Anahuac: or, Mexico and the Mexicans, ancient and modern

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MEXICO AND THE MEXICANS,
ANCIENT AND MODERN.

BT

EDWARD B. TYLOR, D.C.L., E.R.S.,

AUTHOR OF
' KAULV HISTORY OF MANKIND." 'PRIMITIVE CULTURE,' ETC., ETC.

{RE-ISSUE OF EDITION OF 1801.)

LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYEB

CORRECTION.

Page 3yi, liue 9 from bottom.
for
"the fire. Then they sharpen it on a Btoue, ueing a hone '" &c.

read
" the fire, sharpening it on a grindstone, and using a hone " Ac.

INTRODUCTION.

The journey and excursions in Mexico which have originated
the naiTative and remarks contained in this volume were made
in the months of March, Ai:)ril, May, and June of 1856, for the
most jiart on horseback. Tlie author and his fellow-traveller
enjoyed many advantageous opportunities of studying the coun-
try, the people, and the antiquities of Mexico, owing to the
friendly assistance and hospitality which they received there.
With this aid they were enabled to accomplish much more than
usually falls to the lot of travellers in so limited a period ; and
they had the great advantage too, of being able to substantiate
or correct their own observations by the local knowledge and ex-
perience of their friends and entertainers.

Visiting Mexico during a lull in the civil turmoil of that
lamentably disturbed Republic, they were fortunate in being able
to avail themselves of that peaceable season in making ex-
cursions to remarkable places and ruins, and examining the
national collection of antiquities, and other objects of interest, —
an opportunity that cannot have occurred since owing to the
recommencement of civil war in its worst form.

The following are some of the chief points of interest in these
Notes on 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 Ap-
pendix) are more ample than any previously given. — 3. The
treatment of the Mexican Numerals (at page 108) is j^artly
new. — 4. The proofs of the highly probable sophistication of the
document in the Libraiy at Paris, relative to Mexican eclipses,

IV.

have not pre^dously been advanced (see Appendix). — 5. The
notices of objects of Mexican art, &c., in the chapter on Antiqui-
ties, and elsewhere (including the Appendix), are for the most
part new to the public. — 6. The remarks on the connection be-
tween 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 the annexed Itinerary, or sketch of the journeys and excur-
sions described.

ITINERARY.

Journey 1. — Cuba. Havana. Batabano. Isles of Pines. Nueva

Gerona. Banos de Santa Fe. Back to Havana.

Pages 1 — 14.
„ 2. — Havana. Sisal. Vera Cruz. Pages 15 — 18.
„ 3. — Vera Ciuz. Cordova. Orizaba. Huamantla.

Otumba. Guadalupe. Mexico. Pages 18 — 38.
„ 4. — Mexico to Tacubaya and Chapultepec, and back.

Pages 55 — 58.
„ 5. — Mexico to Santa Anita and back. Pages 59 — 65.
„ 6. — Mexico. Guadalupe. Pacliuca. 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.
„ 7. — Mexico to Tisapan. Ravine of Magdalena. Pedri-

gal (lava-field), and back. Pages 118 — 120.
„ 8.— Mexico to Tezcuco. Pages 129 — 162.

Tezcuco to Pyramids of Teotihuacan 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 ahue-

huetes, where excavations were made.) Pages

154—156.

Tezcuco to Mexico. Page 62.
„ 9. — Mexico. San Juan de Dios. La Guarda. Cuerna-

vaca. Temisco. Xochicalco. Miacatlan. Cocoytla.

Pages 172—195.

VI.

Cocoytla to village and cave of Cacahuamilpan
and back. Pages 196 — 205.

Cocoytla to Clialma. Oculan. El Desierto. Teii-
anciugo. Toluca. Lerma. Las Cruzes. Mexico.
Pages 214—230.
10. — Mexico to Tezcuco. Miraflores. Amecameca.
Popocatepetl. San Nicolas de los Eanclios. Cho-
lula. Puebla. Amozoque. Nopaluca. San
Antonio de abajo. Orizaba. Amatlan. El Potrero.
Cordova. San Andres. Chalchicomula. La Junta.
Jalapa. Vera Cruz. West Indies and Home.
Pages 260—327.

Vll.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAP. I. 1—14

Cuba. Volantes. A Cuban Railway. Voyage. Passports. Isle of
Pines. Mosqnitos. Pirates. Runaway slaves. Baths of Santa Fe. Alligators.
The Cura. Missionary Priest. Florida Colonists. Blacks in the West Indies.
Chinese and African slaves.

CHAP. II. 15—38.

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 cimi-clies. Mexican roads. Making pulque.

CHAP. III. 39—68.

Palace-hotel of Yturbide. Site and building of Mexico. Changes in the
Vtdley of Mexico. Dearth of Trees. Architecture. Drunkenness. Fights.
Rattles. Judas's Bones. Burning Judas. Churclies in Holy Week. Streets.
Barricades. People. Women. The cypress of Cliapultepec. Old-fashioned
coaches. The canal of Chalco. Canoe-travelliug. " Reasonable people."
Taste for flowers. The " Floating Gardens." Promenade. Flooded streets.
Earthquakes.

CHAP. IV. 69—110.

Tacubaya. Humming-birds and butterflies. Aztec feather-work. Bull-
fight. 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. Cornisli miners. Dram-drinking. Salt-trade. Tlic 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 Ilill 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. Tlie Aztec numerals.

via.

CHAP. V. 111—128.

A Revolution. Siege and Capitulation of Puebla. Military Statistics.
Highway-robbery. Reform in Mexico. The American war. Mexican army.
Our Lady of Gu.adalupe. 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.

CHAP. VL 129—161.

To Tezcuco. Lidian Canoes. Sewer-canal. Water-snakes. Salt-lakes.
A storm on the lake. Glass-works. Casa Grande. Quan-ies. Stone Ham-
mers. Use of Bronze in stone-cutting in Mexico and Egypt. Prickly Pears.
Temple.: pjTamids of Teotihuacan. 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.

CHAP. VIL 162—195.

Horses and their training. Saddles and bits. The Courier. Leather
clothes. The Scrape. The Rag-fliir of Mexico, Thieves. Gourd water-
bottles. Ploughing. Travelling by Diligence. Indian carriers. Mules.
Breakfast. Bragadocchio. Robbers. Escort. Cuernavaca. Tropical Vegeta-
tion. Sugar-cane. Temisco. Sugar-hacienda. Indian labourers. The even-
song. The Raya. Strength of the Indians. Xochicalco. Ruins of the
Pyramid. Sculptures. Common ornaments. The people of Mexico and
Central America. Then- civilization. Pear-shaped heads. Miacatlan.

CHAP. VIII. 196--220.

Cocoyotla. Indian labourers. Political Condition of the Indians. Indian
Village and huts. Cotton-spinning. The Indian Alcalde. Great Cave of
Cacahuamilpan. Optical phenomenon. Monk on horseback. Religion of the
Indians. Idols. Baptism by wholesale. Village amusements. Dancing.
Cbalma. 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.

CHAP. IX. 221— 2.'J9.

Museum. Fate of Antiquities. War-God. Sacrificial Stone. Mexican
words naturalized in Europe, &c. Chamber of Ilorrora. Aztec Art. Wooden
Drums. Aztec Picture-writings. The " Man-Haying " Mr. Uhdo's Collec-
tion. Mr. Christy's Collection. Bones of Giants. Cortes' Armour. Mexican
Calendar-stone. Aztec Astromony. Mongol Calendar. Peculiarities of Aztec
Civilization. The Prison at Mexico. No " Criminal class." Prison-discijjline.
The G.arotte. Mexican law-courts. Statistics. The Compadrazgo. Leperos
and Lepers. Lazoing the bull. Cockfighting. Gambling. Monte. The
fortunate Miner.*.

IX.

CHAP. X. 260—280.

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.

CHAP. XL 281—309.

Puebla. The Pasadizos. Revolutions iu 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. Nopalucan.
Orizaba. Robbers. Locusts. Indian village. Inroads of Civilization. Law-
suits. Native Aristocracy. The vapour-bath. Scanty population. Its expla-
nation. Unhealthy habits. Epidemics. Intemperance. Pineapples. Potrero.
Negros. Mixed races. " Painted men."

CHAP. XIL 310—330.

Barrancas. Indian trotting. Flowers, Armadillo. Fire-flies. Singi;lar
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.
11. 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.

X.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Plates.
Cascade of Regla. From a photograph by J. Bell, Esq. (To

face title-page.)
Porter and Baker in Mexico. (To face page 5 5. J
Indians bringing Country Produce to Market. (To face page 174. j
Indians in a Rancho, making and baking Tortillas. (To face

page 201.^
Map to illustrate Messrs. Tylor and Christy's journeys and ex-
cursions in Mexico.

Woodcuts.

(The cuts of smaller objects of ant'tquitij, and articles at present in use, have ieen
drawn from specinwns in the Collection of Henry Christy, Esq.)

Indian Tlacbiquero, 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 mo

saic work .'.

Aztec Head in Terra-cotta

The Rebozo and the Serape Ill

Aztec Bridge near Tezcuco

Spanish-Mexican Saddle and appendages

Spanish-Mexican Bit, with ring and chain
Sculptured Panel, from Xochicalco. (After NebelJ .
Sniiill A/ti'r ITcnd in Torva-cotta

PAGE.

36
39
56

68

06

98

101

101
110
130
153
162
167
185
195

XI.

Ixtacalco Church

Spanish-Mexican Spurs

Goddess of War. (After Nebelj

Three Views of a Sacrificial Collar or Clamp, carved out of

hard stone To face page

Two Views of a Mask, carved out of hard stone. To face p

Ancient Bronze Bells

Spanish-Mexican Cock-spurs

Leather Sandals

Mexican Costumes. (After Nebelj

Vie^v of Orizaba

Indians of the Plateau. (After Nebelj

PAGE.

196

3-21

■325
2-26
236
254
259
260
281
310

ERRATA.

Page 5, line 2, for verandalis read verandahs.
„ 8, „ 12, for il ri;ad el.
„ 17, „ 17, /or pait renrf port.

„ 20, „ 8, for pronunciameiito read pronunciamiento.
„ 22, „ 10, for I could read one can.
„ 27, „ 2, for Mexicana read Americana.

„ 31, Heading, ./or the hlans. huemantla. read the rains, huamanti.a.
„ .31, line 4, for molina de viente read molino de viento.
„ 101, in description of woodcut. Delete &OHe.
,,216, line 9, /or hands read hand.

, Mn/f of part f»f ' Mr.Vf'ro to i//// st/yftr a Joor/fev fi'oni l^r/'o Cniz to Jd

J.U^Zowrv srulpt

'O' .rn,f hark, 8cZxa,rsion^ \^ Ccyurilrv, hv Mess':^E.B.Tvlor^ H.Chnsty.

AN AHU AC,

(&C.

CHAP. I.

THE ISLE OF PINES.

In the spring of 1856, I met with Mr. Christy acci-
dentally in an omnibus at Havana. He had been in Cuba
for some months, leading an adventm-ous life, visitmg
sugar-plantations, copper-mines, and coffee-estates, de-
scending into caves, and botanizing in tropical jungles,
cruising for a fortnight in an open boat among the coral-
reefs, hunting tm-tles and manatis, and visiting all sorts of
people fit'om whom information was to be had, from foreign
consuls and Lazarist missionaries down to retired slave-
dealers and assassins.

As for myself, I had been travelling for the best part of
a year in the United States, and had but a short time since
left the live-oak forests and sugar-plantations of Louisiana.
We agi-eed to go to Mexico together ; and the present notes
are principally compiled from our memorandum-books, and
from letters written home on our jom-ney.

B

2 ANAHUAC.

Before we left Cuba, however, we made one last ex-
cursion across the island, and to the Iskv de Pinos — the
Isle of Pmes — off the southern coast. A volante took us
to the railway-station. The volante is the vehicle which
the Cubans specially affect ; it is like a Hansom cab, but
the wheels are much taller, six and a half feet high, and
the black di'iver sits postillion- wise upon the horse. Our
man had a laced jacket, black leather leggings, and a pair
of silver spiu's fastened upon his bare feet, wliicli seemed
at a little distance to have well polished boots on, they
were so black and sliiny.

The railway which took us from Havana to Batabano
had some striking peculiarities. For a part of the way the
track passed between two walls of tropical jimgle. The
Indian fig trees sent down from every branch suckers, like
smooth strings, which rooted themselves in the gi-ound to
draw 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 whole forest into
a compact mass of vegetation, through which no bu'd could
fly. 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 gi'owing, crowned with tufts of pointed
leaves ; or had a glimpse for a moment of a group of royal
palms upon the rising ground.

We passed sugar-plantations with then- wide cane-
fields, the sugar-houses with tall chimneys, and the bal-
conied house of the administrador, keeping a sharp look
out over the village of negro-cabins, arranged in double
lines.

In the houses near the stations where we stopped,
cigar-making seemed to be the universal occupation. Men,

ISLE OF PINES — THE VOYAGE. 3

women, and children were sitting round tables hard at
work. It made us laugh to see the black men roUing up
cigars upon the hollow of their thighs, which nature has
fashioned into a cvu-ve exactly suited to this process.

At Batabano the steamer was waiting at the pier, and
our passports and ourselves were carefully examined by
the captain, for Cuba is the paradise of passport offices,
and one cannot stir without a visa. For once everybody
was en regie, and we had no such scene as my com-
panion had witnessed a few days before.

If you are a married man resident in Cuba, you cannot
get a passport to go to the next town without your wife's
permission in writing. Now it so happened that a respect-
able brazier, who lived at Santiago de Cuba, wanted to go
to Trinidad. His wife would not consent ; so he either
got her signature by stratagem, or, what is more likely,
gave somebody sometliing to get him a passport under
false pretences.

At any rate he was safe on board the steamer, when a
middle-aged female, weU dressed, but evidently arrayed in
haste, and with a face crimson with hard rumiing, came
panting down to the steamer, and rushed on board. Seizing
upon the captain, she pointed out her husband, who had
taken refuge behind the other passengers at a respectful
distance ; she declared that she had never consented to his
going away, and demanded that his body should be in-
stantly dehvered up to her. The husband was appealed
to, but preferred staying where he was. The captain pro-
duced the passport, perfectly en regie, and the lady made
a rush at the document, which was torn in half in the
scuffle. All other means failing, she made a sudden dash
at her husband, probably intending to carry him off by
main force. He ran for liis Hfc, and there was a steeple-
chase romid the deck, among benches, bales, and coils of

4 ANAHUAC.

rope ; while the passengers and the crew cheered first one
and then the other, till they could not speak for laughing.
The husband was all but caught once ; but a benevolent
passenger kicked a camp-stool in the lady's way, and he
got a fresh start, which he utilized by climbing up the
ladder to the paddle-box. His wife tried to follow him,
but the shouts of laughter which the black men raised
at seeing her performances were too much for her, and she
came down again. Here the captain interposed, and put
her ashore, where she stood like black-eyed Susan till the
vessel was far fi'om the wharf, not waving her lily hand,
however, but shaking her clenched fist in the direction of
the fugitive.

To return to om* voyage to the Isle of Pines. —
All the afternoon the steamer threaded her way cau-
tiously among the coral-reefs which rose almost to the
surface. Sometimes there seemed scarcely room to pass
between them, and by night navigation would have been
impossible. We were just in the place where Columbus
and his companions arrived on their expedition along the
Cuban coast, to find out what countries lay beyond. They
sailed by day, and lay to at night, till their patience was
worn out. Another day or two of sailing would have
brought them to where the coast trends northwards ; but
they turned back, and Columbus died in the belief that
Cuba was the eastern extremity of the continent of 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 BeUze.

It was after sunset, and the phosphorescent animals
were making the sea glitter like molten metal, when we
reached the Isle of Pines, and steamed slowly up the river,
among the mangi-oves that fringe the banks, to the village
of Nueva Gerona, the port of the island. It consisted of

ISLE OF PINES — MOSQUITOS, PIRATES. 5

two rows of houses thatched with pahn-leaves, and sur-
rounded by wide verandahs ; and between them a street
of unmitigated mud.

As we walked through the place in the dusk, we could
dimly discern the inhabitants sitting in their thatched
verandahs, in the thinnest of white dresses, gossippmg,
smoking, and love-making, tinkling gTiitars, and singing
segtddillas. It was quite a Spanish American scene out of
a romance. There was no romance about the mosquitos,
however. The air was alive with them. When I was new
to Cuba, I used to go to bed in the European fashion ; and
as the beds were all six inches too short, my feet used to
find their way out in the night, and the mosquitos came
down and sat upon them. Experience taught us that it
was better to lie down half-dressed, so that only our faces
and hands were exposed to their attacks.

The Isle of Pines used to be the favourite resort of the
pirates of the Spanish main ; indeed there were no other
inhabitants. The creeks and rivers being lined with the
densest vegetation, a few yards up the winding course o±
such a creek, they were lost in the forest, and a cruiser
might pass within a few yards of their liu-king-place, and
see no traces of them. Captain Kyd often came here, and
stories of his buried treasm^es are still told amono; the
inhabitants. Now the island serves a double purpose ; it
is a place of resort for the Cubans, who come to rusticate
and bathe, and it serves as a settlement for those free
black inhabitants of Florida who chose to leave that
country when it was given up to the United States. One
of these Floridanos accompanied us as our guide next day
to the Barios de Santa F4.

When we left the village we passed near the mangrove
trees, which were growing not only near the water but in
it, and like to spread their roots among the thick black

6 ANAHUAC.

slime which accumulates so fast in this country of rapid
vegetable gi'owth, and as rapid decomposition. In Cuba,
the mangoe is the abomination of the planters, for they
supply the runaway slaves with food, upon which they
have been known to subsist for months, whilst the man-
groves give them shelter. A little further inland we found
the guava, a thick-spreading tree, with smooth green leaves.
From its fruit is made guava-jelly, but as yet it was not
ripe enough to eat.

In the middle of the island we came upon marble-
quarries. They are hardly worked now ; but when they
were first established, a number of emancipados were em-
ployed there. What emancipados are, it is worth while to
explain. They are Africans taken from captured slavers,
and are set to work under government inspection for a
limited number of years, on a footing something like that
of the apprentices in Jamaica, in the interregnum between
slavery and emancipation. In Cuba it is remarked that
the mortality among the emancipados is frightful. They
seldom outlive then- years of probation. The explanation
of this piece of statistics is curious. The fact is that every
now and then, when an old man dies, they bury him as
one of the emancipados, whose register is sent in to the
Government as dead ; while the negi'o himself goes to
work as a slave in some out-of-the-way plantation where
no tales are told.

We left the marble -quarries, and rode for miles over a
wide savannah. The soil was loose and sandy and frill of
flakes of mica, and in the watercourses were fragments of
granite, brought down fr-om the hills. Here flourished
palm trees and palmettos, acacias, mimosas, and cactuses,
wlide the mangoe and the guava tree preferred the
damper patches nearer to the coast. The hills were co-
vered with the pine-trees from which the island has its

ISLE OF PINES — THE BATHS. 7

name ; and on the rising gTound at their base we saw the
strange spectacle of palms and fir trees gi'owing side by
side.

Where we came upon a stream, the change in the vege-
tation was astonishing. It was a sudden transition from
an English plantation of fii' trees mto the jungle of the
tropics, ftdl of Indian figs, palms, lancewood, and great
maliagua* trees, all knotted together by endless creepers
and parasites ; while the parrots kept up a continual chat-
tering and screaming in the tiee-tops. The moment we
left the narrow strip of tropical forest that lined the stream
we were in the pine wood. Here the fixst two or three
feet of the trunks of the pine trees were scorched and
blackened by the flames of the tall dry savannah -grass,
which gTows close round them, and catches fii'e several
times every year. Through the pme forest the conflagra-
tion spreads unobstructed, as in an American prairie ; but
it only runs along the edge of the dense river-vegetation,
which it cannot penetrate.

The Banos de Santa F^ are situated in a cleared space
among the fir trees. The baths themselves are nothing but
a cavity in the rock, into which a stream, at a temperature
of about 80°, continually flows. A partition m the middle
divides the ladies from the gentlemen, but allows them to
continue their conversation while they sit and splash in
their respective compartments.

The houses are even more quamt than the bathing-
establishment. The whole settlement consists of a square
field surrovmded by little houses, each with its roof of
palm leaves and indispensable verandah. Here the Cubans

* The mahagua tree furnishes that curious fibrous network which is known
as hast, and used to wrap bundles of cigars in. The mahogany tree is called
cnoba in Spanish, apparently the original Indian name, as the Spaniards pro-
bably first became acquainted with it in Cuba. Is our word " mahogany" tho
result of a confusion of words, and corrupted from " mahagua ?"

8 ANAHUAC.

come to stay for months, bathing, smoking cigarettes, flirt-
ing, gossiping, playing cards, and strumming guitars ; and
they seemed to be all agreed on one pomt, that it was a
delightful existence. We left them to theii- tranquil en-
joyments, and rode back to Nueva Gerona.

Next morning we borrowed a gun from the engineer
of the steamboat, and I bought some powder and shot at
a shop where they kept two yomig alligators under the
counter for the children to play with. The creeks and
lagoons of the island are full of them, and the negroes told
us that in a certain lake not far off there lived no less a
personage than "the crocodile king" — " il rey de los cro-
codilos;" but we had no time to pay his majesty a visit.
Two of the Floridan negroes rowed us up the river. Even
at some distance fr'om the mouth, sting-rays and jelly-fish
were floating about. As we rowed upwards, the banks
were overhmig with the densest vegetation. There were
mahogany trees with their curious lop-sided leaves, the
copal- plant with its green egg-like fruit, from which copal
oozes when it is cut, like opium from a poppy-head, palms
with clusters of oily nuts, palmettos, and guavas. When
a palm-tree on the river-bank would not grow freely for
the crowding of other trees, it would strike out in a slant-
ing direction till it reached the clear space above the river,
and then shoot straiglit upwards with its crown of leaves.

We shot a hawk and a woodpecker, and took them
home ; but, not many minvites after we had laid them on
the tiled floor of our room, we became aware that we were
invaded. The ants were upon us. They were coming by
thousands in a regular line of march up om- window-sill
and down again inside, straight towards the bii-ds. When
we looked out of the window, there was a black stripe
lying across the court-yard on the flags, a whole army of
them coming. We saw it was impossible to get the skins

ISLE OF PINES — THE CURA. 9

of the bii-ds, so threw them out of the wmdow, and the
advanced guard faced about and followed them.

On the sand in front of the village the Castor-oil plant
flourished, the Palma Christi ; its Uttle nuts were ripe,
and tasted so innocent that, undeterred by the example
of the boy in the Swiss Family Robinson, I ate several,
and was handsomely punished for it. In the evening I
recoionted my ill-advised experiment to the white -jacketed
louno-ers in the verandah of the inn, and was assured that
I must have eaten an odd number ! The second nut, they
told me with much gravity, counteracts the first, the fourth
neutralizes the third, and so on ad infinitum.

We made two clerical acquaintances in the Isle of
Pines. One was the Cura of New Gerona, and his parent-
age was the only thing remarkable about him. He was
not merely the son of a priest, but his grandfather was a
priest also.

The other was a middle-aged ecclesiastic, with a plea-
sant face and an unfailing supply of good-humom-ed fun.
Everybody seemed to get acquainted with him db-ectly,
and to become quite confidential after the fii'st half-hour ;
and a drove of young men followed him about every-
where. His reverence kept up the ball of conversation
continually, and showed considerable skiU in amusing his
auditors and drawing them out in their turn. It is true
the jokes which passed seemed to us mild, but they ap-
peared to suit the public exactly ; and indeed, the Padre
was quite capable of providing better ones when there
was a market for them.

We formd that though a Spaniard by birth, he had
been brought up at the Lazarist College in Paris, wliich we
know as the training-school of the French missionaries in
China ; and we soon made friends with him, as everyone
else did. A day or two afterwards we went to see him in

c

10 ANAHUAC.

Havana, and found him hard at his work, which was the
superintendence of several of the charitable institutions of
the city — the Foundling Hospital, the Lunatic Asylum,
and others. His life was one of incessant labour, and in-
deed people said he was kilHng himself with over-work,
but he seemed always in the same state of chronic hilarity ;
and when he took us to see the hospitals, the children and
patients received him with demonstrations of great delight,

I should not have said so much of our fi'iend the Padre,
were it not that I think there is a moral to be got out of
him. I believe he may be taken as a type, not indeed of
Roman Catholic missionaries in general, but of a certain
class among them, who are of considerable importance in
the missionary world, though there are not many of them.
Taking the Padre as a sample of his class, as I think we
may — judging from the accounts of them we meet with in
books, it is curious to notice, how the pomt in which their
system is strongest is just that m which the Protestant
system is weakest, that is, in social training and deport-
ment. Wliat a number of men go to India with the best
mtentions, and set to work at once, flinging their doctrines
at the natives before they have learnt in the least to under-
stand what the said natives' minds are like, or how they
work, — di'oppmg at once upon then pet prejudices, mortally
offendmg them as a preUminary step towards arguing with
them ; and in short, stroking the cat of society backwards
in the most conscientious manner. By the time they have
accomplished this satisfactory residt, a man like oiu' Cuban
Padre, though he may have argued but little and preached
even less, would have a hundred natives bound to him by
strong personal attachment, and ready to accept anything
from him in the way of teaching.

We paid a regular round of visits to the Floridan
settlers, and were delighted with their pleasant simple

ISLE OF PINES — FLORIDA COLONISTS. 11

ways. It is not much more than thirty years since they
left Florida, and many of the children born since have
learnt to speak EngHsh. The patches of cultivated land
round their cottages produce, with but little laboui-, enough
vegetables for theii- subsistence, and to sell, procuring
clothing and such luxuries as they care for. They seemed
to Kve happily among themselves, and to govern then- little
colony after the mamier of the Patriarchs.

Whether any social condition can be better for the
black inhabitants of the West Indies, than that of these
settlers, I very much doubt. They are not a hard-working
people, it is true ; but hard work in the climate of the
tropics is unnatm-al, and can only be brought about by
unnatui-al means. That they are not sunk in utter lazi-
ness one can see by their neat cottages and trim gardens.
Their state does not correspond with the idea of prosperity
of the political economist, who would have them Avork
hard to produce sugar, rum, and tobacco, that they might
earn money to spend in crockery and Manchester goods ;
but it is suited to the race and to the cHmate. If we
measure prosperity by the enjoyment of Ufe, their condi-
tion is an enviable one.

I think no unprejudiced observer can visit the West
Indies without seeing the absm-dity of expecting the free
blacks to work like slaves, as though any mducement but
the strongest necessity would ever bring it about. There
are only two causes which can possibly make the blacks
industrious, in our sense of the word, — slavery, or a pojou-
lation so crowded as to make labour necessary to supply
their wants.

In one house in the Floridan colony we found a manage
which was sm'prising to me, after my experience of the
United States. The father of the family was a white man,
a Spaniard, and his wife a black woman. They received

12 ANAHUAC.

US with the greatest hospitality, and we sat in the porch
for a long time, talking to the family. One or two of the
mulatto daughters were very handsome ; and there were
some visitors, young white men fi-om the neighbouiing
village, who were apparently come to pay their devoirs to
the young ladies. Such marriages are not uncommon in
Cuba ; and the climate of the island is not unfavourable
for the mixed negi'o and European race, wliile to the pure
whites it is deadly. The Creoles of the country are a poor
degenerate race, and die out in the fourth generation. It
is only by intermandage with Europeans, and continual
supplies of emigrants from Em-ope, that the white popula-
tion is kept up.

On the moiTiing of om* departure we climbed a high
hill of limestone, covered in places with patches of a lime-
stone-breccia, cemented with sandstone, and filling the
cavities in the rock. All over the liill we found doubly re-
fracting Iceland-spar in quantities. Euphorbias, in Evu-ope
mere shrubs, were here smooth-limbed trees, with large
flowers. From the top of the hUl, the character of the
savannahs was weU displayed. Every water-course could
be traced by its narrow line of deep green forest, contrast-
ing with the scantier vegetation of the rest of the plain.

As we steamed out of the river, rows of brilhant red
flamingos were standing in the shallow water, fishing, and
here and there a pelican with his ungainly beak. Our
Chinese crew were having their meal of rice when 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 in China persuade them to come out, and
they sign a contract to work for eight years, receiving
fi-om three to five dollars a month, with their food and

ISLE OF PINES — CHINESE AND AFRICANS. 13

clothing. The sum seems a fortune to them ; but, when
they come to Cuba, they find to their cost that the value
of money must be estimated by what it will buy. They
find that the value of a black labom^er is thirty dollars a
month, and they have practically sold themselves for
slaves ; for there is no one to prevent the masters who
have bought the contract for thek work from treating
them in all respects as slaves. The value of such a con-
tract— that is, of the Chinaman himself, was from £S0 to
i?40 when we were in the island. Fortunately for them,
they cannot bear the severe plantation-work. Some die
after a few days of such labour and exposure, and many
more kill themselves ; and the utter indifterence with
which they commit suicide, as soon as life seems not worth
having, contributes to moderate the exactions of their
masters. A fi-iend of ours in Cuba had a Chinese servant
who was impertinent one day, and his master tui'ned him
out of the room, dismissing him with a kick. The other
servants woke then- master early next morning, with the
intellio-ence that the Chinese had killed hunself in the
night, to expiate the insult he had received.

Of Afi-ican slaves brought into the island, the yearly
number is about 15,000. All the details of the trade are
matter of general notoriety, even to the exact sum paid to
each ofiicial as hush-money. It costs a hundred dollars
for each negi'o, they say, of which a gold ounce (about
£S 16s.) is the share of the Captain-general. To this
must be added the cost of the slave in Aft-ica, and the ex-
pense of the voyage ; but when the slave is once fairly on
a plantation he is worth eight hundred dollars ; so it may
be understood how profitable the trade still is, if only one
slaver out of three gets through.

The island itself with its creeks and mangi'ove-trees is
most favourable for their landing, if they can once make

14 ANAHUAC.

the shore ; and the Spanish cruisers -will not catch them if
they can help it. If a British crmser captiu-es them, the
negroes are made emancipados in the way I have ah'eady
explained.

Hardly any country in the world is so thoroughly in a
false position as England in her endeavours to keep down
the Cuban slave-trade, with the nominal concurrence of
the Si)anish govermnent, and the real vigorous opposition
of every Spaniard on the island, from the Captain-General
downwards. Even the most superficial observer who lands
for an hour or two in Havana, while his steamer is takinsr
in coals, can have evidence of the slave-trade brought
before his eyes in the tattooed faces of native Africans,
young and middle-aged, in the streets and markets ; just
as he can guess, from tire scored backs of the negi-oes, what
sort of discipline is kept up among them.

We slept on board the steamboat off the pier of Bata-
bano, and the railway took us back to Havana next
morning.

CHAP. II.

HAVANA TO VERA CRUZ — VERA CRUZ TO MEXICO.

On the 8th of March, we went on board the " Mejico"
steamer, American-built, and retaining her American en-
gineers, but in other respects converted into a Spanish
vessel, and now lying in the harbour of Havana bound for
Vera Cruz, touching at Sisal in Yucatan. At eight o'clock
we weighed anchor, and were piloted through the narrow
passage which leads out of the harbour past the castle of
El Morro and the fort of Cabanas, the view of whose ram-
parts and batteries caused quite a flouiish of tnimpets
among oui- Spanish fellow-passengers, who fii'mly beUeve
in then- impregnability.

Among our fellow-passengers were a company of fifth-
rate comedians, going to Merida by way of Sisal. There
was nothing interesting to us about them. Theatrical
people and gi-een-room slang vary but little over the whole
civiUzed world. There were two or three Spanish and
French tradesmen going back to Mexico. They talked of
nothing but the dangers of the road, and not without reason
as it proved, for they were aU robbed before they got
home. Several of the rest were gamblers or political adven-
turers, or both, for the same person very often unites the
two professions out here. Spain and the Spanish American
Republics produce great numbers of these people, just as
Missouri breeds border-ruffians and sympathizers. But the
ruffian is a good fellow in comparison with these well-

16 ANAHUAC.

dressed, polite scoundrels, who could have given Fielding
a hint or two he would have been glad of for the charac-
ters of Mr. Jonathan Wild and his friend the Count.

On the morning of the thu^d day of our voyage we
reached Sisal, and as soon as the captain would let us
we went ashore, in a canoe that was like a fiat wooden
box. This said captain was a Catalan, and a siu'ly
fellow, and did not take the trouble to disguise the utter
contempt he felt for our inquisitive ways, which he seemed
quite to take pleasure in thwarting. It was the only
place we were to see in Yucatan, a country whose name is
associated with ideas of tropical fruits, where you must cut
your forest-path with a machete, and of vast ruins of de-
serted temples and cities, covered up with a mass of dense
vegetation. But here there was nothing of this kind. Sisal
is a miserable little town, standing on the shore, with a
gi'eat salt-marsh behind it. It has a sort of little jetty,
which constitutes its claim to the title of port ; and two
or three small merchant-vessels were lying there, taking
in cargoes of logwood (the staple product of the district),
mahogany, hides, and deerskins. The sight of these latter
surprised us ; but we found on enquiry that numbers of
deer as well as horned cattle inhabit the thinly-peopled
districts round the shores of the Mexican Gulf, and flom-ish
in spite of the bm-ning climate, except when a year of
drought comes, which kills them off by thousands.

One possible article of export we examined as closely
as opportunity would allow, namely, the Indian inhabit-
ants. There they are, in every respect the right article
for trade : — brown-skinned, incapable of defenduig them-
selves, strong, healthy, and industrious ; and the creeks
and mangi'ove-swamps of Cuba only three days' sail off.
The plantations and mines that want one hundred thou-
sand men to bring them into full work, and swallow

SLAVE-TRADE IN NATIVES: THE TEN TRIBES. 17

aborigines, Cliiuese, and negroes indifFerently — anything
that has a dark skin, and can be made to work — would
take these Yucatecos in any quantity, and pay well for
them. And once on a sugar- estate or down a mine, when
their sham registers are regularly made out, and the
Governor has had his ounce of gold apiece for passing
them, and his subordinates their respective rights, 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 in-
telligent Spaniard, we fell to talking with him. Indians
had been candied off to Cuba, he said, but very few, none
since 1854, when two Englishmen came to the coast with
a schooner on pretence of trading, and succeeded in getting
clear off" with a cargo of seventy -two natives on board.
But being caught in a heavy gale of wind, they put in for
safety — of aU places in the world — into the British part
of Belize. There some one found out what their cargo
consisted of, the vessel was seized, the Indians sent back,
and the two adventui-ers condemned to hard labour, one
for four years, the other for two and a half In a place
where the fatigue and exposure of drill and mounting
guard is death to a Em-opean soldier, this was most likely
a way of inflicting capital punishment, slow, but pretty
sure.*

When the Spaniards came to these countries, as soon
as they had leisure to ask themselves what could be the
origin of the people they found there, the answer came at
once, " the lost tribes of Israel," of course. And as we
looked at these grave taciturn men, with their brown

* Wc heard talk elsewhere, however, of a war going on in the interior of
the countrj' between the white inhabitants and the Indian race; the apparent
object of the whites being ta take Indian prisoners, and ship them off for slaves
to Cuba.

D

18 ANAHUAC.

complexions, bright eyes, and strikingly acquiline noses,
it did not seem strange that this behef should have been
generally held, considering the state of knowledge on such
matters in those days. We English found the ten tribes
in the Red men of the north ; Jews have wi'itten books
in Hebrew for their own people, to make known to them
that the rest of their race had been found in the moun-
tains of Chili, retaining unmistakeable traces of their
origin and conversing fluently in Hebrew ; and but lately
they turned up, collected together and converted to Chris-
tianity, on the shores of the Caspian. The last two theo-
ries have their supporters at the present day. Crude as
most of these ideas are, one feels a good deal of interest in
the first inquuy that set men thinking seriously about tlie
origin of races, and laid the foundation 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 tack after tack before we could reach
the steamer. Great Portuguese men-of-war were floating
about, waiting for prey ; and we passed tlu-ough patches
of stringy gulf-weed, trailing out into long ropes. The
water was hot, the thermometer standing at 84° when we
dipped it over the side.

On the morning of the 12th, when we went on deck,
there was a grand sight displayed before us. No shore
visible, but a heavy bank of clouds on the horizon ; and,
high above them, towering up into the sky, the snowy
summit of Orizaba, a hundi-ed and fifty miles off!

