for theinterior. One little incident, which happened---I think--at Vera Cruz, ratheramused us. When the Government is hard-up, a favourite way of raisingready money is to sell--of course at a very low price--orders upon theCustom-house, to pass certain quantities of goods, duty-free. Such atransaction as this was concluded between the Minister of Finance and amerchant's house who gave hard dollars in exchange for an order to passso many hundred bales of cotton, free of duty. When the ship arrived atport, however, the Yankee captain brought in his manifest with a broadgrin upon his face. The inspectors went down to the ship, and stoodaghast. There were the bales of cotton, but such bales! They had to beshoved and coaxed to get them up through the hatchways at all. TheCustomhouse officials protested in vain. The order was for so manybales of cotton, and these overgrown monsters were bales of cotton, andthe merchants sent them up to Mexico in triumph. To us, Puebla was not an interesting city. It was built by theSpaniards, and called _Puebla de los Angeles_, because angels assistedin building the cathedral, which does no great credit to their goodtaste. Its costly ornaments of gold, silver, jewels, and variegatedmarbles, are most extraordinary. One does not know which to wonder atmost, the value and beauty of the materials, or the unmitigatedugliness of the designs. We saw the festival of Corpus Christi while we were in Puebla; but wereto a certain extent disappointed in the display of plate and jewelledvestments for the clergy, whose attempt to overthrow Comonfort'sgovernment had only resulted in themselves being heavily fined, and whowere in consequence keeping their wealth in the background, and makingas little display as possible. The most interesting part of theceremonial to us was to see the processions of Indians from thesurrounding villages, walking crowned with flowers, and carryingMadonnas in bowers of green branches and blossoms. At the head of each procession walked an Indian beating a drum, _tap, tap, tap_, without a vestige of time. The other processions with stolesand canopies, and the officials of the city in dress-coats and yellowkid gloves, were paltry affairs enough. Neither during this ceremonial, nor at Easter in the Capital were anymiracles exhibited, like the performances of the Madonna at Palermo, which the coachmen of the city carry about at Easter, weeping realtears into a cambric pocket-handkerchief; nor is anything done in thecountry like the lighting of the Greek fire, or the melting of theblood of St. Januarius. Puebla pretty much belongs to the clergy, who are paramount there. Apopulation of some sixty thousand has seventy-two churches, some ofthem very large. It is the focus of the church-party, whose steadypowerful resistance to reform is one of the causes of the unhappypolitical state of the country. As is usual in cathedral-towns, themorality of the people is rather lower than elsewhere. I have saidalready that the revenues of the Mexican Church are very large. Tejadaestimates the income at twenty millions of dollars yearly, more thanthe whole revenue of the State; but this calculation far exceeds thatgiven by any other authority. He remarks that the Church has alwaystried as much as possible to conceal its riches, and probably he makesa very large allowance for this. At any rate, I think we may reasonablyestimate the annual income of the Church at $10, 000, 000, or £2, 000, 000, two-thirds of the income of the State. There is nothing extraordinary in the Church having become very rich bythe accumulations of three centuries in a Spanish colony, where themanners and customs remained in the 18th century to a great extent asthey were in the 16th, and the practice of giving and leaving greatproperties to the Church was in full vigour--long after it had declinedin Europe. It is considered that half the city of Mexico belongs to theChurch. This seems an extraordinary statement; but, if we remember thatin Philip the Second's time half the freehold property of Spainbelonged to the Church, we shall cease to wonder at this. Theextraordinary feature of the case is that, counting both secular andregular clergy, there are only 4600 ecclesiastics in the country. Thenumber has been steadily decreasing for years. In 1826 it was 6, 000; in1844 it had fallen to 5, 200, in 1856 to 4, 600, giving, on the lowestreckoning, an average of over £200 a year for each priest and monk. Agreat part of this income is probably left to accumulate; but, when weremember that the pay of the country curas is very small, often notmore than £30 to £50, there must be fine incomes left for thechurch-dignitaries and the monks. Now any one would suppose that aprofession with such prizes to give away would become more and morecrowded. Why it is not so I cannot tell. It is true that the lives ofthe ecclesiastics are anything but respectable, and that the professionis in such bad odour that many fathers of families, though goodCatholics, will not let a priest enter their houses; but we do notgenerally find Mexicans deterred by a little bad reputation fromoccupations where much money and influence are to be had for verylittle work. The ill conduct of the Mexican clergy, especially of the monks, ismatter of common notoriety, and every writer on Mexico mentions it, from the time of Father Gage--the English friar--who travelled with anumber of Spanish monks through Mexico in 1625, and described theclergy and the people as he saw them. He was disgusted with their ways, and, going back to England, turned Protestant, and died Vicar of Deal. To show what monastic discipline is in Mexico, I will tell one story, and only one. An English acquaintance of mine was coming down the CalleSan Francisco late one night, and saw a man who had been stabbed in thestreet close to the convent-gate. People sent into the convent to fetcha confessor for the dying man, but none was to be had. There was onlyone monk in the place, and he was bed-ridden. The rest were enjoyingthemselves in the city, or fast asleep at their lodgings in the bosomof their families. In condemning the Mexican clergy, some exception must be made. Thereare many of the country curas who lead most exemplary lives, and domuch good. So do the priests of the order of St. Vincent de Paule, andthe Sisters of Charity with whom they are associated; but then, few ofthese, either priests or sisters, are Mexicans. Among the curious odds and ends which we came upon in Puebla, in theshop of a dealer in old iron and things in general, were two or threevery curious old scourges, made of light iron chains with projectingpoints on the links--terrific instruments, once in very general use. Upto the present time, there are certain nights when penitents assemblein churches, in total darkness, and kneeling on the pavement, scourgethemselves, while a monk in the pulpit screams out fierce exhortationsto strike harder. The description carries us back at once to theEgyptian origin of this strange custom; and we think of the annualfestival of Isis, where the multitudes scourged themselves in memory ofthe sufferings of Osiris. A story is told of a sceptical individual whogot admission to this ceremony by making great professions of devotion, and did terrific execution on the backs of his kneelingfellow-penitents. Before he began, the place was resounding withdoleful cries and groans; but he noticed that the cry which arose whenhe struck was not like these other sounds, but had quite a differentaccent. The practice of devotional scourging is still kept up in Rome, but in a very mild form, as it appears that the penitents keep theircoats on, and only use a kind of miniature cat-o'-nine-tails of thincord, with a morsel of lead at the end of each tail, and not suchbloodthirsty implements as those we found at Puebla. It seemed to us that the great influence of the priests in Mexico wasamong the women of all classes, the Indians, and the poorer and lesseducated half-castes. The men of the higher classes, especially theyounger ones, did not appear to have much respect for the priests orfor religion, and, indeed, seemed to be sceptical, after the manner ofthe French school of freethinking. It was quite curious to see theyoung dandies, dressed in their finest clothes, at the doors of thefashionable churches on Sunday morning. None of them seemed to go tomass, but they simply went to stare at the ladies, who, as they cameout, had to run the gauntlet through a double line of these criticalyoung gentlemen. As far as we could see, however, they did not mindbeing looked at. The poorer mestizos and Indians, on the other hand, are still zealous churchmen, and spend their time and money on massesand religious duties so perseveringly that one wishes they had areligion which was of some use to them. As it is, I cannot ascertainthat Christianity has produced any improvement in the Mexican people. They no longer sacrifice and eat their enemies, it is true, but againstthis we must debit them with a great increase of dishonesty and generalimmorality, which will pretty well square the account. Practically, there is not much difference between the old heathenismand the new Christianity. We may put the dogmas out of the question. They hear them and believe in them devoutly, and do not understand themin the least. They had just received the Immaculate Conception, as theyhad received many mysteries before it; and were not a little delightedto have a new occasion for decorating themselves and their churcheswith flowers, marching in procession, dancing, beating drums, andletting off rockets by daylight, as their manner is. The real essenceof both religions is the same to them. They had gods, to whom theybuilt temples, and in whose honour they gave offerings, maintainedpriests, danced and walked in processions--much as they do now, thattheir divinities might be favourable to them, and give them good cropsand success in their enterprises. This is pretty much what theirpresent Christianity consists of. As a moral influence, working uponthe character of the people, it seems scarcely to have had theslightest effect, except, as I said, in causing them to leave off humansacrifices, which were probably not an original feature of theirworship, but were introduced comparatively at a late time, and hadalready been almost abolished by one king. The Indians still show the greatest veneration for a priest; and Hellerwell illustrates this feeling when he tells us how he happened to ridethrough the country in a long black cloak, and the Indians he met onthe road used to fall on their knees as he passed, and ask for hisblessing, regardless of the deep mud and their white trousers. However, this was ten years before we were in the country, and I doubt whetherthe cloak would get so much veneration now. The best measure of theinfluence of the Church is the fact that when Mexico adopted arepublican constitution, in imitation of that of the United States, itwas settled that no Church but that of Rome should be tolerated in thecountry; and this law still remains one of the fundamental principlesof the State, in which universal liberty and equality, freedom of thepress, and absolute religious intolerance form rather a strange jumble. It is curious to observe that, though the Independence confirmed theauthority of the Roman Catholic religion, it considerably reduced thechurch-revenues, by making the payment of tithes a matter of mereoption. The Church--of course--diligently preaches the necessity ofpaying tithes, putting their obligation in the catechism, between theten commandments and the seven sacraments, and they still get a gooddeal in this way. We sent our horses to the bath at Pueblo. This is usually done once aweek in the cities of Mexico. We went once to see the process while wewere in the capital, and were very much amused. The horses had been tothe place before, and turned in of their own accord through a gatewayin a shabby back street; and when they got into the courtyard, began todance about in such a frantic manner that the _mozos_ could hardly holdthem in while their saddles and bridles were being taken off. Then theyput their heads down, and bolted into a large shed, with a sort offloor of dust several inches deep, in which six or eight other horseswere rushing about, kicking, prancing, plunging, and literallyscreaming with delight. I will not positively assert that I saw an oldwhite horse stand upon his head in a corner and kick with all his fourlegs at once, but he certainly did something very much like it. Presently the old _mozo_ walked into the shed, with his lazo over hisarm, and carelessly flung the noose across. Of course it fell over theright horse's neck, when the animal was quiet in a moment, and walkedout after the old man in quite a subdued frame of mind. One horse cameout after another in the same way, took his swim obediently across agreat tank of water, was rubbed down, and went off home in highspirits. Though slavery has long been abolished in the Republic, there stillexists a curious "domestic institution" which is nearly akin to it. Itis not peculiar to the plains of Puebla, but flourishes there more thanelsewhere. It is called "_peonaje_, " and its operation is in this wise. If a debtor owes money and cannot pay it, his creditor is allowed bylaw to make a slave or _peon _of him until the debt is liquidated. Though the name is Spanish, I believe the origin of the custom is to befound in an Aztec usage which prevailed before the Conquest. A _peon_ means a man on foot, that is, a labourer, journeyman, orfoot-soldier. We have the word in English as "_pioneer_" and as the"_pawn_" among chessmen; but I think not with any meaning like that ithas come to bear in Mexico. On the great haciendas in the neighbourhood of Puebla, the Indianlabourers are very generally in this condition. They owe money to theirmasters, and are slaves; nominally till they can work off the sum theyowe, but practically for their whole lives. Even should they earnenough to be able to pay their debt, the contract cannot be cancelledso easily. A particular day is fixed for striking a balance, generally, I believe, Easter Monday, just after a season when the custom ofcenturies has made it incumbent upon the Indians to spend all that theyhave and all that they can borrow upon church-fees, wax-candles, androckets, for the religious ceremonies of the season, and the drunkendebauches which form an essential part of the festival. The masters, orat least the _administradors_, are accused of mystifying the annualstatement of accounts between the labourer and the estate, and it iscertain that the Indian's feeble knowledge of arithmetic leaves himquite helpless in the hands of the bookkeeper; but whether this is mereslander or not, we never had any means of ascertaining. Long servitude has obliterated every feeling of independence from theminds of these Indians. Their fathers were slaves, and they are quitecontent to be so too. Totally wanting in self-restraint, they cannotresist the slightest temptation to run into debt; and they are notinsensible to the miserable advantage which a slave enjoys over a freelabourer, that his master, having a pecuniary interest in him, will notlet him starve. They have a cat-like attachment to the places they livein; and to be expelled from the estate they were born on, and turnedout into the world to get a living, we are told by writers on Mexico, is the greatest punishment that can be inflicted upon them. There was nothing that we could see in the appearance of these _peons_to distinguish them from ordinary free Indians; and our havingtravelled hastily through the district where the system prevails doesnot give us a right to judge of its working. We can but compare theopinions of waiters who have studied it, and who speak of it in termsof the strongest reprobation, as deliberately using the moral weaknessof the Indians as a means of reducing them to slavery. Sartorius, however, takes the other side, and throws the whole blame upon thecareless improvident character of the brown men, whose masters areobliged to lend them money to supply their pressing wants, and musttake the only security they can get. He says, and truly enough, thatthe system works wretchedly both for masters and labourers. Any one whoknows the working of the common English system of allowing workmen torun into debt with the view of retaining them permanently in theirmaster's service may form some faint idea of the way in which thisMexican debt-slavery destroys the energy and self-reliance of thepeople. But in one essential particular Sartorius mis-states the case. It isnot the money which the masters lend the _peons_ to help them indistress and sickness that keeps them in slavery. It is the money spentin wax-candles and rockets, and such like fooleries, for Easter and AllSaints; in the reckless profusion of drunken feasts on the days oftheir patron saints, and on the occasion of births, deaths, andmarriages. These feasts are as utterly disproportioned to the means ofthe givers as the Irish wakes which reduce whole families to beggary. The sums of money spent upon them are provided by the owners of theestates, who know exactly how they are to be spent. If they preferredthat their labourers should be free from debt, they could withhold thismoney; and their not doing so proves that it is their desire to keepthe _peons_ in a state of slavery, and throws the whole blame of thesystem upon them. I have spoken of the _peons_ as Indians, and so they are for the mostpart in the districts we visited; but travellers who have been inChihuahua and other northern states tell stories of creditorstravelling through the country to collect their debts, and, where moneywas not forthcoming, collecting their debtors instead, --not merelybrown Indians, but also nearly white mestizos. Mexico is one of the countries in which the contrast between greatriches and great poverty is most striking. No traveller ever enters thecountry without making this remark. The mass of the people are hardlyeven with the world; and there are some few capitalists whose incomescan scarcely be matched in England or Russia. Yet this state of thingshas not produced a permanent aristocracy. The general history of great fortunes repeats itself with monotonousregularity. Fortunate miners or clever speculators, who have happenedto possess the gift of accumulating in addition to that of getting, often make colossal fortunes. Miners have made the greatest sums, andmade them most rapidly. Fortunes of two or three millions sterling arenot uncommon now, and we often meet with them in the history of thelast century. They never seem to have lasted many years. Before theIndependence, the capitalist used to buy a patent of nobility, andleave great sums to his children to maintain the new dignity; but theyhardly ever seem to have done anything but squander away theirinheritance, and we find the family returning to its original povertyby the third or fourth generation. Mexico is an easy place to make money in, in spite of the continualdisorders that prevail. In the mining-districts most men make money atsome time or other. The difficulty lies in keeping it. There seems tobe no training better suited for making a capitalist than the life ofthe retail shopkeeper, especially in the neighbourhood of a mine. Agood share of all the money that is won and of all that is lost stopsin his till. Whoever makes a lucky hit in a mining-speculation, he hasa share of the profits, and when there is a "good thing" going, he ison the spot to profit by it. When once a man becomes a capitalist, there are many very profitableways of employing his money. Mines and cotton-factories pay well, so docattle-haciendas in the north, when honest administradors can be got tomanage them; and discounting merchants' bills is a lucrative business. But far better than these ordinary investments are the monopolies, suchas the farming of the tobacco-duty, the mints, and those mysterioustransactions with the government in which ready cash is exchanged fororders to pass goods at the Custom-house, and the other financialtransactions familiar to those who know the shifts and mystificationsof that astonishing institution, the Finance-department of Mexico. We rode from Puebla to Orizaba. Amozoque, the first town on the road, is a famous place for spurs, and we bought some. They are of blue steelinlaid with strips of silver, and the rowel is a sort of cogged wheel, from an inch and a half to three inches in diameter. _(See page 220. )_They look terrific instruments, but really the cogs or points of therowels are quite blunt, and they keep the horse going less by hurtinghim than by their incessant jingling, which is increased by bits ofsteel put on for the purpose. Monstrous as the spurs now used are, theyare small in comparison with those of a century or two ago. One readsof spurs, of gold and silver, with rowels in the shape of five-pointedstars six inches in diameter. These have quite gone out now, and seemto have been melted up, for they are hardly ever to be seen; but webought at the _baratillo_ of Mexico spurs of steel quite as large asthis. My companion sent to the Art-exhibition at Manchester a couple of pairsof the ordinary spurs of the country, such as we ourselves andeverybody else wore. They were put among the mediæval armour, andexcited great admiration in that capacity! We slept at Nopalucán that night, and rode on next day to San Antoniode Abajo, a little out-of-the-way village at the foot of the mountainof Orizaba. Our principal adventure in the day's ride was that, findingthat our road made a détour of a mile or so round a beautiful piece ofgreen turf, we boldly struck across it, and nearly lamed our horsesthereby; for the ground was completely undermined by moles, and atevery third step the horses' feet went into a deep hole. We had to getoff and lead them back to the road. Orizaba is the great feature in the scenery of this district of Mexico. It is one point in the line of volcanos which stretches across thecontinent from east to west. It is a conical mountain, likePopocatepetl, and about the same height; measurements vary from twentyfeet higher to sixty feet lower. The crater has fallen in on one side, leaving a deep notch clearly visible from below. At present, as we hearfrom travellers who have ascended it, the crater, like that ofPopocatepetl, is in the condition of a _solfatara_, sending out jets ofsteam and sulphurous acid gas. About three centuries ago its eruptionswere frequent; and its Mexican name, _Citlaltepetl_, "Mountain of theStar, " carries us back to the time when it showed in the darkness astar-like light from its crater, like that of Stromboli at the presenttime, when one sees it from a distance. San Antonio de Abajo is a quaint little village, frequented bymuleteers and smugglers. Tobacco, the principal contraband article, isgrown in the plains just below; and, once carried up into the pathsamong the mountains, it is hard for any custom-house officer to catchsight of it. When there was a government, there used sometimes to be fightingbetween the revenue-officers and the smugglers; but now, if there is ameeting, a few dollars will settle the disputed question to thesatisfaction of both parties, so that the contraband trade, thoughprofitable, is by no means so exciting as it used to be. On the road towards San Antonio we saw ancient remains in the banks bythe road-side, but had no time for a regular examination. We slept ondamp mattresses in a room of the inn, where the fowls roosted on therafters above our heads, and walked over our faces in the early morningin an unpleasant manner. We started before daybreak, and a descent downa winding road, through a forest of pines and oaks, brought us by sevenin the morning from the region of pines and barley down to the districtwhere tobacco and the sugar-cane flourish, at the level of 3, 000 to4, 000 feet above the sea. We met a jaunty-looking party in the valley, two women and five or sixmen, all on good horses, and dressed in the extreme of fashion whichthe Mexican _ranchero_ affects--broad-brimmed hats with costly gold andsilver serpents for hat-bands, and clothes and saddles glittering withsilver. Martin rode up to us as they passed, and said he knew them wellfor the boldest highwaymen in Mexico. Had we started an hour or twolater we should have met them in the forest, and have had an adventureto tell of. As it was, the descent of three thousand feet had broughtus from a land of thieves to a region where highway robbery is neverknown, unless when a party from the high lands come down on a maraudingexpedition. It is an unquestionable fact that the Mexican robbers, whose exploits have become a matter of world-wide notoriety, all belongto the cold region of the plateaus, the _tierra fría_. Once down in the_tierra templada_, or the _tierra caliente_, the temperate or the hotregions, you hear no more of them; or at least this is the case in theparts of Mexico we visited. The reason is clear; it is only on theplateaus that the whites, preferring a region where the climate was notunlike that of Castile, settled in large numbers; so that it is therethat Creoles and mestizos predominate, and they are the robbers. We rode over great beds of gravel, cut up in deep trenches by themountain-streams; then along the banks of the river, among plantationsof tobacco, looking like beds of lettuces. As we were riding along thevalley, we saw before us a curious dark cloud, hanging over some fieldsnear the river. Our men, who had seen the appearance before, recognizedit at once as a flight of locusts, and, turning out of the high-road, we came upon them just as they had settled on a clump of trees in ameadow. They covered the branches and foliage until only the outline ofthe trees was visible, while the rest of the swarm descended on a greenhedge, and on the grass. As for us, we went and knocked them down withour riding-whips, and carried away specimens in our hats; but thesurvivors took no manner of notice of us, and in about ten minutes theyleft the trees mere skeletons, leafless and stripped of their bark, andmoved across the field in a dense mass towards some fruit-trees alittle way off. For days after this, when we met with travellers on theroad, or stopped at the door of a cottage to get a light or somethingto drink, and chatted a few minutes with the inhabitants, we found thatour descent of the mountain-pass had brought us into a new set ofinterests. News of the government and of the revolutionary partyexcited no curiosity, --talk of robbers still less. At every house thequestion was, "¿_De donde vienen, Señores_?" "Where are you from, gentlemen?"--and when we told them, "¿_Y estaban allí las langostas_?""And were the locusts there?" The whole country was being devastated bythem; and the large rewards offered for them to the peasants, thoughthey caused dead locusts to be brought by tons, seemed hardly todiminish their numbers. Firing guns had some slight effect in drivingoff the swarms of locusts; and in some places the reports of musketswere to be heard, at short intervals, all day long. Some idea of thedestruction caused by the locusts may be formed from the fact that insix weeks they doubled the price of grain in the district. Fortunately, they only appear in such numbers about once in half a century. We had ridden a hundred miles over a rough country in the lastforty-eight hours, and were glad to get a rest at Orizaba; but on themorning of the third day we were in the saddle again, accompanied by anew friend, the English administrador of the cotton-mill at Orizaba. Until we left the high-road, the country seemed well cultivated, withplantations of tobacco, coffee, and sugar-cane; but as soon as weturned into by-paths and struck across country, we found woods andgrassy patches, but little tilled ground, until we arrived at theIndian village which we had gone out of our way to visit, Amatlán, thatis to say, "_The place of paper_. " In its arrangement this village was like the one that I have alreadydescribed, with its scattered huts of canes and palm-leaf thatch; butthe vegetation indicated a more tropical climate. Large fields, thejoint property of the community, were cultivated with pine-apples inclose rows, now just ripening; and bananas, with broad leaves and heavyclusters of fruit, were growing in the little garden belonging to eachhut. The inhabitants stared at us sulkily, and gave short answers toour questions. We went to the cottage of the Indian alcalde, whodeclared that there was nothing to eat or drink in the village, thoughwe were standing in his doorway and could see the strings of plantainshanging to the roof, and the old women were hard at work cooking. However, when Mr. G. Explained who he was, the old man became moreplacable; and we were soon sitting on mats and benches inside the hut, on the best of terms with the whole village. The life of these peopleis simple enough, and not unsuited to their beautiful climate. Thewhite men have never interfered much with them; and it has been theirpride for centuries to keep as much as possible from associating withEuropeans, whom they politely speak of as _coyotes_, jackals. Thepriest was a _mestizo_, and, as the Alcalde said, he was the only_coyote_ in the settlement; but his sacred office neutralized thedislike that his parishioners felt for his race. These Indian communities always rejoiced in being able to produce forthemselves almost everything necessary for their simple wants; but oflate years the law of supply and demand has begun to undermine thisprinciple, and the cotton-cloth, spun and woven at home, is yielding tothe cheaper material supplied by the factories. Though so averse toreceiving Europeans among them, they do not object to go themselves towork for good wages on the plantations. Those who leave their nativeplace, however, bring back with them tastes and wants hitherto unknown, and inconsistent with their primitive way of life. Another habit of theirs brings them into contact with the "reasonablepeople, " not to their advantage. They are excessively litigious, andtheir continual law-suits take them to the large towns where the courtsof justice are held, and where lawyers' fees swallow up a largeproportion of their savings. There is a natural connexion betweenfarming and law-suits; and the taste for writs and hard swearing is asremarkable among this agricultural people as it is among our own smallfarmers in England. Theoretically, the Indians in their villages live under the generalgovernment, like any other citizens; for, since the establishment ofthe republic, the civil disabilities which had kept them down for threecenturies were all abolished at a sweep, and the brown people havetheir votes, and are eligible for any office. Practically, theseadvantages do not come to much at present, for custom, which isstronger than law, keeps them under the government of their ownaristocracy, composed of certain families whose nobility dates beyondthe Conquest, and was always recognized by the Spaniards. These nobleIndians seem to be pretty much as dirty, as ignorant, and as idle asthe plebeians--the ordinary field-labourers or "_earth-hands_"(_tlalmaitl_), as they were called in ancient times, --and a strangercannot recognize their claims to superiority by anything in theirhouses, dress, language, or bearing; nevertheless, they are thepatrician families, and republicanism has not yet deprived them oftheir power over the other Indians. In early times, when men of whiteor mixed blood were few in the country, it suited the Spanishgovernment to maintain the authority of these families, who collectedthe taxes and managed the estates of the little communities. The commonpeople were the sufferers by this arrangement, for the Alcaldes oftheir own race cheated them without mercy, and were harder upon themthan even their white rulers, just as on slave-estates a black driveris much severer than a white one. Near some of the houses we noticed that curious institution--the_temazcalli_, which corresponds exactly to the Russian vapour-bath. Itis a sort of oven, into which the bather creeps on all fours, and liesdown, and the stones at one end are heated by a fire outside. Uponthese stones the bather sprinkles cold water, which fills the placewith suffocating steam. When he feels himself to have been sufficientlysweated, he crawls out again, and has jars of cold water poured overhim; whereupon he dresses himself (which is not a long process, as heonly wears a shirt and a pair of drawers), and so goes in to supper, feeling much refreshed. If he would take the cold bath only, and keepthe hot one for his clothes, which want it sadly, it would be all thebetter for him, for the constant indulgence in this enervating luxuryweakens him very much. One would think the bath would make the Indianscleanly in their persons, but it hardly seems so, for they look ratherdirtier after they have been in the _temazcalli_ than before, just asthe author of _A Journey due North_ says of the Russian peasants. To us the most interesting question about the Mexican Indians of thisdistrict was this, _Why are there so few of them?