Before noon, we are entering the harbour of Vera Cruz.
The little island and fort of San Juan de Ulua just oppo-
site the wharfs, the island of Sacrificios a little farther to
the left. A level line of city- wall along the water's edge ;
and, visible above it, the flat roofs of the houses, and the

VERA CRUZ : MEXICAN POLITICS. 19

towers and cupolas of many churches. All grey stone,
only relieved by the colored Spanish tiles on the church -
roofs, and a flag or two in the harboui*. Not a scrap of
vegetation to be seen, and the rays of a tropical sun pour-
ing down upon us.

Estabhshed in the Casa de Dihgencias, we dehberated
as to our journey to Mexico. The diligences to the capital,
having been stopped for some months on account of the
disturbed state of the country, had just begun to run
again, avoiding Puebla, which was being besieged. We
were anxious to be off at once ; but Mr. Christy sagaciously
remarking that the robbers would know of the arrival of
the steamer, and would probably take the first dihgence
that came afterwards, we booked our places for the day
after.

We were very kindly received by the EngHsh mer-
chants to whom my companion had letters, and we set
ourselves to learn what was the real state of things in
Mexico.

On an average, the Presidency of the Republic of
Mexico had changed hands once every eight months for
the last ten years ; and Don Ignacio Comonfort had stepped
into the office in the previous December, on the nomina-
tion of his predecessor the mulatto general Alvarez, who
had retked to the southern provinces with his army.

President Comonfort, with empty coffers, and scarcely
any real political power, had felt it necessary to make
some great effort to get popularity for himself and his
government. He had therefore adopted the policy of
attacking the fueros, the extraordinary privileges of the
two classes of priests and soldiers, which had become part
of the constitution under the first viceroys, and which
not even the war of independence, and the adoption of
republican forms, ever did away with. Neither class is

20 ANAHUAC.

amenable to the civil tribunals foi" debt or for any offences*
The clergy have immense revenues, and much spiritual
influence among the lower classes ; and as soon as they
discovered the disposition of the new President, they took
one Don Antonio Haro y Tamu-ez, set him up as a counter-
President, and installed him at Puebla, the second city of
the RepubUc, where priests swarm, and priestly influence
is unbounded. At the same time, they tiied a pronuncia-
mento in the capital ; but the President got the better of
them after a slight struggle, and marched all liis regular
soldiers on Puebla. At the moment of our arrival in the
country, the siege of this city was going on quite briskly,
ten thousand men being engaged, commanded by forty-
three general officers.

Wlienever anything disagreeable is happening in the
country, Vera Cruz is sure to get its full share. A month
before our arrival, one Salcedo, who was a prisoner in the
castle of San Juan de Ulua, talked matters over with the
garrison, and persuaded them to make a pronmiciamento
in favour of the insm'gents. They then summoned the
town to join theii' cause, which it declined doing for the
present ; and the castle opened fu-e upon it, knocking about
some of the prmcipal buildings, and doing a good deal of
damage. A 30-pound shot went through the wall of our
hotel, taking off the leg of an unfortunate waiter who was

* They must be judged by courts whose members belong to their own body,
and in these special tribunals one can imagine what sort of justice is meted out
to complainants and creditors. Comonfort's hope was to conciliate the mass of
the people by attempting to relieve them of this enormous abuse. I believe he
was honest in his intentions, but unfortunately the people had already had to do
witb too many politicians who were to redress their wrongs and inaugurate a
reign of liberty. They had fonnd very little to come of such movements, but
extra-taxation and civil war, ^vhich left them worse off than they were before,
and the patriots generally turned out rather more greedy and unprincipled than
the others; so it was not to be wondered at that no one came forward to give
any very energetic support to the new President.

VERA CRUZ — THE CLIMATE. 21

cleaning knives, and falling into the patio, or inner court.
A daub of fresh plaster just outside om- bedroom door in-
dicated the spot ; and the British Consul's office had a
similar decoration. The Governor of the city could offer
no active resistance, but he cut off the supplies from the
island, and in three or fom* days Salcedo — finding himself
out of ammunition, and short of water — surrendered in a
neat speech, and the revolution ended.

We have but a short time to stay in Vera Cruz, so had
better make our observations quickly ; for when we come
back again there will be a sun nearly in the zenith, and
yellow fever — at the present moment hardly showing itself
— will have come for the summer ; under those circum-
stances, the unseasoned foreigner had better lie on his
back in a cool room, with a cigar in his mouth, and read
novels, than go about hunting for useful information.

There are streets of good Spanish houses in Vera Cruz,
built of white coral-rock from the reefs near the shore, but
they are mildewed and dismal-looking. Outside the walls
is the Alameda ; and close by is a line of houses, unin-
habited, mouldy, and in ruins. We asked who built them.
" Los Espaiioles," they said.

Even now, when the "nortes" are blowing, and the
city is comparatively healthy. Vera Cruz is a melan-
choly place, with a plague-stricken look about it ; but it
is fr-om June to October that its name, " the city of the
dead" — la ciudad de los muertos — is really deserved. In
that season comes an accumulation of evils. The sun is
at its height ; there is no north wind to clear the air ; and
the heavy tropical rains — more than three times as much
in quantity as falls in England in the whole year — come
down in a short rainy season of foiu- months. The water
filters through the sand-hills, and forms great stagnant
lagoons ; a rank tropical vegetation springs up, and tlio

22 ANAHUAC.

air is soon filled with pestilential vapours. Add to this
that the water is unwholesome ; the city 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, so that night gives no relief from the stifling
closeness of the day. No wonder that Mr. Bullock, the
Mexican traveller, as he sat in his room here in the hot
season, heard the church-bells tolling for the dead from
morning to night without intermission ; for weeks and
weeks, I could hardly even look into the street without
seeing a funeral.

We tui'ned back through the city, and walked along
watching the Zopilotes — gi'eat turkey-buzzards — with
their bald heads and foul dingy-black plumage. They
were sitting in compact rows on parapets of houses and
churches, and seemed specially to affect the cross of the
cathedral, where they perched, two on each arm, and some
on the top. When some offal was thrown into the streets,
they came down leisurely upon it, one after another ; their
appearance and deportment reminding us of the under-
taker's men in England coming down from the hearse at
the public-house door, when the frmeral is over. In all
tropical America these birds are the general scavengers,
and there is a heavy fine for killing them.*

Scarcely any one is about in the streets this afternoon,
except a gang or two of convicts dragging their heavy
chains along, sweeping and mending the streets. This is
a punishment much approved of by the Mexican authori-
ties, as combining terror to evil-doers with advantage to
the community. That it puts all criminals on a level,

* No one ill uses tliein but the dogs, who drive them away when aiiytliing
better than nsual is met with, and they have to stand round in a circle, waiting
for their turn.

VEBA CRUZ — INDIAN SOLDIER. 23

from murderers down to vagrants, does not seem to be
considered as a matter of much consequence.

At the city-gate stands a sentry — the strangest thing
I ever saw in the g-uise of a soldier — a brown Indian of
tlie coast, di'essed in some rags that were a uniform once,
shoeless, filthy in the extreme, and armed with an amazing
old flint-lock. He is bad enough to look at, in all con-
science, and really worse than he looks, for — no doubt —
he has been pressed into the service against his will, and
hates white men and then- ways with all liis heart. Of
course he will run away when he gets a chance ; and,
though he will be no great loss to the service, he will add
his mite to the feeling of hatred that has been growing up
for these so many years among the brown Indians against
the whites and the half-cast Mexicans. But more of this
hereafter.

One step outside the gate, and we are among the sand-
hills that stretch for miles and miles round Vera Cruz.
They are mere shifting sand-momids ; and, though some of
them are fifty feet high, the fierce north wind moves them
about bodily. The Texans know these winds well, and
call them "northers." They come from Hudson's Bay to
the Gulf of Mexico, right down the Continent of North
America, over a level plain with hai'dly a hill to obstruct
then- course, the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies
formincr a sort of trough for them. When the "norte"
blows fiercely you can hardly keep your feet in the streets
of Vera Cruz, and vessels drag then- anchors or break from
their moorings in the ill-protected harboui-, and are blown
out to sea — lucky if they escape the ugly coral-reefs and
sand-banks that fringe the coast. There are a few bushes
growing outside the walls, and there we found the Nopal
bush, the great prickly pear — the same that has established
itself all round the shores of the Mediterranean — growing

24 ANAHUAC.

in crevices of rocks, and cracks in lava-beds, and baiTen
places where nothing else will live. But what made us
notice these Nopals was, that they were covered with what
looked like little white cocoons, out of wliicli, when they
were pressed, came a drop of deep crimson fluid. This is
the cochineal insect, but only the wild variety ; the fine
kind, which is used for dye, and comes from the province
of Oajaca, miles off, is covered only with a mealy powder.
There the Indians cultivate great plantations of Nopals,
and spread the insects over them with immense care, even
removing them, and carrying them up into the mountains
in baskets when the rainy season begins in the plains, and
bringing them back when it is over.

On Friday, the 14th of March, at three o'clock in the
morning, we took our places in a strong American-built
diligence, holding nine inside, and began our joiu"ney by
being dragged along the railroad — which was commenced
with great energy some time ago, and got fifteen miles on
its way to the capital, at which point it has stopped ever
since. When day broke we had left the railroad, and
were jolting along through a parched sandy plain, thinly
covered with acacias, nopals, and other kinds of cactus,
bignonias, and the great tree-euphorbia, with which we
had been so familiar in Cuba, with its smooth limbs and
huge white flowers. At last we reached the fii'st hill,
and began gently to ascend. The change was wonderful.
Once out of the plain, we are in the midst of a tropical
forest. The trees are crowded close together, and the con-
volvulus binds their branches into an impassable jungle,
while ferns and creepers weave themselves into a dense
mass below ; and here and there a glimpse up some deep
ravine shows gi-eat tree-ferns, thirty feet high, standing
close to the biink of a mountain-stream, and floui'ishing
in the damp shade.

CORDOVA. 25

Indian Ranclios become more frequent as we ascend ;
and the inhabitants — squatting on the ground, or leaning
against the door-posts — just condescend to glance at us as
we pass, and then return to their meditations, and their
cigarettes, if they happen to have any. These ranchos are
the merest huts of canes, thatched with palm-leaves ; and
close by each a little patch of ground is enclosed by a
fence of prickly cactus, within which are growing plan-
tains, with their large smooth leaves and heavy ropes of
fruit, the gTeat staple of the " tierra caliente."

Our road winds along valleys and through pass after
pass ; and now and then a long zig-zag brings us out of a
valley, up to a higher level. The aii- grows cooler, we are
rapidly changing our climate, and afternoon finds us in
the region of the sugar-cane and the coffee-plant. We
pass immense green cane-fields, protected from the visits
of passing muleteers and peasants by a thick hedge of
thorny coffee-bushes. The cane is but young yet ; but
the coffee-plant, with its brilliant white flowers, like little
stars, is a beautiful feature in the landscape.

At sunset we are rattling through the streets of the
little town of Cordova. There is such a thoroughly
Spanish air about the place, that it might be a suburb of
the real Cordova, were it not for the crowds of brown
Indians in their scanty cotton dresses and great flat-
brimmed hats, and the Mexican costumes of the whiter
folks. Low whitewashed houses, with large windows to
the street, protected by the heavy iron-gi-atings, like
cages, that are so familiar to travellers in Southern Europe.
Inside the grating are the ladies of the family, outside
stand theii' male acquaintance, and energetic gossiping is
going on. The smoky little lamp inside gives us a frill
view of the interior. Four whitewashed walls ; a table ;

a few stift-backed chairs ; a virgin or saint resplendent

E

26 ANAHUAC.

in paint and tinsel ; and, perhaps, two or three coloured
engravings, red, blue, and yellow.

A few hours ra the dark, and we reach Orizaba. We
have changed our climate for the last time to-day, and
have reached that district where tobacco flourishes at an
altitude of 4000 feet above the sea. But of this we see
nothing, for we are off again long before daylight ; and by
the time that external objects can be made out we find
ourselves in a new region. A valley floored with rich
alluvial soil from the hills that rise steeply on both sides,
their tops shrouded in clouds. Signs of wonderful fertihty
in the fields of maize and barley along the roadside. The
air warm, but full of mist, which has already penetrated
our clothes and made them feel damp and sticky. " Splen-
did country, this, Senores," said an old Mexican, when he
had twisted himself rormd on his seat to get a good stare
at us. " It seems so," said I, "judging by the look of the
fields, but it is very impleasantly damp just now." "Just
now," said the old gentleman, echoing my words, "it is
" always damp here. You see that drizzling mist ; that is
" the chipi-chipi. Never heard of the chipi-chipi ! Why it
" is the riches and blessing of the country. Sometimes we
" never see the sun here for weeks at a time, and it rains a
" little every day nearly ; but look at the fields, we get
" three crops a year fi-om them where you have but one on
" the fields just above. And it is healthy, too ; look at
" those fellows at work there. Wlien we get up to the
" Llanos you will see the difiercnce."

The valley grew nan-ower as we drove on ; and at last,
when it seemed to end in a great ravine, we began to
climb the steep hill by a zig-zag road. Soon the air grows
clearer again, the sunshine appears and gets brighter and
brighter, we have left the mist behind, and are among
ranges of gi\ind steep hills, covered with the peculiar vegc-

FROM TIERRA CALIENTE TO TIERRA FRIA. 27

tation of the plateau, — Cactus, Opuntia, and the Agave
Mexicana. In the trough of the valley lies a regular
opaque layer of white clouds, hiding the fields and cot-
tages from our view. We have already passed the zone
of perpetual moisture, whose incessant clouds and showers
are caused by the stratum of hot aii'-^charged with water
evaporated from the gulf — striking upon the mountains,
and there depositing part of the aqueous vapour it con-
tains.

You may see the same thing happening in almost
every mountainous district ; but seldom on so gi*and a
scale as here, or with so little disturbance from other
agents. Yesterday was passed in the "tierra caliente,"
the hot country ; our journey of to-day and to-morrow is
through the "tierra templada" and the "tierra fria," the
temperate and the cold country. Here a change of a few
hundred feet in altitude above the sea, brings with it a
change of climate as gTeat as many degTees of latitude
will cause, and in one day's travel it is possible to descend
from the region of eternal snow to the utmost heat of the
tropics. Our ascent is more gradual ; but, though we are
tlu-ee days on the road, we have sometimes scarcely time
to notice the different zones of vegetation we pass through,
before we change again.

To make the account of the journey from the coast to
Mexico somewhat clearer, a few words must be said about
the formation of the country, as shown in a profile-map or
section. The interior of Mexico consists of a mass of vol-
canic rocks, thrust up to a great height above the sea-level.
The plateau of Mexico is 8000 feet high, and that of Puebla
9000 feet. This central mass consists principally of a gi'ey-
ish trachytic porphyry, in some places rich in veins of silver-
ore. The tops of the hills are often crowned with basaltic
columns, and a soft porous amygdaloid abounds on the

28 ANAHUAC.

outskirts of the Mexican valley. Besides tliis, traces of
more recent volcanic action abound, in the shape of nu-
merous extinct craters in the high plateaus, and immense
"pedrigals" or fields of lava not yet old enough for their
sm'face to have been disintegrated into soil. Though
sedimentary rocks occur in Mexico, they are not the pre-
dominant feature of the coimtry. Ridges of limestone
hills lie on the slopes of the gi'eat volcanic mass toward
the coast ; and at a still lower level, just in the rise from
the flat coast-region, there are strata of sandstone. On
our road fi-om Vera Cruz we came upon sandstone imme-
diately after leaving the sandy plains ; and a few miles
farther on we reached the limestone, very much as it is
represented in Burkart's profile of the country from Tam-
pico upwards towards San Luis Potosi. The mountain-
plateaus, such as the plains of Mexico and Puebla, are
hoUows filled up and floored with horizontal strata of ter-
tiary deposits, which again are covered by the constantly
accumulating 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 a plain which slopes
gradually downward towards the outlet. Imagine such a
valley ten miles across, with just such a sloping plain, not
of snow but of earth. There has been no rain for months,
and the sm-face of the gi'ound is parched and cracked all
over. There is hardly a tree to be seen except clumps of
wood on the mountain-sides miles ofl", — no vegetation but
tufts of coarse gi'ass, among which herds of disconsolate-
looking cattle are roaming ; the vaqueros, (herdsmen) are
cantering about after them on their lean horses, with their
lazos hanging in coils on their left arms, and now and then
caUing to order some refractory beast who tries to get
away from the herd, by sending the loop over his horns

NATRON — MEXICAN ROADS. 29

or letting it fall before him as lie runs, and hitching it up
with a jerk round his hind legs as he steps within it.
But the poor creatures are too thirsty and dispii'ited just
now to give any sport, and the fii'st touch of the cord is
enough to bring them back to their allegiance.

From the decomposed porphyiy of the mountains car-
bonate of soda comes down in solution to the valleys.
Much of this is converted into natron by the organic
matter in the soil, and forms a white crust on the earth.
More of the carbonate of soda, mixed in various propor-
tions with common salt, drains continually out in the
streams, or filters into the gi'ound and crystallizes there.
This is why there is not a field to be seen, and the land is
fit for nothing but pasture. But when the rains come on
in a few months, say our firiends in the diligence, this dis-
mal waste will be a luxuriant prauie, and the cattle will
be here by thousands, for most of them are dispersed now
in the lower regions of the tierra templada where grass
and water are to be had.

My companion and I climb upon the top of the dili-
gence to spy out the land. The grand volcano of Orizaba
had been hidden from us ever since that morning when we
saw it from far out at sea, but now it rises on our left, its
upper half covered with snow of dazzling whiteness, — a
regular cone, for fr-om this side the crater cannot be seen.
It looks as though one could walk half a mile or so across
the valley and then go straight up to the summit, but it
is frill thirty miles oft". The afr is heated as by a furnace,
and as we jolt along the road the clouds of dust are suf-
focating. We go full gallop along such road as there is,
banging into holes, and across the trenches left by last
year's watercom'ses, until we begin to think that it must
end in a general smash. We came to understand Mexican
roads and Mexican drivers better, even before we got to
the capital.

30 ANAHUAC.

Before us and behind lay wide lakes, stretching from
side to side of the valley ; but the lake behind followed
us as steadily as the one before us receded. It was only
the mirage that tantalizes travellers in these scorched val-
leys, all the long eight months of the rainless season. It
seemed beautiful at fii-st, then monotonous ; and long be-
fore the 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 weU-defined shape,
and formed themselves into immense pillars, rapidly spin-
ning round upon themselves, and travelling slowly about
the plain. At one place, where several smaller valleys
opened upon us, these sand-pillars, some small, some large,
were promenading about by dozens, looking much Hke the
genie when the fisherman had just let him out of the
bottle, and saw him with astonishment beghmmg to shape
himself into a giant of monstrous size. Indeed I doubt
not that the story-teller was thmking of such sand-pillars
when he wi'ote that wonderful description. You may see
them in the East by thousands. As they moved along,
they sucked up small stones, dust, and leaves ; and our
driver declared that they had been known to take the
roofs off houses, and carry flocks of sheep into the air ;
"but these that you see now," said he, "are no great
matter." We estimated the size of the largest at about
four hundred feet in height, and thirty in diameter ; and
this very pillar, walking by chance against a house, most
decidedly got the worst of it, and had its lower limbs
knocked all to pieces.

When the sun grows hot, the bare earth heats the
air that lies upon it so 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 into it pour in

THE HLANS. HUEMANTLA. 31

each its stream of cooler air ; and wherever two of these
streams, flowing in different directions, strike one another,
a little whu'lwind ensues, and makes itself manifest as a
sand-pillar. The coachman's "molina de viente," as he
called it, may very well have happened, but it must have
been a wlurlwind on a large scale, caused by the meeting
of gi-eat atmospheric currents, not by the little apparatus
we saw at work.

There seems to be hardly a village in the plain ; and
the only buildings we see for miles are the herdsmen's
houses of stone, flat-roofed, dark inside, and uninviting in
their appearance, and the great cattle-pens, the corrals,
which seem absurdly too large for the herds that we have
yet seen ; but in two or three months there will be rain,
the ground will be covered with rank grass, the corrals
will be crowded with cattle every evening ; the mu-age
will depart when real water comes, dust and sand-pillars
will be no longer to be seen, and all the nine horses and
mules of the diligence-team, floundering, splashing, and
kicking, will hardly keep the heavy coach from settling
down inextricably in the mire. And so on until October,
and then the season of water, " la estacion de las aguas,"
will cease, and things will be again as they are now.

In the usvial course of travel to the capital, the second
night would have been passed at Puebla. This is the
second city of the Republic, and numbers some 70,000 in-
habitants. As it was then in revolt, and besieged by the
President and his army, we made a detour to the north
when about 20 miles from it, in order to sleep for a few
hours at Huamantla, a place with a most evil reputation
for thieves and vennin ; and about ten at night we
drove into the court-yard of a dismal-looking inn. Three
or four dirty fellows stood round as we alighted, wrapped
in their serapes — great woollen blankets, the universal

82 ANAHUAC.

wear of the Mexicans of tlie plateaus. One end of the
serape was thrown across from shoulder to shoulder, and
hid the lower part of their faces ; and the broad-brimmed
Mexican sombrero was slouched over their eyes ; we par-
ticidarly disliked the look of them as they stood watch-
ing us and our baggage going into the inn. A few
minutes after, we returned to the court-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 sala when we marched in, and as soon ^s we
had taken off the edge of our fierce hunger, we began to
compare notes with them. " Had a pleasant journey fi-om
Mexico ?" They all answered at once, delighted to find
an audience to whom to tell their sorrows, as men always
are under such circumstances. It appeared that they had
reached Huamantla an hour or two before us, and to their
surprise and delight no robbers had appeared. But be-
tween the outskirts of the town and the inn, the cords
behind the diligence were cut, and every particle of lug-
gage had disappeared. At the inn-gate they got out and
discovered their loss. They set upon the Administrador
of the diligence-company, who sympathized deeply with
them, but had no more substantial comfort to offer. They
declared the driver must have been an accomplice, and the
driver was sent for, for them to wi'eak their fury upon.
He appeared with 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 his
supper ; they followed his example, and seemed to have at
last found consolation in hot dishes and Catalan wine. It
was wonderful to hear of the fine things that were in the
lost portmanteaus, — the rings, the gold watches, the rou-
leaux of dollars, the " papers of the utmost importance."

THE COUNCIL OF PEACE. THE INNKEEPER. 33

I am afi'aid the Spanish American has not always a very
strict regard for truth.

These gentlemen had indeed got off easily, as the
driver said ; for the last diligence from Vera Cruz, with
our steamboat acquaintances in it, had been stopped just
outside this very town of Hviamantla as they left it before
daylight in the morning. The robbers were but three,
but they had plmidered the unfortunate travellers as
effectually as thirty could have done. Now, all tliis was
very pretty to hear as a tale, but not satisfactory to tra-
vellers who were going by the same road the next morn-
insf ; and in the disagreeable barrack -room where our beds
stood in long lines, we, the nine passengers of the "up"
diligence, held a council, standing, like Mr. Macaiday's
senators, and there decided on a most 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," ("mouth downwards,") we would humi-
liate om-selves with our noses in the dirt, and be robbed
quietly. Having thus decided beforehand, according to
the etiquette of the road, whether we were to fight or
submit, and being tned with a long day's journey, we all
turned in, and were fast asleep in a moment.

It seemed that almost du-ectly afterwards the dirtiest
man possible came round, and shook us till we were con-
scious ; and we washed in the customary saucers, by the
light of a real, flaring, smoking, Spanish lamp with a beak,
exactly what the Romans used in Pompeii, except that
this is of brass, not bronze.

With our eyes still half-shut we crawled into the kit-
chen for our morning chocolate, and demanded our bill.
Such a bill ! One of us, a stout Spaniard, sent for the
landlord and abused him in a set speech. The "pati'on"

F

34 ANAHUAC.

divested his countenance of every trace of expression,
scratched his head through his greasy nightcap, and stood
hstening patiently. The stout man grew fiercer and
fiercer, and wound up with a chmax. " If we meet with
the robbers," said he, rolling himself up in his great cloak,
"we must tell them that we have passed through your
worship's hands, and there is none left for them." The
landlord bowed gravely, saw us into the diligence, and
hoped we should have a fortunate journey, and meet with
no novelty on the road. A "novelty" in Spanish coun-
tries means a misfortune.

We met with no " novelty," though, when we looked
out of the window in the early dawn and spied three men
with muskets, following us at a short distance, we thought
our time had come, and v/atches and valuables were
plunged into boots and luider seats, and through slits into
the padding of the diligence ; but the three men came no
nearer, and we supposed them to be an escort of soldiers.
When it was light the difficulty was to recover the valu-
ables— ^no easy matter, so securely had they been hidden.
We heard afterwards of a little pecuHarity which dis-
tinguished the robbers of Huamantla. It seems that no
less a personage than the parish priest was accustomed to
lead his jmrishioners into action, like the Cornish parson
in old times when a ship went ashore on the coast. What
has become of his reverence since, I do not know. He is
very likely still in his parish, canying on his double pro-
fession, unless somebody has shot him. I wonder whether
it is sacrilege to shoot a priest who is also a highwayman,
as it used to be to kill a bishop on the field of battle.

We are at last on the high lands of Mexico, the dis-
tricts which at least three different races have chosen to
settle in, neglecting the fertile country below. A sharp
turn in the road brings us fairly out into the plain ; and

HIGHLANDS OF MEXICO. 35

then on our left are the two snowy mountains that lie at
the edge of the valley of Mexico, Popocatepetl and Iztac-
cihuatl, famous in all Mexican books. Like Orizaba of
yesterday, they seem to rise from the plain close to us ;
and from the valley between them there pours down upon
us such a flood of icy wind, that, though windows are
pulled up and gi-eat-coats buttoned round our throats, we
shiver piteously, and our teeth fairly chatter till we get
out of the river of cold air; and then comes hot sunshine
and dust again.

Anxious to make sure that we have really got into the
land of Aztec civilization, Mr. Christy gets down from the
diligence, and hunting about for a few minutes by the
road-side, retm'ns in triumph with a broken arrow-head
of obsidian. A deep channel cut by a water-course gives
us our first idea of the depth of the soil ; for these plateaus
were once nothing but deep hollows among the mountains,
which rain and melted snow, bringing down fragments
of porphyry and basalt — partly in their original state and
partly decomposed — have filled up and formed into plains.
Signs of volcanic action are abundant. To say nothing of
the two gi'eat mountains we have just left behind, there
is a hill of red volcanic tufa just beyond us; and still fur-
ther on, though this is anticipating, our road passes over
the lava-field at the foot of the little volcano of Santa
Barbara.

There is a population here at any rate, village after
village ; and between them are great plantations of maize
and aloes ; for this is the district where the best pulque in
Mexico is made, the "llanos de Apam." It is the Agave
Aonericmia, the same aloe that is so common in southern
Europe, where indeed it flowers, and that gi*ows in our
gardens and used to have the reputation of flowering once
in a hundred years. I do not exaggerate when I say that

36

ANAHUAC.

we saw hundreds of thousands of them that day, planted
in long regular lines. Among them were walking the
Indian " tlachiqueros," each with his pigskin on his back,
and his long calabash in his hand, milking such plants as
were in season.

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 sand and
lime resting on wooden
rafters, and the naked
ground for a floor, all
dark, dirty, and com-
fortless. There are even
many huts built entirely
of the universal aloe.
The stems of wild aloes
which have been allowed to flower are stuck into the
gi-ound, side by side, and pieces of leaves tied on outside
them with aloe-fibre. These cut leaves are set like tiles to
form a roof, and pegged down with the thorns which grow
at their extremities. Picturesque and cheap, though hardly
comfortable, for we are in the "tieiTa fi-ia" now, and the
mornings and evenings in winter are often bitterly cold.

But the churches ! Is it possible that they can belong
to these wretched filthy little cottages. As black Sam,
our di'iver, a runaway Texan slave, suggested, it looked
as though the villagers might pull down their houses and
locate themselves and their families in their churches. We

ROUGH ROADS. OUR DRIVER. PULQUE. 37

thought of Mr. Ruskin, who has somewhere expressed an
earnest desire that all the money and energy that England
has wasted in making railroads, had been spent m build-
ing churches ; and we wished he had been here to see his
principles carried out.

I have travelled on rough roads in my time, but on
such a road as this never. My companion refused for a
time to award the premium of badness to our thorough-
fare; but, just while we were discussing the question and
recounting our experience of bone-smashing highways,
we reached a pass where the road consisted of a series of
steps, nearly a foot in depth, down which steps we went
at a swinging trot, holding on for our lives, in terror lest
the next jerk should fairly wrench our arms out of their
sockets, while we could plainly hear the inside passengers
howling for mercy, as they were shot up against the roof
wliich knocked them back into their seats. Achinsf all
over, we reached level ground again, and Mi-. Christy
Avithdrew his claims, and agreed that no road any-where
else could possibly be so bad as a Mexican road ; a decision
which later experiences only served to confirm.

Our start, every time we changed horses, was a sight
to see. Nine half-broken horses and mules, in a furious
state of excitement, were harnessed to our unwieldy ma-
cliine ; the helpers let go, and off they went, kicking,
plunging, rearing, biting, and screaming, into ruts and
watercourses that were like the trenches they make for
gas-pipes in London streets, with our wheels on one side
on a stone wall, and in a pit on the other, and Black Sam
leaning back with his feet on the board, waiting with per-
fect tranquillity until the animals had got rid of their
superfluous energy and he could hold them in. We were
always just going to have some frightful accident, and
always just missed it. The last stage before we reached

38 ANAHUAC.

Otumba, a small dusky urchin ran across the road just
before us. How Black Sam contrived to pull up I cannot
tell, though, indeed, his arms were about the size of an
ordinary man's thighs ; but he did, and they got the child
out from the horses' feet quite unhurt.

It was at the inn where we stopped to breakfast that
we made our first acquaintance 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 han inside), sup-
ported by a frame of sticks ; and in them was pulque in
every stage, beginning with the sweet aguamiel — honey-
water — the fresh juice of the aloe, and then the same in
different degrees of fermentation till we come to the madre
pulque, the mother pulque, a little of which is used like
yeast, to start the fermentation, and which has a com-
bined odour of gas-works and drains. Pulque, as you
drink it, looks like milk and water, and has a mild smell
and taste of rotten eggs. Tortillas are like oat-cakes, but
made of Indian corn meal, not crisp, but soft and leathery.
We thought both dreadfuUy nasty for a day or two ; then
we could just endui-e them ; then we came to like them ;
and before we left the country we wondered how we
should do without them.

CHAP. III.

CITY OF MEXICO.

Some thirty
years ago, Don

Agiistin Yturbide, the ^■5'i'^l^
first and last Emperor -^'^^y^t^.

of Mexico, found that lie wanted '^-^^^T*-.
a palace wherein to house his newly-fledged dignity ; and
began to build one accordingly, in the high street of
Mexico, close to the gi*eat convent of San Francisco. It
could not have been nearly finished when its founder was
shot : and it became the Hotel cV Yturbide. We are now
settled in it, in very comfortable quarters. There is a
restaurant down below, where the son of the late Ytur-
bide dines daily, and everybody points him out to us, and
morahses over liim.

40 ANAHUAC.

Mr. Christy's drawer-full of letters of introduction has
produced an immediate crop of pleasant acquaintances,
whose hospitality is boundless. We are not idle, far from
it ; and a long day's work is generally followed by a social
dinner, and an evening spent in noting down the results
of our investigations.

Prescott's Conquest of Mexico has been more read in
England than most historical works ; and the Mexico of
Montezuma has a well-defined idea attached to it. The
amphitheatre of dark hills surrounding the level plain,
the two snowy mountain-peaks, the five lakes covering
nearly half the valley, the city rising out of the midst of
the waters, miles from the shore, with which it was con-
nected by its four causeways, the straight streets of low
flat-roofed houses, the numbers of canals crowded with
canoes of Indians going to and from the market, the float-
ing gardens moved from place to place, on which vege-
tables and flowers were cultivated, the great pyramid up
which the Spanish army saw their captured companions
led in solemn procession, and sacrificed on the top — all
these are details in the mental picture.

Much of this has changed since the Spaniards first saw
it. Cortes tried all ordinary means to overcome the des-
perate obstinacy with which the Aztecs defended their
capital. The Spaniards conquered wherever they went ;
but, as they moved forward, the Mexicans closed in again
behind, and from every house-top showers of darts, ari'ows,
and stones were pom'ed down upon them. Cortes re-
solved upon the utter demolition of the city. He was
grieved to destroy it, he said, for it was the most beautiful
thing in the whole world ; but there was no alternative.
He moved slowly towards the great teocalli, his fifty thou-
sand Tlascalan allies following him, throwing down every
house, and filling the canals with the ruins. When the

SITE AND BUILDING OF MEXICO. 41

conquest was finished, but one district of the city was left
standing, and in it were crowded a quarter of the popula-
tion, miserable famished wi'etches, who had surrendered
when then- king was taken. All that was left besides
was a patch of swampy ground strewed with fragments of
walls, a few pyramids too large for present destruction,
and such great heaps of dead bodies that it was impossible
to get from place to place without walking over them.

Cortes had resolved that a new city should be built,
but it was not so easy to decide where it was to be. The
Aztecs, it seemed, had not originally established themselves
on the spot where Mexico was built. When they came
down from the north country, and across the hills into the
valley of Mexico, they were but an insignificant tribe, and
as yet mere savages. They settled down in one place
after another, and were always driven out by the persecu-
tions of the neighbouring tribes. At last they took pos-
session of a little group of swampy islands in the lake of
Tezcuco ; and then at last, safe from their enemies, they in-
creased and multiplied, and became a great and powerful
nation.

The fii'st beginnings of Mexico, a cluster of huts built
on wooden piles, must have borne some likeness to those
curious settlements of early tribes in the shallow part of
the lakes of Switzerland and the British Isles, of which
numerous remains are still to be found. As the nation in-
creased in numbers, Tenochtitlan, as the inhabitants called
their city (they called themselves Tenochques), came to be
a great city of houses built on piles, with canals running
through the straight streets, along which the natives poled
their flat-bottomed canoes. The name which the Spaniards
gave to the city, the " Venice of the New World," was ap-
propriate, not only to its situation in the midst of the
water, with canals for thoroughfares, but also to the his-

G

42 ANAHUAC.

tory of the causes which led to its being built in such a
situation.

The habit of building houses upon piles, which was
first forced upon the people by the position they had
chosen, was afterwards followed as a matter of taste, just
as it is in Holland. Even after the Aztecs became mas-
ters of the suiTounding country, they built towns round
the lake, pai-tly on the shore, and partly on piles in the
water. The Spanish chroniclers mention Iztapalapan,
and many other towns, as built in this way. Like the
S"vviss tribes, the early inhabitants of Mexico depended
much upon their fishing, for which theii' position gave
them great facilities.

If you look at the arms of the Mexican RepubUc, on a
passport or a silver dollar, you will see a representation of
a rock surrounded by water. On the rock grows a cactus,
and on the cactus sits an eagle with a serpent in his beak.
The story is that the wandering tribe preserved a tradition
of an oracle which said that when they should find an
eagle, holding a serpent, and perched on a cactus growing
out of a rock, then they should cease their wandei'ings.
On an island in the lake of Tezcuco, they found eagle,
serpent, cactus, and rock, as described, and they settled
there in due course. What fi'agment of truth is hidden in
this myth it is hard to say. Tenochtitlan means " The
Stone -cactVyS place f and the Aztec picture-wi'i tings ex-
press its name by a hieroglyph of a prickly pear growing
on a rock. Puttmg this history out of the question, the
Aztecs had excellent reasons for choosing this peculiar site
for then- city ; but these reasons were not equally valid in
the case of the new invaders. For them the surrounding
salt-water was not needed as a protection, and was merely
a nuisance. Every year, when the lake rose, the place
was flooded, with enormous damage to the property of

THE REBUILDING OF MEXICO. 43

tlie inhabitants ; and sometimes an inundation of greater
depth than usual threatened as complete a destinction as
Cortes and the Tlascalans had made. At the best of times,
the site was a salt-swamp, an ugly place to build upon.
And, lastly, all the fi-esh water must be brought fi'om the
hills by aqueducts, which an enemy would cut off without
difficulty, as the Spaniards themselves had done during
the siege. Now Cortes was certainly not ignorant of all
this, and he knew of many places on the rising gi-ound
close by, where he could found his new city under more
favom-able cu-cumstances. He deliberated four or five
months on the matter, and at last decided in favour of the
old site, giving as his reason that " the city of Tenochtit-
lan had become celebrated, its position was wonderful, and
in all times it had been considered as the capital and mis-
tress of all these provinces."