_ There are fivethousand square leagues in the State of Vera Cruz, and about fiftyinhabitants to the square league. Now, let us consider half the State, which is at a low level above the sea, as too hot and unhealthy for mento flourish in, and suppose the whole population concentrated on theother half, which lies upon the rising ground from three thousand tosix thousand feet above the sea. This is not very far from the truth, and gives us one hundred inhabitants to the square league--aboutone-sixth of the population of the plains of Puebla, in a climate whichmay be compared to that of North Italy, and where the chief productsare maize and European grain. In the district of the lower temperate region, which we are nowspeaking of, nature would seem to have done everything to encourage theformation of a dense population. In the lower part of this favouredregion the banana grows. This plant requires scarcely any labour in itscultivation; and, according to the most moderate estimate, taking anacre of wheat against an acre of bananas, the bananas will supporttwenty times as many people as the wheat. Though it is a fruit ofsweet, rather luscious taste, and only acceptable to us Europeans asone small item of our complicated diet, the Indians who have beenbrought up in the districts where it flourishes can live almostentirely upon it, just as the inhabitants of North Africa live upondates. In the upper portion of this district, where the banana no longerflourishes, nutritious plants produce an immense yield with easycultivation. The _yucca_ which produces cassava, rice, the sweetpotato, yams, all flourish here, and maize produces 200 to 300 fold. According to the accepted theory among political economists, where thesoil produces with slight labour an abundant nutriment for man, therewe ought to find a teeming population, unless other counteractingcauses are to be found. The history of the country, as far as we can get at it, indicates amovement in the opposite direction. Judging from the numerous towns theSpanish invaders found in the district, the numbers of armed men theycould raise, and the abundance of provisions, we must reckon thepopulation at that time to have been more dense than at present; andthe numerous ruins of Indian settlements that exist in the uppertemperate region are unquestionable evidence of the former existence ofan agricultural people, perhaps ten times as numerous as at present. The ruins of their fortifications and temples are still to be seen ingreat numbers, and the soil all over large districts is full of theremains of their pottery and weapons. How far these settlements were depopulated by wars before the SpanishConquest, it is not easy to say. During the Conquest itself they didnot offer much resistance to the European invaders, and consequentlythey escaped the wholesale destruction which fell upon the morepatriotic inhabitants of the higher regions. Since that time thecountry has been peaceable enough; and even since the MexicanIndependence, the wars and revolutions which have done so much injuryto the inhabitants of the plateaus have not been much felt here. In reasoning upon Mexican statistics we have to go to a great extentupon guess-work. A very slight investigation, however, shows that thecalculation made in Mexico, that the population increases between oneand two per cent. Annually, is incorrect. The present population of thecountry is reckoned at a little under eight millions; and in 1806, itseems, from the best authorities we can get, to have been a littleunder six millions. Even this rate of increase, one-third everyhalf-century, is far above the rate of increase since the Conquest;for, at that rate, a population a little over a million and a quarterwould have brought up the number to what it is at present, and wecannot at the lowest estimation suppose the inhabitants after the siegeof Mexico to have been less than three or four millions. So that, badlyas Mexico is now going on with regard to the increase of itspopulation, about ½ per cent. Per annum, while England increases over1-1/2 per cent. , and the United States twice as much, we may stilldiscern an improvement upon the times of the Spanish dominion, when itwas almost stationary. Why then has this fertile and beautiful country only a small fractionof the number of inhabitants that formerly lived in it? That it is notcaused by the climate being unfavourable to man is clear, for thisdistrict is free from the intense heat and the pestilential fevers ofthe low lands which lie nearer the sea. It is a noticeable fact that the remains of the old settlementsgenerally lie above the district where the banana grows; and the higherwe rise above the sea, the more abundant do we find the signs ofancient population, until we reach the level of 8, 000 feet or a littlehigher. The actual inhabitants at the present day are distributedaccording to the same rule, increasing in numbers, according to theelevation, from 3, 000 to 8, 000 feet, after which the severity of theclimate causes a rapid decrease. In making these observations, I leave out of the question the hotunhealthy coast-lands of the _tierra caliente_, and the cold andcomparatively sterile plains of the _tierra fría_, and confine myselfto that part of the country which lies between the altitudes of 3, 000and 8, 000 feet, between which limits the European races flourish undercircumstances of climate which also suited the various Mexican races, who probably came from a colder northern country. Now, if we begin todescend from the level of the Mexican plateau--say 8, 000 feet above thesea--we find that less and less labour will provide nourishment for thecultivator of the soil, until we reach the limit of the banana, wherethe inhabitants ought to be crowded together like Chinese on theirrice-grounds, or the inhabitants of Egypt in the time of Herodotus. Exactly the opposite rule takes effect; the banana-country is a merewilderness, and the higher the traveller rises the more abundant becomeboth present population and the remains of ancient settlements. I suppose the reason of this is to be found in the habits andconstitution of the tribes who colonized the country, and preferred tosettle in a climate resembling that of their native land, withouttroubling themselves about the extra labour it would cost them toobtain their food. The European invaders have acted precisely in thesame way; and the distribution of the white and partly whiteinhabitants of the country follows the same rule as that of theIndians. So far the matter is intelligible, on the principle that theconstitution and habits of the races which have successively taken uptheir residence in the country have been strong enough to prevail overthe rule which regulates the supply of men by the abundance of food;but this does not explain the fact of an actual diminution of theinhabitants of the lower temperate districts. They were not meremigratory tribes, staying for a few years before moving forward. Theyhad been settled in the country long enough to be perfectlyacclimatized; and yet, under circumstances apparently so favourable totheir increase, they have been diminishing for centuries, and areperhaps even doing so now. The only intelligible solution I can find for this problem is thatgiven by Sartorius, whose work on Mexico is well known in Germany, andhas been translated and published in England. This author's remarks onthe condition of the Indians are very valuable; and, as he was foryears a planter in this very district, he may be taken as an excellentauthority on the subject. He considers the evil to lie principally inthe diet and habits of the people. The children are not weaned tillvery late, and then are allowed to feed all day without restriction onboiled maize, or beans, or whatever other vegetable diet may be eatenby the family. The climate does not dispose them to take much exercise;so that this unwholesome cramming with vegetable food has nothing tocounteract its evil effects, and the poor little children get miserablypot-bellied and scrofulous, --an observation of which we can confirm thetruth. A great proportion of the children die young, and those thatgrow up have their constitutions impaired. Then they live in closecommunities, and marry "in-and-in, " so that the effect of unhealthyliving becomes strengthened into hereditary disease; and habitualintemperance does its work upon their constitutions, though thequantities of raw spirits they consume appear to produce scarcely anyimmediate effect. Among a race in this bodily condition, the ordinaryepidemics of the country--cholera, small-pox, and dysentery--makefearful havoc. Whole villages have often been depopulated in a few daysby these diseases; and a deadly fever which used to appear from time totime among the Indians, until the last century, sometimes carried offten thousand and twenty thousand at once. It seemed to me worth whileto make some remarks about this question, with a view of showing thatthe theory as to the relation between food and population, thoughpartly true, is not wholly so; and that in the region of which we havebeen speaking it can be clearly shown to fail. After spending a long morning with the Indians and their _cura_, wetook quite an affectionate leave of them. Their last words were anapology for making us pay threepence apiece for the pineapples which weloaded our horses with. In the season, they said, twelve for sixpenceis the price, but the fruit was scarce and dear as yet. Our companion, besides being engaged in the Orizaba cotton-mill, wasone of the owners of the sugar-hacienda of the Potrero, below Cordova, and we all rode down there together from the Indian village, and spentthe evening in walking about the plantation, and inspecting the newmachinery and mills. It was a pleasant sight to see the people comingto the well with their earthen jars, after their work was done, in anunceasing procession, laughing and chattering. They were partly Indian, but with a considerable admixture of negro blood, for many black slaveswere brought into the country in old times by the Spanish planters. Now, of course, they and their descendants are free, and the hotterparts of Mexico are the paradise of runaway slaves from Louisiana andTexas; for, so far from their race being despised, the Indian womenseek them as husbands, liking their liveliness and good humour betterthan the quieter ways of their own countrymen. Even Europeans settledin Mexico sometimes take wives of negro blood. I have never noticed in any country so large a number of mixed races, whose parentage is indicated by their features and complexion. InEurope, the parent races are too nearly alike for the children of suchmixed marriages to be strikingly different from either parent. InAmerica and the West Indies we are familiar with the various mixturesof white and negro, mulatto, quadroon, &c. ; but in Mexico we have threeraces, Spanish, pure Mexican, and Negro, which, with theircombinations, make a list of twenty-five varieties of the human race, distinguishable from one another, and with regular names, which Mayergives in his work on Mexico, such as _mulatto, mestizo, zambo, chino_, and so forth. Here all the brown Mexican Indians are taken as one race, and the Red Indians of the frontier-states are not included at all. Ifwe come to dividing out the various tribes which have been or still areexisting in the country, we can count over a hundred and fifty, withfrom fifty to a hundred distinct languages among them. Out of this immense variety of tribes, we can make one greatclassification. The men of one race are brown in complexion, and havebeen for ages cultivators of the land. It is among them only that theMexican civilization sprang up, and they still remain in the country, having acquiesced in the authority of the Europeans, and to a greatextent mingled with them by marriage. This class includes the Aztecs, Acolhuans, Chichemecs, Zapotecs, &c. , the old Toltecs, the presentIndians of Central America, and, if we may consider them to be the samerace, the nations who huilt the now ruined cities of Palenque, Copan, Uxmal, and so forth. The other race is that of the Red Indians whoinhabit the prairie-states of North Mexico, such as the Apaches, Comanches, and Navajos. They are hunters, as they always were, and theywill never preserve their existence by adopting agriculture as theirregular means of subsistence, and settling in peace among the whitemen. As it has been with their countrymen further north, so it will bewith them; a few years more, and the Americans will settle Chihuahuaand Sonora, and we shall only know these tribes by specimens of theirflint arrow-heads and their pipes in collections of curiosities, andtheir skulls in ethnological cabinets. One of the strangest races (or varieties, I cannot say which) are the_Pintos_ of the low lands towards the Pacific coast. A short timebefore we were in the country General Alvarez had quartered a wholeregiment of them in the capital; but when we were there they hadreturned with their commander into the tierra caliente towardsAcapulco. They are called _"Pintos"_ or painted men, from their facesand bodies being marked with great daubs of deep blue, like our Britishancestors; but here the decoration is natural and cannot be effaced. They have the reputation of being a set of most ferocious savages; and, badly armed as they are with ricketty flint- or match-locks, and sabresof hoop-iron, they are the terror of the other