The invaders were old hands at slave-driving, and so
hard did they drive the conquered Mexicans, that in four
years there had arisen a fine Spanish city, with massive
stone houses of several storeys, having the indispensable in-
ner com-ts, flat roofs, and grated windows, — every man's
house hterally his castle, when once the great iron entrance-
gates were closed. The Indians had, of course, been con-
verted en masse, and chm-ches were being built in all dii-ec-
tions. The great pyramid where Huitzilopochtli, the God
of war, was worshipped, had been razed to the ground, and
its gi-eat sculptured blocks of basalt were simk in the
earth as a foundation for a cathedral. The old fines of the
streets, running toward the fom- points of the compass,
were kept to ; and to this it is that the present Mexico is
indebted for much of its beauty. Most of the smaller
canals were filled up, and the thoroughfares widened for
carnages, things of course unknown to tlie Mexicans, who
had no beasts of burden. In the subm-bs the natives

44 ANAHUAC.

settled themselves after their own fashion, baking adobes,
large mud bricks, in the sun, and building with them one-
storey houses with flat roofs, much as they do at the pre-
sent day. And thus a new Mexico, nearly the same as
that we are now exploring, came to be planted in the
midst of the waters. Three centuries have elapsed since ;
the city has gi'own larger, churches, convents, and public
buikhngs have increased, but the architectural character
of the place has scarcely altered. It is the situation that
has changed. The lake of Tezcuco is four miles off, though
the causeways which once connected the city with the
dry land still exist, and have even been enlarged. They
look like railway-embankments crossing the low ground,
and serve as dykes when there is a flood, a casualty which
still often happens.

This change is interesting to the student of physical
geography ; and Humboldt's account of the causes which
have brought it about is full and explicit. When Mexico
had been built a few years, the frightful inundations which
threatened its very existence at length awoke the Spani-
ards to a sense of the mistake that had been made in
placing themselves but a few feet above the lowest level
of the valley, in such a way that, from whatever point
the flood might come, they were sure to get the benefit of
it. The Spanish authorities at home, with their usual
sagacity, sent over peremptory orders that the city should
be abandoned, and a new capital built at Tacubaya — a
proposal something like mtimating to the inhabitants of
Naples that their position, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius,
was most dangerous, and that they must leave it and set-
tle somewhere else. In those days the valley was a com-
plete basin, with no outlet — at least not one worth men-
tioning ; and the heavy tropical rains and the melted
snow fi'om the mountains, poured vast quantities of water

THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 45

into it. Had the valley been at the level of the sea, it
would simply have become a gi-eat lake, surrounded by
hills ; but at three thousand feet higher, the atmosphere
is rarefied, and evaporation goes on with such rapidity as
to keep the accumidation of water in check. So the affair
had adjusted itself in this wise, that the land and the five
lakes should divide the valley about equally between them.
It became necessary to alter this state of things, and a
passage was cut at a place where the hills were but little
above the level of the highest lake. The history of this
passage, the famous " Desague de Huehuetoca," is instruct-
ive enough, but it has been written so threadbare that I
cannot touch it. Suffice it to say, that by tliis means a
constant outlet was made for the lake of Zumpango, the
highest of the five, and for the Rio de Guatitlan, a stream
which formerly ran into it.

So much for one cause of the change in the present ap-
pearance of the city. Then the Spaniards were gi-eat
cutters down of forests. They rather liked to make their
new country bear a resemblance to the arid plains of
Castile, where, when you arrive in Madrid, people ask you
whether you noticed the tree on the road ; and moreover,
as they wanted wood, they cut it, without troubling
themselves to plant for the benefit of future generations.
Now, when the trees were cut down, the small plants
which grew in their shade died too, and left the bare earth
to serve as a kind of natural evaporating apparatus. And,
between these two causes, it has come to pass that the
extent of the lakes has been so much reduced, and that
Mexico stands on the dry land — if, indeed, that may be
called dry land, where you cannot dig a foot without
coming to water.

During the Tertiary period the whole valley of Mexico
was one gi'eat lake. Whether the proportion of water to

46 ANAHUAC.

land had adjusted itself before the country was inhabited,
or whether dm-ing liistorical times the lakes were still
gi-adually diminishing by the excess of evaporation over
the quantity of water supplied by rain and snow, is an
open question. At any rate the two causes I have men-
tioned will account for the changes which have taken
place since the conquest.

Taking it as a whole, Mexico is a gi^and city, and, as
Cortes truly said, its situation is marvellous. But as for
the buildings, I should be sorry to inflict upon any one
who may read these sketches, a detailed description of any
one of them. It is a thousand pities that, just at the time
when the Italians and Spaniards were most zealous in
church -building, so very questionable an architectural taste
should have been prevalent.

The churches and convents in Mexico belong to that
kind of renaissance style that began to flouiish in southern
Europe in the sixteenth century, and has held its ground
there ever since. High fa9ades abound, with pilasters
crowned by elaborate Cormthian capitals, forming a curi-
ous contrast with the mean little buildings crouched be-
hind the tall front. In the doors of the churches outside,
and the chapels within, one is constantly coming upon
that peculiar construction which consists of what would
be an arch, resting on two pillars, were not the keystone
wanting. Columns with shafts elaborately sculptured, and
twisted marble pUlars of the bed-post pattern, arc to be
seen by hmidreds, very expensive in material and work-
manship, but unfortunately very ugly ; while the numbers
of puffy cherubs, inside and out, remind the Englishman
of the monuments of St. Paul's.

As to the interior decoration of the churches, the richer
ones are crowded with incongruous ornaments to a won-
derful degree. Gold, silver, costly marbles, jewels, stucco.

BUILDINGS. HOLY WEEK. 47

paint, tinsel, and frippery are all mixed up together in the
wildest manner. We found the inside of the churches to
be generally the worst part of them. The Cathedral, for
instance, is really a very grand building when seen fi'om a
little distance, with its two high towers and its cupola be-
hind. I was greatly edified by finding it described in the
last book of Mexican travels I have read, as built in the
purest Doric style.

The Mineria, or School of Mines, is a fine building,
something after the manner of Somerset House on a small
scale. As for the famous Plaza Mayor, the great square,
it is a very gTeat square indeed, large enough to review an
army in, and large enough to damage by its size the effect
of the cathedral, and to dwarf the other buildings that
surround it into mere insignificance. However, one thing
is certain, that we have not come all this way to see
Spanish architectm-e and great squares, but must look for
something more characteristic.

I have said we arrived in Mexico on the eve of Palm
Sunday, and next morning we proceeded to consult with
one of our newly-made acquaintances as to our prospects
for the ensuing Holy Week. This gentleman, a man who
took a practical view of things, mentioned a circmnstance
which led him to expect that the affair would go off with
^clat. The Mexicans, both the nearly white Mestizos and
the Indians of pure race, delight in pulque. The brown
people are grave and silent in their sober state, but pulque
stirs up their sluggish blood, and they get into a condition
of positive enjoyment. But very soon after tliis comes a
state of furious intoxication, and a general scuffle is a
common termination to a drinking-bout. Fortunately,
the Indians are not a bloodthirsty people ; and, though
every man carries a knife or machete, or — if he can get
nothing better — a bit of hoop-iron tempered, sharpened,

fr

48 ANAHUAC.

and fixed into a handle, yet notliing more serious than cuffs
and scratclies generally ensues. Even if severe wounds are
given, the Indian has many chances in his favor, for his
organization is somewhat different from that of white men,
and he recovers easily from wounds that would kill any
European outright.

The lower orders of the half-breed population are also
given to pulque-drinking, but with far more serious con-
sequences. Unlike the pui'e Indians, they are a hot-blooded
and excitable race, and drunkenness with them is utter
madness while it lasts. Knives are drawn at the very
beginning of a squabble, and scarcely an evening passes
without one or two bodies of men killed in these drunken
meldes being carried to the Police Cuartel in the gi'eat
square. On Sundays and holidays the number increases ;
but on this Palm Sunday there were fourteen, not killed
in one great battle, but brought in by ones and twos, from
different parts of the city. It was this little piece of
statistics that induced our friend to conclude that the citi-
zens of Mexico had made up their minds to enjoy them-
selves thoroughly, and that Holy Week would be a grand
affair. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the Semana
Santa have only this to distinguish them from ordinary
days, that the churches are crowded with men and women
waiting their turn at the confessional ; and that in the
afternoons the old promenade of Las Vigas, down in the
Indian quarter by the canal of Chalco, is patronized by
fashionable Mexico, which, except on some four or five
special days, frequents the new Alameda. The sight of
these confessionals, so constantly filled, prompts one to
ask — why just before Easter? Just after would be more
appropriate ; for as we find the Glasgow people much
worse on Sundays than on week-days, so the Mexican
population, not very virtuous at the best of times, are

RATTLES AND JUDAS'S BONES. 49

specially and particularly wicked when the great Church-
festivals come round. The name of Shrove Tuesday sur-
vives in our Calendar, to remind us of the time when we
also used to go to be shriven before Easter.

On Thui'sday at noon mass is over, the bells cease to
ring, the organs in the churches are silent, and all car-
riages disappear from the streets, except the dusty Dili-
gence which, like French law, "est athde," and cares
nothing for fasts or festivals. Now we come to under-
stand the wonderful wooden machine like a water-wheel,
which was put up yesterday on one tower of the Cathe-
dral. We had asked people in the gi-eat square, just
below, what it was, but could get no answer except that it
was la Matraca, the rattle, for to-morrow. And now we
found that, the chui'ch bells being incapacitated, this rattle
does duty instead, striking the hours, and occasionally
going off into furious fits of clattering, without apparent
reason, for ten minutes at a time, till the two men who
worked it, who were either convicts or soldiers in fatigue-
dress, were tked out. It was not this one rattle only that
was distm'bing the public peace that day and the next.
Everybody was walking about with a rattle, and working
it like mad, and all over the city there was a noise like
the sound of the back-scratchers at Greenwich Fair, or of
an American forest when the woodpeckers are busy. These
little rattles stand for Judas's bones, and all good Catholics
express in this odd way their desire to break them. They
do the same thing in Italy, but it is not so promment a
part of the celebration as in 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 for ourselves,
and joined the rest of the world in their noisy occupation.
The breaking of his bones is but a preliminary measure.
In the square a fair is being held, in the booths of which

50 ANAHUAC.

the great articles of trade now are Judas's bones, of many
patterns, at all prices, and Judas himself in pasteboard,
who is to be carried about and insulted till Satuixlay morn-
ing, and then, hanging up by a string, is to burst asunder
by means of a packet of powder and a slow match in his
inside, and finally to perish in a bonfire.

The first sight of these pasteboard Judases convmced
us of one thing, that we had unexpectedly come upon the
old custom, of which our processions and bm-ning of Guy
Fawkes in England are merely an adaptation. After
giving up the old custom as a Popish rite, what a bright
idea to revive it in this new shape, and to give the boys
something to carry about, bang, blow up, and make a final
bonfire of, and all in the Protestant interest ! There was
another thing to be noticed about the Judases. The
makers had evidently tried to vary them as much as they
could ; and, by that very means, had shown how impos-
sible it was to them to strike out anything new. Tliere
were two types ; one was the Neapolitan Polichinello,
whom we have naturalised as Punch ; and the other the
God Pan, with his horns, and hoofs, and tail, whom the
whole Christian world has recognised as the devil, for
these many ages. Well, some took one type and some the
other ; and a few tried to combine the two, of course spoil-
ing both. But, beyond this, their power of invention
could not go. They were always trying to conceal the
old idea, and could do no more than to distort it. We
could see through their flimsy pretensions to originality,
much as a schoolmaster recognises the exti'acts from the
encyclopcedia in his boys' essays.

As with this Judas trade, so it is with other more im-
portant arts and sciences in this country. The old types
descend, almost unchanged, from generation to generation.
Everything that is really Mexican is either Aztec or

MEXICAN LADIES AND MEXICAN DISHES. 51

Spanish. Among the Spanish types we may separate the
Moorish. Our knowledge of Mexico is not sufficient to
enable us to analyse the Aztec civilization, so we must be
content with these three classes. I will not go further
into the question here, for occasions will continually occui*
to show how — for three centuries at least — ^the inhabitants
of Mexico, both white and brown, have taken their ideas
at second-hand, always copying but never developing
anything.

All tliis time my companion and I have been walking
about the streets ; in evening-dress, as the etiquette of the
place demands, on these three days, fi-om the "better
classes." The Mexican ladies may be advantageously
studied just now in their church-going black silk dress and
mantilla, one of the most gi-aceful costumes in the world.
It is not often that one has the chance of seeing them out
of doors, except hurrying to and from Mass in the morning,
or in carriages on the Alameda; but on these festival
days one meets them by hundreds. They do not con-
trast favorably with the ladies of Cadiz and Seville. The
mixture of Aztec blood seems to have detracted from the
beauty of the Spanish race ; the dryness of the atmosphere
spoils their complexions ; and the monstrous quantity of
capsicums that are consumed at every meal cannot
possibly leave the Mexican digestion in its proper state.

We dined that day with Don Jos^ de A., who, though
Spanish- American by bu-th, was English by education and
feeling, and had known my companion's family well. Our
dinner was half English, half Mexican ; and the favourite
dishes of the country were there, to aid in oui- uiitiation
into Mexican manners and customs. The cooks at the
inns, mindful of om* foreign origin, had dealt out the red
pepper with a sparing hand ; but to-day the dish of
"mole" was the genuine article, and the first mouthful

52 ANAHUAC.

set us coughing and gasping for breath, while tlie tears
streamed down our faces, and Don Pepe and Don Pancho
gravely continued their dinner, assuring us that we should
get quite to like it in time. Pepe and Pancho, by the
way, are short for Jose and Francisco. Dinner over, it
was time to visit the churches, to which people crowd by
thousands, this evening and to-morrow, to see the monu-
ments, as they are called. Pancho departed, being on
duty as escort to his sisters; and we having, by Pep^'s
advice, left oui' watches and valuables 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
or plant, had taken possession of the seeds of two mameis,
which are fleshy fruits — as big as cocoa-nuts — each con-
taining a hard smooth seed as large as a hen's egg. These
not being of great value, he put one in each tail-pocket of
his coat. When we got out, we found the streets full of
people, hurrying from one chui'ch to another, anxious to
get as m.any as possible visited in the evening. We went
first to the monastery of San Francisco, close to om-
hotel, the largest, and perhaps the richest convent in the
country. Entering through a great gate, we find our-
selves in a large coui'tyard, full of people, who are visiting
— one after another — the fom- churches which the estab-
lishment contains, going in at one door and out at the
other. At the door of the largest church, stands a tall
monk, soliciting customers for the rosaries of olive-wood,
crosses, and medals from Jerusalem, which are displayed
on a stall close by — shouting in a stentorian voice, every
two or three minutes, " He who gives alms to Holy
Clim'ch, shall receive plenary mdulgence, and deliver one
soul from purgatory." We bought some, but there did not
seem to be many other purchasers. Indeed, we found,
when we had been longer in the country, that a few pence

CHURCHES IN HOLY WEEK. 53

would buy all sorts of church indulgences, from the per-
mission to eat meat on fast-days up to plenary absolution
in the horn* of death ; and the trade, once so flomishing
here, is almost used up. The chui'ches were hung with
black, and lighted up ; and in each was a " monument," a
kind of bower of green branches decorated with flowers,
mirrors, and gold and silver church -plate, and supposed to
stand for the Garden of Gethsemane. Inside was reclin-
ing a wax fig-ure of our Saviour, gaudily dressed in silk
and velvet ; and there were also representations of the
Last Supper, with wax-work figures as large as life. To
visit and criticise these "monuments" was the object of
the sort of pilgiimage people were making from church to
church, and they seemed thoroughly to enjoy it. It was
not a superfluous precaution that we had taken, in leaving
our valuables 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 he had stowed away in an inner
pocket, and Mr. Christy had been reheved of one of his
mamei seeds by some " lepero" who probably took it for a
snuff'-box. His feelings must have been like those of the
English pickpocket in Paris, when he robbed the French-
man of the article he had pocketed with so much care, and
found it was a lump of sugar. And so relieved of further
care for our worldly goods, we went through with the
work of seeing monuments, till we were tired and dis-
gusted with the whole afiaii', and at last went home to
bed.

Next day, appropriate sermons in the churches, proces-
sions in the afternoon, in which wax figures of Christ and
the Virgin Mary were carried by men got up in fancy
dresses as soldiers and centurions, and so called penitents,
walking covered with black shrouds and veils, with small
round holes to look through, or in the yellow dress and

54 ANAHUAC.

extinguislier cap, both with flames and devils painted on
them. These are exactly the costumes worn in old times,
the fii'st by the familiars of the Inquisition, and the second
by the criminals it condemned ; and the sight of them set
us thinking of the processions they used to figure in, when
the Holy Office was flourishing at Santo Domingo, a little
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 be-
fore; and the next morning is the Sabado de Gloria, the
Saturday wliich ends Lent. We go to the Jesuits' church
in the morning to hear the last sermon. Since Thursday
at noon, as the organs have been silenced, harps and violins
have taken their places. The sermon is long and prosy,
and we rejoice that it is the last. Then the service of the
day goes on until they come to the " Gloria in excelsis."
The organ peals out again, the black cm-tain — which has
hidden the high altar — parts in the middle, and displays a
perfect blaze of gold and jewels : all the bells in the city
begin to ring : the carriages, which have been waiting ready
harnessed in court yards, pour out into the streets: the
lumbering hackney coaches go racing to the great square,
striving to get the first fare for luck : the Judases, which
have been hanging all the morning out of windows and
across streets, are set light to as the &st bell begins to
ring, and fizzing and popping burst all to pieces, and then
are thrown into a heap in the street, where a bonfii'e is
made of them, and the children join hands and dance
round it. So Holy Week ends.

The arrangement of the day in Mexico is this. Early
in the morning your servant knocks at your door, and
brings in a little cup of coffee or chocolate and a small roU,
which desayuno — literally breakfast — you discuss while
dressing. Going down into the courtyard, you find your

% ract. p SS.

WW: SI Imr

PnKTI'll-! AND TilK BAK'I'.K. IN MJ.XICO.
' FroDi ModwJs made by WaJive Artists.)

STEEETS AND PEOPLE. 55

horse waiting for you, and off you go for an hour or two's
ride, and back to a dejeuner-a-la-fourchette somewhere be-
tween ten and one o'clock. Then you have seven or eight
hours before diiinei", so that a good deal of work may be
got into a day so divided. Things are managed very
differently in country places, but this is the fashion in the
capital among the higher class, that is, of course, the class
of people who put on dress-coats in the evening.

When we had been a day or two in Mexico, we took
our fii'st ride to Tacubaya and Cha})ultepec. Mexican
saddles and bridles were a novelty to us, but when we
come to describe our Mexican and his appurtenances it
will be time enough to speak of them.

The barricades in the streets constructed during the
last revolution of two or three weeks back had not yet
been removed, but an opening at one side allowed men
and horses to get past. Carriages had to go round, an
easy 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 quite straight they can sweep them in
both directions, to the whole length of their range. As in
Turhi, you can look backward and forward along the
straight streets from every part of the city, and see moun-
tains at each end. The suburbs of the city are quite as
repulsive as our first glimpse of them led us to expect ;
and, as far as one could judge by the appearance of the half-
caste inhabitants, it is not good to go there alone after
dark. Here is the end of the aqueduct of Chapultepec,
the Salto del Agua; and — crowded round it — a thoroughly
characteristic gi-oup of women and water-earners, filling
their great earthen jars with water, which they carry
about fi'om house to house. The women are simply and
cheaply di-essed, and though not generally pretty, are
very gi'aceful in their movements. Their dress consists

I

56

ANAHUAC.

of a white cotton xinder-dress, a coloured cotton skirt,
generally blue, brown, or grey, with some small pat-
tern upon it, but never brilHant in colour, and a re-
bozo, which is a small sober-coloured cotton shawl, long
and narrow. This rebozo passes over the back of the
head, where it is somehow fixed to a back hair-comb,
and the two ends hang down over the shoulders in jfi'ont ;
or, more often, one end is thrown over the opposite shoulder.

Water-carrier and a Mexican fFoman, at the Fountain.

so that the young lady's face is set in it, like a picture in a
frame. Add to this a springy step, the peculiarly uncon-
strained movement in walking which comes of living in
the open air and wearing a loose dress, a pleasant pale
face, small features, bright eyes, small hands and feet,
little slippers and no stockings, and you have as good a
picture of a Mexican half-caste girl as I can give. A book

TACUBAYA. CYPRESS-GROVE. 57

of Mexican engravings, however, will give a much better
idea of her. Then we went past the great prison, the
Acordada, and out at the gate (we had purposely gone out
of our way to see more of the city), and so into the great
promenade, the Paseo or Alameda. The latter is the
Spanish name for this necessary appendage to every town.
It comes fi'om alamo, which means a poplar. Imagine a
long wide level road, a mile or so long, generally so chosen
as to have a fine view, with footpaths on each side, lines
of poplar trees, a fountain at each end and a statue in the
middle, and this description will stand pretty nearly for
almost every promenade of the kind I have seen in Spain
or Spanish America.

Tacubaya is a pleasant place on the side of the first
hills that begin to rise towards the mountain-wall of the
vaUey. Here rich Mexicans have coimtry-houses in large
gardens, which are interesting from the immense variety
of plants which grow there, though badly kept up, and
systematically stripped by the gardeners of the fiidt as it
gets ripe — for their own benefit, of course. From Tacu-
baya we go to Chapultepec (Grasshopper Mountain), which
is a volcanic liill of porphyiy rising from the plain. On
the top is the palace on which the viceroy Galvez expend-
ed great sums of money some seventy years ago, makmg
it into a building which would serve either as a palace or
as a fortress in cases of emergency. Though the Americans
charged up the liill and carried it easily in '47, it would be
a very strong place in proper hands. It is a military
school now. On the hill is the famous grove of cy-
presses— ahuehuetes* — as they are called, grand trees
with their branches hung with fi'inges of the long grey
Spanish moss — bavha Espanola — Spanish beard, I do

* Ahuohucte, pronounced a-hwe-hwete. Tlius, Anahuac is pronounced
Ana-hwac; and Chihuahua, Chi-hiva-hwa.

58 ANAHUAC.

not know what painters think of the effect of this moss,
traihng in long festoons fi-om the branches of the trees,
but to me it is beautiful ; and I shall never forget where
I first saw it, on a bayou of the Mississippi, winding
through the depths of a great forest in the swamps of
Louisiana.^ In this grove of Chapultepec, there were
sculptured on the side of the hill, in the sohd porphyry,
likenesses of the two Montezumas, colossal in size. For
some reason or other, I forget now what, one of the last
Spanish viceroys thought it desirable to destroy them, and
tried to blow them up with gunpowder. He only par-
tially succeeded, for the two great bas-reliefs were still
very distinguishable as we rode past, though noseless and
considerably knocked about.

We went home to breakfast with oui- fiiends, and
looked at the title-deeds of their house in crabbed Spanish
of the sixteenth century, and the great Chinese treasure-
chest, still used as the strong-box of the firm, with an
immense lock, and a key like the key of Dover castle.
Fine old Chinese jars, and other curiosities, ai*e often to be
found in Mexico ; and they date from the time when the
great galleon fi'om Manila, which was called " el nao" — the
sliip — to distinguish it from all other ships, came once a
year to Acapulco.

After breakfast, business hom-s begin ; so we took our-
selves off to visit the canal of Chalco, and the famous
floating gardens — as they are called. On our way we
had a chance of stvidying the conveyances oiu" ancestors
used to ride in, and availed ourselves of it. In books on
Spanish America, wiitten at the beginning of this cen-

X In the Swiss Alps, between 4000 and 5000 feet above the sea, there is a
similar plant to be seen fringing the branches of the pine-trees; but it only
grows to the length of a few inches, and will hai-dly bear comparison to the
long trailing festoons of the Spanish moss, often fifteen or twenty feet in length.

OLD-FASHIONED COACH. CANAL OF CHALCO. 59

tuiy, there are wonderful descriptions of the gilt coaches,
with six or eight mules, in which the gi*eat folks used to
drive in state on the promenades. They are exactly the
carriages that it was the height of a lady's ambition to
ride in, in the days of Sir Charles Grandison, and Mr. Tom
Jones. Here, in Mexico, they were stiU to be found, after
they had disappeared from the rest of the habitable globe ;
and even now, though the private carriages are all of a
more modern type, there are still left a few of these
amazing vehicles, now degi'aded to the cab-stand ; and we
got into one that was embellished with sculptured Cupids
— then- faces as much mutilated as the two Montezumas —
and with the remains of the painting and gilding, which
once covered the whole affair, just visible in corners, like
the colouring of the ceilings of the Alhambra. We had to
climb up three high steps, and haul ourselves into the
body of the coach, wliich hung on strong leather straps ;
springs belong to a later period. By the time we had got
to the Paseo de las Vigas we were glad enough to get out,
wondering at the sacrifice of comfort to dignity those
highly respectable gi-andees must have made, and not sur-
prised at the fate of some inquisitive travellers who have
done as we did, and have been obliged to stop by the
qualms of sea-sickness. At the bridge we chartered a
canoe to Santa Anita. This Santa Anita is a little Indian
village on the canal of Chalco, and to-day there is to be a
festival there. For this, however, we shall be too early,
as we have to be back in time to see Mexico tm'n out for
a promenade on the Paseo de las Vigas, and then to go out
to dinner. So we must just take the opportunity of look-
ing at the Indian popidation as they go up and down the
canal in canoes, and see their gardens and their houses.
However, as the Indian notion of a festival consists in
going to mass in the morning, and getting drunk and

60 ANAHUAC.

fighting in the afternoon, we are perhaps as well out of it.
We took our passage to Santa Anita and back in a canoe
— a mere flat-bottomed box with sloping sides, made of
boards put together with wooden pegs. There was a mat
at the stern for us to squat upon, and an awning over our
heads. An old Indian and his son were the crew ; and
they had long poles, which they set against the banks or
the bottom of the shallow canal, and so pushed us along.
Besides these two, an old woman with two httle girls got
in, as we were starting — without asking our leave, by the
way — and sat down at the other end of the canoe. Of
course, the old woman began to busy herself with the two
little girls, in the usual occupation of old women here,
during theii' idle moments ; and though she left ofi" at our
earnest request, she evidently thought us very crotchety
people for objecting.

The scene on the canal was a cimous one. There were
numbers of boats going up and down ; and the Indians, as
soon as they caught sight of an acquaintance, began to
shout out a long string of complimentary phrases, sometimes
in Spanish and sometimes in Mexican : " How is your
worship this morning f " I trust that I have the happi-
ness of seeing your worship i/n good health." " If there is
anything I can have the honour of doing for your wor-
ship, pray dispose of me," and so forth ; till tliey are out of
hearing. All tliis is accompanied by a taking-off of hats,
and a series of low bows and complimentary grimaces.
As far as we could asceii^ain, it is all mere matter of cere-
mony. It may be an exaggeration of the formal, compli-
mentary talk of the Spaniards, but its origin probably
dates fm^ther back.

The Indians here no longer appeared the same dull,
melancholy men whom we had seen in the richer quarter
of the town. There they were under a strong feeling of

INDIANS. INDIAN DRESS. 61

constraint, for their language is not understood by the
whites and mestizos ; and they, for then- part, know but
little Spanish ; and besides, there is very Httle S5rmpathy
between the two classes. One thing will shew this clearly
enough. By a distinct hne of demarcation, the Indians
are separated from the rest of the population, who are at
least partly white. These latter call themselves " gente
de razon" — people of reason, — to distinguish themselves
from the Indians, who are people without reason. In
common parlance the distinction is made thus : the whites
and mixed breed are "gente" — i^eople, — the brown men
being merely " Indios" — Indians — and not people at aU.

Here, in their own quarter, and among their own
people, they seem talkative enough. We can only tell
what they are chattering about when they happen to
speak Spanish, either for our benefit, or to show off theii*
proficiency in that tongue. People who can speak the
Aztec language say that their way of forming compound
words gives constant occasion for puns and quibbles, and
that the talk of the Indians is full of such small jokes. In
this respect they difier exceedingly from the Spaniards,
whose jests are generally about things, and seldom about
their names, as one sees by thefr almost always bearing
translation into other languages.

Most of the canoes were tastefully decorated with
flowers, for the Aztecs have not lost their old taste for
ornamenting themselves, and everything about them, with
garlands and nosegays. The fruits and vegetables they
were carrying to market were very English in their ap-
pearance. Mexico is supplied with all kinds of tropical
fruits, which come from a distance ; but the district we are
now in only produces plants which might gi*ow in our own
country — barley, potatoes, cabbages, parsnips, apples,
pears, plums, peaches, and so forth, but scarcely anything

62 ANAHUAC.

tropical in its character. One thing surprises us, that the
Indians, in a chmate where the mornings and evenings
are often very chilly, should dress so scantily. The men
have a general appearance of having outgTown then'
clothes ; for the sleeves of the kind of cotton-shirt they
wear only reach to their elbows, and their trousers, of the
same material, only fall to their knees. To these two
garments add a sort of blanket, thrown over the shoul-
ders, a pail" of sandals, and a palm-leaf hat, and the man
is dressed. His skin is brown, his limbs muscular —
especially his legs — his lips thick, his nose Jewish, his hair
coarse, black, and hanging straight down. The woman's
dress is as simple as the man's. She has on a kind of
cotton sack, very short in the sleeves, and very open at
the shoulders, and some sort of a sku't or petticoat be-
sides. Sometimes she has a folded cotton cloth on her
head, like a Roman contadina ; but, generally, nothing
covers her thick black hair, which hangs down behind in
long twisted tails.

In old times, when Mexico was in the middle of a great
lake, and the inhabitants were not strong enough to hold
land on the shores, they were driven to strange shifts to
get food. Among other expedients, they took to making-
little floating islands, which consisted of rafts of reeds and
brushwood, on which they heaped mud from the shores of
the lakes. On the banks of the lake of Tezcuco the mud
was, at first, too full of salt and soda to be good for culti-
vation ; but by pouring the water of the lake upon it, and
letting it soak through, they dissolved out most of the
salts, and the island was fit for cultivation, and bore splen-
did crops of vegetables.* These islands were called chi-
nampas, and they were often large enough for the pro-
prietor to build a hut in the middle, and live in it with
♦ Clialco was and is a freshwater lake, and here they had not even this to do.

GARDENS. SANTA ANITA. 63

his family. In later times, when the Mexicans came to b^
no longer afi'aid of then* neighbours, the chinampas were
not of much use ; and when the water was drained off, and
the city stood on diy land, one would have supposed that
such a troublesome and costly arrangement woidd have
been abandoned. The Mexican, however, is hard to move
from the customs of liis ancestors ; and we have Humboldt's
word for it, that in his time there were some of these arti-
ficial islands still in the lake of Chalco, which the owners
towed about with a rope, or pushed with a long pole.
They are all gone now, at any rate, though the name of
chiiiampa is still applied to the gardens along the canal.
These gardens very much resemble the floating islands in
their construction of mud, heaped on a foundation of reeds
and branches ; and tliDugh they are not the real thing, and
do not float, they are interesting, as the present represent-
atives of the famous Mexican floating gardens. They are
naiTow strips of land, with a frontage of foui' or five
yards to the canal, and a depth of one hundi'ed, or a hun-
di'ed and fifty yards. Between the strips are open ditches ;
and one principal occupation of the proprietor seems to be
bi-inging up mud from the bottom of the ditch with a
wooden shovel, and throwing it on the garden, in places
where it has sunk. The reason of the narrowness of the
strips is that he may be able to throw mud all over them
fi-om the ditches on either side.

While we are busy observing all these matters, and
questioning om' boatmen about them, we reach Santa
Anita. Here there are swampy lanes and more swampy
gardens, a little village of Indian houses, three or four
pulque-shops, and a church. Outside the pulque-shops
are fresco-paintings, representing Aztec warriors carous-
ing, and draining great bowls of pulque. These were no
specimens of Aztec art, however, 1 nit seemed to be copied

K

64 ANAHUAC.

(by some white or half-caste sign-painter, probably) from
the French colom-ed engTavings which represent the events
of the Conquest. These extraordinary works of art are to
be seen everywhere in this eomitry, where, of all places in
the world, one woTild have thought that people would
have noticed that the artist had not the faintest idea of
what an Aztec was like, but supposed that his limbs and
face and hair were like an European's. Here, with the
real Aztec standing underneath, the difference was strik-
ing enough. One ought not to be too critical about these
things, however, when one remembers the pictures of
shepherds and shepherdesses that adorn our English farm-
houses. We diunk pulque at the sign of TJie Cacique, and
liked it, for we had now quite got over our aversion to its
putrid taste and smell. I wonder that our new faculty
of pulque-drinking did not make us able to relish the
suspicious eggs that abound in Mexican inns, but it had
no such effect, unfortunately.

Our canoe took us back to the Promenade of Las
Vigas, which is a long drive, planted with rows of trees,
and extends along the last mile or two of the canal. In-
deed, its name comes from the beam (Viga) which swings
across the canal at the place where the canoes pay toll.
This was the great promenade, once upon a time ; but the
new Alameda has taken away all the promenaders to a
more fashionable quarter, except on certain festival days,
three or four times in the year, when it is the connect
thing for society to make a display of itself — on horse-
back or in carriages — in this neglected Indian quarter.
We had happened upon one of these festival days ; so,
as we crawled along the side-patli, tu-ed and dusty, we
had a good opportunity of seeing the Mexican beau
monde. The display of really good carriages was ex-
traordinary ; but it must be recoUected that many fami-

PROMENADE. FLOODED STREETS. 65

lies liere are content to live miserably enough at home,
if they can manage to appear in good style at the thea-
tre and on the promenade. This is one reason why so
many of the Mexicans who are so friendly with you out
of doors, and in the cafes, are so very shy of letting you
see the inside of their houses. They say, and very likely
it is true, that among the richer classes, it is customary to
put a stipulation in the marriage-contracts, that the hus-
band shall keep a carriage and pair, and a box at the
theatre, for his wife's benefit. The horsemen turned out
in gi'eat style, and the foreigners were ftiUy represented
among them. It was noticeable that while these latter
generally adopted the high-peaked saddle, and the jacket,
and broad-brimmed felt hat of the country, and looked as
though the new arrangements quite suited them, the
native dandies, on the other hand, were prone to dressing
in European fashion, and sitting upon English saddles —
in which they looked neither secure nor comfortable.

We walked home past the old Bull-ring, now replaced
by a new one near the new promenade, and found, to our
sm'prise, that in this quarter of the town many of the
streets were under water. We knew that the level of the
lake of Tezcuco had been raised by a series of three very
wet seasons, but had no idea that things had got so far as
this. Of course the ground-floors had to be abandoned,
and the people had made a raised pathway of planks
along the street, and adopted various contrivances for
getting dryshod up to their first floors ; and in some places
canoes were floating in the street. The city looked like
this some two hundred years ago, when Martinez the en-
gineer tried an unfortunate experiment with his draining
tunnel at Huehuetoca, and flooded the whole city for five
years. It was by the interference, they tell us, of the pa-
troness of the Indians, our Lady of Guadalupe, who was
brought from her own temple on purpose, that the city was

Q6 ANAHUAC.

delivered fi-om the impending destruction. A number of
earthquakes took place, which caused the grovind to split
in large fissiu'es, down which the superfluous water disap-
peared. For none of her many miracles has the Virgin of
Guadalupe got so much credit as for this. To be sure, it
is not generally mentioned in orthodox histories of the
affair, that she was brought to the capital a year or two
before the earthquakes happened.

Talking of earthquakes, it is to be remembered that
we are in a district where they are of continual occurrence.
If one looks carefully at a line of houses in a street, it is
curious to see how some walls slope inwards, and some
outwards, and some are cracked from top to bottom.
There is hardly a church-tower in Mexico that is not
visibly out of the perpendicular. Any one who has no-
ticed how the walls of the Cathedral of Pisa have been
thrown out of the perpendicular by the settling down of
the foundations, will have an idea of the general appear-
ance of the larger buildings of Mexico. On different oc-
casions the destruction caused by earthquakes has been
very great. By the way, the liability of Mexico to these
shocks, explains the peculiarity of the building of the
houses. A modern English town ^ath two -or -three-
storied houses, with their thin brick walls, would be laid
in ruins by a shock which would hardly affect Mexico.
Here, the houses of several storeys have stone walls of
such thickness that they resist by sheer strength ; and the
one-storey mud houses, in the suburbs, are too low to suffer
much by being shaken about. A few days before we
arrived here, oiu- friends Pepe and Pancho were playing
at billiards in the Lonja,;}: the Merchants' Exchange ; and

t The " Lonja" is a feature in the commercial towns of Spanish America.
It is not only the Merchants' Exchange, hut their cluh, hilliard-rooni, and
smoking-roora ; in fact, their "lounge," and I fancy the two words are con-
nected with one another.

SAN JOSE AND EARTHQUAKES. 67

Pepe described to us the feeling of utter astonishment
with wliich he saw his ball, after striking the other, go
suddenly off at an absurd angle iato a pocket. The shock
of an earthquake had tilted the table up on one side.
While we were in Mexico there was a slight shock, which
set the chandeliers swinging, but we did not even notice
it. In April, a solemn procession goes from the Cathe-
dral, on a day marked in the Calendar as the " Patro-
cinio de Seiior San Jose," to implore the "Santissimo Patri-
arca" to protect the city from earthquakes (temblores).
In connection with this subject there is an opinion,
so generally received m Mexico that it is worth no-
tice. Everybody there, even the most educated people,
will tell you that there is an earthquake-season, which
occurs in January or February ; and that the shocks are
far more fi-equent than at any other time of the year.
My impression is that this is all nonsense ; but I should
like to test it with a Hst of the shocks that have been felt,
if such a thing were to be had. It does not follow that,
because the Mexicans have such frequent opportunities of
trying the question, they should therefore have done so.
In fact, experience as to popular beliefs in similar matters
rather points the other way. I recollect that in the earth-
quake districts of southern Italy, when shocks were of al-
most daily occm-rence, people believed that they were more
frequent in the middle four hours of the night, from ten to
two, than at other times. Of course, this proved on ex-
amination to be quite without foundation. To take one
more case in point. How many of om* almanack-books,
even the better class of them, contain prophecies of wet
and fine weather, deduced from the moon's quarters ! How
long will it be before we get rid of this queer old astro-
logical superstition ?

G8

ANAHUAC.

We made a few rovigh observations of tlie thermometer
and barometer during our stay in Mexico. The barometer
stands at about 22| inches, and our thermometer gave the
boiling point of water at 199 degrees. We could never
get eggs well boiled in the high lands, and attributed this,
whether rightly or not I cannot say, to the low tempera-
ture of boiliuo; water.

rvrnoffum^'^iiat '

Group of EccleaiasiicSj Mexico,

CHAPTER IV.

TACUBAYA. PACHUCA. REAL DEL MONTE.

We went one morning to the house of onr friend Don
Pepe, and were informed by the servant as we entered the
coui-tyard that the nino, the child, was up stairs waiting
for us. " The Child " seemed an odd term to apply to a
young man of five and twenty. The young ladies, in the
same way are called the nirias, and keep the appellation
untn they marry.

We went off" with the niiio to his uncle's house at
Tacubaya, on the rising ground above Mexico. In the
garden there we found a vegetation such as one would find
in southern Eui-ope — figs, olives, peaches, roses, and many
other European trees and flowers — growing luxuriantly,
but among them the passion-flower, which produces one
of the most delicious of fruits, the granadita, and other
semi-tropical plants. The live creatures in the garden,
however, were anything but European in thefr character.
There were numbers of immense butterflies of the most
brilliant colours ; and the garden was full of humming-
birds, darting backwards and forwards with wonderful
swiftness, and dipping their long beaks into the flowers.
They call them chupa-mu-tos — myi-tle-suckers, and the
Indians take them by blowing water upon them from a
cane, and catchmg them before they have recovered from
the shock. One day we bought a cage-fuU of them, and
tried to keep them alive in our room by feeding them with
sugar and water, but the poor little things pined away.

70 - ANAHUAC.

In old times the Mexicans were famous for their orna-
ments of humming-bu-d's feathers. The taste with which
they arranged feathers of many shades of colour, excited
the admiration of the conquerors ; and the specimens we
may still see in museums are beautiful things, and their
gi"eat age has hardly impaired the brilliancy of their tints.
This curious art was practised by the highest nobility, and
held in great esteem, just as working tapestry used to be
in Europe, only that the feather-work was mostly done by
men. It is a lost art, for one cannot take much account
of such poor things as are done now, in which, moreover,
the designs are European. In this garden at Tacubaya
we saw for the first time the praying Mantis, and caught
him as he sat in his usual devotional attitude. His
Spanish name is "el predicador," the preacher.

We got back to Mexico in time for the Corrida de
Toros. The bull-ring was a large one, and there were
many thousands of people there ; but as to the spectacle
itself, whether one took it upon its merits, or merely com-
pared it with the bull-fights of Old Spain, it was disgust-
ing. The bulls were cautious and cowardly, and could
hardly be got to fight ; and the matadors almost always
failed in killing them ; partly through want of skill,
partly because it is really harder to kill a quiet bull than
a fierce one who runs straight at his assailant. To fill up
the measure of the whole iniquitous proceeding, they
brought in a wretch in a white jacket with a dagger, to
finish the unfortunate beasts which the matador could not
kill in the legitimate way. It was evidently quite the
regular thing, for the spectators expressed no surprise at it.
After the bull-fight proper was finished, there came
two or three supplementary performances, which were
genuinely Mexican, and very well worth seeing. A very
Avild bull was turned into the ring, where two lazadores,

THE BULL-RING. THE COLEAR. 71

on beautiful little horses, were waiting for liira. The bull
set off at full speed after one of the riders, who cantered
easily ahead of him ; and the other, leisurely untying his
lazo, hung it over his left arm, and then, talcing the end
in his right hand, let the cord fall through tlie loop mto a
runninsT noose, which he whirled two or tkree times round
his head, and threw it so neatly that it settled gently
down over the bull's neck. In a moment the other end of
the cord was wound several times round the pummel of
the saddle, and the little horse set off at full speed to get
ahead of the bull. But the fii'st rider had wheeled round,
thrown his lazo upon the ground, and just as the bviU
stepped within the noose, whipped it up round his hind
leg, and galloped off in a contrary du-ection. Just as the
fu-st lazo tightened round his neck, the second jerked him
by the leg, and the beast 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, and inevitably
bringing him down, till the bull was tu-ed out and no
longer resisted. Then they both lazo'd him over the
liorns, and galloped him out, amid the cheers of the specta-
tors. The amusements finished with the "colear." This
is quite pecuUar to Mexico, and is done on this wise. The
coleador rides after the bull, who has an idea that some-
thing is going to happen, and gallops off as fast as he can
go, thi-owing out his hind legs in his awkward bullish
fashion. Now, suppose you are the coleador, sitting in
your peaked Mexican saddle, that rises behind and before,
and keeps you in your seat without an eftbrt on your part.
You gallop after the bull, and when you come up with him,
you pull as hard as you can to keep your horse back ; for,
if he is used to the sport, as almost all Mexican horses are,
he is wild to get past, not noticing that his rider has got

L

72 ANAHUAC.

no hold of the toro. Well, you are just behind the bull, a
little to the left of him, and out of the way of his hind
legs, which will trip your horse up if you dont take care ;
you take your right foot out of the stirrup, catch hold of
the end of the bull's tail (which is very long), throw your
leg over it, and so twist the end of the tail round your leg
below the knee. You have either got the bridle between
your teeth or have let it go altogether, and with your left
hand you give your horse a crack with the whip ; he goes
forward with a bound, and the bull, losing his balance by
the sudden jerk behind, rolls over on the gi-ound, and gets
up, looking very uncomfortable. The faster the bull gal-
lops, the easier it is to throw him over ; and two boys of
twelve orfoui'teen years of age coleared a couple of young
bulls in the arena, in great style, pitching them over in all
directions. The farmers and landed proprietors are im-
mensely fond of both these sports, which the bulls — by the
way — seem to dislilce most thorouglily ; but this exhibi-
tion in the bull-ring was better than what one generally
sees, and the leperos were loud in their expressions of
delight.

When we had been a week or two in the city of Mexico,
we decided upon making an excursion to the gi-eat silver-
mining district of the Real del Monte. Some of our
English friends were leaving for England, and had en-
gaged the whole of the Diligence to Pachuca, going from
thence up to the Real, and thence to Tampico, with all
the pomp and circumstance of a train of carriages and an
armed escort. We were invited to go with them as far
as Pachuca ; and accordingly we rose very early on the
28th of March, got some chocolate under difficulties, and
started in the Diligence, seven grown-up people, and a baby,
who was very good, and was spoken of and to as " leoncito."
On the high j)lateaus of Mexico, the children of European

ENGLISH IN MEXICO. CACTUS-HEDGE. 73

parents gi'ow up as healthy and strong as at home ; it is
only in the districts at a lower elevation above the sea, on
the coasts for instance, that they do not thrive. Mr. G., who
was leaving Mexico, was the head of a gi-eat merchant-
house, and it was as a compHment to him and Mrs. G. that
we were accompanied by a party of English horsemen for
the first two or three leagues. ( Englishmen take much more
easily to Mexican ways about horses than the Mexicans
do to ours, and a finer turn-out of horses and riders than
our amatem' escort could hardly have been found in Mexico.
There was our friend Don Guillermo, who rode a beau-
tifid horse that had once belonged to the captain of a band
of robbers, and had not its equal in the city for swiftness ;
and Don Juan on his splendid httle brown horse Pancho,
lazoing stray mules as he went, and every now and then
galloping into a meadow by the roadside after a bull, who
was off like a shot the moment he heard the sound of hoofs.
I wonder whether I shall ever see them again, those jovial
open-hearted countrymen of ours. At last oiu- companions
said good-bye, and loaded pistols were carefully an-anged
on the centre cushion in case of an attack, much to the edi-
fication of my companion and myself, as it rather implied
that, if fighting were to be done, we two should have to
sit inside to be shot at without a chance of hitting any-
body in return.

The hedsfes of the Organ Cactus are a featui'e in the
landscape of the plains, and we first saw them to perfec-
tion on the road between Mexico and Pachuca. This plant,
the Cereus hexagonus, grows in Italy in the open an-, but
seems not to be turned to account anywhere except in
Mexico for the purpose to wliicli it is particularly suited.
In its wild state it otows 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 have room, rise straight up-

74 ANAHUAC.

wards in fluted pillars fifteen or twenty feet in height.
Such a plant, with pillars rising side by side and almost
touching one another, has a curious resemblance to an
organ with its pipes, and thence its name " organo."

To make a fence, they break off the straight lateral
shoots, of the height required, and plant them closely
side by side, in a trench, sufficiently deep to ensure their
standing firmly ; and it is a curious sight to see a
labourer bearing on his shoulder one of these vegetable
pillars, as liigh as himself, and carefully guarding himself
against its spines. A hedge perfectly impassable is obtained
at once ; the cactus rooting so readily, that it is rare to see
a gap where one has died. The villagers suiTound their
gardens with these fences of cactus, which often line the
road for miles together. Foreigners used to point out such
villages to us, and remark that they seemed " well organ-
ized, " a small joke which unfortunately bears translation
into all ordinary European languages, and was inflicted
withovit mercy upon us as new comers.

We reached Pachuca early in the afternoon, and took
up our quarters in the inn there, and our friends went on
to Real del Monte.

This little town of Pachuca has long been a place of
some importance in the world, as regards mining-opera-
tions. The Aztecs worked silver-mines here, as well as
at Tasco, long before the Spaniards came, and they knew
how to smelt the ore. It is true that, if no better process
than smelting were known now, most of the mines would
scarcely be worth working ; but still, to know how to ex-
tract silver at all was a great step ; and indeed at that
time, and for long after the Conquest, there was no better
method known in Europe. It was in this very place
that a Spaniard, Medina by name, discovered the process
of amalgamation with mercury, in the year 1557, some

UP IN THE HILLS. 75

forty years after the invasion. We went to see the place
where he first worked his new process, and found it still
used as a " hacienda de beneficio " (establishment for ex-
tracting silver fi-om the ore.) So few discoveries in the
arts have come out of Mexico, or indeed out of any
Spanish colony, that we must make the most of this really
very important method, which is more extensively used
than any other, both in North and South America. As
for the rest of the world, it produces, comparatively, so
little silver, that it is scarcely worth taking into account.

We had forgotten, when we went to bed, that we
were nearly seven hundred feet higher than Mexico ; but
had the fact brought to our remembrance by waking
in the middle of the night, feeling very cold, and finding
our thermometer marking 40 degi'ees Fahr. ; whereupon we
covered ourselves with cloaks, and the cloaks with the
strips of carpet at om- bedsides, and went to sleep again.

We had hired, of the French landlord, two horses and
a mozo to guide us, and sorry hacks they were when we
saw them in the morning. It was delightful to get a little
circulation into our veins by going at the best gallop our
horses would agree to ; for we were fresh from hot countries,
and not at all prepared for having our hands and feet
numbed with cold, and being as hoarse as ravens — for the
sore throat which is the nuisance of the district, and is
very severe upon new comers, had not spared us. Evapor-
ation is so rapid at this high altitude that if you wet the
back of your hand it dries almost instantly, leavmg a
smart sensation of cold. One may easily suppose, that
when people have been accustomed to live imder the
ordinary pressure of the an-, their throats and lungs do not
like being dried up at this rate ; besides their having, on
account of the rarity of the air, to work harder in breath-
ing, in ordei' to get in the necessary quantity of oxygen.

76 ANAHUAC.

Coughs seem very common here, especially among the
children, though people look strong and healthy, but in
the absence of proper statistics one cannot undertake to
say whether the district is a healthy one or not.

For a wonder we have a good road, and this simply be-
cause the Real del Monte Company wanted one, and made it
for themselves. How mifortunate all Spanish countries are
in roads, one of the most important fii'st steps towards civil-
ization ! When one has travelled in Old Spain, one can
imagine that the colonists did not bring over very enhght-
ened ideas on the subject ; and as the Mexicans were not
allowed to hold intercourse with any other country, it is
easy to explain why Mexico is all but impassable for
carriages. But if the money — or half of it — that has been
spent in building and endowing churches and convents
had been devoted to road-making, this might have been a
great and prosperous country.

For some three hours we rode along among porphyritic
mountains, getting higher at every tm^n, and enjoying
the clear bright air. Now and then we met or passed a
long recua (train) of loaded mules, taking care to keep the
safe side of the road tiU we were rid of them. It is not
pleasant to meet a great drove of horned cattle in an
Alpine pass, but I really think a recua of loaded mules
among the Andes is worse. A knowing old beast goes first,
and the rest come tumbhng after him anyhow, with their
loads often projecting a foot or two on either side, and
banging against anybody or anything. Then, wherever the
road is particularly narrow, and there is a precipice of two
or three hundred feet to fall over, one or two of them
will fall down, or get their packs loose, and so block up
the road, and there is a general scrimmage of kicking and
shoving behind, till the arrieros can get things straight
again. At last we reach the top of a ridge, and see the

THE SILVER-MINES. 77

little settlement of Real del Monte below us. It is more
like a Cornish mining village than anything else ; but
of course the engine-houses, chimneys, and mine-sheds,
built by Cornishmen in true Cornish fashion, go a long
way towards making up the resemblance. The village is
built on the awkwardest bit of ground possible, up and
down on the side of a steep ravine, one house apparently
standing on the roof of another ; and it takes half a mile
of real hard climbing to get from the bottom of the town
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 Com-
pany's house. We made several new acquaintances at the
Real, though we left within a few hours, intending to see
the place thoroughly on our return.

One peculiarity of the Casa Grande — the great house
of the Company — ^was the warlike appearance of everybody
in it. The clerks were posting up the ledgers with loaded
revolvers on the desk before them ; the manager's room
was a small arsenal, and the gentlemen rode out for exer-
cise, morning and evening, armed to the teeth. Not that
there is anything to be apprehended fi-om robbers — indeed
I should like to see any of the Mexican ladrones interfer-
ing with the Cornish miners, who would soon teach them
better manners. I am inclined to think there is a positive
pleasure in possessing and handling guns and pistols, whe-
ther they are likely to be of any use or not. Indeed,
while travelling through the western and southern States
of America, where such things are very generally carried,
I was the possessor of a five-barrelled revolver, and admit
that I derived an amount of mild satisfaction from carry-
ing it about, and shooting at a mark with it, that amply
compensated for the loss of two dollars I incuiTcd by sell-
ing it to a Jew at New Orleans.

78 ANAHUAC.

We rode on to Regla, soon finding that our guide had
never been there before ; so, next morning, we kept the
two horses and dismissed him with ignommy. A fine road
leads from the Real to Regla, for all the silver-ore from
the mines is conveyed there to have the silver separated
fi'om it. My notes of our ride mention a great water-
wheel : sections of porphyritic rocks, with enormous masses
of alluvial soil lying upon them : steep ravines : arroyos,
cut by mountain -streams, and forests of pine-trees — a
thoroughly Alpine district altogether. At Regla it became
evident that our letter of introduction was not a mere
complimentary affair. There is not even a village there ;
it is only a great hacienda, belonging to the Company, with
the huts of the workmen built near it. The Company,
represented by Mr. Bell, received us with the greatest
hospitahty. Almost before the letter was opened our
horses and mozo were off" to the stables, our room was
ready, and om' dinner being prepared as fast as might be.
What a pleasant evening we had, after our long day's
work ! We had a great wood-fii'e, and sat by it, talking
and looking at Mr. Bell's photographs and minerals, which
serve as an amusement in his leisure -hours. The Com-
pany's Administrador leads i-ather a peculiar life here.
There is no want of work or responsibility ; he has two or
three hundred Indians to manage, almost all of whom will
steal and cheat without the slightest scruple, if they can
but get a chance ; he has to assay the ores, superintend a
variety of processes which requu'e the greatest skill and
judgment, and he is in charge of property to the value of
several hundred thousand pomids. Then a man must
have a constitution of iron to live in a place where the air
is so rarefied, and where the temperature varies thirty and
forty dcgi'ces between morning and noon. As for society,
he must find it in his own family ; for even the better

THE MINERS AND THEIR PRIEST. 79

class of Mexicans are on so different a level, intellectually,
from an educated Englishman, that their society bores him
utterly, and he had rather be left in solitude than have to
talk to them. Well, it is a gi-eat advantage to travellers
that circumstances fix pleasant people in such out-of-the-
way places.

One necessary part of a hacienda is a church. The
proprietors are compelled by law to build one, and pay the
priest's fees for mass on Sundays and feast-days. Now,
almost all the English one meets with engaged in business,
or managing mines and plantations, are Scotch, and one
may well suppose that there is not much love lost between
them and the priests. The father confessor plays an im-
portant part in the great system of dishonesty that pre-
vails to so monstrous an extent throughout the country.
He hears the particulars of the thefts and cheatings that
have been practised on the proprietor who builds his
chui'cli and pays for his services, and he complacently ab-
solves his penitents in consideration of a small penance.
Not a word about restitution ; and just a formal injunction
to go and sin no more, which neither priest nor penitent
is very sincere about. The various evils of the Boman
Catholic system have been reiterated till the subject has
become tiresome, but this particular practice is so con-
trary to the simplest notions of morality, and has pro-
duced such fearful effects on the character of this nation,
that one cannot pass it by without notice. If the
Superintendent should roast the parish priest in front of
the oxidising ftirnace, till he confessed all he knew about
the thefts of his parishioners from the Company, he
would tell strange stories, — how Juan Fernandez carried off
sixpennyworth of silver in each car every day for a month ;
and how Pedro Alvarado (the Indian names have almost
disappeared except in a few families, and Spanish names

M

80 ANAHUAC.

have been substituted) had a hammer with a hollow
handle, like the stick that Sanclio Panza delivered his
famous judgment about, and carried away silver in it
every day when he left work ; and how Vasco Nunez stole
the iron key from the gate (which cost two dollars to
replace), walking twenty miles and losing a day's work in
order to sell it, and eventually getting but twopence for it ;
and plenty more stories of the same kind. The Padre at
Regla, we heard, was not given to preaching sermons, but
had lately favoured his congregation with a very striking
one, to the eifect that the Company paid him only three
dollars a time for saying mass, and that he ought to have
four.

Almost every traveller who visits Mexico enlarges on
the dishonesty wliich is rooted in the character of the
people. That they are worse now in this respect than
they were before the Conquest is highly probable. Their
position as a conquered and enslaved people, tended, as it
always does, to foster the slavish vices of dissimulation
and dishonesty. The religion brought into the country by
the Spanish missionaries concerned itself with their be-
lief, and left their morals to shift for themselves, as it
does still.

In the mining-districts stealing is universal. Public
feeling among the Indians does not condemn it in the least,
quite the contrary. To steal successfully is considered a
triumph, and to be found out is no disgrace. Theft is not
even punishable. In old times a thief might be put in
the stocks ; but Bm-kart, who was a mining-inspector for
many years, says that in his time, some twenty years ago,
this was abolished, and I believe the law has not been
altered since. It is a miserable sight to see the Indian
labourers searched as they come out of the mines. They
are almost naked, but rich ore packs in such a small com-

MORALS OF SERVITUDE. 81

pass, and they are so ingenious in stowing it away, that
the doorkeepers examme their mouths and ears, and their
hair, and constantly find pieces that have been secreted,
while a far greater quantity escapes. It is this system of
thievins: that accounts for the existence of certain Uttle
smelting-sheds, close to the works of the Company, who
look at them with such feelings as may be unagined.
These places profess to smelt ore from one or two little
mines in the neighbourhood, but their real object is no
secret. They buy the stolen bits of rich ore from the
Indian laboui-ers, giving exactly half the value for it.

Of course, we must not judge these Mexican labourers
as though we had a very high standard of honesty at
home. That we should see workmen searched habitually
in England, at the doors of om- national dock -yards,
is a much greater disgrace to us. And not merely a dis-
gi'ace, but a serious moral evil, for to expose an honest
man to such a degradation is to make him half a thief
already.

People who know the Indian population best assure
us that then- lives are a perpetual course of intrigue and
dissimulation. Always trjdng to practise some small fraud
upon their masters, and even upon their own people, they
are in constant fear that every one is trying to overreach
them. They are afraid to answer the simplest question,
lest it should be a trap laid to catch them. They ponder
over every word and action of their European employers, to
find out what hidden intrigue lies beneath, and to devise
some counter-plot. Sartorius says that when he has met
an Indian and asked his name, the brown man always gave
a false one, lest the enquirer should want to do him some
harm.

Never did any people show more clearly the eflfects of
ages of servitude and oppression ; but, hopeless as the

82 ANAHUAC.

moi'al condition of this mining population seems, there is
one favourable ekcumstance to be put on record. The
Cornish miners, who have been living among them for
years, have woi-ked quite perceptibly upon the Indian
character by the example of thek persevering industry,
their love of saving, and their utter contempt for thieves
and liars. Instead of squandering then' wages, or bm-ying
them in the ground, many of the Indian miners take their
savings to the Banks ; and the opinions of the foreigners
are gradually — though very slowly — alteiing the popular
standard of honesty, the first step towards the moral im-
provement of the Mexican population.

In the morning we went off for an excursion, having
got a lively young fellow fi'om the hacienda in exchange
for our stupid mozo. There was hoar frost on the ground,
and the feeling of cold was intense at first ; but the sun
began to warm the gi'ound about eight o'clock, and we
were soon glad to fasten our great coats and shawls to our
saddles. Three leagues took us to the town of Atotoniico*
el Grande, which gives its name to the plateau we were
crossing. Here we are no longer in the valley of Mexico,
which is separated from this plain by the mountains of
the Real del Monte. We rode on two leagues more to the
viUage of Soquital-j- where, it being Sunday, we foimd the
inhabitants — mostly Indians — amusing themselves by
standing in the sun, doing nothing. I can hardly say "doing
nothing," though, for we went into the tienda, or shop, and
found a brisk trade going on in raw spuits. Tienda, in
Spanish, means a tent or booth. The first shops were
tents or booths at fau-s or in market-places ; and thence
" tienda " came to mean a shop in general ; a derivation

* Atotonilco, " Hot-water-place," so called from the liot springs in the
neighhourhood.

t Soquital, "Clay-place," from the potter's clay which abounds iu the
district. Earthenware is the staple manufacture hero.

DRAil-DEINKING. SALT-TRADE. 83

which coiTespouds with that of the word "shop" itself.
Such of the population as had money seemed to di-op in at
regular intervals for a dram, which consisted of a small
wine-glassfuU of white-corn-brandy, called chinguerito. We
tasted some, while the people at the shop were fiying eggs
and boiling beans for our breakfast ; and foruid it so
strong that a small sip brought tears into our eyes, to the
amusement of the bystanders. It seemed that everybody
was drinking who could afford it ; from the old men and
women to the babies in then- mothers' arms ; everybody
had a share, except those who were hard up, and they
stood about the door looking stolidly at the drinkers.
There was nothing hke gaiety in the whole affair ; only a
sort of satisfaction appeared in the face of each as he took
his dose. It is the drinkers of pulque who get furiously
di-unk, and fight ; here it is different. These di'inkers of
spnits are not much given to that enormous excess that
kills off the Red Indians ; indeed, they are seldom di'unk
enough to lose their wits, and they never have deluivun
tremens, which would come upon a Em'opean with much
less provocation. They get into a habit of daily — almost
hourly — di-am-diinking, and go on, year after year, in this
way ; seeming, as far as we could judge, to live a long
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 depressing sight.

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 actually three-
pence per lb., in a district where its consumption is im-
mense, as it is used in refining the silver ore. It must be
said, however, that this is an unusual piice ; for the mule-
teers have been so victimised by their mides being seized,

84 ANAHUAC.

either by the government or the rebels (one seems about
as bad as the other in this respect), that they must have
a high price to pay them for the risk. Generally seven
reals, or 8s. 6d. per arroba of 251bs., is the price. This salt
is evaporated in the saUnas of Campeche, taken by water
to Tuzpan, and then brought up the coimtry on mules'
backs — each beast carrying SOOlbs. Of course, this salt is
very coarse and very watery ; all salt made in this way
is. It suits the New Orleans people better to import salt
fi-om England, than to make it in this way in the Gulf of
Mexico, though the water there is very salt, and the sim
very hot. The fact, that it pays to carry salt on mules'
backs, tells volumes about the state of the country. At the
lowest computation, the mules would do four or five times
as much work if they were set to draw any kind of cart —
however rouffh — on a carriao-eable road. It is true that
there is some sort of road from here to Tampico, but an
English waggoner would not acknowledge it by that name
at all ; and the muleteers are still in possession of most of
the traffic in this district, as indeed they are over almost
all the country.

It was mid-day by this time ; and, as we could not
get to the Kio Grande without taking our chance for the
night in some Indian rancho, we turned back. The heat
had become so oppressive that we took off our coats ; and
Mr. Christy, riding in his shirt-sleeves and holding a white
umbrella 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. We passed through Soquital, and
there the natives were idling and drinking spirits as
before, and seemed hardly to have moved since we left.
This plateau of Atotonilco el Grande, called for shortness
Grande, is, like most of the high plains of Mexico, composed
mostly of porphyry and obsidian, a valley filled up with

INDIAN MARKET AT GRANDE. 85

debris from the surrounding mountains, which are all
volcanic, embedded in reddish earth. The mountain-
toiTcnts — in wliich the water, so to speak, comes down all
at once, not flowing in a steady stream all the year round
as in England — have left evidences of theii- immense power
in the ravines with which the sides of the hills, from their
very tops do^vnward, are fluted.

These fluted mountain-ridges resemble the " Kamms "
(combs) of the Swiss Alps, called so from their toothed
appearance.

We had met numbers of Indians, bringing their wares
to the Sunday market in the great square of Atotonilco el
Grande ; and when we reached the town on our way
home, business was still going on briskly ; so we put up
our horses, and spent an hour or two in studying the peo-
ple and the commodities they dealt in. It was a real
old-fashioned Indian market, very much such as the
Spaniards found when they first penetrated into the
country. A large proportion of the people could speak
no Spanish, or only a few words. The imgiazed pot-
tery, palm-leaf mats, ropes and bags of aloe-fibre, dressed
skins, &c., were just the same wares that were made three
centuries ago ; and there is no improvement in their manu-
facture. This people, who rose in three centuries from the
condition of wandering savages to a height of civilization
that has no equal in history — considering the shortness of
the time in which it gi*ew up — have remained, smce the
Conquest, without making one step in advance. They
hardly understand any reason for what they do, except
that their ancestors did things so — they therefore must
be right. They make their unglazed pottery, and carry
it five and twenty miles to market on their heads,
just as they used to do when there were no beasts of
burden in the country. The same with their fruits and

86 ANAHUAC.

vegetables, which they have broiTght great distances,
up the most difficult mountain-paths, at a ruinous sacri-
fice of time and trouble, considering what a miserable sum
they will get for them after all, and how much even
of this will be spent in brandy. By working on a hacienda
they would get double what their labour produces in this
way, but they do not understand tliis kind of reasoning.
They cultivate then- little patches of maize, by putting a
sharp stick into the gi'ound, and dropping the seed into
the hole. They carry pots of water to irrigate their
ground with, instead of diggmg trenches. This is the
more curious, as at the time of the Conquest irrigation was
much practised by the Aztecs in the plains, and remains
of water-canals still exist, showing that they had carried
the art to great perfection. They bring logs of wood over
the mountains by harnessing horses or mules to them,
and dragging them with immense labour over the rough
ground. The idea of wheels or rollers has either not oc-
curred to them, or is considered as a pernicious novelty.

It is very striking to see how, while Europeans are
bringing the newest machinery and the most advanced
arts into the country, there is scarcely any symptom of im-
provement among the people, who still hold firmly to the
wisdom of their ancestors. An American author, Mayer,
quotes a story of a certain people in Italy, as an illustra-
tion of the feeling of the Indians in Mexico respecting im-
provements. In this district, he says that the peasants
loaded their panniers with vegetables on one side, and
balanced the opposite pannier by filling it with stones ;
and when a traveller pointed out the advantage to be
gained by loading both panniers with vegetables, he was
answered that their forefathers from time immemorial had
so can-ied then' produce to market, that they were wise
and good men, and that a stranger showed very little

SARDINES. ACCOUNT-KEEPING. 87

understanding or decency who interfered in the established
customs of a country. I need hardly say that the Indians
are utterly ignorant ; and this of course accounts to a gi'eat
extent for their obstinate conservatism.

There were several shops round the market-place at
Grande, and the brandy-drinking was goiag on much as
at Soquital. The shops in these small towns are general
stores, like "the shop" in coal- and iron-districts in England.
It is only in large towns that the different retail -trades
are separated. One thing is very noticeable in these
country stores, the certainty of finding a great stock of sar-
dines in bright tin boxes. The idea of finding Sardines
d Vhuile in Indian villages seemed odd enough ; but the
fact is, that the difficulty of getting fish up from the coast
is so great that these sardines are not much dearer than
anything else, and they go a long way. Montezuma's
method of supplying his table with fresh fish from the gulf,
by having relays of Indian porters to run up with it, is
too expensive for general use, and there is no efiicient sub-
stitute. It is in consequence of this scarcity of fish, that
Chm'ch-fasts have never been very strictly kept in Mexico.

The method of keeping accoiints in the shops — which,
it is to be remembered, are almost always kept by white
or half- white people, hardly ever by Indians — is pi-imitive
enough. Here is a score which I copied, _ _ ^ i / • .

. O fO "^ /

the hieroglyphics standing for dollars, ^^ I

half-doUars, medios or half-reals, cuartillos or quarter-reals,
and tlacos — or clacos — which are eighths of a real, or about
|d. While account-keeping among the comparatively edu-
cated trades-people is in this condition, one can easily
understand how very limited the Indian notions of calcu-
lation are. They cannot realize any number much over ten ;
and twenty — cempoalli — is with them the symbol of a great
number, as a hundred was with the Greeks. There is in

N

88 ANAHUAC.

Mexico a mountain called in this indefinite way " Cem-
poatepetl" — the twenty-mountain. Sartorius mentions
the Indian name of the many-petaled marigold — " cempo-
axochitl" — the twenty -flower. We traded for some trifles
of aloe-fibre, but soon had to count up the reckoning with
beans.

I have delayed long enough for the present over the
Indians and their market ; so, though there is much more
to be said about them, I will only add a few words respect-
ing the commodities for sale, and then leave them for
awhile.

There seemed to be a large business doing in costales
(bags) made of aloe-fibre, for carrying ore about in the
mines. True to the traditions of his ancestors, the Indian
much prefers putting his load in a bag on his back, to the
far easier method of wheeling it about. Lazos sold at one
to four reals, (6d. to 2s.) according to quality. There are
two kinds of aloe-fibre ; one coarse, ichtli, the other much
finer, pito ; the first made from the great aloe that pro-
duces pulque, the other from a much smaller species of the
same genus. The stones with which the boiled maize is
ground into the paste of which the universal tortillas are
made were to be had here ; indeed, they are made in the
neighbourhood, of the basalt and lava which aboimd in the
district. The metate is a sort of little table, hewn out of
the basalt, with four little feet, and its surface is curved
from the ends to the middle. The metalpilc is of the
same material, and like a roUing-pin, The old-fashioned
Mexican pottery I have mentioned already. It is beauti-
fully made, and very cheap. They only asked us nine-
pence for a gi^eat oUa, or boiling-pot, that held four or five
gallons, and no doubt this was double the market-price.
I never so thoroughly realized before how climate is al-
tered by altitude above the sea as in noticing the fruits

MARKET AT GRANDE. BARRANCA OF REGLA. 89

and vegetables that were being sold at this little market,
within fifteen or twenty miles of which they were all
grown. There were wheat and barley, and the pinones
(the fruit of the stone-pine, wliich grows in Italy, and is
largely used instead of almonds); and from these represent-
atives of temperate chmates the list extended to bananas
and zapotes, gTown at the bottom of the great barrancas,
3000 or 4000 feet lower in level than the plateau, though
in distance but a few miles off. Three or four thousand
miles of latitude would not give a greater difference.

It would never do to be late, and break om- necks in
one of the awkward water-courses that cut the plateau
about in aU directions ; so we started homewards, soon
having to unfasten gTcat-coats and shawls fi-om our
saddles, to keep out the cold of the approaching sunset ;
and so we got back to the hospitable hacienda, and were
glad to warm ourselves at the 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 then- branches fringed with the long
gi'ey Spanish moss, and a profusion of epiphytes chnging
to their bark, some splendidly in flower, showing the fan-
tastic shapes and brilliant colom-s one sees in English
orchid-houses. Cactuses of many species complete the
pictm^e of the vegetation in this beautiful spot. This is at
the top of the barranca. Then imagine a valley a mile or
two in width, with sides almost perpendicular and capped
with basaltic pillars, and at the bottom a strip of land
where the vegetation is of the deepest green of the tropics,
with a river winding along among palm-trees and bananas.
This great barranca is between two and three tliousand
feet deep, and the view is wonderful. We went down a
considerable way by a zig-zag road, my companion collect-
ing armfuls of plants by the way, but unfortunately losing

90 ANAHUAC.

his thermometer, which could not be foimd, though a Ions:
hunt for it produced a gi'eat many more plants, and so the
trouble was not wasted. The prickly pear was covered
with ripe pm-ple fruit a little way down, and we refreshed
ourselves with them, I managing — in my clumsiness — to
get into my fingers two or three of the little sheaves of
needles which are planted on the outside of the fi'uit, and
thus providing myself with occupation for leisure moments
for three or four days after in taking them out.

Many species of cactus, and the nopal, or prickly pear,
especially, are full of watery sap, which trickles out in a
stream when they are pierced. In these thfrsty regions,
when springs and brooks are dry, the cattle bite them to
get at the moisture, regardless of the thorns. On the north
coast of Africa the camels delight in crmiching the juicy
leaves of the same plant. I have often been amused in
watching the camel-drivers' efforts to get their trains of
laden beasts along the narrow sandy lanes of Tangier, be-
tween hedges of prickly pears, where the camels with theii-
long necks could reach the tempting lobes on both sides
of the way.

In this thirsty season, while the cattle in the Mexican
plains derive moisture ft-om the cactus, the aloe provides
for man a substitute for water. It frequently happened
to us to go from rancho to rancho asking for water in vain,
though pulque was to be had in abundance.

To attempt any description of the varied forms of
cactus in Mexico would be out of the question. In the
northern provinces alone, botanists have described above
eight hundred species. The most striking we met with
were the prickly pear (cactus opuntia), the organo, the
night-blowing cereus, the various mamillarias — dome-
shaped mounds covered with thorns, varying in diameter
from an inch to six or eight feet — and the greybeard,
el viejo, " the old man," as our guide called them, upright

ALOE- JUICE COLLECTED FOR PULQUE. 91

pillars like street-posts, and covered with grey wool-like
filaments.