Mexican soldiery, especially when the war has to be carried on in the hot pestilentialcoast-region, their native country. CHAR XII. CHALCHICOMULA. JALAPA. VERA CRUZ. CONCLUSION. [Illustration: INDIANS OF THE PLATEAU. _(After Nebel. )_] The mountain-slopes which descend from the Sierra Madre eastward towardthe sea are furrowed by _barrancas_--deep ravines with perpendicularsides, and with streams flowing at the bottom. But here all these_barrancas_ run almost due east and west, so that our journey from VeraCruz to Mexico was made, as far as I can recollect, without crossingone. Now, the case was quite different. We had to go from the Potreroto the city of Jalapa, about fifty miles on the map, nearly northward, and to get over these fifty miles cost us two days and a half of hardriding. By the road it cannot be much less than eighty miles; but people usedto tell us that, during the American war, an Indian went from Orizabato Jalapa with despatches within the twenty-four hours, probably bymountain-paths which made it a little shorter. He came quite easilyinto Jalapa at the same shuffling trot which he had kept up almostwithout intermission for the whole distance. This is the Indian'sregular pace when he is on a journey, and I believe that the RedIndians of the north have a similar gait. We used sometimes to see a village or a house three or four miles off, and count upon reaching it in half an hour. But a few steps further onthere would be a barranca, invisible till we came close to it, perhapsnot more than a few hundred feet wide, so that it was easy to talk topeople on the other bank. But the bottom of the chasm might be fivehundred or a thousand feet below us; and the only way to cross was toride along the bank, often for miles, until we reached a place where ithad been possible to make a steep bridle-path zigzagging down to thestream below, and up again on the other side. It is only here and therethat even such paths can be made, for the walls of rock are generallytoo steep even for any vegetation, except grass and climbing plants inthe crevices. Our half-hour's ride, as we supposed it would be, wouldoften extend to two or three hours, for on these slopes two or threebarrancas--large and small---have sometimes to be crossed within asmany miles. If our journey had been even slower and more difficult, we should nothave regretted it; the country through which we were riding was sobeautiful. There were but few inhabitants, and the landscape was muchas nature had left it. The great volcano of Orizaba came into view nowand then with its snowy cone, [23] mountain-streams came rushing alongthe ravines, and the forests of oaks were covered with innumerablespecies of orchids and creepers, breaking down the branches with theirweight. Many kinds were already in flower, and their great blossoms ofwhite, purple, blue, and yellow, stood out against the dark green ofthe oak-leaves. Wherever a mountain-stream ran down some shady littlevalley, there were tree-ferns thirty feet high, with the new frondsforming a tuft at the top of the old scarred trunk. Round the Indiancottages were cactuses with splendid crimson flowers, daturas withbrilliant white blossoms, palm- and fruit-trees of fifty kinds. Westopped at one of the cottages, and bought an armadillo that had justbeen caught in the woods close by, while routing among his favouriteants' nests. He was put into a palm-leaf basket, which held him all butthe tip of his long taper tail, which, like the rest of his body, wascovered with rings of armour fitting beautifully into one another. Oneof our men carried him thus in his arms to Jalapa. The Mexicans call an armadillo "_ayotochtli_, " that is, "tortoise-rabbit, " a name which will be appreciated by any one whoknows the appearance of the little animal. The villages and towns we passed were dismal places enough, and thepopulation scanty; but that this had not always been the case wasevident from the numerous remains of ancient Indian mound-forts ortemples which we passed on our road, indicating the existence of largetowns at some former period. There is a drawing in Lord Kingsborough'swork of a _teocalli_ or pyramid at San Andrés Chalchicomula, which weseem to have missed on account of the darkness having come on before wereached the town. We were several times deceived that evening by thefireflies, which we took for lights moving about in some village justahead of us; and we became so incredulous at last that we would notbelieve we had reached our journey's end until we could made out thedim outlines of the houses. At the inn at San Andrés we found that wecould have no rooms, as all the little windowless dens were occupied bypeople from the country who had come in for a _fiesta_. There wereindeed a good many men loafing about the courtyard, but scarcely anywomen, and we could hardly understand a fandango happening withoutthem. They thought otherwise, however; and presently, hearing thetinkling of a guitar, we went out and saw two great fellows in broadhats, jackets, and serapes, solemnly dancing opposite to one another;while more men looked on, smoking cigarettes, and an old fellow with aface like a baboon was squatting in one corner and producing the musicwe had heard. To do them justice, I must say that we found, on furtherenquiry, they had not come from their respective ranchos merely to makefools of themselves in this way, but that there was to be somehorsefair in the neighbourhood next day, and they were going there. Our not being able to get any supper but eggs and bread, and having tosleep on the supper-table afterwards, confirmed us in the theory wewere beginning to adopt, that nature and mankind vary in an inverseratio; and we were off at daybreak, delighted to get into the forestagain. We rode over hill and dale for four or five hours, and thenalong the edge of a barranca for the rest of the day. This was one ofthe grandest chasms we had ever seen, even in Mexico. It was four orfive miles wide, and two or three thousand feet deep, and its floor wasa mass of tropical verdure, with here and there an Indian rancho and apatch of cultivated ground on the bank of the rapid river, whose soundwe heard when we approached the edge of the barranca. There were moreorchids and epidendrites than ever in the forest. In some places theyhad killed every third tree, by forming so and close a covering overits branches as to destroy its life; they were flourishing unimpairedon the rotting branches of trees which they had brought down to theground years before. The rainy season had not yet set in in this partof the country; and, though we could hear the rushing of the torrentbelow, we looked in vain for water in the forest, until our man Martinshowed us the _bromelias_ in the forks of the branches, in the insideof whose hollow leaves nature has laid up a supply of water for thethirsty traveller. We loaded our horses with the bulbs of such orchids as were still inthe dry state, and would travel safely to Europe. Sometimes we climbedinto the trees for promising specimens, but oftener contented ourselveswith tearing them from the branches as we rode below. When saddle-bagsand pockets were full, we were for a time at fault, for there seemed noplace for new treasures, when suddenly I remembered a pair of oldtrousers. We tied up the ends of the legs, which we filled withorchids; and the garment travelled to Jalapa sitting in its naturalposition across my saddle, to the amazement of such Mexican society aswe met. The contents of the two pendant legs are now producing splendidflowers in several English hothouses. By evening we reached the _Junta_, a place where the great ravine wasjoined by a smaller one, and a long slanting descent brought us to theedge of the river. There was a ferry here, consisting of a raft of logswhich the Indian ferryman hauled across along a stout rope. The horseswere attached to the raft by their halters, and so swam across. On thepoint of land between the two rivers the Indians had their huts, andthere we spent the night. We chose the fattest _guajalote_ of theturkey-pen, and in ten minutes he was simmering in the great earthenpot over the fire, having been cut into many pieces for convenience ofcooking, and the women were busy grinding Indian corn to be patted outinto tortillas. While supper was getting ready, and Mr. Christy's day'scollection of plants was being pressed (the country we had been passingthrough is so rich that the new specimens gathered that day filledseveral quires of paper), we had a good deal of talk with the brownpeople, who could all speak a little Spanish. Some years before, thetwo old people had settled there, and set up the ferry. Besides this, they made nets and caught much fish in the river, and cultivated thelittle piece of ground which formed the point of the promontory. Whiletheir descendants went no further than grandchildren the colony haddone very well; but now great-grandchildren had begun to arrive, andthey would soon have to divide, and form a settlement up in the woodsacross the river, or upon some patch of ground at the bottom of one ofthe barrancas. We were interested in studying the home-life of these people, sodifferent from what we are accustomed to among our peasants of NorthernEurope, whose hard continuous labour is quite unknown here. For themen, an occasional pull at the _balsas_ (the rafts of the ferry), alittle fishing, and now and then--when they are in the humour for it--a little digging in the garden-ground with a wooden spade, or dibblingwith a pointed stick. The women have a harder life of it, with theeternal grinding and cooking, cotton-spinning, mat-weaving, and tendingof the crowds of babies. Still it is an easy lazy life, without muchtrouble for to-day or care for to-morrow. When the simple occupationsof the day are finished, the time does not seem to hang heavy upontheir hands. The men lie about, "thinking of nothing at all;" and thewomen--old and young--gossip by the hour, in obedience to thatbeneficent law of nature which provides that their talk shall increaseinversely in proportion to what they have to talk about. We find thislaw attaining to its most complete fulfilment when they shut themselvesup in nunneries, to escape as much as possible from all sources ofworldly interest, and gossip there more industriously than anywhereelse, as we are informed on very good authority. Like all the other Mexican Indians whose houses we visited, the peoplehere showed but little taste in adorning their dwellings, their dressesand their household implements. Beyond a few calabashes scraped smoothand ornamented with coloured devices, and the blue patterns on thewomen's cotton skirts, there was scarcely anything to be seen in theway of ornament. How great was the skill of the Mexicans in ornamentalwork at the time of the Conquest, we can tell from the carved work inwood and stone preserved in museums, the graceful designs on thepottery, the tapestry, and the beautiful feather-work; but this tastehas almost disappeared in the country. Just in the same way, contactwith Europeans has almost destroyed the little decorative arts amongmost barbarous people, as, for example, the Red Indians and the nativesof the Pacific Islands; and what little skill in these things is leftamong them is employed less for themselves than in making curioustrifles for the white people, and even in these we find that Europeanpatterns have mixed with the old designs, or totally superseded them. The Indians lodged us in an empty cane-hut, where they spread mats uponthe ground, and we made pillows of our saddles. We were soon tired oflooking up at the stars through the chinks in the roof, and slept tilllong after sunrise. Then the Indians rafted us across the second river;and we rode on to Jalapa, having accomplished our horseback journey ofnearly three hundred miles with but one accident, the death of a horse, the four-pound one. He had been rather overworked, but would mostlikely have got through, had we not stopped the last night at theIndian _ranchos_, where there was no forage but green maize leaves, afood our beasts were not accustomed to. It seems our men gave him toomuch of this, and then allowed him to drink excessively; and nextmorning he grew weaker and weaker, and died not long after we reachedJalapa. Our other two horses were rather thin, but otherwise in goodcondition; and the horse-dealers, after no end of diplomacy on bothsides, knocked under to our threat of sending them back to Mexico incharge of Antonio, and gave us within a pound or two of what they hadcost us. There, is a good deal of trading in horses done at Jalapa, where travellers coming down from Mexico sell their beasts, which aredisposed of at great prices to other travellers coming up from thecoast. Between here and Vera Cruz, people prefer travelling in theDiligence, or in some covered carriage, to exposing themselves to thesun in the hot and pestilential region of the coast. Jalapa is a pleasant city among the hills, in a country of forests, green turf, and running streams. It is the very paradise of botanists;and its products include a wonderful variety of trees and flowers, fromthe apple- and pear-trees of England to the _mameis_ and _zapotes_ oftropical America, and the brilliant orchids which are the ornament ofour hot-houses. The name of the town itself has a botanical celebrity, for in the neighbouring forests grows the _Purga de Jalapa_, which wehave shortened into _jalap_. A day's journey above it, lies the limit of eternal snow, upon the peakof Orizaba; a day's journey below it is Vera Cruz, the city of theyellow fever, surrounded by burning sands and poisonous exhalations, ina district where, during the hot months now commencing, the thermometerscarcely ever descends below 80°, day or night. Jalapa hardly knowssummer or winter, heat or cold. The upper current of hot air from theGulf of Mexico, highly charged with aqueous vapour, strikes themountains about this level, and forms the belt of clouds that we havealready crossed more than once during our journey. Jalapa is in thiscloudy zone, and the sky is seldom clear there. It is hardly hotter insummer than in England, and not even hot enough for the mosquitoes, which are not to be found here though they swarm in the plain below. This warm damp climate changes but little in the course of the year. There are no seasons, in our sense of the word, for spring laststhrough the year. We walked out on the first afternoon of our arrival; and sat on stoneseats on a piece of green turf surrounded by trees, that reminded uspleasantly of the village-greens of England. There we talked with thechildren of an English acquaintance who had been settled for many yearsin the town, and had married a Mexican lady. They were fine lads; but, as very often happens in such cases, they could only speak the languageof the country. Nothing can show more clearly how thoroughly aforeigner yields to the influences around him, when he settles in acountry and marries among its people. An Englishman's own character, for instance, may remain to some extent; but his children are scarcelyEnglish in language or in feeling, and in the next generation there isnothing foreign about his descendants but the name. When we reached our hotel it was about sunset, and the heavy dew hadwetted us through, as though we had been walking in the rain. This wasno exceptional occurrence. All the year round such dews fall morningand evening, as well as almost daily showers of rain. The climate istoo warm for this dampness to injure health, as it would in our