Getting to the top of the ravine again, we found an
old Indian milking an aloe, which flomishes here, though
a little further down the climate is too hot for it to pro-
duce pulque. This old gentleman had a long 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
the aloe-leaves into the hollow made by scooping out the
inside of the plant, and in which the sweet juice, the
aguamiel, collects. By having a Uttle hole at each end of
the gourd, and sucking at the large end, the hollow of the
plant emptied itself into the Acocote, (in proper Mexican,
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 goiud into a pig-skin which he carried at
his back. We went up with the old man to his rancho,
and tasted liis pulque, which was very good, though we
coidd not say the same of his domestic arrangments. It
puzzled us not a little to see people Hving up at this
height in houses built of sticks, such as are used in the
hot lands, and hardly affording any protection from the
weather, severe as it is here. The pulque is taken to
market in pig-skins, which, though the pig himself is taken
out of them, still retain his shape veiy accurately ; and
when nearly full of liquor, they roll about on then- backs,
and kick up the little dumpy legs that are left them, in
the most comical and life-like way. When we went away
we bought the old man's acocote, and carried it home in
triumph, and is it not in the Museum at Kew Gardens to
this day ? (See the illustration at page 30.^

At the hacienda of Regla are to be seen on a large scale
most of the processes which are employed in the exti'action

92 ANAHUAC.

of silver from the ore — the henejicio, or making good, as it
is called.

In the great yard, numbers of men and horses were
walking romid and round upon the " tortas," tarts or pies,
as they are called, consisting of powdered ore mixed with
water, so as to form a cfrcular bed of mud a foot deep.
To this mud, sulphate of cojDper, salt, and quicksilver are
added, and the men and mules walk round and round in it,
mixing it thoroughly together, a process which is kept up,
with occasional intervals of rest, for nearly two months.
By that time the whole of the silver has formed an amal-
gam with the mercury, and this amalgam is afterwards
separated from the earth by being trampled under water in
troughs. We were surprised to find that men and horses
could pass their lives in wading through mud containing
mercury in a state of fine division without absorbing it
into their bodies, but neither men nor horses suffer from it.

We happened to visit the melting-house one evening,
while silver and lead were being separated by oxidizing
the lead in a reverberatory frirnace. Here we noticed a
curious effect. The melted litharge ran from the mouth
of the furnace upon a floor of damp sand, and spread over
it in a sheet. Presently, as the heat of the mass vaporized
the water in the sand below, the sheet of litharge, still
slightly fluid, began to heave and swell, and a number of
small cones rose from its surface. Some of these cones
reached the height of four inches, and then burst at the
top, sending out a shower of red-hot fragments. I re-
moved one of these cones when the litharge was cool. It
had a regular fvmnel- shaped crater, like that which Vesu-
vius had until three or four years ago.

The analogy is complete between tlicse little cones
and those on the lava-field at the foot of the volcano of
Jorullo, the celebrated " hornitos ;" the concentric struc-

JORULLO. CASCADE OF REGLA. 93

ture of which, as described by Biirkart, proves that they
were formed in precisely the same manner. Until lately,
the formation of the great cone of Jorullo was attributed
to the same kind of action as the hornitos, but later tra-
vellers have established the fact that this is incorrect. One
of the De Saussure family, who was in Mexico a few years
back, describes Jorullo as consisting of three terraces of
basaltic lava, which have flowed one above another from a
central orifice, the whole being surmounted by a cone of
lapilli tln"own up from the same opening, from wliich also
later streams of lava have issued.

The celebrated cascade of Regla is just behind the
hacienda. There is a sort of basin, enclosed on tlu*ee sides
by a perpendicular wall of basaltic columns, some eighty
feet high. On the side opposite the opening, a mountain-
stream has cut a deep notch in this wall, and pours down
in a cascade. The basaltic pillars rest upon an undis-
tui'bed layer of basaltic conglomerate five feet thick, and
that upon a bed of clay. The place is very pictm-esque ;
and two gi^eat Yuccas which project over the waterfall,
crowned with their star-hke tufts of pointed leaves, have
a strange effect. These basalt-columns are very regular,
with from five to eight sides ; and are almost black in
colour. They have a curiously well-defined circular core in
the middle, five or six inches in diameter. This core is
light gTey, almost white. The Indians bring down num-
bers of short lengths or joints of the columns, and they
are used 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 floor also 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 of the haciendas of the
Company, where the German barrel-process is worked.

94 ANAHUAC.

Just behind the hacienda is the Ojo de Agua — the Eye of
Water — a beautiful basin, surrounded by a green sward
and a wood of oaks and fir-trees. A little stream takes
its rise from the spring which bubbles up into this basin,
and the name " Ojo de Agua/' is a general term applied to
such fountain-heads. When one looks down from a liigh
hill upon one of these Eyes of Water, one sees how the
name came to be given, and indeed, the idiom is thou-
sands of years older than the Spanish tongue, and belongs
as well to the Hebrew and Arabic. A Mexican calls a
lake atezcatl, Water -Mirror, an expressive woid, which
reminds one of the German Wasserspiegel.

Soon after nightfall we got back to the Enghsh inn, and
went to bed wdthout any further event happening, except
the burning of some outhouses, which we went out to see.
The custom of roofing houses with pine-shingles (" tacu-
meniles"), and the general use of wood for building all the
best houses, make fires very common here. Dming the
few days we spent in the Real district, I find in my note-
book mention of three fires which we saw. We spent the
next day in resting, and in visiting the mine-works near
at hand. The day after, an Enghshman who had lived
many years at the Real offered to take us out for a
day's ride ; and the Company's Administrador lent us two
of his own horses, for the poor beasts fi-om Pachuca could
hardly have gone so far. The first place we visited was
Peiias Cargadas, the " loaded rocks." Riding through a
thick wood of oaks and pines, we came suddenly in view
of several sugar-loaf peaks, some three hundred feet high,
tapering almost to a point at the top, and each one crowned
with a mass of rocks which seem to have been balanced
in unstable equihbrium on its point, — looking as though
the first puff of wind would bring them down. The pillars
were of porphyritic conglomerate, which had been disin-

CERRO DE NAVAJAS. OBSIDIAN IMPLEMENTS. 95

tegi'ated and worn away by wind and rain ; while the
great masses resting on them, probably of solid porphyry,
had been less affected by these iafluences. It was the
most cm-ious example of the weathering of rocks that we
had ever seen. From Penas Cargadas we rode on to the
farm of Guajalote, where the Company has forests, and
cuts wood and burns charcoal for the mines and the refin-
ing works. Don Alejandro, the tenant of the farm, was a
Scotchman, and a good fellow. He could not go on with
us, for he had invited a party of neighbours to eat up a
kid that had been cooked in a hole in the gi-ound, with
embers upon it, after Sandwich Island fashion. This is
called a barbacoa — a barbecue. We should have liked to
be at the 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 and valleys, and heat that was
positively melting. Thence down to the Cerro de Navajas,
the " hill of knives." It is on the sides of this hill that
obsidian is found in enormous quantities. Before the
conquerors introduced the use of iron, these deposits were
regularly mined, and this place was the Shefiield of
Mexico.

We were curious to see aU that was to be seen ; for Mr.
Christy's Mexican collection, already large before our visit,
and destined to become much larger, contained nrunbers
of implements and weapons of this very peculiar material.
Any one who does not know obsidian may imagine great
masses of bottle-glass, such as our orthodox ugly wine-
bottles are made of, veiy hard, veiy brittle, and — if one
breaks it with any ordinary implement — going, as glass
does, in every direction but the right one. We saw its
resemblance to this portwine-bottle-glass in an odd way
at the Ojo de Agua, where the wall of the hacienda was
armed at the top, after our English fashion, apparently

o

96

ANAHUAC.

with bits of old bottles, but which turned out to be chips
ot obsidian. Out of this rather unpromising stuff the Mexi-
cans made knives, razors, arrow- and spear-heads, and

C3

X

1. Ftamt-shapcd Arroiv-hcad , obsidian: Tetcnhuacan. 2. Arrnnhcad ; ojjali- obsidian: Tcltuhuanm.
3. Kni/t or Itazor oj Obsidian; shoiin in livo aspects; Mexico. 4. Ltaf-shaped Knife or Javelin-head; obsi-
dian: from Real del Monte. 5. Spear-head oj chalcedony; one of a pair supposed la be Spears of Slate:
found in excavalinij for the Casa Grande, Tczcuco. fThis peculiar opalescent cUohrilony occurs as concre-
tions, sometimes of large size, in the trachytie lavas of Mexico.J

MANUFACTURE OF STONE KNIVES. 97

other things, some of great beauty. I say nothing of the
polished obsidian miiTors and ornaments, nor even of the
curious masks of the human face that are to be seen in
collections, for these were only laboriously cut and polished
with jewellers' sand, to us a common-place process.

Cortes found the barbers at the great market of Tlate-
lolco busy shaving the natives with such razors, and he
and his men had experience of other uses of the same
material in the flights of obsidian-headed arrows which
"darkened the sky," as they said, and the more deadly
wooden maces stuck all over with obsidian points, and of
the priests' sacrificial knives too, not long after. These
things were not cut and polished, but made by chipping
or cracking off pieces from a lump. This one can see by
the traces of conchoidal fracture which they all show.

The art is not whoUy understood, for it perished soon
after the Conquest, when iron came in ; but, as far as the
theory is concerned, I think I can give a tolerably satis-
factory account of the process of manufacture. In the
first place, the workman who makes gun-flints could pro-
bably make some of the simpler obsidian implements,
which were no doubt chipped off" in the same way. The
section of a gun-flint, with its one side flat for sharpness
and the other side ribbed for strength, is one of the
characteristics of obsidian knives. That the flint knives
of Scandinavia were made by chipping off" strips from
a mass is proved by the many-sided prisms occasion-
ally found there, and pai-ticularly by that one which
was discovered just where it had been worked, with the
knives chipped off" it lying close by, and fitting accurately
into then- places upon it.

Now to make the case complete, we ought to find such
prisms in Mexico; and accordingly, some months ago,

98

ANAHUAC.

when I examined the splendid Mexican collection of Mr.
Uhde at Heidelberg, I found one or two. No one seemed
to have suspected their real nature, and they had been
classed as maces, or the handles of some kind of weapon.
I should say from mem-
ory that they were seven
or eight inches long, and
as large as one could con-
veniently grasp ; and one
or both of them, as if to
remove all doubt as to
what they were, had the
stripping off of ribbons
not carried quite round
them, but leaving an in-
termediate strip rough.
There is another point
about the obsidian knives
which requires confirma-
tion. One can often see.

Fluted Prism of Obsidian: „t^ f1-,c, onrle r\f +I10 Aztec Knives or Razors. Long nar-

the eore from wh,ch flakes ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^^ ^ ^ '•»«' P'"''" »/ Obsidian, having a

ha.e been struck off. Scaudinaviau flint StV;oZ. "''""" """"
knives, the bruise made by the blow of the hard stone
with which they were knocked off. I did not think of
looking to tliis point when at Mr. Uhde's museum, but the
only obsidian knife I have seen smce seems to be thus
bruised at the end.

Once able to break his obsidian straight, the workman
has got on a long way in his trade, for a large proportion of
the articles he has to make are formed by planes intersect-
ing one another in various directions. But the Mexican
knives are generally not pointed, but turned up at the end,
as one may bend up a di'uggist's spatula. This peculiar

OBSIDIAN MINES. 99

shape is not given to answer a purpose, but results from
the natm-al fi-acture of the stone.

Even then, tlie way of making several implements or
weapons is not entirely clear. We got several obsidian
maces or lance-heads — one about ten inches long — which
were taper from base to point, and covered with taper
flutings ; and there are other things wliich present great
difficulties. I have heard on good authority, that some-
where in Peru, the Indians still have a way of working
obsidian by laying a bone wedge on the surface of a piece,
and tapping it till the stone cracks. Such a process may
have been used in Mexico.

We may see in museums beautiful little articles made
in this intractable material, such as the mirrors and masks
I have mentioned, and even rings and cups. But, as I
have said, these are mere lapidaries' work.

The situation of the mines was picturesque ; grand hills
of porphyritic rock, and pine-forest everywhere. Not far
off" is the broad track of a hurricane, which had walked
throvigh it for miles, knocking the great trees down hke
ninepins, and leaving them to rot there. The vegetation
gave evident proof of a severe climate ; and yet the heat
and glare of the sun were more intolerable than we had
ever felt it in the region of sugar-canes and bananas.
About here, some of the trachytic porphyry which forms
the substance of the hills had happened to have cooled,
imder suitable conditions, from the molten state into a sort
of slag or volcanic glass, which is the obsidian in question ;
and, in places, this vitreous lava — from one layer having
flowed over another which was already cool — was regu-
larly stratified.

The mines were mere wells, not very deep ; with hori-
zontal workings into the obsidian where it was very good

100 ANAHUAC.

and in thick layers. Round about were heaps of frag-
ments, hundreds of tons of them; and it was clear, from
the shape of these, that some of the manufacturing was
done on the spot. There had been great numbers of pits
worked ; and it was fi-om these " minillas," Httle mines, as
they are called, that we first got an idea how important
an element this obsidian was in the old Aztec civilization.
In excursions made since, we travelled over whole dis-
tricts in the plains, where fragments of these arrows and
knives were to be found, literally at every step, mixed
with morsels of pottery, and here and there a little clay
idol. Among the heaps of fragments were many that had
become weathered on the upper side, and had a remark-
able lustre, like silver. Obsidian is called hizcli by the
Indians, and the silvery sort is known as hizcli platera.^
They often find bits of it in the fields ; and go with great
secrecy and mystery to Mr. BeU, or some other authority
in mining matters, and confide to him their discovery of a
sUver-mine. They go away angry and unconvinced when
told what their silver really is ; and generally come to the
conclusion that he is deceiving them, with a view of
throwing them off* the scent, tliat he may find the place
for himself, and cheat them of their share of the profits —
just what then- own miserable morbid cunning would
lead them to do under such circumstances.

The family-likeness that exists among the stone tools
and weajjons found in so many parts of the woild is very

* The book-name for obsidian is itztli, a word which seems to mean origin-
ally " sharp thing, knife," and thence to have been applied to the material
knives are made of. Obsidian was also called itztetl, knife-stone. But no
Indian to whom I spoke on the subject would ever acknowledge the existence
of such a word as ilzlli for obsidian, but insisted that it was called bizcli, which
is apparently the corrupt modern pronunciation of another old name for the
same mineral, petzlli, shiny-stone.

STONE IMPLEMENTS OF MEXICO.

101

remarkable. The flint-arrows of North America, such
as Mr. Longfellow's arrow -
maker used to work at in the
land of the Dacotahs, and
which, in the wild northern
states of Mexico, the Apa-
ches and Comanches use to
this day, might be easily mis-
taken for the weapons of our Mexican Amiv-lKads of obsidian.

British ancestors, dug up on the banks of the Thames. It
is true that the finish of the Mexican obsidian implements
far exceeds that of the chipped flint and agate weapons of
Scandinavia, 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 may attiibute partly to
the superiority of the material ; for the Mexicans also
used flint to some extent, and their flint weapons are as
hard to distinguish by inspection as those fi:om other parts
of the world. We may reasonably suppose, moreover,
that the skill
of the Mexi-
can artificer
increased
when he
found a bet-

. i. ' 1 Aztec Knife of Cltalcedony^ mounted on a wooden handle^ which is shaped like a

^^^ lllfiuolicil human figure with its face appearing through an eagle-head mask, and has been
.1 n • 1 I inlaid with mosaic work of malachite, hone, shell, and turquoise* Length \2k

than flmt to i„,4„.

work upon. Be this as it may, an inspection of any good
collection of such articles shows the much higher finish of
the obsidian implements than of those of flint, agate, and
rock-crystal. They say there is an ingenious artist who
makes flint arrow-heads and stone axes for the benefit of
English antiquarians, and earns good profits by it : I

102 ANAHUAC.

should like to give him an order for ribbed obsidian razors
and spear-heads ; I don't think he would make much of
them.

The wonderful similarity of character among the stone
weapons found in different parts of the world has often
been used by ethnologists as a means of supporting the
theory that this and other arts were can-ied over the
world by tribes migrating from one common centre of
creation of the human species. The argument has not
much weight, and a larger view of the subject quite super-
sedes it.

We may put the question in this way. In Asia and
in Europe the use of stone tools and weapons has always
characterized a very low state of civilization ; and such
implements are only found among savage tribes living by
the chase, or just beginning to cultivate the ground and
to emerge from the condition of mere barbarians. Now,
if the Mexicans got their civilization from Europe, it must
have been from some people unacquainted with the use of
iron, if not of bronze. Iron abounds in Mexico, not only in
the state of ore, but occurring nearly piu-e in aerolites of
great size, as at Cholula, and at Zacatecas, not far from
the great ruins there ; so that the only reason for then not
using it must have been ignorance of its quahties.

The Arabian Nights' story of the mountain which con-
sisted of a single loadstone finds its Uteral fulfilment in
Mexico. Not far from Huetamo, on the road towards the
Pacific, there is a conical hill composed entirely of mag-
netic iron-ore. The blacksmiths in the neighbom-hood,
with no other apparatus than thefr common forges, make
it dii*ectly into wrought iron, which they use for all ordi-
nary purposes.

Now, in supposing civilization to be transmitted from
one country to another, we must measui-e it by the height

AZTEC CIVILIZATION. 103

of its lowest point, as we measure the strength of a chain
by the strength of the weakest link. The only civiliza-
tion that the Mexicans can have received from the Old
World must have been from some people whose cutting
implements were of sharp stone, consequently, as we must
conclude by analogy, some very barbarous and ignorant
tribe.

From this point we must admit that the inhabitants
of Mexico raised themselves, independently, to the extra-
ordinary degree of culture which distinguished them when
Europeans first became aware of their existence. The
curious distribution of their knowledge shows plamly
that they found it for themselves, and did not receive it
by transmission. We find a wonderful acquaintance with
astronomy, even to such details as the real cause of
eclipses, — and the length of the year given by intercala-
tions of surprising accui^acy ; and, at the same time, no
knowledge whatever of the art of wiiting alphabetically,
for then- liieroglyphics are nothing but suggestive pic-
tures. They had earned the art of gardening to a high
degree of perfection ; but, though there were two kinds of
ox, and the buffalo at no great distance from them, in the
countries they had aheady passed tlu-ough in their migra-
tion from the north, they had no idea of the employment
of beasts of bm-den, nor of the use of milk. They were a
gi'eat trading people, and had money of several kinds in
general use, but the art of weighing was utterly unknown
to them ; while, on the other hand, the Peruvians habitu-
ally used scales and weights, but had no idea of the use of
money.

To return to the stone knives ; the Mexicans may very
well have invented the art themselves, as they did so
many others ; or they may have received it from the Old

World. The things themselves prove nothing cither way.

p

104 ANAHUAC.

The real proof of their having, at some early period,
communicated with inhabitants of Europe or Asia rests
upon the traditions current among them, which are re-
corded by the early historians, and confirmed by the Aztec
picture-writings ; and upon several extraordinary coinci-
dences in the signs used by them in reckoning astrono-
mical cycles. Further on I shall allude to these tra-
ditions.

On the whole, the most probable view of the origin of
the Mexican tribes seems to be the one ordinarily held,
that they really came fi-om the Old World, bringing with
them several legends, evidently the same as 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 then- civilization as of
independent and far later growth.

We rode back through the woods to Guajalote, where
the Mexican cook had made us a feast after the manner
of the country, and from her experience of foreigners had
learnt to temper the child to our susceptible throats.
Decidedly the Mexicans are not without ideas in the
matter of cookery. We stayed talking with the hospi-
table Don Alejandro and his sister till it was all but dark,
and then rode back to the Real, admiring the fire-flies
that were darting about by thousands, and listening to
our companion's stories, which turned on robberies and
murders — as stories are apt to do in wild places after
dark. But, save an escape ffom being robbed some
twenty years back, and the history of an Indian who was
murdered just here by some of his own people, for a few
shillin<jjs he was takingf home, our fi'iend had not much
reason to give for the two huge horse-pistols he carried,
ready for action. His story of the death of a German
engineer in these parts is worth recording here. He was

SILVER AND COMMERCE OF MEXICO. 105

riding home one dark night, with a companion ; and,
trusting to liis knowledge of the country, tried a short cut
through the woods, among the old open mines near the
Begla road. They had quite passed all the dangerous
places, he thought, so he gave his horse the spur, and
plunged sheer down a shaft, hundreds of feet deep. His
friend pulled up in time, and got home safely.

We had one more day among the mines, and then went
back to Pachuca, and next day to Mexico in the Diligence.
Everywhere the same hospitahty and good-natm-ed in-
terest in us and oui' doings, often shown by people with
whom we had hardly the slightest acquaintance. Travelhng
here is very different from what it is in a country on which
the shadow of Murray's Handbook has fallen.

Almost all the interest Europe takes in Mexico, politi-
cally and commercially, turns upon the exportation of
silver. The gold, cochineal, and vanilla are of small ac-
covmt. It is the silver dollars that pay for the Manchester
goods, woollens, hardware, and many other things — those
ubiquitous boxes of sardines a I'huile, for instance. The
Mexicans send to Europe some five millions sterling in silver
every year, that is, about twelve shillings apiece for all the
population. It is just about what then- government spends
annually in promoting the maladministration of the coun-
try (and, looking at the matter in that point of view, they
don't do thefr work badly for the money). The income
of the Mexican church is not quite so much, but not far
off.

Baron Humboldt has expressed a hope that, at some
future day, the Mexicans will turn their attention to
producing articles of real intrinsic value, and not those
which are merely a sign to represent it. He tells us,
quite feelingly, how the Peace of Amiens stopi)cd the
working of the iron-mines that had been opened wlieu

106 ANAHUAC.

they could get no iron fi-om abroad ; for, when trade
was reopened, people preferred buying in Europe pro-
bably a better article at one-tliird the price. He even
hopes an enlightened government will encoui'age (that
is, protect) more useful industries. This was wi-it-
ten fifty years ago, though. If an enlightened govern-
ment will give people some security for life and property,
and make reasonable laws, and execute them, — leaving
men of business to find out for themselves how it suits
them to employ their capital, it seems probable that the
balance between articles of real value and articles of ima-
ginary value will adjust itself, perhaps better than an en-
hghtened government could do it. The Mexican govern-
ment has, unfortunately, followed Humboldt's advice in
some respects. Cotton goods, woollens, and hardware
are thus protected. We may sum up the statistics of the
Mexican cotton-manufacture in a rough way thus, — ^taking
merely into question the coarse cotton cloth called '^naiita,
and used prmcipally by the Indians. We may reckon
roughly that for this article alone the Mexicans have to
pay a million sterling aimually more than they could get
it for if there were no protection-duty. The only advan-
tage anybody gets by this is that a certain part of the
population is employed in a manufacture unsuited to the
coimtry, and is thus taken away fi-om work that may be
done profitably. The actual amount of money paid in
wages to the class of operatives thus forced into existence
is much less than the amount which the country forfeits
for the sake of making its manta at home. Thus a siim
actually amounting to a third of the annual taxation of
the coimtry is thrown away upon this one article ; and
more goes the same way, to encom-age similar improfitable
manufactures.

With respect to the silver-mines, it is stated, on com-
petent autliority, that the northern States of Mexico are

MEXICAN SILVER-MINES. 107

very rich in silver ; but there is scarcely any population,
and that consisting mostly of Red Indians who will not
work. When this district becomes a temtory of the United
States — 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 and other places ; and were
very familiar with silver, though they did not value it
much. Under the Spaniards, the working of silver became
the prominent industry of the country ; and, until the
Mexican Independence, the production steadily increased.
The Spaniards invented amalgamation by the 2^0!'^^o-pro-
cess, a most important improvement. Then came above
twenty years of confusion, when little was done. But
when the Republic had fairly got under way, and the
country was in some measure open to foreigners, Europe,
especially England, in hot haste to take advantage of the
opportunity, sent over engineers and machinery, and great
sums of money, much of which was quite wasted, to the
hopeless ruin of a great part of the adventui-ers.

The improvements and the macliinery remained, how-
ever ; and the mines passed into other hands. Of late years
the companies have been doing very well, and now export
nearly as much silver as during the latter years of the
Spanish government — nearly, but not quite. The finan-
cial liistory of the Real del Monte Company is worth put-
ting down. The original English company spent nearly
one million sterhng on it, without getting any dividend.
They sold it to two or three Mexicans for about twenty-
seven thousand pounds, and the Mexicans spent eighty
thousand more on it, and then began to make profits.
The annual profit is now some d£'20(),0()().

I have said that the modern Mexican Indian lias but
little idea of arithmetic. This was not the case with his

] 08 ANAHUAC.

ancestors, who had a curious notation, serving for the hisrh-
est numbers. The Indians of the present day use the old
Aztec numerals, and from these there is something to be
learnt.

Baron Humboldt, speaking of the Muysca Indians of
South America, says that their word for eleven is quihicha
ata, that is, " foot one ;" meaning that they have counted
all their fingers, and are beginning their toes. He pro-
ceeds to compare the Persian words, i')entdui, hand, and
2)endj, five, as being connected with one another, and gives
various other cmious instances of finger-numeration. We
may carry the theory further. The Zulu language reck-
ons from one up to five, and then goes on with tatisitupe
(" take the thumb"), meaning six ; tatukomba {" take the
pointer," or forefinger), meaning seven, and so on. The Yei
language counts from one up to nineteen, and for twenty
says mo hande — "a person is finished" — that is, both fingers
and toes. I venture to add another suggestion. Eichhoff
gives a Sanskrit word for finger, "dai9ini" (taken appar-
ently from pra-degini, forefinger), and which corres-
ponds curiously with " da9an," ten ; and we have the same
resemblance running through many of the Indo-Eiu^opean
languages, as Seko and SaicrwXoc, decern and digitus;
German, Zehn and Zehe, and so on.

Here the Mexican numerals will afford us a new illus-
tration. Of the meaning of the first four of them — ge,
ome, yei, nahui — I can give no idea, 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 7nacuilli,
"hand-depicting." Then we go on in the dark as far
as ten, which is matlactli, " hand-half," as I think it
means, (fi'om tlactli, half) ; and this would mean, not the
halving of a hand, but the half of the whole person, which
you get by counting his hands only. The syllable ma,

NUMERALS. 109

which means " hand," makes its appearance in the words
five and ten, and no where else ; just as it should do.
When we come to twenty, we have cempoalli, "one
counting ;" that is, one whole man, fingers and toes — cor-
responding to the Vei word for twenty, " a person is
finished."

I think we need no more examples to show that
people — in almost all countries — reckon by fives, tens, or
twenties, merely because they began to count upon their
fingers and toes. If the strong man who had six fingers
on each hand, and six toes on each foot, had invented a
system of numeration, it would have gone in twelves,
nearly like the duodecimals which our carpenters use ;
unless, indeed, he had been stupid after the manner of
very strong men, and not gone beyond sixes. We see how
the Romans, though they inherited from their Eastern
ancestors a numeration by tens up to decern, and then be-
ginning again undechn, &c., yet when they began to write
a notation could get no farther than five — I., Ii., ill., iv., v. ;
and then on again, vi., vii., up to ten, fi-om ten to fifteen,
and so on.

There is a very cm-ious viilgar error which prevails,
even among people who have a good practical acquaint-
ance with arithmetic. It is that the number 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 can
halve it, it is true, but that is about all you can do with
it, for its being divisible by five is of hardly any use for
practical purposes. Eigltt would be a much better num-
ber, for you can halve it three times in succession ; and
twelve is perhaps the most convenient number possible, as
it will divide by two, three, and four. It is this conve-
nient property that leads tradesmen to sell by dozens, and
grosses, rather than by tens and hundreds. If we used

110

ANAHUAC.

eights or twelves instead of tens for numeration, we might
of coui'se preserve all the advantages of the Indian or
Arabic numerals ; in the first case, we should discard the
ciphers 8 and 9, and reckon 5, 6, 7, 10 ; and in the second
case, we should want two new ciphers for ten and eleven ;
and 10 would stand for twelve, and 11 for thkteen. Our
happening to have ten fingers has really led us iato a rather
inconvenient numerical system.

AZTEC HEAD, IN TERRA COTTA.
(PROBABLY EITHER A HOUSEHOLD-COD OR A VOTIVE OFFERING,)

NOTE.

The unique Knife figured at page 10 1 and two masks incrusted with a
similar mosaic work (of turquoise and obsidian) are in Mr. Christy's collection ;
and a mask and head of similar workmanship are in the collection at Copen-
hagen. These are the only known examples of this advanced style of Aztec art.

The whole once belonged probably to one set, brought to Europe soon after
the Conquest of Mexico. The two at Copenhagen were obtained at a convent
in Rome; and, of the other three, two were for a long period in a collection at
Florence, and the otlicr was obtained at Bruges, where it was most probably
brought by the Spaniards during their rule iu the Low Countries.

CHAP. V.

MEXICO. GUADALUPE.

"w«.»r,.«t.^„,

The Rcbozo worn by lite Women oj Mexico; ami the Scrape Korn by the Men.

While we were away at the Real del Monte, the news
had reached Mexico that Puebla had capitulated, and that
the rebel leader had fled. The victory was celebrated in
the capital with the most triumphal entries, harangues,
bull-fights, and illuminations done to order. If you had
a house in one of the principal streets, the pohce would
make you illuminate it, whether you liked or not. The
newspapers loudly proclaimed the triumph of the consti-
tutional principle, and the inauguration 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 free expression of public opinion. They were
all either suppressed, or converted into the merest mouth-

Q

112 ANAHUAC.

pieces of the government. The telegraph was under the
strictest surveillance, and no messages were allowed to be
sent which the government did not consider favourable to
their interests ; a precaution which rather defeated itself,
as the people soon ceased to believe any public news at
all. In all these mean little shifts, which we in England
consider as the special property of despotic governments,
the authorities of the Mexican Republic showed themselves
great proficients.

We were left, therefore, to foim what idea we could of
the real state of Mexican affairs, from the private informa-
tion received by our fiiends. Just for once it may be
worth while to give a few details, not because the people
engaged were specially interesting, but because the affair
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 to make a stand against the
clergy and the army, who stood firm against any attempt
at reform — knowing, with a certain instmct, that, if any
real reform once began, their own unreasonable privileges
would soon be attacked. 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 city of the Re-
public, and there Comonfort besieged him. So far I
have already described the doings of the " reaccionarios."

The newspapers gave wonderful accounts of attacks
and repulses, and reckoned the killed on both sides at
2,500. There were 10,000 regailar troops, and 10,000
irregulars (very irregular troops indeed) ; and these were
commanded by a complete regiment of officers, and forty
generals. This is reckoning both sides ; but as, on pretty
good authority (Tejada's statistical table), the troops in
the Republic are only reckoned at 12,000, no doubt the

SIEGE AND CAPITULATION OF PUEBLA. 113

above numbers are much exaggerated. As for the 2,500
killed, the fact is that the siege was a mere farce ; and,
judging by what we heard at the time in Mexico, and soon
afterwards in Puebla itself, 25 was a much more correct
estimate : and some facetious people reduced it, by one
more division, to two and a half The President had
managed, by desperate efforts, to borrow some money in
Mexico, on the credit of the State, at sixty per cent. ; and
it seems certain that it was this money, judiciously ad-
ministered to some of Haro's generals, that brought about
the flight of the anti-president, and the capitulation of
Puebla. The termination of the affair, according to the
newspapers, was, that the rebel army were incorporated
with the constitutional troops ; that theii' officers — 500 in
number — were reduced to the ranks for a term of years ;
that a hot pursuit was made after the fugitive Haro ; and
that, as it was notorious that the clergy had found the
money for the rebellion, it was considered suitable that
they should pay the expenses of the other side too ; and
an order was made on the church-estates of the district to
that effect. Of course, it was an understood thing that
the officers thus degraded would desert at the first oppor-
tunity, and thus the Government would be rid of theta. As
for Haro, it is not probable that they ever intended to catch
him ; and they were very glad when he disguised himself
in sailor's clothes, and shipped himself off somewhere.
When the Mexicans first took to civil wars, the victorious
leader used to fbiish the contest by having his adversary
shot. At the time of our visit, this fashion had gone out ;
and the victor treated the vanquished with great leniency,
not unmindful of the time when he might be in a like
situation himself

Whether the President ever got much of the forced
contribution fi-om the clergy, I cannot say. At any rate,

114 ANAHUAC.

they have turned him out since ; and for a very poor
government have substituted mere chaotic anarchy, as Mr.
Carlyle would call it. While the siege was going on, all
the commerce between Vera Cruz and the capital was in-
terrupted, and, of course, trade and manufacturing felt the
effects severely. Nothing shews the capabihties of the
country more clearly than the fact that, in spite of its dis-
tracted state and continu.al wars, its industrial interests
seem to be gaining ground steadily, though very slowly.
The evil of these ceaseless wars and revolutions is not that
great battles are here fought, cities destroyed, and men sacri-
ficed by thousands. Perhaps in no country in the world
are " decisive victories," " sanguinary engagements," " bril-
liant attacks," and the like, got over with less loss of life.
Incredible as it may seem to any one who knows how
many civil wars and revolutions occur in the history of
the country for the last four or five years, I should not
wonder if the number of persons killed during that time
in actual battle was less than the number of those delibe-
rately assassinated, or killed in private quarrels.

Cheap as Mexican revolutions are in actual bloodshed,
we must recollect what they bring with them. Thousands
of deserters prowling about the country, robbing and mur-
dering, and spreading everywhere the precious lessons
they have learnt in barracks. We know somethmg in
England of the good moral influence that gamsons and
recruiting sergeants carry about witli them ; and can
judge a little what must be the result of the spreading of
numbers of these fellows over a country where there is
nothino; to restrain their excesses ! As for the soldiers
themselves, one does not wonder at their desertmg, for
they are in gi-eat part pressed men, candied ofi" from their
homes, and shut up in barracks till they have been drilled,
and are considered to be tamed ; and moreover their pay,

MILITARY STATISTICS. 115

as one may judge fi-om the general state of the military-
finances, is anything but regular. People who understand
such matters, say that the Mexicans make very good
soldiers, and fight well and steadily when well trained and
weU officered. They are able to march surprising distances,
day after day, to five cheerfvilly on the very minimum
of food, and to sleep anyhow. This we could judge for our-
selves. One thing there is, however, that they strongly
object to, and that is to be moved much beyond the range
of theu' own cHmate. The men of the plains are as sus-
ceptible as Europeans to the ill effects of the cKmate of
the tierra cahente ; and the men of the hot lands cannot
bear the cold of the high plateaus.

Travellers in the United States make great fun of the
profusion of colonels and generals, and tell ludicrous stories
on the subject. There is also talk of the absurd number of
officers in the Spanish- American armies, but we should not,
by any means, confound the two things. In the United
States it is merely a harmless exhibition of vanity, and an
amusing comment on their own high-minded abnegation
of mere titles. In Spanish America it indicates a very
real and serious evil indeed.

Don Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, in his statistical chart
for 1856, quoted above, estimates the soldiers in the Re-
public at 12,000, and the officers at 2,000, not counting
those on half-pay. One officer to every six men ; and
among them sixty-nine generals. These are not mere
mihtia heroes, walking about in fine uniforms, but have
actual commissions from some one of the many govern-
ments that have come and gone, and are entitled 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 rela-
tives of some one in power, or simply speculators who

116 ANAHUAC.

bought theii' commissions as a sort of illegitimate Govern-
ment Annuities. The continual rebellions or pronuncia-
mientos have increased the number of officers still further.
Comonfort's notion of degrading all the officers of the
rebel army was a new and bold experiment. A very
common course had been, when a pronunciamiento had
been made anywhere against the then existing govern-
ment, and a revolutionary army had been raised, for an
amalgamation to take place between the two forces ; in-
trigue and bribery and mutual disinclination to fight
bringing matters to this peaceful kind of settlement. In
this case, it was usual for the rebel officers to retain their
self-conferred dignities.

I think this body of soldierless officers is one of the
most troublesome political elements at work in the
Republic. The political agitators are mostly among them ;
and it is they, more than any other class, who are continu-
ally stirring up factions and making pronunciamientos
(what a pleasant thing it is that we have never had to
make an English word for " pronunciamiento"). Several
times, efforts have been made to reduce the Army List to
decent proportions, but a fi-esh crop always springs up.

In the "lowest depth" of mismanagement to which
Mexican military affairs have smik, the newspapers still
triumphantly refer to countries which surpass them in
this respect, and, at the time of our arrival, were citing
the statistics of the Peruvian Republic, where there are a
general and twenty officers to every sixty soldiers, and as
many naval officers 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
tiibunals, just as the clergy are to theirs. To the ill effects
of the presence of such armies and such officers in the coun-

REFORM IN MEXICO. 117

try, we must add the continual interruptions to commerce
arising from the distracted state of the republic, and the
uncertain tenure by which eveiy one holds his property,
not to say his life ; and this, in its effect on the morale of
the whole country, is worse than the positive suffering they
inflict. So much for soldiering, for the present. We leave
the President trying, with the aid of his CongTcss, to or-
ganize the government, and set thmgs straight generally.
This august assembly is selected from the people by univer-
sal suffi-age, in the most approved manner, and ought to be a
very important and usefal body, but unfortunately can do
notliing but talk and issue decrees, wliich no one else cares
about.

In consequence of the alarming increase of highway-
robbery, steps are taken to diminish the evil. It is made
lawful to punish such offenders on the spot, by Lynch law.
This is all. You may do justice on him when caught, but
really you must catch him yourself Sober citizens are
even regretting the days of Santa Ana (recollect, I speak
now of 1856, and they might regret him still more in
1860.) He was a great scoundrel, it is true ; but he sent
down detachments of soldiery to where the robbers prac-
tised their profession, and garotted them in pairs, till the
roads were as safe as ours are in England. A President
who sells states and pockets the money may have even
that forgiven him in consideration of roads kept free from
robbers, and some attempt at an effectual police. There
is a lesson in this for Mexican rulers.

The Congi-ess professed to be hard at work cleaning
out the Augean stable of laws, rescripts, and proclama-
tions, and making a working constitution. 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 if this unlucky country ever does get set straight, it

118 ANAHUAC.

will not be done by a Mexican Congress sitting and cack-
ling over it.

On our return from the Real, we spent two days at the
house of an English friend at Tisapan, at the edge of the
great Pedrigal, or lava-field, which lies south of the capi-
tal. It was across this lava-field that a part of the
American army marched in '47, and defeated a division
of the Mexican forces encamped at Contrevas. On the
same day the American army attacked the Mexicans who
held a strongly fortified position at Churubusco, some
four miles nearer Mexico, and routed the main army
there. They beat them again at Molino del Rey, carried
the hill of Chapultepec by storm, and then entered the
city without meeting with fru'ther resistance ; though
the Mexicans, after they had formally yielded possession
of the city, disgraced themselves by assassinating stray
Americans, stabbing them in the streets, and lazoing
them from the tops of the low mud houses in the subm-bs.

An acquaintance of ours in Mexico met some American
soldiers, with a corporal, in the street close to his house,
and asked them in. Presently the corporal sent one of
the men off" into the next street to execute some commis-
sion ; but half an hour elapsed, and the man not returning,
the corporal went out to see what was the matter. He
came back presently, and remarked that some of those
cursed Mexicans had stabbed the man as he was turninsr
the comer of the street, and left him lying there. " So,"
said the corporal, " I may as well finish his brandy and
water for him ;" he did so accordingly, and the men went
home to their quarters.

The American soldiers were, as one may imagine, a
rough lot. Only the smaller part of them were born
Americans, the rest were emigi-ants from Europe ; to judge
by what we heard of them — both in the States and in

MEXICAN ARMY. 119

Mexico — the very refuse of all the scoundrels in the Re-
pubHc ; but they were well officered, and rigid discipline
was maintained. So effectually were they kept in order,
that the Mexicans confessed that it was a smaller evU to
have the enemy's forces marching through the country,
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 thousand Americans should have
been able to get through the mountain-passes, and to
reach the capital at all, is an astonishing thing ; and after
that, then- successes in the valley of Mexico follow as a
matter of course. They could never have crossed the
mountains but for a combination of circumstances.

The inhabitants generally displayed the most entire in-
difference ; possibly preferring to sell their provisions to the
Americans, instead of being robbed of them by their own
countrymen. Add to this, that the Mexican officers showed
themselves gTossly ignorant of the art of war ; and that
the soldiers, though they do not seem to have been defi-
cient in courage, were badly drilled and insubordinate.
One would not have wondered at the army being in such
a condition — in a country that had long been in a state of
profound peace ; but in Mexico a standing army had been
maintained for years, at a gi-eat expense, and continual
civil wars ought to have given people some ideas about
soldiering. We may judge, from the events of this war,
that Mexico might be kept in good order by a small
number of American troops. The mere holding of the
country is not the greatest difficulty in the question of
American annexation.

One thing that struck our friends at Tisapan, among
their experiences of the war, was the number of dead

R

120 ANAHUAC,

bodies of women and children that were found on the
battle-fields. A crowd of women follow close in the rear
of a Mexican army ; almost every soldier having some
woman who belongs to him, and who cames a heavy load
of Indian corn and babies, and cooks tortillas for her lord
and master. The number of these poor creatures who
perished in the war was very great.

We spent much of our time at Tisapan in collecting
plants, and exploring the lava-field, and the caiiada, or
ravine, that leads up into the mountains that skii't the
valley of Mexico. I recollect one interestmg spot we came
to in riding through the pine-forest on the northern slope
of the mountains, where the course of a ton-ent, now dry,
ran along a mere narrow trench in the hard porphp^itic
rock, some ten or fifteen feet wide, until it had suddenly
entered a bed of gravel, where it had hollowed out a vast
ravine, foui' hundred feet wide and two hundred deep, the
inlet of the water being, in proportion, as small as the
pipe that serves to fill a cistern.

Such places are common enough in the south of Em-ope,
but seldom on so grand a scale as one finds them in this
country, where the floods come down from the hills with
astounding suddenness and violence. Mr. L. had expe-
rience of this one day, when he had got inside his water-
wheel, to inspect its condition, the water being securely
shut off", as he thought. However, an aversada — one of
these sudden freshets — came down, quite without notice ;
and enough water got into the channel to set the wheel
going, so as to afibrd its proprietor a very cm-ious and ex-
citing ride, after the manner of a squirrel in a revolving
cage, until the people succeeded in dra^ving ofi" the water.

It was after our retm'n from Tisapan that we paid a
visit to Our Lady of Guadalupe, rather an important per-
sonage in the history of Mexican church -matters. The

SANTA MARIA DE GUADALUPE. 121

way lies past Santo Domingo, the church of the Holy
Office, and down a long street where live the purveyors
of all things for the muleteers. Here one may buy mats,
ropes, pack-saddles — wliicli the an-ieros delight to have
ornamented with fanciful designs and inscriptions, lazos,
and many other things of the same kind. Passing out
tln'ough the city -gate, we ride along a straight causeway,
which extends to Guadalupe. A dull road enough in
itself, but the interminable strmgs of mules and donkeys,
biinging in pig-skins full of pulque, are worth seeing for
once ; and the Indians, timdging out and in mth their
various commodities, are highly picturesque.

On a building at the side of the causeway we notice
" Estacion de Mejico" (Mexico Station) painted in large
letters. As far as we could observe, this very suggestive
sign-board is the whole plant of the Railway Company at
this end of the line. A range of hills ends abruptly in
the plain, at a place which the Indians called Tepeyacac,
"end of the hill" (literaUy "at the hill's nose"). Oui'
causeway leads to this spot; and there, at the foot and up
the slope of the hill, are built the gTeat cathedral and
other chm-ches and chapels, altogether a vast and imposing-
collection of buildings ; and round these a considerable
town has grown up, for this is the great place of pilgrim-
age in the country.

The Spaniards had brought a miraculous picture with
them, Nuestra Seiiora de Remedies, which is still in the
country, and many pilgiims visit it; but Oiu- Lady of
Guadalupe is a native Mexican, and decidedly holds the
first rank in the veneration of the people.

In the gi-eat church there is a picture mounted in a
gold frame of gi-eat value. Its distance fi'om the altar-rails,
and the pane of glass which covers it, prevent one's see-
ing it very well. This was the more unfortunate, as,

122 ANAHUAC.

according to my history, tlie picture is in itself evidently
of mii-aculous origin, for the best artists are agreed that no
human hand could imitate the drawing or the colour ! It
appears that the Aztecs, long before the aiTival of the
Spaniards, had been in the habit of worshipping — in
tliis very place — a goddess, who was known as Teoten-
antzin, " mother-god," or Tonantzin, " our mother." Ten
years after the Conquest, a certain converted Indian,
Juan Diego (John James) by name, was passing that way,
and to him appeared the Virgin Mary. She told him to
go to the bishop, and teU him to build her a temple on the
place where she stood, giving him a lapfid of flowers as
a token. Wlien the flowers were poured out of the gar-
ment, in presence of the bishop, the miraculous picture
appeared underneath, painted on the apron itself The
bishop accepted the miracle with great unction ; the tem-
ple was built, and the mii^aculous image duly installed in
it. Its name of " Santa Maria de Guadalupe," was not, as
one might imagine, taken from the Madonna of that name
in Spain (of course not !), but was communicated by Our
Lady herself to another converted Indian. She told him
that her title was to be Santa Maria de Tequatlanopeuh,
" Saint Mary of the rocky hill," of which hard word the
Spaniards made "Guadalupe," — -just as they had turned
Quauhnahuac into Cuemavaca, and QuauhaxaUan into
Guadalajara, substituting the nearest word of Spanish form
for the unpronounceable Mexican names. This at least is
the ingenious explanation given by my author, the Bache-
lor Tanco, Professor of the Aztec language, and of Astrology,
in the University of Mexico, in the year 1666. The bishop
who authenticated the miracle was no less a person than
Fray Juan de Zmnan-aga, whose name is well known in Mex-
ican history, for it was he who collected together all the
Aztec pictm-e-wi'itings that he could find, " quite a moun-

VIRJEN DE REMEDIOS. 123

tain of them," say the chi'oniclers, and made a solemn
bonfire of them in the great square of Tlatelolco. The
mii'aeles worked by the Virgin of Guadakipe, and by
copies of it, are innumerable ; and the faith wliich the
lower orders of Mexicans and the Indians have in it is
boundless.

On the 12th of December, the Anniversaiy of the
Apparition is kept, and an amazing concourse of the faith-
ful repair to the sanctuary. Heller, a German traveller
who was in Mexico in 1846, saw an Indian taken to the
church ; he had broken his leg, which had not even been
set, and he simply expected Our Lady to cure him with-
out any human intei'vention at all. Unluckily, the author
had no opportunity of seeing what became of him. The
great mii-acle of all was the deliverance of Mexico from the
great inundation of 1626, and the fact is established thus.
The city was under water, the inhabitants in despair. The
picture was brought to the Cathedi-al in a canoe, through
the streets of Mexico ; and between one and two years
afterwards the inundation subsided. Ergo, it was the
picture that saved the city !

For centm-ies a fierce rivahy existed between the
Spanish Virgin, called " de Remedios," and Our Lady of
Guadalupe ; the Spaniards supporting the first, and the
native Mexicans the second. A note of Humboldt's illus-
trates this feeling perfectly. He relates that whenever
the country was suffering from drought, the Virjen de
Remedios was earned into Mexico in procession, to bring
rain, till it came to be said, quite as a proverb, Hasta el
agua nos dehe venir de la Oachupina — "We must get
even our water jfrom that Spanish creature." If it hap-
pened that the Spanish Madonna produced no effect after
a long trial, the native Madonna was allowed to be brought
solemnly in by the Indians, and never failed in bringing

124 ANAHUAC.

tlie wished-for rain, which always came sooner or later.
It is remarkable that the Spanish party, who were then
all-powerful, should have allowed their own Madomia to
be placed at such a disadvantage, in not having the last
innings. I need hardly say that the shrine of Guadalupe
is monstrously rich. The Chapter has been known to lend
such a thmg as a milhon or two of dollars at a time, though
most of their property is invested on landed secuiity.
They are allowed to have lotteries, and make somethmg
handsome out of them ; and they even sell medals and
prints of their patroness, which have great powers. You
may have plenary indulgence in the hour of death for six-
pence or less. We drank of the water of the chalybeate
spring, bought sacred lottery-tickets, wliich turned out
blanks, and tickets for indulgences, which, I greatly fear,
will not prove more valuable ; and so rode home along the
dusty causeway to breakfast.

As means of learning what sort of books the poorer
classes in Mexico preferred, we overhauled with great dih-
gence the book-stalls, of which there are a few, especially
under the arcades (Portales) near the great square. The
Mexican public have not much cheap literature to read ;
and the scanty list of such popular works is half filled with
Our Lady of Guadalupe, and other miracle-books of the
same kind. Father Ripalda's Catechism has a large cir-
culation, and is apparently the one in general use in the
country. Zavala speaks of this catechism as containing
the maxims of blind obedience to king and pope ; but my
more modern edition has scarcely anything to say about
the Pope, and nothing at all about the government. Of
late years, indeed, the Pope has not counted for much,
politically, in Mexico ; and on one occasion his Holiness
found, when he tried to interfere about church-benefices,
that his authority was rather nominal than real. On the

MEXICAN LITERATURE. 125

whole, nothing in the Catechism struck me so much as the
multiplication-table, which, to my unspeakable astonish-
ment, tm-ned up in the middle of the book ; a table of
fractions followed ; and then it began again with the Holy
Trinity.

To continue our catalogue ; there are the almanacks,
which contain rules for foretelKng the weather by the
moon's quarters, but none of the other fooleries which we
find in those that cii'culatc in England among the less
educated classes. It is cui'ious to notice how the taste for
putting soiuiets and other dreary poems at the beginnings
and ends of books has survived in these Spanish coun-
tries. What used to be known in England as " a copy of
verses" is still appreciated here, and almanacks, news-
papers, religious books, even programmes of plays and
bull-fights, are full of such dismal compositions. We
ought to be thankful that the fashion has long since gone
out with us (except in the religious tract, where it still
survives). It is not merely apropos of sonnets, but of
thousands of other things, that in these countries one is
brought, in a manner, face to face with England as it vised
to be ; and very trifling matters become interesting when
viewed in this fight. The last item in the fist comprises
translations, principally of French novels, those being pre-
feri'ed in which the agony is " piled up" to the highest
point. German literature is represented by the " Soitows
of Werter." Of course, " Uncle Tom's Cabin" is widely
cu'culated here, as it is everywhere in countries not given
to the " particular vanity" attacked in it.

One need hardly say that both literature and educa-
tion are at a very low ebb in Mexico. Refemng to Tejada
again, I find that he reckons that in the capital, out of a
population of 185,000, there are 12,000 scholars at primary
schools ; but of course, as in other countries, a large pro-

12G ANAHUAC.

portion of these cliildi-en attend so iiTegularly that they
can hardly leana anything. For the country generally, he
estimates one child receiving instruction out of thuty-
seven inhabitants, a very significant piece of statistics.
Efforts are being made, especially in the capital, to raise
the population out of this state. ]\Ii\ Christy took much
trouble in investigating the subject, with the assistance of
om- friend Don Jos^ Miguel Cervantes, the head of the
Ayuntamiento, or Municipal Council. This gentleman,
with a few others, has been doing much up-hill work of
this kind for years past, establisliing schools, and trying to
make head against the opposition of the priests and the
indifference of the people, as yet with but small success.

It seems hard to be always attacking the Roman
Catholic clergy, but of one thing we cannot remain in
dovibt, — that theii- influence has had more to do than any-
thing else with the doleful ignorance which reigns supreme
in Mexico. For centui-ies they had the education of the
country in thefr hands, and even at this day they retain the
greater share of it. The training which the priests them-
selves receive will therefore give one some idea of what
they teach their scholars. Unluckily, their coiu'se of in-
struction was stereotyped ages ago, when learned men de-
voted themselves to writing huge books on divinity,
casuistry, logic, and metaphysics ; concealing their igno-
rance of facts under an affectation of wisdom and clouds
of long words ; demonstrating how many milHons of
angels could dance on a needle's point ; wnting treatises
" de omni re scibili," and on a good many things unknow-
able also ; and teaching their admiring scholars the art of
building up sham arguments on any subject, whether they
know anything about it or not. This is a very vicious
system of training for a man's mind, the more especially
when it is supposed to set him up Avith a stock of superior

EDUCATION IN MEXICO. 127

knowledge ; and this is what the Roman Cathohc clergy
have been learning, generation after generation, in Mexico
and elsewhere. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions,
particularly among the higher clergy ; but, so far as I have
been able to ascertain, education in clerical schools has
generally been of this kind. It is instnictive to talk a
little, as one occasionally finds an opportunity of doing, to
some youth just out of these colleges. I recollect speaking
to a yoimg man who had just left the Seminario of
Mexico, where he had been through a long course of theo-
logy and philosophy. He was astonished to hear that
bull-fighting and coleariug were not universally practised
in Em'ope ; and, when his father began to question me
about the Crimean war, the young gentleman's remarks
showed that he had not the faintest idea where Encrland
and France were, nor how far they were from one another.
I happened, not long ago, to visit a celebrated monas-
tic college in South Italy, where they educated, not ordi-
nary moi-tals, but only young men of noble bu-th ; and
here I took particular care in inspecting the library, judg-
ing that, though the scholars need not learn aU that was
there, yet that no department of knowledge would be
taught there that was not represented on the library-
shelves. What I saw fully confirmed aU that I had pre-
viously seen and heard about the monastic learning of the
present day. There were to be seen many fine manu-
scripts, and black-letter books, and curious old editions of
great value, good store of classics (mostly Latin, however),
works of the Fathers by the hundred-weight, and quartos
and folios of canon-law, theology, metaphysics, and such
like, by the ton. But it seemed that, in the estimation of
the librarians, the world had stood still since the time of
Duns Scotus ; for, of what we call positive knowledge,
except a little arithmetic and geometry, and a few very

128 ANAHUAC.

poor histories, I saw nothing. It is easy to see how one
result of the clerical monopoly of education has therefore
come about — that the intellectual standard is very low in
Mexico. The Holy Office, too, has had its word to say in
the matter. This institution had not much work to do in
burning Indians, who were anything but sceptical in their
turn of mind, and, indeed, were too much like Theodore
Hook, and would beheve "forty, if you pleased." They
even went fmther, and were apt to believe not only what
the missionaries taught them, but to cherish the memory
of their old gods into the bargain. It was three centuries
after the Conquest, that Mr. Bullock got the goddess
Teoyaomiqui dug up in Mexico ; and the old Indian
remarked to him that it was true the Spaniards had given
them three very good new gods, but it was rather hard to
take away all their old ones. At any rate, the functions
of the Inquisition were mostly confined to working the
Index Expurgatorius, and suppressing knowledge gene-
rally, which they did with great industry mitil not long
ago.

Here, then, are two causes of Mexican ignorance, and a
third may be this ; that Mexico was a colony to which the
Spaniards generally came to make then- fortunes, with a
view of retmriing to their own land ; and this state of
things was unfavourable to the country as regards the
progress of knowledge, as well as in other tlimgs.

CHAP. V^I.

TEZCUCO.

Across the lake of Tezciico is Tezcuco itself, a gi^eat
city and the capital of a kingdom at the time of the
Conquest, and famous for its palaces 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, and lives in the "Casa Grande" — the Great House,
just outside Tezcuco, has invited us to pay him a visit ;
so we get up early one April morning, and drive down to
the street of the SoHtude of Holy Cross (Calle de la Sole-
dad de Santa Cruz). There we find Mr. Millard, a French-
man, who is an employ^ of Mr. Bowi-rng's, and is gomg
back to Tezcuco with us ; and we walk down to the canal
with him, half a dozen Indian porters with baskets follow-
ing us, and trotting along in the queer shufihng way that is
habitual to them. At the landing-place we find a number
of canoes, and a crowd of Indians, men and women, in
scanty cotton garments which show the dirt in an un-
pleasant manner. A canoe is going to Tezcuco, a sort of
regular packet-boat, in fact ; and of this canoe Mr. Millard
has retained for us three the stem half, over which is
stretched an awning of aloe-fibre cloth. The canoe itself
is merely a large 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

130 ANAHUAC.

making the bows taper, and indeed the Indians stoutly
resist tliis or any other imiovation. In the fore part of
the canoe there is akeady a heap of other passengers, Ijdng
like bait in a box, and when we arrive the voyage begins.

The crew are ten in number ; the captain, eight men,
and an old woman in charge of the tortillas and the
pulque-jar. All these are brown people ; in fact, the navi-
gation of the lakes is entkely in the hands of the Indians,
and " reasonable people" have nothing to do with it.
Reasonable people — "gente de razon" — ^being, as I have
said before, those who have any white blood in them ; and
repubhcan institutions have not in the least effaced the
distinction.

So it comes to pass that the canoe-traffic is can-ied on
in much the same way as it was in Montezuma's time.
There is one curious difference, however. These canoes
are all poled about the lakes and canals ; and I do not
think we saw an Indian oar or paddle in the whole vaUey
of Mexico. In the ancient picture-wi'itings, however, the
Indians are paddling their canoes with a kind of oar,
shaped at the end like one of oiu* ftre-shovels. But, as we
have seen, the distribution of land and water has altered
since those days ; and the lakes, far greater in extent, were
of com'se several feet deeper all over the present beds ; and
even at a short distance from the city poling would have
been impossible. I suspect that the Aztecs originally
used both poles and paddles, and that the latter went out
of use when the water became shallow enough for the pole
to serve all pui'poses. Otherwise, we must suppose that
the Mexicans, since the Spanish Conquest, introduced a
new invention ; 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 desu-able, as the canal
is one of the drains of the city, an office that it fills badly

TEZCUCO LAKE. PENON DE LOS BANGS. 131

enough, seeing that there is scarcely any fall of water from
the lower quarters of the city to the lake. I never saw
water-snakes in numbers to compare with those in the
canal, and by the side of it. They were swimming in the
water, wriggling in and out ; and on the banks they were
wi-ithing in heaps, hke our passengers forward. Two of
our crew tow us along, and we are soon clear of the canal,
and of the salt-swamp that extends on both sides of it,
where the bottom of the lake was in old times. Once
fairly out, we look round us. We see Mexico from a
new point of view, and begin to understand why the
Spaniards called it the Venice of the New World. 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 the water itself, for the intervening flat is soon
foreshortened into notliing. At the present moment it is
evident that the level of the lake is much higher than
usual. A httle way off, on our right, is the Penon de los
Banos — " the rock of baths" — a porphyi'itic liill forced up
by volcanic agency, where there are hot springs. It is
generally possible to reach this hill by land, but the water
is now so high that the rock has become an island as it
used to be.

Wlien the fii'st two brigantines were launched on the
Lake of Tezcuco by the Spaniards, Cortes took Montezuma
with him to sail upon the lake, soon leaving the Aztec
canoes far behind. They went to a Penon or rocky hUl
where Montezuma preserved game for his own hunting,
and not even the highest nobility were allowed to hunt
there on pain of death. The Spaniards had a regular
battue there ; killing deer, hares, and rabbits till they were
tired. This Penon may have been the Peiion de los Baiios
which we are just passing, but was more pi'obably a simi-
lar hill a little fru'ther off, of larger extent, now fortified

132 ANAHUAC.

and known as El Penon, the Hill. Both were in those
days complete islands at some distance 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, and walking on two narrow planks
which extend along the sides of the canoe from the prow
to the middle point. Four walk on each plank, each man
throwing up his pole as he gets to the end, and running
back up the middle to begin again at the prow. The dex-
terity with which they swing the poles about, and keep
them out of each other's way, is wonderfal ; and, as seen
from our end of the canoe, looks like a kind of exag-gerated
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 brackish and undrinkable. How it
has come to be so is plain enough. The streams from the
surrounding mountains bring down salt and soda in solu-
tion, derived from the decomposed porphyry ; and as the
water of the lake is not drained off into the sea, but
evaporates, the solid constituents are left to accumulate in
the lake.

In England, I think, we have no example of this ; but
the Dead Sea, the Caspian, the Great Salt Lake of Utah,
and even the MediteiTanean, have various salts accumu-
lated in solution in the same way. It seems to me, that,
by taking into account the proportion of soluble material
contained in the water that flows down from the moun-
tains, the probable quantity of water that flows do^vn in
the year, and the proportion of salt in the lake itself,
some vague guess might be made as to the time this 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.

SALINE CONDITION OF THE SOIL. 133

In spite of the splendid climate, a great portion of tlie
Valley of Mexico is anything but fertile ; for the soil is
impregTiated with salt and soda, which in many places are
so abundant as to form, when the water evaporates, a white
efflorescence on the ground, which is called tequesquite,
and regularly collected by the Indians. Some of it is
stopped on its way down from the higher ground, by the
evaporation of the water that was carrying it ; and some
is left by the lake itself, in its frequent ftoodings of the
gi'ound in its neighbourhood. So small is the difference of
level between the lake and the plain that surrounds it,
that the slightest rise in the height of the water makes an
immense difference in the size of the lake ; and even a
strong wdnd will di'ive the water over great tracts of
groTuid, from which it retires when the gale ceases. It
must have been this, or something similar, that set Cortes
upon writing home to Spain that the lakes were like in-
land seas, and even had tides Hke the ocean. Of course,
this impregnation with salts is ruinous to the soil, which
will produce nothing in such places but tufts of coarse
grass ; and the shores of the lake are the most dis-
mal districts one can imagine. All the lakes, however,
are not so salt as Tezcuco ; Chalco, for instance, is a fresh-
water lake, and there the fertility of the shores is very
great, as I have already had occasion to notice.

As soon as the novelty of this kind of travelling had
worn off, we began to find it dull, and retired under
our awning to breakfast and bitter beer ; which latter
luxury, thanks to a suitable climate and an English brewer,
is very well understood in Mexico, and is even accepted as
a great institution by the Mexicans themselves.

We were just getting into a drowsy state, when an
unusual bustle among the crew brought us out of our den,
and we found that three hours of assiduous poling had

134 ANAHUAC.

taken us half-way across the lake, just six miles — a good
test of the value of the Aztec system of navigation. Here
was a wooden cross set up in the water ; and here, from
time out of mind, the boatmen have been used to sing a
Httle hymn to the Madonna, by whose favour we had got
so far, and hoped to get safe to the end of oiu- voyage.
Very well they sang it too, and the scene was as striking
as it was unexpected to us. It seemed to us, however, to
be making a great 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 a particularly unpleasant
place to be afloat in a Mexican canoe, which, being flat-
bottomed, has no hold at all on the water, and from its
shape is quite unmanageable in a "svind. He himself was
once caught in this way, and kept out all night, with
a "heavy sea" on the lake, the boat drifting helplessly,
and threatening to overturn every moment, and that in
places where the water was quite deep enough to drown
them all. The Indians lost their heads entirely, and throw-
ing down their poles fell on their knees, and joined in the
chorus with the women and children and the rest of the
helpless brown people, beating their breasts, and present-
ing medals and prints of our Lady of Guadalupe to each
wave as it dashed into them. The wind dropped, how-
ever, and Mr. Millard got safe to Tezcuco next morning ;
but, instead of receiving sympathy for his misfortunes
when he got there, found that the idea of a tempest on
the lake was reckoned a mere joke, and that the dramng-
room of the Casa Grande had been decorated with a fancy
portrait of himself, hanging to the half-way cross, with his
legs in the water, and underneath, a poetical description
of his sufferings to the tune of " Mcdhrouke s'en va-t-en
guerre, ne sals quand reviendra.'"

GLASS-WORKS. CASA GRANDE. 135

More poling across the lake, and then another little
canal, also constructed since the diminishing of the water
of the lake (which once came close to the city), and
along which om- Indians towed vis. Then came a short
ride, which brought us to the Casa Grande, where
Mrs. Bowling received us with overflowing hospitality.
We went off" presently mto the town, to see the glass-
works. In a country where all thmgs imported have to
be earned in rough waggons, or on mules' backs, and over
bad roads, it would be hard if it did not pay to make
glass ; and, accordingly, we found the works in full opera-
tion. The soda is produced at Mr. Bowrmg's works close
by, the fiiel is charcoal from the mountains, and for sand
they have a substitute, which I never heard of or saw
anywhere else. It seems that a short distance from
Tezcuco there is a deposit of hydrated silica, which is
brought down in great blocks by the Indians ; and this,
when calcined, answers the purpose perfectly, as there is
scarcely any fron in it. In its natural state it resembles
beeswax in colour.

It is worth while to describe the Casa Grande, which
is strikingly different from our Em'opean notions of the
"great house" of the village. As we enter by the gate,
we find ourselves in a patio — an open quadrangle sur-
rounded by a covered walk — a cloister in fact, into which
open the rooms inhabited by the family. The second
quadrangle, which opens into the fii-st, is devoted to
stables, kitchen, &c. The outer wall which surrounds the
whole is very thick, and the entire building is built of
mud bricks baked in the sun, and has no upper storey at
all. It is a Pompeian house on a large scale, and suits the
climate perfectly. The Aztec palaces we read so much of
were built in just the same way. The roofs slope inwards
from the sides of the qiiadi-angle, and drain into the open

T

136 ANAHUAC.

space in the middle. One afternoon, a tremendous tro-
pical rain-storm showed us how necessary it was to have
the covered walk round the quadrangle raised consider-
ably above this open square in the 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 that the four corners of
the patio were provokingly alike, and the doors of the
rooms also, so that we were as much bothered as the cap-
tain of the forty thieves to find our own doors, or any door
except Mr. Millard's, whose name was indicated — with
more regard to pronunciation than spelling — with a 1 and
nine O's chalked on it.

In spite of a late evening spent in very pleasant so-
ciety, we were up early next morning, ready for an excur-
sion to the P3n:"amids of Teotihuacan, some sixteen miles
off, or so, under the guidance of one of Mr. Bowi'ing's men.
The road lies through the plain, between great planta-
tions of magueys, for this is the most renowned dis-
trict in the Republic for the size of its aloes, and the
quality of the pulque that is made from them. We
stopped sometimes to examine a particularly large speci-
men, which might measure 30 feet round, and to see the
juice, which had collected in the night, drawn out of the
gi'eat hollow that had been cut to receive it, in the heart
of the plant. The Indians have a gi'eat fancy for making
crosses, and the aloe lends itself particularly to this kind
of decoration. They have only to cut off six or eight
inches of one leaf, and impale the piece on the sharp point
of another, and the cross is made. Every good-sized aloe
has two or three of these primitive religious emblems
upon it.

Several little torrent-beds crossed the road, and over
them were thrown old-fashioned Spanish stone bridges, as

QUARRIES. STONE HAMMERS. 137

steep as the Rialto, or the bridge on the willow -patterned
plates.

Before going to see the pyramids, we visited the caves
in the hill-side not far fi-om them, whence the stone was
brought to build them. It is tetzontli, the porous amyg-
daloid wliich abounds among the porphyi'itic hills, a beau-
tiful building- stone, easily worked, and dui-able. There
was a large space that seemed to have been quarried
out bodily, and into tliis opened numerous caves. We
left om' horses at the entrance, and spent an hour or two
in hunting the place over. The gi'ound was covered with
pieces of obsidian knives and arrow-heads, and fragments
of what seemed to have been larger tools or weapons ;
and we found numbers 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 to the earhest period. They are made of
longish rolled pebbles ; some are shaj)ed a little artificially,
and are grooved round to hold the handle, which was a
flexible twig bent double and with the two ends tied toffe-
ther, so as to keep the stone head in its place. The ham-
mers of a later period of the "stone age" are shaped more
like the iron ones our smiths use at the present day, and
they have a hole bored in the middle for the handle. In
Brittany, where Celtic remains are found in such abimdance,
it is not uncommon to see stone hammers of the latter
kind hanging up in the cottages of the peasants, who use
them to drive in nails with. They have an odd way of pro-
viding them with handles, by sticking them tight upon
branches of young trees, and when the branch has gi-own
larger, and has thus ri vetted itself tightly on both sides of
the stone head, they cut it off, and cany home the ham-
mer ready for use.

138 ANAHUAC.

Thouoh the Mexicans carried the arts of knife and
arrow-making and sculpturing hard stone to such perfec-
tion, I do not think they ever discovered the art of making
a hole in a stone hammer. The handles of the axes shown
in the picture-writings are clumsy sticks swelling into a
large knob at one end, and the axe-blade is fixed into a
hole in this knob. Some of the Mexican hammers seem
to have had their handles fixed in this way ; while others
were made with a groove, in the same manner as the
earlier kind of European stone hammers just described.

When we consider the beauty of the Mexican stone-
cutter's work, it seems wonderful 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 used
bronze hatchets, containing that very small proportion of
tin which gives the alloy nearly the hardness of steel. We
saw many of these hatchets in museums, and Mr. Christy
bought some good specimens in a collection of antiquities
which had belonged to an old Mexican, who got them
principally from the suburb of Tlatelolco, in the neighbour-
hood of the ancient market-place of the city. Such axes
were certainly common among the ancient Mexicans. One
of the items of the hierogly|3hic tribute-roll in the Mendoza
Codex is eighty bronze hatchets.

A story told by Bernal Diaz is to the point. He says
that he and his companions, noticing that the Indians of
the coast generally carried bright metal axes, the material
of which looked Hke gold of a low quality, got as many as
six hundred such axes from them in the course of three
days' bartering, giving them coloured glass-beads in ex-
change. Both sides were highly satisfied with their bar-
gain ; but it all came to nothing, as the chronicler relates
with considerable disgust, for the gold turned out to be
copper, and the beads were found to be trash when the

BEONZE AXES. 139

Indians began to understand them better. Such hard
copper axes as these have been found at Mitla, in the State
of Oajaca, where the ruined temples seem to form a con-
necting Unk between the monuments of Teotihuacan and
Xochicalco and the rained cities of Yucatan and Chiapas.

We want one more hiik in the chain to show the use
of the same kind of tools from Mexico down to Yucatan,
and this Unk we can supply. In Lord Kingsborough's
gi'eat work on Mexican Antiquities there is one picture-
wiiting, the Dresden Codex, which is not of Aztec origin
at all. Its hieroglyiDhics are those of Palenque and
Uxmal ; and in this manuscript we have drawings of
hatchets like those of Mexico, and fixed in the same kind
of handles, but of much neater workmanship.

But here we come upon a difficulty. It is supposed
that the pyramids of Teotihuacan, as weU as most of the
gi'eat architectural works of the country, were the work of
the Toltec race, who quitted tliis part of the country
several centuries before the Spanish Conquest. It seems
incredible tliat bronze should have been in use in the
country for so long a time, and not have superseded so
bad a material as stone for knives and weapons. We have
good evidence to show that in Europe the introduction of
bronze was almost simultaneous with the complete disuse
of stone for such purposes. It is true that Herodotus
describes the embalmei's, in his time, as cutting open the
bodies with "an Ethiopic stone" though they were
familiar with the use of metal. Indeed the flint knives
which he probably meant may be seen in museums. But
this peculiar usage was most Ukely kept up for some
mystical reason, and does not affect the general question.
Almost as soon as the Spaniards brought iron to Mexico,
it superseded the old material. The " bronze age" ceased
within a year or two, and that of iron began.

140 ANAHUAC.

The Mexicans called copper or bronze "tepuztli," a
word of rather uncertain etymology. Judging from the
analogous words in languages allied to the Aztec, it seems
not unlikely that it meant originally hatchet or breaker,
just as "itztli," or obsidian, appears to have meant origi-
nally knife*

When the Mexicans saw iron in the hands of the
Spaniards, they called it also " tepuztli," which thus became
a general word for metal ; and then they had to distinguish
iron fi'om copper, as they do at the present day, by calling
them " tliltic teiDuztli," and "chichiltic tepuztli;" that is,
" black metal," and " red metal."

When the subject of the use of bronze in stone-cutting
is discussed, as it so often is with special reference to
Egypt, one may doubt whether people have not underrated
its capabilities, when the proj)ortion of tin is accurately
adjusted to give the maximum hardness ; and especially
when a minute portion of iron enters into its composition.
Sir Gardner Wilkinson relates that he tried the edge of one
of the Egyptian mason's chisels upon the very stone it had
evidently been once used to cut, and found that its edge
was turned directly ; and therefore he wonders that such
a tool could have been used for the purpose, of course sup-
posing that the tool as he found it was just as the mason
left it. This, however, is not quite certain. If we bmy a
brass tool in a damp place for a few weeks, it will be
found to have undergone a curious molecular change, and
to have become quite soft and weak, or, as the workmen
call it, dead. We ought to be quite sure whether lying
for centuries under gromid may not have made some
similar change in bronze.