colderregions. To us, who had just left the bracing air of the high plateaus, it seemed close and relaxing; but the inhabitants are certainly strongand healthy, and one can imagine the enjoyment which the whiteinhabitants of Vera Cruz must feel, when they can get away from thatcity of pestilence into the pure air of the mountains. Our quarters were at the _Veracruzana_, where we occupied a greatwhitewashed room. A large grated window opened into the garden, wherethe armadillo was fastened to a tree by a long string, and had soon duga deep hole with his powerful fore-claws, as the manner of the creatureis. The necessity of supplying the "little man in armour" with insectsfor his daily food gave us some idea of the amazing abundance andvariety of the insects of the district. We caught creeping thingsinnumerable in the garden, but narrowly escaped being stung by a smallscorpion; and therefore delegated the task to an old Indian, who walkedout into the fields with an earthen pot, and returned with it full ofinsects in about half an hour. We reckoned that there were over fiftyspecies in the pot. Many of the houses and Indian huts were adorned with collections ofinsects pinned on the walls in patterns, among which figured scorpionssome three inches long; and the centre-ornament was usually atarantula, said to be one of the most poisonous creatures of thetropics, a monstrous spider, whose dark grey body and legs are coveredwith hairs. A fine specimen will have a body about as large as a smallhen's egg, and, with his legs in their natural position, will juststand in a cheese-plate. The Boots of the hotel went out and caught afine scorpion for our amusement; he brought it into our room wrapped ina piece of brown paper, and was on the point of letting it out on ourtable for us to see it run. We protested against this, and had it putinto a tumbler and covered it up with a book. The inner _patio_ of the hotel was surrounded with the usual arcade, into which the rooms opened. Close to our door was a long table, with agreen cloth, where the Jalapenians were constantly playing _monte_, from nine in the morning till late at night. All classes wererepresented there, from the muleteer who came to lose his hard-earneddollars, to the rich shopkeepers and planters of the town andneighbourhood. I went early one afternoon to the house of the principal agent for theVera Cruz carriers, to arrange for sending down our heavy packages tothe coast. There was no one at the office but a girl. I enquired forthe master--"_Está jugando_, "--"He is playing, " she said. I need nothave gone so far to look for him, for he was sitting just outside ourbedroom door, and indeed had been there all day. Before he condescendedto arrange our business, he waited to see the fate of the dollar he hadjust put down, and which I was glad to see he lost. Jalapa was not always the stagnant place it is now. Its pleasant housesand gardens date from a period when it was a town of some importance. In old times the only practicable road from Vera Cruz to Mexico passedthis way; and Jalapa was the entrepôt where the merchants had theirwarehouses, and from whence the trains of mules distributed theEuropean merchandise from the coast to the different markets of thecountry. By this arrangement, the carrying from the coast was done by asmall number of muleteers, who were seasoned to the climate, while thegreat mass of traders and carriers were not obliged to descend from thehealthy region. This was of the more importance, because, though thepure Indians are not liable to the attacks of yellow fever, the diseaseis as deadly to the other inhabitants of the high lands as toEuropeans; and even those of the _mestizos_ who have the leastadmixture of white blood are subject to it. Of late years, this systemhas been given up, and the carriers from the high lands go down to thecoast to fetch their loads, and every year they leave some of theirnumber in the church-yards of the City of the Dead; while many others, though they recover from the fever, never regain their former healthand strength. The high-road to Mexico now goes by Orizaba, so that theimportance of Jalapa as a trading-place has almost ceased. Our Mexican journey was now all but finished, and I left my companionhere, and took the Diligence to Vera Cruz, to meet the West IndiaMail-packet. Mr. Christy followed a day or two later, and went to theUnited States. We dismissed our two servants, Martin and Antonio. Martin invested his wages in a package of tobacco, which he proposed tocarry home on his horse, travelling by night along unfrequentedmountain-paths, where custom-house officers seldom penetrate. We neverheard any more of him; but no doubt he got safe home, for he wasperfectly competent to take care of himself, and he probably made avery good thing of his journey. It was quite with regret that we partedfrom him, for he was a most sensible, useful fellow, with a continualflow of high spirits, and no end of stories of his experiences insmuggling, and hunting wild cattle in the _tierra caliente_, in whichtwo adventurous occupations most of his life had been passed. In hisdealings with us, he was honesty itself, notwithstanding his equivocalprofession. We offered Antonio a cheque on Mexico for his wages, as he was goingback there, but he said he would rather have hard dollars. We paid hisfare to Mexico by the Diligence, and gave him his money, telling him atthe same time, that he was a fool for his pains. He started nextmorning; and we heard, a month or two later, that the coach was stoppedthe same afternoon in the plains of Perote, and Antonio was robbed notonly of his money but even of his jacket and serape, and reached Mexicopenniless and half-naked. He was always a silly fellow, and his lastexploit was worthy of him. Mr. Christy sat up till daybreak to see me off, filling up his time bywriting letters and pressing plants. When I was gone, he lay down inhis bed, in rather a dreamy state of mind, looking up at the ceiling. There was a large beam just above his head, and at one side of it ahole, which struck him as being a suitable place for a scorpion to comeout of. This idea had come into his head from the sight of the specimenin the tumbler on the table, who had with great difficulty been drownedin _aguardiente_. Presently something moved in the hole, and thespectator below instantly became wide awake. Then came out a claw and ahead, and finally the body and tail of a very fine scorpion, two inchesand a half long. It was rather an awkward moment, for it was not safeto move suddenly, for fear of startling the creature, whose footingseemed anything but secure; and if he fell, he would naturally stingwhatever he might come in contact with. However, he met with noaccident on his way, and getting into another hole, about a yard off, he drew up his tail after him and disappeared. Mr. Christy slipped outof his bed with a sense of considerable relief; and having ascertainedthat there were no holes in the ceiling above the bed on the other sideof the room, he turned in there, and went comfortably to sleep. My only companion in the Diligence was a German shopman from Vera Cruz, who was sociable, but not of an instructive turn of conversation. Whenwe had descended for a few hours, the heat became intolerable. Scarcelyany habitation but a few Indian cane-huts by the way-side, with bananasand palm-trees. We stopped, about three in the afternoon, at a _rancho_in a small village, and did not start again until next morning, alittle before day-break. Negroes and people of negro descent began toabound in this congenial climate. I remember especially thewaiting-maid at the _rancho_, who was a "white negress, " as they arecalled. Her hair and features showed her African origin; but her hairwas like white wool, and her face and hands were as colourless as thoseof a dead body. This animated corpse was healthy enough, however; andthis peculiarity of the skin is, it seems, not very uncommon. The coast-regions through which I was passing abound in horned cattle, but they are mostly far away from the high-roads. In spite of theintense heat of the climate they thrive as well as in the higher lands. Some are tolerably tame, and are kept within bounds by the _vaqueros_;but the greater proportion, numbering tens of thousands, roam wildabout the country. In comparison with these cattle of the _tierracaliente_, the fiercest beasts of the plateaus are safe and quietcreatures. The only way of bringing them into the _corral_ is by usingtame animals for decoys, just as wild elephants are caught. Our man Martin, who had once been a _vaquero_ on the Vera Cruz coast, used to look upon the bulls of the high lands with great contempt. Ifyou chase them they run away, he said. If you lazo a bull of the hotcountry, you have to gallop off with all your might, with the _toro_close at your heels; and, if the horse falls, it may cost his life orhis rider's. We thus find the horned cattle flourishing at every elevation, from thesea-level to the mountain-pastures ten thousand feet above it. Horsesand sheep show less adaptability to this variety of climates. Thehorses and mules come mostly from the States of the North, at a levelof from 5, 000 to 8, 000 feet; that remarkable country of whichHumboldt's observation gives us the best idea, when he says that, although there are no made roads, wheel-carriages can travel distancesof a thousand miles over gently-undulating prairies, without meetingany obstruction on the way. Numbers of sheep are reared in the mountains, principally for the sakeof the tallow, for the consumption of tallow-candles in the mines isenormous. The owners scarcely care at all for the rest of the animal;and popular scandal accuses the sheep-farmers of driving their flocksstraight into the melting-coppers, without going through thepreliminary ceremony of killing them. People told us that the tallowmade in the cold regions loses its consistency when brought down intohotter climates, but we had no means of ascertaining the truth of this. Artificial lighting by means of tallow was not known to the ancientMexicans, who could not indeed have procured tallow except from the fatof deer and smaller animals. Bernal Diaz tells how the Spanish invaders used to dress their woundswith "Indian Ointment. " He explains the nature of this preparation inanother place. The Spaniards could get no oil in the country, noranything else to make salve with, so they took some fat Indian who hadjust been killed in battle, and simply boiled him down. Our ride next morning was but a few hours, the journey being so dividedin order that the passengers may reach Vera Cruz before the heat of theday begins. We passed over a dreary district, generally too dry foranything but cactus and acacias, but now and then, when a little waterwas to be found, displaying clumps of bamboos with their elegantfeathery tufts. Then the railway took us through the dismal downs, withtheir swamps and sand-hills, and so into Vera Cruz. The English merchants we had already made acquaintance with were askind and hospitable as ever, and I found an Englishman, whom we hadknown before, going as far as Havana by the same packet. The yellowfever was unusually late this year, and, though June had begun, therewere but few cases. We heard afterwards that it set in a week or twoafter our departure, and by its extraordinary severity made ampleamends for the lateness of its arrival. After sunset, the air was alive with mosquitos, and the floors of thehotel swarmed with cockroaches. The armadillo took quite naturally tothe latter creatures, and crunched them up as fast as we could catchthem for him. I was surprised to find that our word "cockroaches" doesnot come from the German stock, like most of our names for insects andsmall creatures, but from the Latin side of the house. The Spanishwaiter called them _cucarachas_, and the French ones _coqueraches_. Thehistory of the armadillo ends unfortunately: for some days he seemed totake quite kindly to the diet of bits of meat which we had to put himon, on shipboard, but he fell sick at Havana, and died. My late companion travelled up into the Northern States, went to theIndian assembly at Manitoulin Island, paid a visit to various tribes ofRed Men in the Hudson's Bay Territory--as yet unmissionized, carriedaway in triumph the big medicine-drum I have already spoken of, and sawand did many other things not to be related here. One sight that hesaw, some months later, reminded him of the wild country where we hadtravelled together. He was in Iowa City, a little town of a year ortwo's growth, out in the prairie States of the Far West. As he stoodone morning in the outskirts, among the plank-houses and half-maderoads, there came a solitary horseman riding in. Evidently he had comefrom the Mexican frontier, a thousand miles and more away across theplains; and no doubt, his waggons and the rest of his party were behindhim on the road, beyond the distant horizon of the prairie. By his facehe was American, but his costume was the dress of old Mexico, theleather jacket and trousers, the broad white hat and huge jinglingspurs. His lazo hung in front of his high-peaked saddle, and hiswell-worn serape was rolled up behind him like a trooper's cloak. As heapproached the town, he spurred his jaded beast, who broke into the oldfamiliar _paso_ of the Mexican plains. "It was my last sight ofMexico, " said my companion. He saluted the horseman in Spanish, and thewell-known words of welcome made the grim man's haggard sunburntfeatures relax into a smile as he returned the salutation and rode on. As for myself, my voyage home was short and unadventurous. From VeraCruz to Havana, most of my companions were Mexican refugees who hadbeen turned out of the country for being mixed up with Haro'srevolution or Santa Ana's intrigues. They were showily got-up men, elaborately polite, and with much to say for themselves; but every nowand then some casual remark showed what stuff they were made of, and Ipitied more than ever the unfortunate countries whose politicaldestinies depend on the intrigues of these adventurers. In the hot land-locked bay of St. Thomas's we, with the contents ofeight or nine more steamers, were shifted into the great steamer boundhomeward. I went ashore with an old German gentleman, and walked aboutthe streets. St. Thomas's is a Danish island, and a free port, that is, a smuggling depôt for the rest of the West India islands, much asGibraltar is for the Mediterranean. It is a stifling place, full ofmosquitos and yellow fever, and the confusion of tongues reigns thereeven more than in Gibraltar, for the blacks in the streets all speakthree or four languages, and the shopkeepers six or seven. We were a strange mixture on board the 'Atrato', over two hundred ofus. Peruvians and Chilians from across the isthmus, Spaniards andCubans, black gentlemen from Hayti, French colonists from Martinique, but English preponderating above all other nationalities. One or twogovernors of small islands, with their families, maintaining thedignity of Government House, at least as far as Southampton, andunapproachable by common mortals. Army men from West India stations, who appeared to spend their mornings in ordering the wine for dinner, and their evenings in abusing it when they had drunk it. West Indiaplanters, who thought it was rather hard that the Anti-slavery Society, after ruining them and their plantations, should moreover insist ontheir believing themselves to be great gainers by the change. We wereall crowded, hot, and