♦ There is an Aztec word " puztequi " ("to break stic/cs, Jtc.J whicli may
belong to the same root as " tepuztli." Tlie first syllable " te" may bo " te-tl "
(stonej.

CACTUSES. PYRAMIDS. 141

I have seen many prickly pears in different places, but
never such specimens as those that were gTowing among
the stones in this old quarry. They had gnarled and
knotted trunks of hard wood, and were as big as pollard-
oaks ; their age must have been immense ; but, unfor-
tunately, one could not measure it, or it would have been
a good criterion of the age of the quarry, which had not
only been excavated but abandoned before their time. In
one of the caves was a human skeleton, blanched white
and clean, and near it some one has stuck a cross, 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 hammers and knives, we sat down to break-
fast, in a cave, where oiu- man had established himself
with the horses. An attempt on my part to cut German
sausage with an obsidian knife proved a decided failui'e.

We had already been struck by the appearance of
the two pyi'amids of Teotihuacan, when we passed by
Otumba on our way to Mexico. The hills which
skirt the plain are so near them as to diminish their
apparent size ; but even at a distance they are con-
spicuous objects. Now, when we came close to them,
and began by climbing to their summits, and walk-
ing round their terraces, to measure ourselves against
them, we began gi-adually to realize their vast bulk ; and
this feeHng continually grew upon us. Modem architec-
ture strives to unite the gi^eatest possible effect with the
least cost ; and the modern churches of southern Em'ope
and Spanish America, with their fine tall facades fronting
the street, and insignificant little buildings behind, show
this idea in its fullest development. P}a\imids are built
with no such object, and make but little show in pro-
portion to their vast mass of material ; but then one
gets from them a sense of soHd magnitude that no other

142 AN AH U AC.

building gives, however vast its propoi-tions may be.
Neither of us liad ever seen the Egy|Dtian p3a'aniids.
Even in Mexico these of Teotihuacan are not the largest ;
for, though the pyi'amid of Cholula is no higher, it covers
far more ground. Were these monuments in Egypt, they
would only rank, from their size, in the second class.

As has often been remarked, such buildings as these
can only be raised under peculiar social conditions. The
ruler must be a despotic sovereign, and the mass of the
people slaves, whose subsistence and whose lives are sacri-
ficed without scruple to execute the fancies of the monarch,
who is not so much the governor as the unrestricted owner
of the country and the people. The population must be
very dense, or it would not bear the loss of so large a
proportion of the working class ; and vegetable food must
be exceedingly abundant in the country, to feed them
while engaged in this unprofitable laboiu'.

We know how great was the influence of the priestly
classes in Egy^t, though the pyi'amids there, being rather
tombs than temples, do not prove it. In Mexico, however,
the pyi^amids themselves were the temples, serving only
incidentally as tombs; and their size proves that — as re-
spects priestly influence — the resemblance between the
two people is fully carried out.

Like the Egyptian pyramids, these fronted the four
cardinal points. Their shape was not accurately pyramidal,
for the line from base to summit was broken by three
terraces, or perhaps four, running completely round them ;
and at the top was a flat square space, where stood the
idols and the sacrificial altars. This construction closely
resembled that of some of the smaller Egyptian pyramids.
Flights of stone steps led straight up from terrace to
ten-ace, and the procession of priests and victims made the
circuit of each before they ascended to the one above.

TEMPLE-PYEAMIDS. 143

The larger of the two teocallis is dedicated to the Sun,
has a base of about 6-iO feet, and is about 170 feet high.
The other, dedicated to the Moon, is rather smaller.

These monuments were called teocallis, not because they
were pyi-amids, but because tliey were temples ; "Teocalli"
means "god's house" — {teotl, god, calli, house), a name
which the traveller hears explained for the first time with
some wonder ; and Humboldt camiot help adverting to
its curious coiTCspondence with Beov KoXia, dei cella.
Another odd coincidence is found in the Aztec name for
then- priests, papahua, the root of which is papa, (the Jiua,
is merely a termination). In the Old World the word
Papa, Pope, or Priest, was connected with the idea of
father or gTandfather, but the Aztec word has no such
origm.

When the Aztecs abandoned their temples, and began
to build Clu'istian churches, they called them also " teo-
caUis," and perhaps do so to tliis day.

The heavy tropical rains have to a great extent broken
the sharpness of the outline of these structm^es, and
brought them more nearly to the shape of real pyi-amids
than they were originally ; but, as we climbed up their
sides, we could trace the terraces without any difficulty,
and even flights of steps.

The pyi'amids consist of an outer casing of hewn
stone, faced and covered with smooth stucco, which has
resisted the effects of time and bad usage in a wondeiful
manner. Inside this casing were adobes, stones, clay, and
mortar, as one may see in places where the exterior has
been damaged, and by creeping into the small passage
which leads into the Temple of the Moon. Both pyra-
mids are nearly covered with a coating of debris, full of
bits of obsidian aiTows and knives, and broken pottery.
On the teocalli of the moon we found a number of recent

u

1 44 ANAHUAC.

sea-shells, which mystified us extremely ; and the only
explanation we could give of their presence there was that
they might have been brought up as offerings. A passage
in Humboldt, which I met with long after, seems to clear
up the mystery. Speakings of the great teocalli of the city
of Mexico, he says, quoting an old description, that the
Moon had a Uttle temple in the great courtyard, which
was built of shells. Those that we found may be the
remains of a similar structui'e on the top of the pyramid.

Prickly pears, aloes, and mesquite bushes have over-
grown the pyramids in all directions, as though they had
been mere natui'al hills. In Sicily one may see the lava-
fields of Etna planted with prickly pears : in the ordinary
course of things, it requires several centuries before even
the surface of this hard lava will disintegrate into soil ;
but the roots of the cactus soon crack it, and a few
years suffice to break it up to a sufficient depth to allow
of vineyards being planted upon it. Here the same plant
has in the same way affected the porous amygdaloid
with which the pyramids are faced, and has cut up the
surface sadly ; but the vegetation which covers them
will at any rate defend them fi'om the rains, and now
centuries will make but little change in the appearance of
these remarkable buildings.

Near Nice there is a hill which gives a wonderfully
correct idea of the appearance of the ten^aced teocallis of
Mexico, as they must have looked before time eflfaced the
sharpness of their lines. Wliere the valley of the Pagii-
one and that of St. Andrd meet, the hill between them
terminates in a half pyramid, the angle of which lies to-
ward the south ; and the inhabitants — as their custom is
in southern Europe, have turned the two slopes to ac-
count, by building them up into terraces, to prevent the
soil they have laboriously carried up from being swept

SACRIFICE OF SPANIARDS. 145

down by the first heavy rain. Seen fifom the proper
point of view the resemblance is complete.

From the south side of the Temple of the Moon runs
an avenue of bmial -mounds, the MicaotH, "the path of the
dead." On these mounds, and round the foot of the pyra-
mids themselves, the whole population of the once gi-eat
city of Teotihuacan and its neighbourhood used to congre-
gate, to see the priests and the victims march round the
terraces and up the stairs in full view of them all.
Standing here, one could imagine the scene that Cortes
and his men saw from their camp, outside Mexico, on that
dreadful day when the Mexicans had cut off their retreat
along the causeways, and taken more than sixty Spanish
prisoners. Bernal Diaz was there, and tells the tale how
they heard from the city the great drum of Huitzilo-
pochtli sending forth a strange and awful sound, that could
be heard for miles, and with it many horns and trumpets ;
and how, when they had looked towards the great teo-
calH, they saw the Mexicans dragging up the prisoners,
pushing and beating them as they went, till they had got
them up to the open space at the top, " where the cursed
idols stood." Then they put plumes of feathers on their
heads, and fans in their hands, and made them dance be-
fore the idol ; and when they had danced, they threw
them on their backs on the sacrificial stone that stood
there, and, sawing open thefr breasts with knives of stone,
they tore out their hearts, and offered them up in sacri-
fice ; and the bodies they flung down the stairs to the
bottom. More than this the Spaniards cannot have seen,
though Diaz describes the 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 they knew well
enough what was happening down below, — how the
butchers were waiting to cut up the carcases as the}- came

146 ANAHUAC.

down, that they might be cooked with chil^, and eaten in
the solemn banquet of the evening.

The day was closing in by this time ; and our man was
waiting with the horses at the foot of the gi'eat pyramid ;
and with him an Indian, whom we had caught half an
houi' before, and sent off with a real to buy pulque, and to
collect such obsidian arrows and clay heads as were to be
found at the ranches in the neighbourhood.

Near the place we started from, two or three Indians
were dihgently at work at their stone -quarry, that is to
say, they were laboriously bringing out great hewn stones
from the side of the pyi-amid, to build their walls with ;
and indeed we could see in every house for miles round
stones that had come from the same soiu'ce, as was proved
by the stucco still remaining upon them, smoothed hke
poHshed marble, and painted dull red with cinnabar.

As I wi'ite this, it brings to my recollection an old
Roman trophy in North Italy, built — like these pyi'amids —
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 hmestone blocks, but first cutting them up
into pieces of a size that they could move about, and build
into thefr houses. Here and there, in this little Italian
town, there were to be seen in the walls letters of the old
inscription which were once upon the trophy ; and the age
of the houses shewed that the monument had served as a
quarry for centuries.

As we rode home, we noticed by the sides of the road,
and where ditches had been cut, numbers of old Mexican
stone-floors covered with stucco. The earth has accumu-
lated above them to the depth of two or three feet, so that
their position is like that of the Roman pavements so often
found in Europe ; and we may guess, from what we saw

OLD MEXICO. 147

exposed, how great must be the number of such remains
still hidden, and how vast a population must once have in-
habited this plain, now almost deserted.

Two days afterwards we came back. In the ploughed
fields in the neighbourhood we made repeated trials
whether it was possible to stand still in any spot where
there was no rehc of old Mexico witliin our reach ; but
this we could not do. Everywhere the ground was full of
unglazed pottery and obsidian ; and we even found arrows
and clay figm-es that were good enough for a museum.
When we left England, we both doubted the accounts of
the historians of the Conquest, believing that they had ex-
aggerated the numbers of the population, and the size of
the cities, from a natural desire to make the most of their
victories, and to wi'ite as wonderful a history as they
could, as historians are prone to do. But our examination
of Mexican remains soon induced us to withdraw this
accusation, and even made us inclined to blame the
chroniclers for having had no eyes for the wonderful
things that surrounded them.

I do not mean by this that we felt inclined to swallow
the monstrous exaggerations of Solis and Gomara and
other Spanish chroniclers, who seemed to thinlv that it
was as easy to say a thousand as a hundred, and that it
sounded much better. But when this class of writers are
set aside, and the more valuable authorities severely criti-
cised, it does not seem to us that the history thus ex-
tracted from these sources is much less reliable than
European history of the same period. There is, perhaps,
no better way of expressmg this opinion than to say that
what we saw of Mexico tended generally to confirm Pres-
cott's History of the Conquest, and but seldom to make
liis statements appear to us improbable.

There are other mounds near the pyramids, besides the
Micaotli. Two sides of the Pyramid of the Sun are sm--

14)8 ANAHUAC.

rounded by them ; and there arc two squares of mounds
at equal distances, north and south of it, besides innume-
rable scattered hillocks. There are some sculptured
blocks of stone Ijiing near the pyramids, and inside the
smaller one is buried what appears to be a female bust of
colossal size, with the mouth like an oval ring, so common
in Mexican sculptures.

The same abundance of ancient remains that we found
here characterizes the neighbourhood of all the Mexican
monuments in the country, with one curious exception.
Burkart declares that in the vicinity of the extensive re-
mains 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 an-
tiquities. We sat cross-legged on the ground, and the
Indian women and children brought us many curious
articles in clay and obsidian, which we bought and de-
posited in two great bags of aloe-fibre which our man
carried at his saddle-bow. Among the articles we bought
were various pipes or whistles of pottery, pitos, as they
are called in Spanish, and just as we were mounting oiu'
horses to ride ofij a lad ran to the top of one of the
mounds, and blew on one of these pipes a long dismal note
that could be heard a mile off. Our friends had filled our
heads so full of robbers and ambushes, that we made sure
it was a signal for some one who was waiting for us, and
the more so as the boy ran off as soon as he had blown his
blast ; and when we looked round for the people whose
antiquities we had been buying, they had all disappeared.
But nothing came of it, and we got safely back to Tezcuco.
As usual, we spent a capital evening, and separated late.
The owner of the glass-works, who had been spending the
evening with us, had an adventure on his road liome. He
was peaceably riding along, when two men mshed out

POLICE AND BULL-DOGS. l-i9

from behind the corner of the street, and shouted " alto
ahi /" (halte-hx). He thought they were robbers, and
started at a gallop. His hat flew off, and the men sent
two bullets singing past his head, which sent him on
quicker than ever, till he reached his house. There he
got his pistols, and came back armed to the teeth to fetch
the hat, which lay where it had fallen. The supposed
robbers turned out, on enquiry next day, to have been
national guards, patrolling the street ; but certainly their
proceedings were rather questionable.

We had an unpleasant visit the same night. The custom
of the Casa Grande was that after dark a watchman patrolled
all night, giving a long blast every quarter of an hour on
one of these same doleful Mexican whistles, to show that
he was not sleeping on his rounds. This was for the out-
side. Inside the house, 2^oii7' suroroU de precaution, a
servant came round to see that every one was in his room ;
and having satisfied himself of this, let loose in the court-
yard two enormous bulldogs, which were the teiTor of the
household and of the whole neighbourhood. On tliis par-
ticular night, a noise at om- own door woke me from a sound
sleep ; and I had the pleasure of seeing a creatm-e walk
deliberately in, looking huge and temfic in the moonlight.
The beast had been into the stable two nights before, and
had pinned a cow which was there, keeping his hold upon
her till next morning, when he was got off by the keeper.
With this specimen of the bulldog's abilities fresh in my
recollection, I preferred not making any attempt to resent
his impertinent intrusion, but lay still, till he had satisfied
himself with walking about the room and snifiing at oiu-
beds, when he lay down on my carpet ; I soon fell asleep
again, and next morning he was gone. The foreigners in
Mexico seem to delight in fierce buU-dogs. The Casa
Grande at Tezcuco is not by any means the only place

150 ANAHUAC.

where they form part of the gamson. One English ac-
quaintance of ours in the Capital kept two of these beasts
up in his rooms, and not even the servants dared go up,
unless the master was there.

Every one who has read Prescott's 'Mexico' will recollect
Nezahualcoyotl, the king of Tezcuco ; and the palaces he
built there for liis wives, and his poets, and the rest of his
great court. These palaces were built chiefly of mud
bricks ; and time and the Spaniards have dealt so hardly
with them, that even their outlines can no longer be traced.
Traces of two large teocallis are just visible, and Mr. Bow-
ring has some burial mounds in his gi"ounds which will be
examined some day. There is a Mexican calendar built
into the wall of one of the chiu'ches ; and, as we walked
about the streets of the present town, we noticed stones
that must have been sculptured before the Spaniards
brought in their broken-down classic style, and so stopped
the development of native art. As for the rest of old
Tezcuco, it has "become heaps." Wherever they dig
ditches or lay the foundations of houses, you may see the
ground full of its remains.

As I said before, when speaking of the stuccoed floors
near Teotihuacan, the accumulation of alluvial soil goes on
very rapidly and very regularly all over the plains of
Mexico and Puebla, where everything favours its deposit ;
and the human remains preserved m it are so numerous
that its age may readily be seen. We noticed this in
many places, but in no instance so well as between Tez-
cuco and the hacienda of Miraflores. There a long ditch,
some five feet deep, had just 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 history dis-
tinctly traceable from one end to the other. First came
mere alluvium, without human remains. Then, just above,

ACCUMULATION OF ALLUVIUM. 151

came fragments of obsidian knives and bits of unglazed
pottery. Above this again, a third layer, in which the
obsidian ceased, and much of the pottery was still un-
glazed ; but many fi-agments were glazed, and bore the
unmistakeable Spanish patterns in black and yellow.

It is a pity that these alluvial deposits, which give
such good evidence as to the order in which different
peoples or different states of society succeeded one another
on the earth, should be so valueless as a means of calcu-
lating the time of then- duration ; but one can easily see
that they must always be so, by considering how the
thickness of the deposits is altered by such accidents as
the formation of a mud-bank, or the opening of a new
channel, — things that must be continually occurring in
districts where this very accumulation is going on. The
only place where any calculation can be based upon its
thickness is on the banks of the Nile, where its accumu-
lations round the ancient monuments may perhaps give a
criterion as to the time which has elapsed since man
ceased to clear away the deposits of the river.*

As an instance of the tendency of alluvial deposits to
entomb such monuments of former ages, I must mention
the temple of Segeste, which stands on a gentle slope
among the hills of northern Sicily. I had heard talk of
the graceful proportions of this Doric temple, built by the
Greek colonists ; and great was my sm-prise, on first com-
ing in sight of it, to see a pediment supported by two rows
of short squat columns, Avithout bases, and rising directly
from the ground. A nearer inspection showed the cause
of this extraordinary distortion. The whole slope had
risen full six feet during the 2.500 years, or so, that have

* Tho researches instituted by Mr. L. Ilorncr in the alluvium near
Ileliopolis and Monipliis (rAi/os. Timisacl.^ 185.') & 1856), .iltliough very elabo-
rate, still leave much to be desired before wo can arrive at definite conclusions.

V

152 ANAHUAC.

elapsed since its desertion ; and the temple now stands
in a large oblong pit, which has lately been excavated. As
we left the spot, and turned to see it again a few yards off,
the beautiful sjnnmetry of the whole had disappeared
again.

To return to Tezcuco. Some three or four miles fi'om
the town stands the hill of Tezcotzinco, where Nezahual-
coyotl had his pleasure-gardens ; and to this hill we made
an excursion early one morning, with Mr. Bowring for
our guide. We did not go first to Tezcotzinco itself, but
to another hill which is connected with it by an aqueduct
of immense size, along which we walked. The mountains
in this part are of porphyry, and the channel of the aque-
duct was made principally of blocks of the same material,
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 embank-
ment, a hundred and fifty or two hundred 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 were distinguishable. Not far below the
top of the hill, a terrace runs completely round it, whence
the monarch could sm-vey a great part of his little king-
dom. On the summit itself I saw sculptured blocks of
stone ; and on the side of the hill are two little circular
baths, cut in the solid rock. The lower of the two has a
flight of steps down to it ; the seat for the bather, and the
stone pipe which brought the water, are still quite perfect.
His majesty used to spend his afternoons here on the shady
side of the hill, apparently sitting up to his middle in water,
like a frog, if one may judge by the height of the little seat
in the bath. If, as some writers say, these were only tanks
with streams of running water, and not baths at all, why

OLD BATHS. OLD BRIDGE.

153

the steps cut in their sides, which are just large enough
and high enough for a man to sit in ? No water has come
there for centuries now ; and the morning -sun nearly-
broiled us, till we got into a sort of cave, excavated in the
hill, it is said, with an idea of finding treasure. It seems
there was once a Mexican calendar cut in the rock at this
spot ; and some white people who were interested in such
matters, used to come to see it, and poke curiously about
in search of other antiquities. Natm-ally enough, the
Indians thought that they expected to find treasiu-e ; and
with a view of getting the first chance themselves, they
cut down the calendar, and made this large excavation
behind it.

Here we sat in the shade, breakfasting, and hearmg
Mr. Bowi'ing's stories of the art of medicine as practised in
the northern states of Mexico, where decoction of shirt is
considered an invaluable specific when administered in-
ternally ; and the recognised remedy for lumbago is to rub
the patient with the di"awers of a man named John. No
doubt the latter treatment answers very well !

There is an old Mexican bridge near Tezcuco which seems
to be the original Puente de las Bergmitinas, the bridge
where Cortes had the brigantines launched on the lake of
Tezcuco. This bridge has a span of about twenty feet, and

OLD MEXICAN BRIDGE NEAR TEZCUCO.

154 ANAHUAC.

is cimotis as showing how nearly the Mexicans had amved
at the idea of the arch. It is made in the form of a roof
resting on two buttresses, and composed of slabs of stone
with the edges upwards, with mortar in the interstices;
the slabs being sufficiently irregular in shape to admit
of their holding together, like the stones of a real arch.
Oiie may now and then see in Europe the roofs of small
stone hovels made in the same way ; but twenty feet is an
immense span for such a construction. I have seen such
buildings in North Italy, in places where the limestone is
so stratified as to fui-nish rough slabs, three or four inches
thick, with very little labour in quarrying them out. In
Kerry there are ancient houses and churches roofed in the
same way. What makes the Tezcuco bridge more curious
is that it is set askew, which must have made its construc-
tion more difficult.

The brigantines which the Spaniards made, and trans-
ported over the mountains in such a wonderful manner,
fully answered their purpose, for without them Mexico
could hardly have been taken. After the Conquest they
were kept for years, for the good service they had done ;
but vessels of such size do not seem to have been used
upon the lake since then ; and I believe the only sailing-
craft at present is Mr. Bowring's boat, which the Indians
look at askance, and decidedly decline to imitate. It is
true that, somewhere near the city, there is moored a little
steamer, looking quite civiHzed at a distance. It never
goes anywhere, however ; and I have a sort of impression
of having heard that when it was first made they got up
the steam once, but the conduct of the machinery under
these circumstances was so extraordinary and frantic that
no one has ventured to repeat the experiment.

Before we left Tezcuco, we went in a boat to explore
Mr. Bowring's salt-works, which are rather like the salines

SALT AND SALT-PANS. 155

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 svm, and with only three-fourths of the
pressure of au' upon it that we have at the sea-level. The
lake-water thus concentrated is run into smaller tanlcs.
It contains carbonate and sesquicarbonate of soda, and
common salt. The addition of lime converts the sesqui-
carbonate of soda into simple carbonate, and this is sepa-
rated from the salt by taking advantage of their different
points of crystallization. The salt is partly consumed,
and partly used in the extraction of silver fi-om the ore,
and the soda is bought by the soap-makers.

Humboldt's remarks on the small consumption of salt in
Mexico are curious. The average amount used with food
is only a small fraction of the 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 in their
district. Humboldt thinks that the chil^ which the Indians
consume in such quantities acts as a substitute. It is to
be remembered that the soil is impregTiated with both salt
and natron in many of these upland districts, and the in-
habitants may have eaten earth containing these ingre-
dients, as they do for the same purpose in several places in
the Old World.

We disembarked after sailing to the end of these gi'eat
evaporating pans, and found horses waiting to take us to
the Bosque del Contador. This is a gi-and square, lookmg
towards the cardinal points, and composed of ahuehuetes,
grand old deciduous cypresses, many of them forty feet
round, and older than the discovery of America. My
companion, not content with buying collections at second-
hand, wished to have some excavations made on his own
account, and very judiciously fixed on this spot, where,
though there were no buildings standing, the appearance

156 ANAHUAC.

of the ground and the mounds in the neighbourhood, to-
gether with the historical notoriety of the place, made it
probable that something would be found to repay a dili-
gent search. This expectation was fully reahzed, and
some fine idols of hard stone were found, with an infini-
tude of pottery and small objects.

When I look tlu'ough my notes about Tezcuco, I do not
find much more to mention, except that a favourite dish
here consists of flies' eggs fried. These eggs are deposited
at the edge of the lake, and the Indians fish them out and
sell them in the market-place. So large is the quantity
of these eggs, that at a spot where a little stream deposits
carbonate of lime, a pecuhar kind of travertine is forming
which consists of masses of them imbedded in the calcareous
deposit.

The flies* which produce these eggs are called by the
Mexicans "axayacatl" or "water-face". There was a cele-
brated Aztec king who was called Axayacatl ; and his
name is indicated in the picture -writings by a drawing of
a man's face covered with water. The eggs themselves
are 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 known by the characteristic name of
" ahuauhtli," that is " water- wheat, "-f*

The last thing we did at Tezcuco, was to witness the
laying down of a new line of water-pipes for the salt-
works. This I mention because of the pipes, which were
exactly those introduced into Spain by the Moors and
brought here by the Spaniards. These pipes are of glazed

* Corixa femorata, and Notonecla unifasciata, according to MM. Meneville
and Virlet d'Aoust, in a Paper on the subject of tlie granular or oolitic traver-
tine of Tezcuco in the Bulletin (1859) of the Geological Society of France.

f Iluauhtli is an indigenous grain abounding in Michoacan, for which
"wheat" is the best equivalent I can give. European wheat was, of course, un-
known in the country until after the Conquest.

WATER-PIPES. IRRIGATION. 157

earthenware, taper at one end, and each fitting into the
large end of the next. The cement is a mixture of Hme,
fat, and haii-, which gets hard and fii-m when cold, bvit
can be loosened by a very shght appHcation of heat. A
thousand years has made no alteration in the way of
making these pipes. Here, however, the gi-ound is so
level that one great characteristic of Moorish watei-works
is not to be seen. I mean the water-columns which are
such a feature in the country round Palermo, and in other
places where the system of ii-rigation introduced by the
Moorish invaders is still kept up. These are square pil-
lars twenty or thirty feet high, with a cistern at the top
of each, into wliich the water from the higher level flowed,
and from wliich other pipes carried it on; the sole object
of the whole apparatus being to break the column of
water, and reduce the pressure to the thirty or forty feet
which the pipes of earthenware would bear.

This subject of ii-rigation is very interesting with refer-
ence to the future of Mexico. We visited two or three
country-houses in the plateaux, where the gardens are
reo-ularly watered by artificial channels, and the result is
a vegetation of wonderful exuberance and beauty, con-
verting these spots into oases in the desert. On the lower
levels of the tierra templada where the sugar-cane is culti-
vated, a costly system of water-supply has been estab-
lished in the haciendas with the best results. Even in the
plains of Mexico and Puebla, tlie grain-fields are irrigated
to some small degree. But notwithstanding this progress
in the right dfrection, the face of the country shows the
most miserable waste of one of the chief elements of the
■wealth and prosperity of the country, the water.

In this respect, Spain and the high lands of Mexico
may be compared together. There is no scarcity of rain
in either country, and yet both are dry and parched,

158 ANAHUAC.

while the number and size of their torrent-beds show with
what violence the mountain-streams descend into lakes
or rivers, rather agents of destruction than of benefit to
the land. Strangely enough, both countries have been in
possession of races who understood that water was the
very life-blood of the land, and worked hard to build sys-
tems of arteries to distribute it over the sm'face. In both
countries, the warlike Spaniards overcame these races, and
u'rigating works akeady constructed were allowed to fall
to ruin.

When the Moriscos were expelled from their native
provinces of Andalusia and Granada, then- places were but
slowly filled up with other settlers, so that a great part of
their aqueducts and watercoui'ses fell into decay witliin a
few years. These new colonists, moreover, came from the
Northern provinces, where the Moorish system of cultui-e
was little understood ; and, incredible as it may seem,
though they must have had ocular evidence of the advan-
tages of artificial irrigation, they even neglected to keep
in repair the water-channels on their own ground. Now
the traveller, riding through Southern Spain, may see in
desolate barren valleys remains of the Moorish works
wliich centm'ies ago brought fertility to grain-fields and
orchards, and made the country the garden of Europe.

There was another nation who seem to have far sur-
passed both Moors and Aztecs in the magnitude of then-
engineering-works for this purpose. The Peruvians cut
through mountains, filled up valleys, and carried whole
rivers away in artificial channels to frrigate their thirsty
soil. The historians' accounts of these water-works as
they were, and even travellers' descriptions of the ruins
that still remain, fill us with astonishment. It seems
almost like some strange Vitality that this nation too
should have been conquered by the same race, the ruin of

AGRICULTURE IN MEXICO. 159

its great national works following immediately upon the
Conquest.

Spain is rising again after long centuries of degrada-
tion, and is developing energies and resources wliich seem
likely to raise it high among European nations, and the
Spaniards are begiiming to hold their own again among
the peoples of Europe. But they have had to pay dearly
for the errors of theii" ancestors in the great days of
Charles the Fifth.

The ancient Mexicans were not, it is true, to be com-
pared with the Spanish Ai'abs or the Peruvians in their
knowledge of agriculture and the art of ii'rigation ; but
both history and the remains still to be found in the
country prove that in the more densely populated parts of
the plains they had made considerable progress. The
ruined aqueduct of Tetzcotzinco which I have just men-
tioned was a grand work, serving to supply the great
gardens of Nezahualcoyotl, which covered a large space of
ground and excited the admiration of the Conquerors, who
soon destroyed them, it is said, in order that they might
not remain to remind the conquered inhabitants of their
days of heathendom.

Such works as these seem, however, not to have ex-
tended over whole provinces as they did in Spain. In the
thinly peopled mountain-districts, the Indians broke up
their little patches of ground with a hoe, and watered
them from earthen jars, as indeed they do to this day.

The Spaniards improved the agiicultm-e of the country
by introducing European gi-ain and fi-uit-trees, and by
bringing the old Koman plough, which is used to this day
in Mexico as in Spain, where two thousand years have not
superseded its use or even altered it. Against these im-
provements we must set a heavy account of injury done to
the country as regards its cldti^'ation. The Conquest cost

w

1 GO ANAHUAC.

the lives of several hundred thousand of the labouring
class; and numbers more were taken away from the culti-
vation of the land to work as slaves for the conquerors in
building houses and chui'ches, and in the silver -mines.
When the inhabitants were taken away, the groimd went
out of cultivation, and much of it has relapsed into desert.
Even before the Conquest, Mexico had been suffering for
many years fr'om incessant wars, in which not only thou-
sands perished on the field of battle, but the prisoners
sacrificed annually were to be counted by thousands more,
while famine can-ied off the women and children whose
husbands and fathers had peiished. But the slaughter
and famine of the fu'st years of the Spanish Conquest far
exceeded any-thing that the country had suffered before.

At the time of the Conquest of Mexico the Spaniards
let the native irrigating -works fall into decay ; and
they took still more active measmes to deprive the
land of its necessary water, by their indiscriminate de-
struction of the forests on the hills that surround the
plains. Wlien the trees were cut down, the undergrowth
soon perished, and the soil which had served to check the
descending waters in their course was soon swept away.
During the four rainy months, each heavy shower sends
down a flood along the toiTent-bed which flows into a river,
and so into the ocean, or, as in the Mexican valley, into a
salt lake, where it only serves to injure the smTOunding
land. In both cases it rvms away in utter waste.

In later years the Spanish owners of the soU had the
necessity of the system impressed upon them by force of
circumstances ; and large sums were spent upon the con-
struction of m-igating channels, even in the outlying
states of the North.

In tlio American territory recently acquired from
Mexico liistory has repeated itself in a most curious way.

NEGLECT OF IRRIGATION. 161

We learn from Froebel, the German traveller, that the
new American settlers did not take kindly to the system
of iiTigation which they found at work in the country.
They were not used to it, and it interfered with their
ideas of liberty by placing restrictions upon then- doing
what they pleased on their own land. So they actually
allowed many of the water-canals to fall into ruins. Of
com'se they soon began to find out their mistake, and are
probably investing heavily in water-supply by this time.
We ovight not to be too severe upon the Spaniards of the
sixteenth century for an economical mistake which we
find the Americans falling into under .similar circum-
stances in the nineteenth.

CHAP. VII.

CUERNAVACA. TEMISCO. XOCHICALCO,

SPANISH-MEXICAN SADDLE AND ITS APPURTENANCES.

Much too soon, as we thought, the day came when we
had arranged to leave Tezcuco and retm'n to Mexico, to
prepare for a journey into the tierra caliente. On tlie
evenmg of our return to tlie capital there was a Uttle

HORSES AND THEIR TRAINING. 163

earthquake, but neither of us noticed it ; and thus we lost
our one chance, and returned to England without having
made acquaintance with that peculiar sensation.

The purchase of horses and saddles and other equip-
ments for our journey, gave us an opportunity of poking
about into out-of-the-way corners of the city, and seeing
some new phases of Mexican life ; and certainly we made
the most of the chance. We made acquaintance with
horse-dealers, who brought us horses to try in the court-
yard of the gi'eat house of oui' friends the English mer-
chants in the Calle Seminario, and there showed off their
paces, walking, pacing, and galloping. To trot is con-
sidered a disgusting vice in a Mexican horse ; and the
universal substitute for it here is the paso, a queer shuf-
fling run, first, the two legs on one side together, and then
the other two. You jolt gently up and down without
rising in the stirrups ; and when once you are used to it
the paso is not disagi'eeable, and it is well suited to long
mountain-journeys. Horses in the United States are often
trained to this gait, and are known as "pacing" horses.
Another peculiarity in the training of Mexican horses is,
that many of them are taught to " rayar," that is, to put
their fore-feet out after the manner of mules going down a
pass ; and slide a short distance along the ground, so as to
stop suddenly in the midst of a rapid gallop. To practise
the horses in this feat, the jockey draws a line {^'raya") on
the ground, and teaches them to stop exactly as they reach
it, and whirl round in the opposite direction. This per-
formance is often to be seen on the paseo, and other places,
where smart young gentlemen like to 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 for ourselves and our man Antonio, giving eight.

104 ANAHUAC.

seven, and four pounds for tliem. This does not seem
much to give for good hackneys, as these were ; but they
were not particularly cheap for Mexico. While we were
at Tezcuco, Mr. Christy used to ride one of Mr. Bowling's
horses, a pretty httle chestnut, which carried him beauti-
fully, and had cost just eleven dollars, or forty-six shil-
lings. It had been bought of the horse-dealers who come
down every year from the almost uninhabited states of
Chihuahua, Durango, and Cohahuila, on the American
frontier, where innumerable herds of horses, all but wild,
roam over boundless prauies, feeding on the tall coarse
grass. Then- keep costs so little, that the breeders are not
compelled, as in England, to break them in and sell them
at the earhest possible moment, and they let the young
colts roam untamed till they are five or six years old.
Their great strength and power of endurance in propor-
tion to their size is in great measure to be ascribed to this
early indulgence.

It is very clear that when a horse is to be sold for
somewhere between two and six pounds, the breeder can-
not afford to spend much time in breaking him in. The
rough-rider lazos liim, puts on the bridle with its severe
bit, and springs upon his back in spite of kicking and
plunging. The horse gallops fmiously off across coimtry
of his own accord, but when his pace begins to flag,
the great vaquero spurs come into requisition, and in
an hour or two he comes back to the corral dead beat and
conquered once for all. It is easy to teach him his paces
afterwards. The anquera — as it is called — is put on his
haunches, to cm'e him of trotting, and to teach liim the
paso instead. It is a leather covering fi-mged with iron
tags, which is put on behind the saddle, and allows the
horse to pace without annoying liim ; but the least ap-
proach to a trot brings the pointed tags rattling upon his

MEXICAN HORSES. SADDLES. 165

haimclies. Wc bought one of these anqueras at Puebla.
It was very old, and cimously 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
seldom to be seen.

Almost all the Mexican horses descend fi-om the Arab
breed — the gentlest and yet the most spirited in the world,
which have not degenerated since the Spaniards brought
them over in the early days of the Conquest, but retain
unchanged then- small graceful shape, their swiftness, and
their power of bearing fatigue. There seem really to be
no large horses bred in the country. Instead of jolting
about in a carriage diawn by eiglit or ten mules, with
harness covered with silver and gold — as rich Mexicans
used to do, the proper thing now is to have a pair" of taU
caiTiage-horses, like ours in England ; and these are
brought at great expense from the United States, and by
the side of the gracefid little Mexicans they look as big
and as clumsy as elephants.

Our saddles were of the old Moorish pattern, of mon-
strous size and weight, very comfortable for the rider, but,
I fear, much less so for the horse, whose back often gets
sadly galled, in spite of the thick padding and the two or
three blankets that are put on underneath. These sad-
dles run into high peaks behind and before, so that you can
hardly fall out of them, even when you go to sleep in the sad-
dle on a long j ourney, as many pcopl e habitually do. In fi-ont,
the saddle rises into a pummel which is made of hard wood,
and is something hke a large mushroom with its stalk.
Eound this the end of the lazo is wound, after the noose
has been tlu-own. AU Mexican saddles are provided with
these heads in front, and have, moreover, several pairs of
little thonffs attached to them on each side, which serve to

16G ANAHUAC.

tie on bags, whips, water-gourds, and other odds and ends.
Behind the seat of the saddle are more straps, where
cloaks and serapes are fastened ; and in case of need even
a carpet-bag will travel there. We were in the habit of
returning from our expeditions with our horses so covered
with the plants and curiosities we had collected, that it
became no easy matter to get our legs safely over the
horses' backs, into their proper places among the clusters
of miscellanea. Our acquaintances used to compare us to
the perambulating butchers' shops, which are a feature in
Mexican streets, 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 our feet from the mud, and the broad stirrup-
straps were covered with carved and embossed patterns ;
indeed almost all leather-work is decorated in tliis way,
and the saddle-makers delight in ornamenting their wares
with silver plates and bosses ; so that it was not siu'pris-
ing that our saddles and bridles should have cost, though
second-hand, nearly as much as the horses.