uncomfortable, and showed our worst side, but aswe neared England better influences got the ascendant again. It was pleasant to breathe a cooler air, and to feel that I was gettingback to my own country and my own people; but with this feeling therewas mixed some regret for the beautiful scenes I had left. The eveningsof our latitudes seemed poor when we lost the gorgeous sunsets of thetropics, and the sea alive with luminous creatures. When I came on deckone evening and missed the brightest ornament of the sky--the SouthernCross, I felt that I had left the tropics, and that all my efforts torealize the life of the last half-year would produce but a vague andshadowy picture. Since we left Mexico, I have not cared to follow very accurately eventhe newspaper intelligence of what has been and still is going onthere. It is a pitiable history. Continual wars and revolutions, utterinsecurity of life and property, the Indians burning down the haciendasin the South and turning out the white people, the roads on the plainsimpassable on account of deserters and robbers; sometimes no practicalgovernment at all, then two or three at once, who raise armies andfight a little sometimes, but generally confine themselves toplundering the peaceable inhabitants. An army besieges the capital formonths, but appears to do nothing but cut the water off from theaqueducts, shoot stragglers, and levy contributions. One leader raisesa forced loan among the foreign residents, and imprisons or expelsthose who do not submit. The leader on the other side does the same inhis part of the country, putting the British merchant in prisons wherea fortnight would be a fair average life for an European, andthreatening him with summary courtmartial and execution if he does notpay. London newspapers dwell on these details, and tell us that we may learnfrom the condition of this unfortunate country how useless aredemocratic forms among a people incapable of liberty, and that veryweak governments can commit all sorts of crimes with impunity, from thefact that they have no official existence which foreign powers canrecognize; and various other weighty moral lessons, which must behighly edifying to our countrymen in the Republic, who are meanwhileleft pretty much to shift for themselves. All this time the United States are steadily advancing; and the destinyof the country is gradually accomplishing itself. That its totalabsorption must come, sooner or later, we can hardly doubt. The chiefdifficulty seems to be that the American constitution will not exactlysuit the case. The Republic laid down the right of each citizen to hisshare in the government of the country as a universal law, founded onindefeasible lights of humanity, fundamental laws of nature, and whatnot, making, it is true, some slight exceptions with regard to red andblack men. The Mexicans, or at least the white and half-caste Mexicans, will be a difficulty. Their claims to citizenship are unquestionable, if Mexico were made a State of the Union; and, as everybody knows, theyare totally incapable of governing themselves, which they must be leftto do under the constitutional system of the United States; moreover, it is certain that American citizens would never allow even the whitestof the Mexicans to be placed on a footing of equality with themselves. Supposing these difficulties got over by a Protectorate, an armedoccupation, or some similar contrivance, Mexico will undergo a greatchange. There will be roads and even rail-roads, some security for lifeand property, liberty of opinion, a nourishing commerce, a rapidlyincreasing population, and a variety of good things. Every intelligentMexican must wish for an event so greatly to the advantage of hiscountry and of the world in general. Some of our good friends in Mexico have bought land on the Americanfrontier by the hundred square leagues, and can point out patches uponthe map of the world as large as Scotland or Ireland--as their privateproperty. What their gains will be when enterprising western men beginto bring the country under cultivation, it is not an easy matter torealize. As for ourselves individually, we may be excused for cherishing alurking kindness for the quaint, picturesque manners and customs ofMexico, as yet un-Americanized; and for rejoicing that it was ourfortune to travel there before the coming change, when its most curiouspeculiarities and its very language must yield before foreigninfluences. [Illustration: THE REBOZO AND THE SERAPE. ] APPENDIX. * * * * * I. THE MANUFACTURE OF OBSIDIAN KNIVES, ETC. (_Note to p. 97. _) Some of the old Spanish writers on Mexico give a tolerably full accountof the manner in which the obsidian knives, &c. , were made by theAztecs. It will be seen that it only modifies in one particular thetheory we had formed by mere inspection as to the way in which theseobjects were made, which is given at p. 97; that is, they were crackedoff by pressure, and not, as we conjectured, by a blow of some hardsubstance. Torquemada (_Monarquía Indiana, Seville_, 1615) says; (freetranslation) "They had, and still have, workmen who make knives of acertain black stone or flint, which it is a most wonderful andadmirable thing to see them make out of the stone; and the ingenuitywhich invented this art is much to be praised. They are made and gotout of the stone (if one can explain it) in this manner. One of theseIndian workmen sits down upon the ground, and takes a piece of thisblack stone, which is like jet, and hard as flint, and is a stone whichmight be called precious, more beautiful and brilliant than alabasteror jasper, so much so that of it are made tablets[24] and mirrors. Thepiece they take is about 8 inches long or rather more, and as thick asone's leg or rather less, and cylindrical; they have a stick as largeas the shaft of a lance, and 3 cubits or rather more in length; and atthe end of it they fasten firmly another piece of wood, 8 inches long, to give more weight to this part; then, pressing their naked feettogether, they hold the stone as with a pair of pincers or the vice ofa carpenter's bench. They take the stick (which is cut off smooth atthe end) with both hands, and set it well home against the edge of thefront of the stone (_y ponenlo avesar con el canto de la frente de lapiedra_) which also is cut smooth in that part; and then they press itagainst their breast, and with the force of the pressure there fliesoff a knife, with its point, and edge on each tide, as neatly as if onewere to make them of a turnip with a sharp knife, or of iron in thefire. Then they sharpen it on a stone, using a hone to give it a veryfine edge; and in a very short time these workmen will make more thantwenty knives in the aforesaid manner. They come out of the same shapeas our barbers' lancets, except that they have a rib up the middle, andhave a slight graceful curve towards the point. They will cut and shavethe hair the first time they are used, at the first cut nearly as wellas a steel razor, but they lose their edge at the second cut; and so, to finish shaving one's beard or hair, one after another has to beused; though indeed they are cheap, and spoiling them is of noconsequence. Many Spaniards, both regular and secular clergy, have beenshaved with them, especially at the beginning of the colonization ofthese realms, when there was no such abundance as now of the necessaryinstruments, and people who gain their livelihood by practising thisoccupation. But I conclude by saying that it is an admirable thing tosee them made, and no small argument for the capacity of the men whofound out such an invention. " Vetancurt (_Teatro Mejicano_) gives an account, taken from the above. Hernandez (_Rerum Med. Nov. Hisp. Thes. : Rome_, 1631) gives a similaraccount of the process. He compares the wooden instrument used to across-bow. It was evidently a T-shaped implement, and the workman heldthe cross-piece with his two hands against his breast, while the end ofthe straight stick rested on the stone. He furthermore gives adescription of the making of the well-known _maquahuitl_, or Aztecwar-club, which was armed on both sides with a row of obsidian knives, or teeth, stuck into holes with a kind of gum. With this instrument, hesays, a man could be cut in half at a blow--an absurd statement, whichhas been repeated by more modern writers. II. ON THE SOLAR ECLIPSES RECORDED IN THE LE TELLIER MS. The curious Aztec Picture-writing, known as the _CodexTelleriano-Remenensis_, preserved in the Royal Library of Paris, contains a list or calendar of a long series of years, indicated by theordinary signs of the Aztec system of notation of cycles of years. Below the signs of the years are a number of hieroglyphic pictures, conveying the record of remarkable events which happened in them, suchas the succession and death of kings, the dates of wars, pestilences, &c. The great work of Lord Kingsborough, which contains a fac-simile ofthis curious document, reproduces also an ancient interpretation of thematters contained in it, evidently the work of a person who not onlyunderstood the interpretation of the Aztec picture-writings, but hadaccess to some independent source of information, --probably the moreample oral traditions, for the recalling of which the picture-writingappears only to have served as a sort of artificial memory. It is notnecessary to enter here into a fuller description of the MS. , which hasalso been described by Humboldt and Gallatin. Among the events recorded in the Codex are four eclipses of the sun, depicted as having happened in the years 1476, 1496, 1507. 1510. Humboldt, in quoting these dates, makes a remark to the effect that therecord tends to prove the veracity of the Aztec history, for solareclipses really happened in those years, according to the list in thewell-known chronological work, _L'Art de Vérifier les Dates_, asfollows: 28 Feb. , 1476; 8 Aug. , 1496; 13 Jan. , 1507; 8 May, 1510. Thework quoted, however, has only reference to eclipses visible in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and not to those in America. The question thereforearises, whether all these four eclipses recorded in _L'Art de Vérifierles Dates_, were visible in Mexico. As to the last three, I have nomeans of answering the question; but it appears that Gama, a Mexicanastronomer of some standing, made a series of calculations for atotally distinct purpose about the end of the last century, and foundthat in 1476 _there was no eclipse of the sun visible in Mexico_, butthat there was a great one on the 13th Feb. , 1477, and another on the28th May, 1481. Supposing that Gama made no mistake in his calculations, the idea atonce suggests itself, that the person who compiled or copied the LeTellier Codex, some few years after the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, inserted under the date of 1476 (long before the time of the Spaniards)an eclipse which could not have been recorded there had the documentbeen a genuine Aztec Calendar; _as, though visible in Europe, it wasnot visible in Mexico_. The supposition of the compiler having merelyinserted this date from a European table of eclipses is strengthened bythe fact that _the great eclipse of 1477, which was visible in Mexico, but not in Europe, is not to be found there_. These two facts tend toprove that the Codex, though undoubtedly in great part a copy orcompilation from genuine native materials, has been deliberatelysophisticated with a view of giving it a greater appearance ofhistorical accuracy, by some person who was not quite clever enough todo his work properly. It may, however, be urged as a proof that themistake is merely the result of carelessness, that we find in the MS. No notice of the eclipse of 25th May, 1481, which was visible both inMexico and in Europe, and so ought to have been in the record. Thissupposition would be consistent with the Codex being really a documentin which the part relating to the events before the Spanish Conquest in1521 is of genuine ancient and native origin, though the whole iscompiled in a very grossly careless manner. It would be very desirableto verify the years of all the four eclipses with reference to theirbeing visible in Mexico, as this might probably clear up thedifficulty. III. TABLE OK AZTEC ROOTS COMPARED WITH SANSCRIT, ETC. Several lists of Aztec words compared with those of variousIndo-European languages have been given by philologists. The present islarger than any I have met with; several words in it are taken fromBuschmann's work on the Mexican languages. It is desirable in aphilological point of view that comparative lists of words of this kindshould be made, even when, as in the present instance, they are not ofsufficient extent to found any theory upon. As the Aztec alphabet does not contain nearly all the Sanscritconsonants, many of them must be compared with the nearest Aztecsounds, as: SANSCRIT, t, th, d, dh, &c. ... AZTEC, t. SANSCRIT, k, kh, g, gh, &c. ... AZTEC c. Q. SANSCRIT, l, r. ... AZTEC, l. SANSCRIT, b, bh, v. ... AZTEC, v. Or u. The Aztec c is soft (as s) before e and i, hard (as k) before a, o, u. The Aztec ch as in _cheese_. I have followed Molina's orthography inwriting such words as _uel_ or _vel_ (English, _well_) instead of themore modern, but I think less correct way, _huel_. 1. A-, _negative prefix_ (_as_ qualli, _good_; aqualli, _bad_). SANS. , a-; GREEK, a-, &c. 2. O-, _preterite augment_ (_as_ nitemachtia, _I teach_; onitemachti, _I taught_); SANS. , a-; compare GREEK e-. 3. Pal, _prep. By_: compare SANS. _prep. _, para, _back_; pari, _circum_; pra, _before_; GREEK, para; LAT. , per. 4. Ce-, cen-, cem-, _prefix collective_ (_as_ tlalla, _to place_, centlalla, _to collect_); SANS. , sa-, san-, sam-; GREEK, syn; LAT. , syn. 5. Ce, cen-, cem-, _one_. SANS. , sa (_in_ sa-krit, _once_: comp. Bopp, Gloss. , p. 362. ) LAT. , se-_mel_, si-_mul_, sim-_plex_. 6. Metz (metz-tli), _moon_. SANS. , mas. 7. Tlal (tlal-li), _earth_. SANS. , tala, dhara. LAT. , terra, tellus. 8. Citlal (citlal-in), _star_. SANS. , stri, stara. LAT. , stella. Eng. , star. 9. Atoya (atoya-tl), _river_. SANS. , udya. 10. Teuh (teuh-tli), _dust_. Sans. , dhû-li (_from_ dhû, to drive about. ) 11. Teo (teo-tl), _god_. Sans. , deva. Greek, _Theos_. Lat. , deus. 12. Qual (qual-li), _good_. Sans. , kalya, kalyâna. Greek, kalor. 13. Uel, _well_. Sans. , vara, _excellent_; vli, _to choose_. Lat. , velle. Icel. , vel. Eng. , well. 14. Uel, _power, brave, &c_. , (uel-e, tla-uel-e. ) Sans. , bala, _strength_. Lat. , valeo, valor. 15. Auil, _vicious, wasteful_. Sans. , âvila, _sinful, guilty;_ abala, _weak_. Eng. , evil. 16. Miec, _much_. Sans. , mahat, _great_; manh _or_ mah, _to grow_. Icel. , miok, _much_. Eng. , much. 17. Vey, _great_. Sans. , bahu, _much_. 18. -pol, _augmentative affix_ (as tepe-tl. _mountain_; tepepol, _great mountain_. ) Sans. , puru, _much_; pula, _great, ample_. Greek, pothus. 19. Naua (naua-c), _near, by the side of_. Sans. , nah, _to join or connect_. German, nah, _near_. 20. Ten (ten-qui), _fuil_. Sans. , tûn, _to fill_. 21. Izta (izta-c), _white_. Sans. , sita. 22. Cuz (cuz-tic), _red_. Sans, kashãya, kasãya. 23. Ta (ta-tli), _father_. Sans. , tãta. 24. Cone (cone-tl), _child. Compare_ Sans. , jan, _to beget_. Lat. , gen-itus. German, kin-d. Eng. , kin. 25. Pil (pil-li), _child. Compare_ Sans. , bãla, _boy, child_; bhri, _to bear children_, &c. Greek, polos, _foal_. Lat. , pullus, filius. Eng. , _foal_, &c. , &c. 26. Cax (cax-itl), _cup_. Sans. , chasbaka. 27. Paz(?)(a-paz-tli), _vase, basin_. Sans. , bajana. _Compare_ Lat. , vas. Eng. , vase. 28. Com (com-itl), _earthen pot_. Sans. , kumbha. 29. Xuma (xuma-tli), _spoon_. Sans. , chamasa; _from_ Sans. , cham, _to eat_. 30. Mich (mich-in), _fish_. Sans. , machcha. 31. Zaca (zaca-tl), _grass_. Sans. , sãka. 32. Col (te-col-li, col-ceuia, &c. ), _charcoal_. Sans. , jval, _to burn, flame_; Icel. , kol; Eng. , coal; Irish, gual. 33. Cen (cen-tli), _grain, maize_. Sans. , kana, _grain_. 34. Ehe (ehe-catl), _wind_. Sans. , vãyu. 35. Mix (mix-tli), _cloud_. Sans. , megha; Icel. , and Eng. , mist. 36. Cal (cal-ii), _house_. Sans. , sãlã. Greek, kalia; Lat. , cella. 37. Qua (qua-itl), _head_. Sans. , ka. 38. Ix (ix-tli), _eye, face_. Sans. , aksha, _eye_; âsya, _face_. 39. Can (can-tli), _cheek_, Sans. , ganda; Lat. , gena. 40. Chichi (chichi-tl), _teat_. Sans. , chuchuka. 41. Nene (nene-tl), _pupil of eye_. Sans. , nayanâ. 42. Choloa, _to run or leap_. Sans. , char. 43. Caqui (caqui-ztli), _sound_. Sans. , kach, _to sound_. 44. Xin (xi-xin-ia), _to cut, ruin, destroy_. Sans. , ksin, _to hurt, kill. _ 45. Tlacç (tlacç-ani), _to run_. Sans. , triks, _to go_; Greek, trecho. 46. Patlani, _to fly_. Sans. , pat. 47. Mati, _to know_. Sans. , medh, _to understand_; mati, _thought, mind_; Greek root math. 48. It (it-ta), _to see_. Sans. , vid; Greek root id, eidomai, &c. ; Lat. , video. 49. Meya, _to flow, trickle_. Sans. , mih. 50. Mic (mic-tia), _to kill_. Sans. , mi, mith. 51. Cuica, _to sing_. Sans. , kûj. _to sing, as birds_, &c. 52. Chichi _to suck_. SANS. , chûsh. 53. Ahnachia, _to sprinkle_: _compare_ SANS. Uks. 54. Coton (coton-a), _to cut_. SANS. Kutt. 55. Nex (nex-tia), _to shine_. SANS, nad; LAT. , niteo. 55. Notz (notz-a), _to call_. SANS. , nad. 57. Choc (choc-a), _to lament, cry_. SANS, kuch, _to cry aloud, scream;_ such, _to wail_. 58. Me(?)(in me-catl, _binding-thing, chain?) to bind_ SANS. , mû, mava. 59. Qua, _to eat, bite_: compare SANS. Charv, _to chew, bite, gnaw_; chah, _to bruize_; khad, _to eat_. ; GERMAN, kauen; ENG. , to chew. 60. Te, _thou_. SANS. Tvam; LAT. , tu. 61. Quen, _how?_ SANS. Kena. _Other curious resemblances between the Aztec and European languagesare_: 62. Pepeyol, _poplar_. LAT. , populus; ICEL. , popel. 63. Papal (papal-otl), _butterfly_; LAT. , papilio. 64. Ul (ul-li), _juice of the India-rubber tree, used as oil for anointing, &c. _ LAT. , oleum; ENG. , oil, &c. * * * * * IV. GLOSSARY. ANAHUAC. _Aztec_. "By the water-side. " The name at first applied to the Valley of Mexico, from the situation of the towns on the banks of the lakes; afterwards used to denote a great part of the present Republic of Mexico. ACOCOTE (_Aztec_, acocotl, water-throat), aloe-sucker's gourd; _see p. _ 91. ADOBE, a mud-brick, baked in the sun. (Perhaps a _Moorish-Spanish_ word. _Ancient Egyptian_, tobe, a mud-brick; _Arabic_, toob, pronounced with the article _at-toob_, whence adobe?) AGUAMIEL (honey-water), unfermented aloe-juice. AGUARDIENTE (burning-water), ardent spirits. AHUEHUETE (_Aztec_, ahuehuetl), the deciduous cypress. ALAMEDA (poplar-avenue), public promenade; _see p. _ 57. ALCALDE, a magistrate (_Moorish-Spanish_, al cadi, "the cadi"). ANQUERA (hauncher), covering for horses' haunches; _see p. _ 164 (_and cut, p. _ 260). ARRIERO, a muleteer. ARROYO, a rivulet, mountain-torrent. ATAMBOB, a drum. ATOLE (_Aztec_, atolli), porridge. AVERSADA, a freshet. BARATILLO, a Rag-fair, market of odds and ends; _see p. _ 169. BARBACOA, whence English "barbecue;" _see p. _ 95; a native Haitian word. BARRANCCA, a ravine. CALZONCILLOS, drawers. CAPA, a cloak. CAYO, a coral-reef. CHAPARREROS, over-trousers of goatskin with the hair on, used in riding. CHINAMPA (_Aztec_, "a place fenced in), " a Mexican "floating garden;" _see p. _ 62. CHINGUERITO, Indian-corn brandy. CHIPI-CHIPI (_Aztec_, chipini, drizzling rain); _see p. _ 26. CHUPA-MIRTO (myrtle-sucker), a humming-bird. COLEAR, to throw a bull over by the tail (cola); _see p. _ 71. COMPADRE. COMADRE; _French_, compère, commère; _see p. _ 250. CORRAL, an enclosure for cattle. COSTAL, a bag, or sack. COYOTE (_Aztec_, coyotl), a jackal. CUARTA, a leather horse-whip; _see_ p. 264. CUARTEL, a barrack. CUCARACHA, a cockroach. CUCHILLO, a knife. CURA, a parish-priest. DESAGUE, a draining-cut. DESAYUNO, breakfast. EMANCIPADO (emancipated negro); see p. 6. ESCOPETA, a musket. ESCRIBANO, a scribe or secretary. FANDANGO, a dance. FIESTA, a church-festival. FRIJOLES, beans. FUERO, a legal privilege; _see pp. _ 19, 249. GACHUPIN, a native of Spain. Supposed to be an Aztec epithet, _cac-chopina_, that is, "prickly shoes, " applied to the Spanish conquerors from their wearing spurs, which to the Indians were strange and incomprehensible appendages. GARROTE, an instrument for strangling criminals. GENTE DE RAZÓN (reasonable people), white men and half-breed Mexicans, but not Indians;_ see p. _ 61. GUAJALOTE (Aztec, huexolotl), a turkey: _see p. _ 228. GULCHE, a ravine. HACENDADO, a planter, landed proprietor, from HACIENDA (literally "doing, " from _hacer_, or _facer_, to do). An estate, establishment, &c. HACIENDA DE BENEFICIO, an establishment for "benefiting" silver, i. E. , for extracting it from the ore. HONDA, a sling. HORNITOS (little ovens), the small cones near the volcano of Jorullo, which formerly emitted steam; see p. 92. HULE (_Aztec, _ ulli. India-rubber?) a waterproof coat. ICHTL (_Aztec, _ thread), thread or string of aloe-fibre. ITZTLI (Aztec), obsidian; _see_ p. 100. LAZADOR, one who throws the lazo. LAZO. A running noose. LEPERO, lazzarone, or prolétaire; _see p. _ 251. LLANOS, plains. MACHETE, a kind of bill-hook. MALACATE (_Aztec, _ malacatl), a spindle, spindle-head, windlass, &c. MANTA, cotton-cloth. MATRACA, a rattle; _see p. _ 49. MESON, a Mexican caravansery; _see p. _ 209. MESTIZO (mixtus) a Mexican of mixed Spanish and Aztec blood. METATE (_Aztec_, metlatl) the stone used for rubbing down Indian corninto paste; see p. 88. METALPILE (_Aztec_, metlapilli, i. E. Little metlatl), the stonerolling-pin used in the same process. MOLE (_Aztec, _ mulli), Mexican stew. MOLINO DE VIENTO (literally a windmill), a whirlwind; _see p. _ 31. MONTE (literally a mountain), the favourite Mexican game; _see p. _256. MOZO, a lad, servant, groom. NIÑO, a child. NOPAL (_Aztec_, nopalli), the prickly pear. NOETE, the north wind; see p. 21. OCOTE (_Aztec_, ocotl), a pine-tree, pine-torch. OLLA, a boiling-pot. PASADIZO, a passage; _see p. _ 231. PASEO, a public promenade. PASO, a kind of amble; _see p. _ 163. PATIO, a court-yard, especially the inner court of a house. PATIO-PROCESS, method of extracting the silver from the ore, so called from its being carried on in paved yards; _see p. _92. PATRON, a master, landlord. PEDRIGAL, a lava-field. PEOS, a debt-slave; _see_ p. 291. PETATE (_Aztec_, petlatl), a palm-leaf mat. PITO, 1, a whistle, pipe; 2, aloe-fibre thread. POTRERO, a water-meadow. PULQUE, a drink made from the juice of the aloe; _see_ p. 38. (It is a corruption of a native South American word, introduced into Mexico by the Spaniards). RANCHERO, a cottager, yeoman. RANCHO, a hut. RAYA (literally a line), the paying of workmen at a hacienda, &c. RAYAR, to pull a horse up short at a line; _see_ p. 163. REATA, a horse-rope; _see_ p. 264. REBOZO, a woman's shawl; _see_ p. 56. RECUA, a train of mules. SALA, a hall, dining-room. SERAPE, a Mexican blanket; _see_ p. 169. SOMBRERO, a hat. TACUMENILES, pine-shingles for roofing. TEMAZCALLI, Indian vapour-bath; _see_ p. 301. TEOCALLI (_Aztec_, god's house), an Aztec pyramid-temple. TEFONAZTLI, Indian wooden drum. TEQUESQUITE (_Aztec_, tequesquiti), an alkaline efflorescence abundant on the soil in Mexico, used for soap-making, &c. TETZONTLI, porous amygdaloid lava, a stone much used for building in Mexico. TIENDA, a shop; _see_ p. 82. TIERRA CALIENTE, the hot region. TIERRA FRÍA, the cold region. TIERRA TEMPLADA. The temperate region. TLACHIQUEBO (_Aztec_, tlacbiqui, an overseer, from tlachia, to see), a labourer in an aloe-field, who draws the juice for pulque; _see_ p. 36. TORO, a bull. TORTA (literally, a cake); _see_ p. 92. TORTILLAS, thin cakes made of Indian corn, resembling oat-cakes; _see_ p. 33. TRAPICHE, a sugar-mill. ULEI, _see_ Hule. VAQUERO, cow-herd. ZOPILOTE (_Aztec_, zopilotl), a turkey-buzzard. * * * * * V. DESCRIPTION OF THREE VERY RARE SPECIMENS OF ANCIENT MEXICANMOSAIC-WORK (IN THE COLLECTION OF HENRY CHRISTY, ESQ. ). These Specimens, two Masks and a Knife, (_see page_ 101. ) areinteresting as presenting examples of higher art than has been supposedto have been attained to by the ancient Mexicans, or any other of thenative American peoples. Their distinctive feature is an incrustationof Mosaic of Turquoise, cut and polished, and fitted with extremenicety, --a work of great labour, time, and cost in any country, andespecially so amongst a people to whom the use of iron wasunknown, --and carried out with a perfection which suggests the ideathat the art must have been long practised under the fostering ofwealth and power, although so few examples of it have come down to us. Although considerably varied, they are all three of one family of work, so to speak; the predominant feature being the use of turquoise; andthe question which presents itself at the outset is--what are theevidences that this unique work is of Aztec origin? The proofs are so interwoven with the style and structure of thespecimens that their appearance and nationality are best treated oftogether. The Mask of wood is covered with minute pieces of turquoise--cut andpolished, accurately fitted, many thousands in number, and set on adark gum or cement. The eyes, however, are acute-oval patches ofmother-of-pearl; and there are two small square patches of the same onthe temples, through which a string passed to suspend the mask; and theteeth are of hard white shell. The eyes are perforated, and so are thenostrils, and the upper and lower teeth are separated by a transversechink; thus a wearer of the mask (which sits easily on one's face) cansee, breathe, and speak with ease. The features bear that remarkablyplacid and contemplative expression which distinguishes so many of theAztec works, in common with those of the Egyptians, whether in theirmassive stone sculptures, or in the smallest and commonest heads ofbaked earth. The face, which is well-proportioned, pleasing, and ofgreat symmetry, is studded also with numerous projecting pieces ofturquoise, rounded and polished. In addition to the character of the work and the style of face, theevidence of the Aztec origin of this mask is confirmed by the woodbeing of the fragrant cedar or cypress of Mexico. It may be remarkedalso that the inside is painted red, as are the wooden masks of theIndians of the North-west coast of America at the present day. The Knife presents, both in form and substance, more direct evidence ofits Aztec origin; for, in addition to its incrustation with the uniquemosaic of turquoise, blended (in this case) with malachite and whiteand red shell, its handle is sculptured in the form of a crouchinghuman figure, covered with the skin of an eagle, and presenting thewell-known and distinctive Aztec type of the human head issuing fromthe mouth of an animal. (_See cut_, p. 101. ) Beyond this there is inthe stone blade the curious fact of a people which had attained to socomplex a design and such an elaborate ornamentation remaining in theStone-age; and, somewhat curiously, the locality of that stone blade isfixed, by its being of that semi-transparent opalescent calcedony whichHumboldt describes as occurring in the volcanic districts ofMexico--the concretionary silex of the trachytic lavas. The second Mask is yet more distinctive. The incrustation ofturquoise-mosaic is placed on the forehead, face, and jaws of a humanskull, the back part of which has been cut away to allow of its beinghung, by the leather thongs which still remain, over the face of anidol, as was the custom in Mexico thus to mask their gods onstate-occasions. The mosaic of turquoise is interrupted by three broadtransverse bands, on the forehead, face, and chin, of a mosaic ofobsidian, similarly cut (but in larger pieces) and highly polished, --avery unusual treatment of this difficult and intractable material, theuse of which in any artistic way appears to have been confined to theAztecs (with the exception, perhaps, of the Egyptians). The eye-balls are nodules of iron-pyrites, cut hemispherically andhighly polished, and are surrounded by circles of hard white shell, similar to that forming the teeth of the wooden mask. The Aztecs made their mirrors of iron-pyrites polished, and are theonly people who are known to have put this material to ornamental use. The mixture of art, civilization, and barbarism which the hideousaspect of this green and black skull-mask presents accords with thecondition of Mexico at the time of the Conquest, under which humansacrifices on a gigantic scale were coincident with much refinement inarts and manners. The European history of these three specimens is somewhat curious. Withthe exception of two in the Museum at Copenhagen, obtained many yearsago by Professor Thomsen from a convent in Rome, and, though greatlydilapidated, presenting some traces of the game kind of ornamentation, they are believed to be unique. The Wooden Mask and the Knife were long known in a collection atFlorence. Thirty years ago the mask was brought into England from thatcity, as Egyptian: and, somewhat later, the knife was obtained fromVenice. Subsequently the Skull-mask, with a wig of hair said to be a scalp, wasfound at Bruges; a locality which leads to the presumption that themask was brought from Mexico soon after the Conquest in 1521, and priorto the expulsion of the Spaniards from Flanders consequent on therevolt of the Low Countries in 1579. _Note_. --It happens singularly enough, that a curious old work, _Aldrorandus, Musaeum Metallicum, Bologna_, 1613, contains drawings ofa knife and wooden mask ornamented with mosaic-work of stone, made justin the came way as those described above, and only differing from themin the design. What became of them I cannot tell. * * * * * VI. DASENT'S ESSAY ON THE ETHNOGRAPHICAL VALUE OF POPULAR TALES ANDLEGENDS. Whilst treating of legendary lore in connection with Ethnographry, wemust not forget to refer the reader to the highly useful andphilosophical remarks on this subject in Dasent's Introduction to his_Popular Tales from the Norse_. [25] Here we see that not only are thepopular tales of any nation indicative of its early condition and itslater progress, but also that the legends, fables, and tales of theIndo-European nations, at least, bear internal evidence of their havinggrown out of a few simple notes--of having sprung from primaeval germsoriginating with the old Aryan family, from whom successive migrationscarried away the original myth to be elaborated or degraded accordingto the genius and habits of the people. Thus other means of resolving the relations of the early races of Manare added to those previously afforded by ethnographical andphilological research. INDEX. Account-keeping, 87. Acodada, 57. Africans and Chinese, 13. Agriculture, 26, 61, 63, 89, 157-161, 172, 216. Ahuehuetes, 57, 155, 215, 265. Alameda, 57. Alluvial Deposits, 150. Aloes, 35, 136; huts built of, 36. Aloe-fibre, manufacture of, 88. Aloe-juice, collected for Pulque, 36, 91. Amatlan, 299. Amecameca, 265. American War, 118-120. Amozoque, 295. Anahuac, 57, 270. Antiquities, collections of, 222-236, 262. Antonio, our man, 321. Ants, 8. Aqueduct of Chapultepec, 55. Arch, Aztec, 153, 276. Armadillo, 312, 319, 325. Arms of Mexico, 42. Army, Mexican, 114-119. Arrow-heads, 137. Art, Aztec, 186, 230, 316. Astronomy, Aztec, 237-241, 244. Atotonilco, 82, 85. Aztec Antiquities, 35, 137, 141-148, 150-156, 183-195, 222-244, 262-264, 274-280. Aztec Civilization, 103. Aztec Language, 143, 227, 235, 243, 279, 333. Bananas, 178. Baratillo, 169-171. Barometer, height of, 68. Barrancas, 89, 179, 310, 313. Barricades, 55. Batabano, 3. Baths of Santa Fé, 7. Bells, ancient, 235. Bits, 167. Books, 124. Bronze-age, 139. Bronze, stone-cutting with, 138-140; hatchets, 225; bells and needles, 235. Bull-fights, 70. Bull-dogs in Mexico, 149. Bull, lazoing the, 253, 323. Cacahuamilpán, 200-205. Cacao-beans, 227. Cactuses, 73, 90, 140, 144. Calendar-stone of Mexico, 237-240. Canals, 58, 130. Canoes, 60, 129, 132, 134. Capitalists, 295. Cascade of Regla, 93. Castor-oil plant, 9. Casa Grande, 77, 135. Cattle, 16, 31, 323. Cave of Cacahuamilpán, 203-205. Central American Antiquities, 189-193. Cerro de Navajas, 95-100. Chalco, Canal of, 58; Lake, 173; Chalma, 208-214. Chapultepec, 55, 57. Chinampas, 62. Chinese in Cuba, 12. Chipi-chipi, 26. Cholula, 274-278. Church, the, 113, 213, 285-290. Church-dances, 211. Churches in Mexico, 36, 46. Civil-war, 112, 283, 328. Cigar-making, 3. Clergy of Mexico, 7, 79, 287. Clay figures, 229, 275. Coach, old-fashioned, 59. Cochineal-insect, 24. Cockfighting, 254, 256. Cockroaches, 325. Cocoyotla, 196. Colearing, 71. Columbus, 4. Comonfort, President, 19, 112. Compadrazgo, 250. Commerce of Mexico, 105. Convents in Mexico, 46, 287. Convicts, 22. Cordova, 25. Corrida de Toros, 70. Costumes, 51, 62, 168. Courier, 167, 310. Criminals, 245-249. Cuba, 2. Cuernavaca, 179. Cura of New Gerona, 9. Cypress-trees, 57, 155, 215, 265. Dancing, 207, 211. Dasent on Popular Legends, &c. , 339. Debt-slavery, 291. Diligence, travelling by, 37, 173. Dishonesty of Mexicans, 80-82. Dram-drinking, 83. Dress of the Indians, 61. Drums, 231. Earthquakes, 66. Eclipses observed in Mexico, 333. Education, 125-128. Emancipados, 6, 14. English in Mexico, 73, 318. Estación de Méjico, 121. Ethnology, 17, 102-104, 187-195, 241-244, 276-280. Evaporation, rapid, 75. Feather-work, 70. Flies' eggs, 156. Floating gardens, 62. Flooded streets, 65. Florida, free blacks from, 5, 10-12. Forests, destruction of by Spaniards, 45. Fueros, 19. Future of Mexico, 329. Gambling, 15, 207, 256-258, 320. Glass-works, 135. Glossary, 335. Goddess of War, 222. Gold and Silver work, 234. Gourd-bottles, 171. Grove of Cypresses, 57. Guadalupe (Our Lady of), 66, 120-224. Hams, Toluca, 219. Havana, 1, 326. Hedges of Cactus, 73. Highlands of Mexico, 35. Hill of Drums, 215. Holy Week, 47-54. Horse-bath, 290. Horses, 163-165, 317. Hotel d'Yturbide, 39. Houses, 25, 36, 91, 135, 172; built on piles, 41. Huamantla, 31. Huehuetoca, draining-cut of, 45. Humming-birds, 69. Indian Baptism, 207. Indian Ointment, 324. Indians of Mexico, 47, 60-64, 80-88, 173, 182, 197-199, 200-208, 299-309, 314-316. Indian Soldiers, 23, 120, 122. Indulgences, 52, 124. Inquisition, the, 128. Insects, 319. Intemperance, 47, 83, 307. Inundations, 44, 65, 123. Iron, 102, 140. Irrigation, 86, 157-161, 179. Isle of Pines, 4. Iztaccihnatl, 268. Jacal, Mount, 95. Jalapa, 317-321. Jorullo, 92. Judas, 50. Judas's Bones, 49. Junta, La, 314. Justice, Administration of, 246-248, 300. Lakes in Valley of Mexico, 44-46, 65, 130-134, 173. Lava-fields, 28, 35, 118. Law-courts of Mexico, 249. Lazoing, 71, 252-254, 323. Legends, 236, 276-279, 340. Leper Hospital, 251. Leperos, 251. Lerma, 219. Le Tellier MS. , on Eclipses, 332. Loadstone mountain, 102. Locusts, 298. Lonja, 66. Machinery in Mexico, 109. Magnetic Iron-ore, 102. Manufacture of Obsidian Knives, 97, 331. Marble Quarries in the Isle of Pines, 6. Market, Indian, 85, 89. Martin, our servant, 273, 321. Masks, 110, 226, 235, 337. Matracas, 49. Mestizos, 48, 61, 300. Metate, 88. Mexican Dishes, 51; Ladies, 51; Words, 227, 263. Mexican Police, 149; War with United States, 118. Mexico, City of, 41-44, 111; Old, 147; Formation of the country of, 27; Future of, 329; People of, 55; Valley of, 40-46, 270. Military Statistics, 115. Miners, 79, 258. Miraflores, 264. Minería, or School of Mines, 47. Mirage, 30. Mongolian Calendar, 241. Monks, 205, 209, 213. Morals of Servitude, 81, 293. Mosaic work, 101, 110, 235. Mosquitos, 5, 325. Mules, Mexican, 175. Museum of Mexico, 222-237. Negress, white, 323. Negros in Mexico, 13, 323. Nevado de Toluca, 219. Nopals, Plantations of, 24. Nopalucán, 296. Nortes, 21, 23. Nuestra Señora de Remedies, 121. Nueva Gerona, 4, 8. Numerals, Mexican, &c. , 107-110. Obsidian, mines of, 95, 99; knives, &c. , 95-102, 137, 229, 331. Oculan, 215. Old Mexico, 147; Baths near Tezcuco, 153; Bridge near Tezcuco, 153. Organ-cactus, 73. Orizaba, town of, 26; volcano of, 18, 29, 226. Ornament, common styles of, 185. Pachuca, 69, 74. Palma Christi, 9. Paseo, or Alameda, 57. Passport-system (Cuba), 3. Peñón de los Baños, 131. Peons, 291-294. People of Mexico, 55. Picture-writings, 104, 130, 232-234. Pintos, 309. Pirates of the Spanish Main, 5. Ploughing, 172. Police, Mexican, 149. Political Economy, 105, 217, 264, 294, 302-309, 328. Politics of Mexico, 19, 111-118, 282-284, 290, 328. Popocatepetl, ascent of, 265-273. Population, 217, 302-309. Potrero, 307. Pottery, 85, 88, 151, 226, 275. Priests, 9, 79, 285-290. Prisons, 244-248. Promenade of Las Vigas, 64. Protective duties, 104, 264. Puebla, 113, 281-291. Pulque, 35, 37, 91. Pulque-shops, 63. Pyramids, 43, 141-148, 190, 274-278. Quarries in the Isle of Pines, 6; of obsidian, 99; of Teotihuacán, 137. Rag-fair in Mexico, 169. Railway, 2, 24, 121. Rain, 136, 266. Rainy Region, 26. Ranches, 25, 266, 299. Rattles, 49. Real del Monte, 77. Rebozo, 56. Reform in Mexico, 117. Regla, 78; cascade of, 93. Revolutions, 20, 114, 282-284. Roads in Mexico, 29, 37, 76. Robbers, 32, 117, 170, 297; Priest-captain of, 34. Sacred trees, 215, 265. Sacrifice of Spaniards, 145. Sacrificial Clamps, 225; Stone, 223. Saddles, &c. , 162-167. St. Thomas's, W. Indies, 327. Salinas of Campeche, 84. Saline condition of the soil, 133. Salt, 83, 154. Salt-pans, 155. Salto del Agua, 55. Sand-pillars, 30. San Andrés Chalchicomula, 312. San Antonio de Abajo, 296. San José and Earthquakes, 67. San Nícolas, 272. Santa Anita, 63. Santa Maria de Guadalupe, 121. Santa Rosita de Cocoyotla, 196. Sardines, 87. School of Mines, 47. Scorpions, 319, 322. Sculptures at Xochicalco, 185. Serape, 169. Sheep, 324. Shrines of Xochicalco, 193. Silver-mines, &c. , 74, 92, 105, 107. Siege & Capitulation of Puebla, 113, 282. Sisal, 16. Skull decorated with mosaic work, 337. Slave-trade, 13, 16. Smuggling, 273, 296. Solar Eclipses observed in Mexico, 331. Soldiers, 23, 114, 171. Soquital, 82. Spanish-moss, 57. Spurs, 295. Stalactitic Cave, 200. Statistics of Mexico, 115, 249, 286. Stone-hammers, 137. Stone knives and weapons, 90, 103. Streets of Mexico, 41, 55. Sugar-canes, 179. Sugar-hacienda, of Santa Rosita, 196; of Temisco, 180. Sugar-plantations of Havana, 2. Tacubaya, 57, 69. Tallow, 324. Tasco, Silver-mines at, 74. Temisco, 179. Temple-pyramids--_see_ Pyramids. Tenancingo, 218. Tenochtitlán, 41. Ten Tribes, the, 17. Teocallis, _see_ Pyramids. Teotihuacán, Pyramids of, 141-148; Quarries of, 137, 141. Tequesquite, 133. Tezcotzinco, 152. Tezcuco, 129, 150, 260-264; Aztec Bridge at, 153. Tezcuco, Lake of, 65, 129, 138. Thieves, 52, 170, 245. Tisapán, 118-120. Toluca, 219. Tortillas, 38. Tropical Vegetation, 2, 24, 179. Turkey-buzzards, 22. Valley of Mexico, 45. Yapour-bath, native, 301. Vegetation, zones of, 21-27, 178, 216. Vera Cruz, 18-21, 325. Virjen de Remedios, 123. Virgins, the rival, 123. Volantes, 2. War-idol, 222. Water-bottles, 171. Water-pipes, 157. Xochimilco, Lake of, 173. Xochicalco, Ruins of, 183-195. Yucatan, 16. Zopilites, 22. [Illustration: DESIGN. ] NOTES [1: The mahagua tree furnishes that curious fibrous network which isknown as _bast_, and used to wrap bundles of cigars in. The mahoganytree is called _caoba_ in Spanish, apparently the original Indian name, as the Spaniards probably first became acquainted with it in Cuba. Isour word "mahogany" the result of a confusion of words, and corruptedfrom "mahagua?"] [2: We heard talk elsewhere, however, of a war going on in the interiorof the country between the white inhabitants and the Indian race; theapparent object of the whites being to take Indian prisoners, and shipthem off for slaves to Cuba. ] [3: They must be judged by courts whose members belong to their ownbody, and in these special tribunals one can imagine what sort ofjustice is meted out to complainants and creditors. Comonfort's hopewas to conciliate the mass of the people by attempting to relieve themof this enormous abuse. I believe he was honest in his intentions, butunfortunately the people had already had to do with too manypoliticians who were to redress their wrongs and inaugurate a reign ofliberty. They had found very little to come of such movements, butextra-taxation and civil war, which left them worse off than they werebefore, and the patriots generally turned out rather more greedy andunprincipled than the others; so it was not to be wondered at that noone came forward to give any very energetic support to the newPresident. ] [4: No one ill uses them but the dogs, who drive them away whenanything better than usual is met with, and they have to stand round ina circle, waiting for their turn. ] [5: Ahuehuete, pronounced _a-hwe-hwete_. Thus, Anahuac ispronounced Ana-hwac; and Chihuahua, Chi-hwa-hwa. ] [6: In the Swiss Alps, between 4, 000 and 5, 000 feet above the sea, there is a similar plant to be seen fringing the branches of thepine-trees; but it only grows to the length of a few inches, and willhardly bear comparison to the long trailing festoons of the Spanishmoss, often fifteen or twenty feet in length. ] [7: Chalco was and is a freshwater lake, and here they had not eventhis to do. ] [8: The "Lonja" is a feature in the commercial towns of SpanishAmerica. It is not only the Merchants' Exchange, but their club, billiard-room, and smoking-room; in fact, their "lounge, " and I fancythe two words are connected with one another. ] [9: Atotonilco, "Hot-water-place, " so called from the hot springs inthe neighbourhood. ] [10: Soquital, "Clay-place, " from the potter's clay which abounds inthe district. Earthenware is the staple manufacture here. ] [11: The book-name for obsidian is _itztli_, a word which seems to meanoriginally "sharp thing, knife, " and thence to have been applied to thematerial knives are made of. Obsidian was also called _itztetl_, knife-stone. But no Indian to whom I spoke on the subject would everacknowledge the existence of such a word as _itztli_ for obsidian, butinsisted that it was called _bizcli_, which is apparently the corruptmodern pronunciation of another old name for the same mineral, _petztli_, shiny-stone. ] [12: There is an Aztec word "puztequi" (_to break sticks, &c_. ) whichmay belong to the same root as "tepuztli. " The first syllable "te" maybe "te-tl" (_stone_). ] [13: The researches instituted by Mr. I. Horner in the alluvium nearHeliopolis and Memphis _(Philos. Transact. , _ 1855 & 1856), althoughvery elaborate, still leave much to be desired before we can arrive atdefinite conclusions. ] [14: _Corixa femorala_, and _Notonecta uniforciata_, according to MM. Meneville and Virlet d'Aoust, in a Paper on the subject of the granularor oolitic travertine of Tezcuco in the Bulletin (1859) of theGeological Society of France. ] [15: Huauhtli is an indigenous grain abounding in Michoacán, for which"wheat" is the best equivalent I can give. European wheat was, ofcourse, unknown in the country until after the Conquest. ] [16: The _meson_ of Mexico is a lineal descendant of the EasternCaravanserai, and has preserved its peculiarities unchanged forcenturies. It consists of two court-yards, one surrounded by stablingand the other by miserable rooms for the travellers, who must cooktheir food themselves, or go elsewhere for it. ] [17: The Aztecs were accustomed, before the Conquest, to perform dancesas part of the celebration of their religious festivals, and themissionaries allowed them to continue the practice after theirconversion. The dance in a church, described by Mr. Bullock in 1822, was a much more genuine Indian ceremony than the one which we saw. Church-dancing may be seen in Europe even at the present day. Thesolemn Advent dances in Seville cathedral were described to me, by aneyewitness, as consisting of minuets, or some such statelyold-fashioned dances, performed in front of the high altar by boys inwhite surplices, with the greatest gravity and decorum. ] [18: This assertion must be qualified by a remark of the Abbé Brasseurde Bourbourg, who tells us that in some places the Indians still uselancets of obsidian to bleed themselves with. I believe there isnothing of the kind to be found in the part of Mexico which wevisited. ] [19: The Aztecs had but one word to denote both gold and silver, asthey afterwards made one serve for both iron and copper. This curiousword _teocuitlatl_ we may translate as "Precious Metal, " but it meansliterally "Dung of the Gods. " Gold was "Yellow Precious Metal, " andsilver "White Precious Metal. " Lead they called _temetztli_, "Moon-stone;" and when the Spaniards showed them quicksilver, they gaveit the name of _yoli amuchitl_, "Live Tin. "] [20: It is curious that these latter resemblances (as far as I havebeen able to investigate the subject) disappear in the signs of theYucatan calendar, though its arrangement is precisely that of theMexican. Any one interested in the theory of the Toltecs being thebuilders of Palenque and Copan will see the importance of this point. If the Toltecs ever took the original calendar, with the traces of itsAsiatic origin fresh upon it, down into Yucatan with them, it is atany rate not to be found there now. ] [21: The Aztec name for an eclipse of the sun is worthy of remark. Theycalled it _tonatiuh qualo_, literally "_the sun's being eaten_. " Theexpression seems to belong to a time when they knew less about thephenomenon, and had some idea like that of the Asiatic nations whothought the sun was occasionally swallowed up by the great dragon. ] [22: I was surprised to find Iztaccihuatl classed among the activevolcanos in Johnston's Physical Atlas, and supposed at first that acrater had really been found. But it is likely to be only a mistake, caused by the name of "Volcan" being given to both mountains by theMexicans, who used the word in a very loose way. ] [23: See the illustration at page 281. ] [24: In the original, _aras_. In the Latin of Hernandez, _arae_ Isuppose to be the little polished stone slabs which are set on thealtars in Roman Catholic churches, and in which their sacred qualityis, so to speak, contained. ] [25: _Popular Tales from the Norse_. (Translated from Asbjörnsen andMoe's Collection. ) By George Webbe Dasent, D. C. L. With an IntroductoryEssay on the Origin and Diffusion of Popular Tales. --_Second Edition, Edinburgh_: 1859. ] ERRATA: Page 5, line 2, _for_ verandalis _read_ verandahs. Page 8, line 12, _for_ il _read_ el. Page 17, line 17, _for_ part _read_ port. Page 20, line 8, _for_ pronunciamento _read_ pronunciamiento. Page 22, line 10, _for_ I could _read_ one can. Page 27, line 2, _for_ Mexicans _read_ Americana. Page 31, Heading, _for_ THE HLANS. HUEMANTLA. _read_ THE RAINS. HUAMANTLA. Page 31, line 4, _for_ molina de viente _read_ molino de viento. Page 101, in description of woodcut. Delete _bone_. Page 216, line 9, _for_ hands _read_ hand.