In books of travels in Mexico up to the beginning of
the present century, one of the staple articles of wondering
description was the gorgeous trappings of the horses, and
the spurs, bits, and stiiTups of gold and silver. The cos-
tumes have not changed much, but the taste for such
costly ornaments has abated ; and it is now hardly respect-
able to have more than a few pounds worth of bullion on
one's saddle or around one's hat, or to wear a hundred or
so of buttons of solid gold down the sides of one's leather
trousers, with a very questionable cotton calzoncillo un-
derneath.

The horses' bits are made with a ring, which pinches
the under-lip when the bridle is tightened, and causes
great pam when it is pulled at all hard. At fii'st sight it

BITS. THE COURIER.

167

seems cruel to use such
bits, but the system
works very well ; and
the horses, knowing the
power their rider has
over them, rarely mis-
behave themselves. One
rides along with the
loop at the end of the
twisted horse -hair bri-
dle hanging loose on
one finger, so that the spanish-mexican bit,

horse S mouth is much "''"' >'* ^'"If ""'^ chains. Length 9 inches, width SJ inches,

less pulled about than with the bridles we are accus-
tomed to in England. When it is necessary to guide
the horse, the least pressure is enough ; but, as a general
rule, the little fellow can find his way as well as his rider
can. We used continually to let our reins di'op on oiu'
horses' necks, and jog on careless of pits and stimibling-
blocks. I have even seen my companion take out his
pocket-book, and improve the occasion by making notes
and sketches as he went.

The distance fi-om Mexico to Vera Cruz is about two
hundred and fifty miles, and what the roads are I have in
some measure described. Rafael Beraza, the courier of
the English Mission at Mexico, used to ride this with
despatches regularly once a month in forty hours, and occa-
sionally in thirty-five. He changed horses about every
ten or fifteen miles ; and now and then, when overcome by
sleep, he would let the boy who accompanied 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 tlie
attributes of the eastern traveller when he came into the

X

1C8 ANAHUAC.

country, the great umbrella, the veil, and the felt hat with
a white handkerchief over it. As for me, my wardrobe
was scanty ; so, when my travelling coat wore out at the
elbows and my trousers were sat through — like the little
bear's chair in 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 the country. Then
came a grey felt hat, as stiff as a boiler-plate, and of more
than quakerish lowness of crown and broadness of brim,
but secularized by a silver serpent for a hatband ; also,
a red silk sash, which — fastening round the waist — held
up my trousers, and interfered with my digestion ; lastly,
a woollen serape to sleep under, and to wear in the morn-
ings and evenings. This is the genuine ranchero costume,
and it did me good service. Indeed, ever since my Mexi-
can journey I have considered that George Fox decidedly
showed his good sense by dressing himself in a suit of
leather ; much more so than the people who laughed at
him for it.

In the country, aU Mexicans — high and low — wear
this national di'ess ; and in this they are distinguished
fi'om the Indians, who keep to the cotton shirts and
drawers, and the straw hats of their ancestors. In the
towns, it is only the lower classes who dress in the
ranchero costume, for " nous autres " wear European gar-
ments and follow the last Paris fashion, with these excep-
tions— that for riding, people wear jackets and calzoneras
of the national cut, though made of cloth, and that the
Mexican hat is often worn even by people who adopt no
other parts of the costume. There never were such hats
as these for awkwardness. The flat sharp brims of passers-
by are always threatening to cut your head off in the
streets. You cannot get into a carriage with your hat on,
nor sit there when you are in. But for walking and riding

THE SERAPE. 169

under a fierce sun, they are perhaps better than anything
else tliat can be used.

The Mexican blanket — the serape — is a national insti-
tution. It is wider than a Scotch plaid, and nearly as long,
with a slit in the middle ; and it is woven in the same
gaudy Oriental patterns which are to be seen on the
prayer-carpets of Tui-key and Palestine to this day. It is
worn as a cloak, with the end flung over the left shoulder,
like the Spanish capa, and muffling up half the face when
its owner is chilly or does not wish to be recognized.
When a heavy rain comes down, and he is on horseback,
he puts his head through the slit in the middle, and be-
comes a moving tent. At night he roUs himself up in it,
and sleeps on a mat or 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 national costume. I recollect going one evening after
dark to the house of our friends in the Calle Seminario
with my serape on, and nearly having to fight it out with
the gi'eat dog Nelson, who was taking charge of his mas-
ter's room. Nelson knew me perfectly well, and had sat
that very morning at the hotel-gate for half an hour,
holding my horse, while a crowd of leperos stood round,
admiring his size and the gi'avity of his demeanour as he
sat on the pavement, with the bridle in his mouth. But
that a man in a serape should come into his master's room
at dusk was a thing he could not tolerate, till the master
liimself came in, and satisfied his mind on the subject.

As I said, the equipment of ourselves and our three
horses took us into a variety of sti-ange places, for we
bought the tilings we wanted piece by piece, when we saw
anything that suited us. Among other places we went to
the Baratillo, which is the Rag- Fair and Petticoat Lane of

170 ANAHUAC.

Mexico, and moreover the emporium for whips, bridles,
bits, old spurs, old iron, and odds and ends generally. The
little shops are arranged in long lines, after the manner of
the eastern bazaar ; and the shopkeepers, when they are
not smoking cigarettes outside, are sitting in their little
dens, within arms-leng-th of all the wares they have to
sell. Here we found what we had come for, and much
more too, in the way of wonderful old spurs, combs, boxes,
and ornaments ; so that we came several times more be-
fore we left the country, and never without carrying away
some cmious old rehc.

Mexico, as everybody knows, is decidedly a thievish
place. The shops are all shut at dark, after the 0 melon,
for fear of thieves. Ladies used to wear immense tortoise-
shell combs at the back of their heads, where the mantilla
is fastened on ; but, when it became a regular trade for
tliieves to ride on horseback through the streets, and pull
out the combs as they went, the fasliion had to be given
up. These curiously carved and ornamented combs are
still preserved as curiosities, and we bought several of
them.

While we were in Mexico, they knocked a man down
in the great square at noon-day, robbed him, and left him
there for dead. The square is so large, and the sun was
so hot, that the police — whose head-quarters are under the
arches in that very square — could not possibly walk across
to see what was going on ! — 'moral, if you will have the
distinction of having the largest square in the world, you
must take the consequences.

Of course, where thieving is so general, the market for
stolen goods must be a place of considerable trade, and
this Baratillo is one of the principal depots for such wares.
One may realize here the story of the citizen, in the old
book, who had his wig stolen at the begimiing of his walk

THIEVING. WATER-BOTTLES. 171

tlirougli London, and found it hanging up for sale a little
further on. Here the deserter comes to sell his unifonH
and his ricketty old flmtlock. Small blame to him. I
would do the same myself if I were in his place, and were
compelled to serve under one rascally poUtical adventurer
against another rascally political adventm'er — to say no-
thing of being treated like a dog, half-starved, and not
paid at all, 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 om'selves personally,
we never lost anything except a great brand-new water-
proof coat whicli my companion had brought with him,
promising to himself that under its shelter he should bid
defiance to the daily rain-storms of the wet season. As
we dismounted from the Diligence in Mexico, in the court-
yard of the hotel, some one relieved hun of it. We did
not know of the Baratillo in those days, or would have
gone to look for it there. At the time of our visit it was
too late, for if it ever had been there, the Mexicans under-
stand too well the value of an English " ulli," as they call
them, to let it hang long for sale. " Ulli" is not a bor-
rowed word, but the genuine Aztec name for India-rub-
ber, which was used to make playing-balls with, long
before the time of Columbus.

I mentioned the water-bottles as part of our equip-
ment. They are gourds, which are throttled with band-
ages while young, so as to make them gi'ow into the shape
of bottles with necks. Then they are hung up to dry ;
and the inside being cleaned out through a small hole near
the stalk, they are ready for use, holding two or three
pints of water. A couple of inches of a corn-cob (the inside
of a ear of Indian corn) makes a capital cork ; and the bottle

172 ANAHUAC.

is hung by a loop of string to the pummel of the saddle,
where it swings about without fear of breaking. One may-
see gourds, prepared in just the same way, in Italy, hang-
ing up under the eaves of the little farm-houses, among
the festoons of red and yellow ears of Indian corn ; and in-
deed the gourd-bottle is a regular institution of Southern
Europe.

We sent Antonio on with the horses to Cuernavaca,
and started by the Diligence early one morning, accom-
panied by one of our English friends, whom I will call —
as every-one else did — Don Guillermo. It is the regular
thing here, as in Spain, to caU everybody by his or her
Christian name. You may have known Don Antonio or
Don Felipe for weeks before you happen to hear their sur-
names.

The road ran at first over the plain, among gi'eat
water-meadows, with herds of cattle pasturing, and fields
of wheat and maize. Ploughing was going on, after the
primitive fashion of the country, with two oxen yoked 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 of this pole is the plough itself, which con-
sists of a wooden stake with an ii'on point and a handle.
The driver holds the handle in one hand and his goad in
the other (a long reed with an iron point), and so they toil
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. The furrows are three feet fi-om
one another, so that each stalk occupies some nine square
feet of ground. When the plants are gi-owing up they dig
between them, and heap up round each stalk a httle
mound of earth.

We passed many little houses consisting of one square
room, built of mud-bricks, with mud-mortar stuck full of

IN THE DILIGENCE. 173

little stones ; without windows, but generally possessing
tlie luxury of a cliimney, with a couple of bricks forming an
arch over it to keep out the rain. Glimpses of men
smokingr cigarettes at the doors, half-naked brown childi'en
rolling in the dii-t, and women on then* knees inside, hard
at work gi'indincr 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 of stones on the footboard be-
fore him. Whenever one of the nine mules showed a dis-
position to shu'k his work, a heavy stone came flying at
him, always hitting him in a tender place, for long prac-
tice had made the conductor almost as good a shot as the
goat-herds in the mountains, who are said to be able to
hit then- goats on whichever horn they please, and so to
steer them straight when they seem inclined to stray. But
our conductor simply threw the stones, whereas the goat-
herd uses the aloe-fibre honda, or sling, that one sees
hanging by dozens in the Mexican shops.

We pass near Churubusco, and along the hne by which
the American army reached Mexico. The field of lava
which they crossed is close at our right hand ; and just on
the other side of it lie Tisapan and our friend Don Ale-
jandro's cotton-factory. On our left are the freshwater-
lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco, which had risen several
feet, and flooded the valley in their neighboui-hood. Be-
tween us and the great mountain-chain that forms the
rim of the valley, lies a group of extinct volcanos, fi*om
one of wliich descends the great lava-field.

Passing in full view of these picturesque craters, now
mostly covered with trees and brushwood, we begin to
ascend, and are soon among the porphyritic range that
forms a wall between us and the land of sugar-canes and
palms. Along the road towards Mexico came long files of

1 74 ANAHUAC.

Indians, dressed in the national white cotton shirts and
short drawers and sandals, made like Montezuma's, though
not with plates of gold on the soles, such as that monarch's
sandals had. Some of these Indians are bringing on then'
backs wood and charcoal from the pine -forest higher up
amongf the mountains, and some have fastened to their
backs light crates full of hve fowls or vegetables ; others
are can-ying up tropical fruits from the tierra caliente be-
low, zapotes and mameis, nisperos and granaditas, tama-
rinds and fresh sugar-canes. These people are walking with
their loads thirty or forty miles to market : but thefr race
have been used as beasts of burden for ages, and they
don't mind it.

Bright blue and red birds, and larger and more bril-
liant butterflies than are seen in Europe, show that,
thoufjh we are among; fields of wheat and maize, we are in
the tropics after all. As the road rises we get views of the
broad valley, with its lakes and green meadows, and the
great white haciendas with their clumps of willows, their
church-towers, and the clusters of adobe huts surrounding
them — hke the peasants' cottages in feudal Europe, crowd-
ing up to the baron's castle.

Om' mules begin to flag as we toil up the steep ascent ;
but the conductor rattles the stones in his black bag, and
as the ominous sound reaches then- ears, they start off
again with renewed vigour. We pass San Mateo, a vil-
lage of charcoal-burners, where a large and splendid stone
church, with its tail dark cypresses, stands among the
huts of reeds and pine-shingles that form the village.

Trains of mules are continually passing with their
heavy loads of wood and charcoal, bales of goods and bar-
rels of aguardiente de cana, which is rum made from
the sugar-cane, but not coloured like that which comes to
England. The men are continually rushing backwards

( -trom Motisls made try aUaUve Arusl .)

To face, p. 174.

^

v,,-:.

WVUti Imp Ihll-n »iiii./#n.

INDIANS BRLNGING ClIAHCOAl, «rc TO MKXICO.
( I'rom Models inade by aJ^ative Artist )

MULES. BREAKFAST. 175

and forwards among their beasts, wliieh are not content
with kicldng and biting, and banging against one another,
but are always trying to lie down in the road ; and one of
the principal duties of the an-iero is constantly to keep an
eye on all his beasts at once, and, when he sees one pre-
paring to lie down, to be beforehand with him, and di'ive
him on by a furious shower of blows, kicks, and curses.
Certainly, the Mexican mules are the finest and strongest
in the world ; and, though they are just as obstinate here
as elsewhere, they are worth two or three times as much
as horses.

Om- road lies through a forest of pines and oaks, which
reaches to the summit of the pass, where stands a wretched
little village, La Guarda, There we had a thoroughly
Mexican breakfast, with pulque in tall tumblers, and end-
less successions of tortillas, coming in hot and hot from the
kitchen, where we could see brown women with bare arms,
and black hau" plaited in long tails, kneeling by the char-
coal fii-e, and industriously patting out fi-esh supplies, and
baking them rapidly on a hot plate. The pi^ce de resist-
ance was a stew, bright red with tomatas, and hot as fire
with c\\\\6 ; and then came the frijoles — the black beans —
without which no Mexican, high or low, considers a meal
complete. The walls of the room were decorated with
highly coloured engravings, one of which represented an
engagement between a Spanish and an English fleet, in
which the English ships are being boarded by the victori-
ous Spaniards, or are being blo^^na up in the background.
Where the engagement was I cannot recollect. People in
Mexico, to whom I mentioned this remarkable histori-
cal event, assured me that there are still to be seen pic-
tures of the destruction of the English fleet by the French
and Spaniards in the Bay of Trafalgar !

176 ANAHUAC.

Mexico was always, until the establishment of the
repubhc, profoundly ignorant of European afFau-s. In
the old times, when the intercourse with the mother-
country was by the great ship, " el nao," which came once
a year, the government at home could have just such news
circulated through the country as seemed proper and con-
venient to them. We see in our own times how despotic
governments can mystify their subjects, and distort con-
temporary history into what shape they please. But in
Spanish America the system was worked to a greater ex-
tent than in any other country I have heard of; and the
undercurrent of popular talk, which spreads in France and
Russia things and opinions not to be found in the news-
papers, had in Mexico but Httle influence. Scarcely any
Mexican travelled, scarcely any foreigner visited the coun-
try, and the Spaniards who came to hold offices and make
fortunes were all in the interest of the old country ; so
the Mexicans went on, until the beginning of this century,
beUeving that Spain still occupied the same position among
the nations of Europe that it had held in the days of
Charles the Fifth.

While my companion was outside the Diligence, Don
Guillermo and I were left to the convei'sation of an
Italian fellow-passenger. One finds such characters in
books, but never before or since have I seen the reality.
He might have been the original of the great Braggadocchio.
His conversation was like a chapter out of the autobio-
graphy of his countryman Alfieri.

He had accompanied the Italian nobleman who was
killed in an affi-ay with the Mexican robbers, some years
ago, and on that occasion his defence had been most heroic.
He himself had shot several of the robbers ; till at last,
his friend being killed, the rest of the party yielded to the
overwhelming numbers of the brigands, and he ran off to
fetch assistance !

BRAGGADOCX'HIO. ROBBERS. 177

Whenever he was riding along a Mexican road, and
any suspicious-looking person asked him for a light, his
habit was to hand him his cigar stuck in 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
been attacked by thi-ee armed men, but ^vith a pistol in
each hand he had compelled them to retreat. But this
was not all ; om* champion was victorious in love as well
as in arms. Like the great Alfieri, to whom I have com-
pared him, in every country where he travelled, the most
beautifid and distinguished ladies hardly waited for him
to ask before they cast themselves at liis feet. Refusing
the rich jewels that he offered them, they declared that
they loved him for himself alone.

Weeks after, we were talking to our friend Mr. Del
Pozzo, the Italian apothecary in the Calle Plateros, and
happened to ask him if he were acquainted with his heroic
countryman. Whereupon the apothecary went off into
fits of unextinguishable laughter, and told us how our
friend really had been in the skirmish he described, and
had nobly run away almost before a shot was fired, leav-
ing his friends to fight it out. An hour or two after, he
was found shaking with teiTor in a ditch.

To return to our road. The forest is on both sides of
the SieiTa ; but it is on the southern slope, over which we
look down from the pass, that the pines attain thefr fullest
size and beauty ; for here they are as grand as in the
Scandinavian forests, with all the beauty of the pine-trees
on the Italian hills. The pass, with its deep forest skirt-
ing the road, has been a resort of robbers for many years ;
and the driver pointed out to my companion a little grassy
dell by the road-side, from which forty men had rushed
out and plundered the Diligence just ten days before.
With his mind just prepared, one may imagine his feelings

178 ANAHUAC.

when he caught sight of some twenty wild-looking fellows
in all sorts of strange garments, with the bright sunshine
gleaming on the barrels of theii" muskets. A man was
riding a little in front of us, and as he approached the
others they descended, and ranged themselves by the side
of the road. They were only the guard, after all, and such
a guard ! Their thick matted black hair hung about over
their low foreheads and wild brown faces. Some had
shoes, some had none, and some had sandals. They had
straw hats, glazed hats, no hats, leather jackets and
trousers, cotton shirts and drawers, or di'awers without
any shirt at all ; and — what looked worst of all — some
had ragged old uniforms on, like deserters from the army,
and there are no worse robbers than they. When the
Diligence reached them, the guard joined us ; some gallop-
ing on before, some following behind, whooping and
yelling, brandishing theii* arms, and dashing in among the
trees and out into the road again. Every now and then
my friend outside got a glimpse down the muzzle of a mus-
ket, which did not add to his peace of mind. At last we got
tlu-ough the dangerous pass, and then we made a subscrip-
tion for the guard, who departed making the forest ring
again with war-whoops, and filing off their muskets in our
honour untU we were out of hearing.

The top of the pass is 12,000 feet above the sea, but the
clouds seemed as high as ever above us, and the swallows
were flying far up in the air. Three thousand feet lower
we were in a warmer region, among oaks and arbutus ;
and here, as in our higher latitudes, the climate is far hot-
ter than on the northern slope at the same height.
Bananas are to be found at an elevation of 9000 feet,
three times the height at which they ceased on the eastern
slope, as we came up from Vera Cruz. Tliis difference be-
tween the two slopes depends, in part, on the different

TROPICAL VEGETATION. SUGAR-CANE. 179

quantity of sunshine they receive, which is of some im-
portance, although we are within the tropics. But the
sheltering of the southern sides from the chilling winds
from the north still farther contributes to give then- vege-
tation a really tropical character.

We felt the heat becoming more and more intense as
we descended, and when we reached Cuernavaca we lay
down in the beautiful garden of the inn, among orange-
trees and cocoanut-palms, listening to the pleasant cool
sound of running water, and looking down into the great
barranca with its perpendicular walls of rock, and the
luxmiant vegetation of the tierra caliente covering the
banks of the stream that flowed far below us. We could
easily shout to the people on the other edge of the ravine,
but it would have taken hours of toiling down the steep
paths and up again before we could have reached them.

Here our horses were waiting for us ; and an hour or
two's ride brought us to the great sugar-hacienda of
Temisco, where we were to pass the night, for towns and
inns are few and far between in Mexico when one leaves
the more populous mountain-plateaus. So much the bet-
ter, for my companion had provided himself with letters
of introduction, and we had already seen something of
hacienda life, and liked it.

As we approached Temisco, we saw upon the slopes,
immense fields of sugar-cane, now gi"own into a dense mass,
five or six feet high, most pleasant to look upon for the
delicate green tint of the leaves that belongs 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
of grain have a dull and dingy gi-een compared to the
sugar-cane and the young Indian corn. In this beautiful
valley we cannot charge the inhabitants with entirely neg-
lecting the irrigation of the land. Indeed, the culture of the

180 ANAHUAC.

sugar-cane cannot be carried on withoiit it, and the cost of
the watercourses on the large estates has been very gi'eat.
Unfortunately, even here agriculture is not flourishing.
The small number of the white inhabitants, and the dis-
tracted state of the country make both life and property
very insecure ; and the brown people are becoming less and
less disposed to labour on the plantations.

It is true that most of these channels were made in old
times ; Httle new is done now, and I could make a long
list of estates that were once busy and prosperous, giving
employment to thousands of the Indian inhabitants, and
that are now over-grown with weeds and falling to ruin.

Entering the iron gate of the hacienda, we found our-
selves in an immense courtyard, into which open all the
principal buildings of the estate, the house of the proprie-
tor, the chiu'ch — which forms a necessary part of every
hacienda — the crushing-mill, and the boiling-houses. Into
the same great patio open the immense stables for the
many riding-horses and the many hundreds of mules that
carry the sugar and rum over the mountains to market,
and the tienda, the shop of the estate, through which
almost all the money paid to the labourers comes back to
the proprietor m exchange for goods. A mountain of
fresh-cut canes stood near the door of the trapiche (the
crushing-mill) ; and a gang of Indians were constantly
going backwards and forwards carrying them in by arm-
fulls ; while a succession of mules were continually bring-
ing in fresh supplies from the plantation to replenish the
great heap. The court-yard was littered all over, knee-
deep, with dry cane-trash ; and mules, just freed from
their galling saddles, were rolling on their backs in it,
kicking with all their legs at once, and evidently in a state
of high enjoyment. Part of one side of the square was a
sort of wide cloister, and in it stood chairs and tables.

HACIENDA AND LABOURERS. 181

Here the business of the place was transacted, and the
Administrador could look up from his ledger, and see
pretty well what was going on all over the establishment.

It is very common for the owners of these haciendas
to be absentees, and to leave the entke control of their
estates to the administradors ; but at Temisco, which is
much better managed than most others, this is not the
case, and the son of the proprietor generally lives there.
He was out riding, so we sent our horses to the stable, and
louncred about eating sugar-canes till he should return.
Presently he came, a young man in a broad Mexican hat
and white jacket and trousers, mounted on a splendid
little horse, with his saddle glittering with silver, every
inch a planter. He welcomed us hospitably, and we sat
down together in the cloister looking out on the courtyard.
Evening was closing in, and all at once the church-bell
rano;. Crowds of Indian labom-ers in their white dresses
came flocking in, hardly distinguishable in the twilight,
and the sound of then footsteps deadened as they walked
over the dry stubble that covered the gi'ound. All work
ceased, every one uncovered and knelt down ; while,
through the open church-doors, we heard the Indian choir
chanting the vesper h3nnn. In the haciendas of Mexico
every day ends thus. Many times I heard the Oracion
chanted at nightfall, but its effect never diminished by
repetition, and to my mind it has always seemed the most
impressive of religious services.

Then the Administrador seated himself behind a great
book, and the calhng 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 he had earned in
the day, for the Administrador to write down. " Juan
Fernandez!" — "Alaho il Dios, tres reales y medio:" "I
praise God, one and ninepence." " Jos^ Valdes ! " — " I

182 AN AH tr AC.

praise God, eighteen pence, and sixpence for the boy ;"
and so on, through a couple of hundred names.

Then came, not unacceptably, a little cup of pasty
chocolate and a long roll for each of us. Then Don Guil-
lermo and our host talked about their mutual acquaintances
in Mexico, and we asked questions about sugar-planting,
and walked about the boiling-house, where the night-gang
of brown men were hard at work stirring and skimming
at the boihng-pans, and ladling out coarse unrefined sugar
into little earthen bowls to cool. This common sugar in
bowls is very generally used by the poorer Mexicans. The
sugar-boilers were naked excepting a cotton guxUe. These
men were very strong, and with great powers of endui'-
ance, but they did not at all resemble the strong men of
Em-ope with their great muscles standing up under their
skin, the men in Michael Angelo's pictures, or the Farnese
Hei'cules. They are equally unlike the thin why Arabs,
whose strength seems so disproportionate to their lean
little bodies.

The pure Mexican Indian is short and stm"dy ; and,
until you have observed the peculiarities of the race, you
would say he was too stout and flabby to be strong. But
this appearance is caused by the immense thickness of his
skin, which conceals the play of his muscles ; and in
reality his strength is very great, especially in the legs and
thighs, and in the nmscles that are brought into action in
carrying burdens. Sartorius used to observe the Indian
miners bringmg loads of above five-hundred-weight up a
hundi-ed fathoms of mine-ladders, which consist of trunks
of trees fixed slanting across the shaft, with notches cut in
them for steps.

As I have said before, it is not the mere training of
the individual that has produced this remarkable develop-
ment of the power of canying loads. The centuries before

THE INDIANS. XOCHICALCO. 183

the Conquest, when there were no beasts of burden, had
gi'adually produced a race whose bodies were adnm-ably
fitted for such work ; and the persistency with which they
have clung to then- old habits has done much to prevent
then- losing this peculiarity.

To complete the description of the Indians which I
have been led into by speaking of the sugar- boilers, — they
are chocolate-brown in colour, with curved noses, straight
black hau- hanging flat roimd their heads and covering their
wonderfully low foreheads, and occasionally a scanty black
beard. Then- faces are broadly oval, their eyes far apart, and
they have wide mouths with coarse lips. Not bad faces on
the whole, but heavy and unexpressive.

At ten o'clock came a heavy sujiper, the substantial
meal of the day, and immediately afterwards we went to
bed, and dreamt such di-eams as may be imagined. We
were off early in the morning with a wizened old mestizo
to guide us to the ruins of Xochicalco, which are on this
very estate of Temisco. The estate is forty miles across,
however, and it is a long ride to the ruins. After we
leave the fields of sugar-cane, we see scarcely a hut, nor a
patch of cultivated ground. At last we get to Xochicalco,
and find om'selves at the foot of a liill, some foui- hmidred
feet in height, extraordinarily regular in its conical shape,
more so than any natural hill could be, unless it were the
cone of a volcano. At different heights upon this hill, we
could see from below broad ten-aces running round and
round it. A little nearer we came upon a great ditch.
The sides had fallen in, in many places ; sometimes it was
quite filled up, and everywhci'e it was overgrown vnih
thick brushwood, as was the hill itself It seems that this
ditch i-uns quite round the base of the hill, and is three
miles long. Climbing up through the thicket of thorny
bushes and out upon the terraces, it became quite evident

z

184 ANAHUAC.

that the hill had been ai-tificially shaped. The terraces
were built up with blocks of sohd stone, and paved with
the same. On the neighbouring hills we could discern
traces of more terrace-roads of the same kind ; there must
be many miles of them still remaining.

But it was when we reached the summit, that we found
the most remarkable part of the structure. The top has
been cut away so as to form a large level space, which was
surrounded by a stone wall, now in ruins. Inside the in-
closure are several mounds of stone, doubtless bmial-places,
and all that is left of the pyramid. Ruined and defaced
as it is, I shall never forget our feelings of astonishment
and admiration as we pushed our way through the bushes,
and suddenly came upon it. We were quite unprepared
for anyi,hing of the kind ; all we knew of the place when
we started that mornino; being; that there were some
curious old ruins there.

The pjrramid was composed of blocks of hewn stone, so
accurately fitted together as hardly to show the joints,
and the carving goes on without mtemiption fii'om one
block to another. Some of these blocks are eight feet
long, and nearly three feet wide. They were laid to-
gether without mortar, and indeed, from the construction
of the building, none was required. The fii'st storey is
about sixteen feet high, including the plinth at the bottom.
Above the plinth comes a sculptm-ed gi'oup of figui^es,
which is repeated in panels all round the p3n-amid, twice
on each side. Each panel occupies a space thirty feet long
by ten in height, and the bas-rehefs project three or four
inches. There is a chief, dressed in a girdle, and with a
head-dress of feathers just hke those of the Red Indians of
the north. Below the gndle he terminates in a scroll. In
the middle of the gi^oup is what may perhaps be a palm-
tree, with a rabbit at its foot. Close to the tree, and

SCULPTURES AT XOCHICALCO.

185

reaching nearly to the same height, is a figure with a
crocodile's head wearing a crown, and with di'apery in
parallel lines, like the "wings of the creatures in the Assy-
rian bas-reliefs. Indeed this may very hkely be a conven-
tional representation of the robes of feather- work so charac-
teristic of Mexico.

Above these bas-reliefs is a Meze between tlu-ee and
four feet high, with another sculptm^ed panel repeated
eight times on each side of the pyi"amid. This remarkable

SCULPTURED PANEL,

from the Twined Pyramid of Xochicalvo. (After Nchel.)

sculpture represents a man sitting l^arefoot and cross-
legged. On his head is a kind of crown or helmet, with a
plume of feathers ; and fi'om the fi'ont of this helmet there
proti'udes a serpent, just where in the Egyptian sculptures
the royal basilisk is fixed on the crowns of kings and
queens. The eyes of tliis personage are protected by
round plates with holes in the middle, held on by a strap
round the head, like the coloured glasses used in the
United States to keep off the glare of the sun, and known
as " goggles." In front of this figure are sculptured a rabbit
and some unintelligible ornaments or weapons. " Rabl)it"
may have been his name.

186 ANAHUAC.

The fi'ieze is surmounted by a cornice ; and above the
cornice of the second storey enough remains to show that it
was covered with reliefs, in the same way as the fii-st.
There were five storeys originally : the others have only
been destroyed about a centiuy. The former proprietor
of the hacienda of Temisco pulled down the upper storeys,
and carried away the blocks of stone to build walls and
dams with.

The perfect execution of the details in the bas-reliefs
and the accuracy with which they are repeated show
clearly that it was not so much want of skill as the neces-
sity of keeping to the conventional mode of representing
objects that has given so grotesque a character to the
Mexican sculptures. Certain figm-es became associated
with religion and astrology in Mexico, as in many other
countries ; and the sculptor, though his facility in details
shows that he could have made far better figures if he
had had a chance, never had the opportunity, for he was
not allowed to depart from the original rude type of the
sacred object. Humboldt remarks that the same undevi-
ating reproduction of fixed models is as striking in the
Mexican sculptures done since the Conquest. The clumsy
outlines of the rude figures of saints brought ft-om Europe
in the 16th century were adopted as models by the native
sculptors, and have lasted without change to this day.

It is evident that Xochicalco answered several pur-
poses. It was a fortified hill of great strength, also a
sacred shrine, and a burial-place for men of note, whose
bodies, no doubt, still lie under the ruined caims near the
pyramid. The magnitude of the ditch and the teiraces,
as well as the great size of the blocks of stone brought up
the hill without the aid of beasts of burden, indicate a
large population and a despotic government. The beauty
of the masonry and sculpture show that the people who

COMIVION ORNAMENTS. 187

erected this monument had made no small progress in the
arts. We must remember, too, that they had no iron,
but laboriously cut and polished the hardest granite and
porphyry with instruments of stone and bronze ; we can
hardly tell how.

The resemblances wliich people find between AssjTian
and Egyptian sculptiu*es and the American monuments
are of little value, and do not seem sufficient to ground
any argument upon. When slightly civilized races copy
men, trees, and animals in their rude way, it would be
hard if there were not some resemblance among the
figm-es they produce. With reference to their ornamenta-
tion, it is true that what is called the " key -border" is
quite common in Mexico and Yucatan, and that on this
very pyramid the panels are divided by a twisted border,
which would not be noticed as peculiar in a " renaissance "
building. But the model of this border may have been
suggested — on either side of the globe — by creepers twined
together in the forest, or by a cord doubled and twisted,
such as is represented in one of the commonest Egyptian
hieroglyphs.

The cornice which finishes the first storey of the pyra-
mid is a familiar pattern, but nothing can be concluded
fi'om these simple geometrical designs, which might be in-
vented over and over again by different races when they
began to find pleasure in tracing ornamental devices upon
their buildings. Upon the tattooed skins of savages such
designs may be seen, and the patterns were certainly in
use among them before they had any intercourse with
white men. This is the view Humboldt takes of these
coincidences. That both the Egyptian king and the
Mexican chief should wear a helmet with a serpent stand-
ing out from it just above the forehead, is somewhat ex-
traordinary.

] 88 ANAHUAC.

Now, wlio built Xocliicalco ? Writers on Mexico are
quite ready with their answer. They tell us that, accord-
ing to the Mexican tradition, the country was formerly
inhabited by another race, who were called Toltecd, or, as
we say, Toltecs, from the name of their city, Tollan, " the
Reed-swamp ;" and that they were of the same race as the
Aztecs, as shown by the names of then- cities and their
kings being Aztec words ; that they were a highly civilized
people, and brought into the country the arts of sculpture,
hieroglyphic painting, great improvements in agiiculture,
many of the pecidiar religious rites since practised by other
nations who settled after them in Mexico, and the famous
astronomical calendar, of wliich I shall speak aftei*wards.
The particular Toltec king to whom the Mexican histo-
rians ascribe the building of Xochicalco was called Nauhyotl,
that is to say, " Four Bells," 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 and pestilence, and migrated
again southward. Only a few families remained, and from
them the Aztecs, Chichemecs, and other barbarous tribes by
whom the country was re-peopled, derived that knowledge
of the arts and sciences upon which then- own civilization
was founded. It was by this Toltec nation — say the Mexi-
can writers — that the monuments of Xochichalco,Teotihua-
can, and Cholula were built. In their architecture the
Aztecs did little more than copy the works left by their
predecessors ; and, to this day, the Mexican Indians call a
builder a toltecatl or Toltec.

If we consider this circumstantial account to be any-
thing but a mere tissue of fables, the question natm'ally
arises — what became of the remains of the Toltecs when
they left the high plains of Mexico ? A theory has been
propounded to answer this question, that they settled in

PEOPLES OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 189

Chiapas and Yucatan, and built Palenque, Copan, and
Uxmal, and the other cities, the ruins of which He imbed-
ded in the tropical forest.

At the time that Prescott wi-ote his History of the
Conquest, such a theory was quite tenable, but the new
liistoric matter lately made known by the Abbe Brasseur
de Bourbourg has given a different aspect to the question.
Without attempting to maintain the credibiHty of this
wi'iter's history as a whole, I cannot but think that he has
given us satisfactory grounds for believing that the ruined
cities of Central America were built by a race which
flourished long before the Toltecs ; that they were already
declining in power and civihzation in the seventh century,
when the Toltecs began to flourish in Mexico; and that
the present Mayas of Yucatan are their degenerate de-
scendants.

What I have seen of Central American and Mexican
antiquities, and of drawings of them in books, tends to
support the Abb^ Brasseur de ^om-bourg's view of the
history of these countries. Traces of communication be-
tween the two peoples are to be found in abundance, but
nothing to waiTant our holding that either people took its
civihzation bodily from the other. My excuse for entering
into these details must be that some of the facts I have to
offer are new.

A bas-relief at Kabah, described in Mr. Stephens' ac-
count of his second journey, bears considerable resem-
blance to that on the so-called " sacrificial stone" of
Mexico ; and the warrior has the characteristic Mexican
maquahuitl, or "Hand-wood," a mace set with rows of
obsidian teeth.

A curious ornament is met with in the Central Ameri-
can sculptures, representing a serpent with a man's face
looking out from between its distended jaws; and we find

190 ANAHUAC.

a similar design in the Aztec picture-writings, sculptm'cs,
and pottery.

A remarkable peculiarity in the Aztec picture-writings
is that the personages represented often have one or
more figures of tongues suspended in mid-air near their
mouths, indicating that they are speaking, or that they
are persons in authority. Such tongues are to be seen
on the Yucatan sculptm^es.

One of the panels on the Pyramid of Xochicalco seems
to have a bearing upon this subject, I mean that of the
cross-legged chief, of which I have just spoken.

In the first place, sitting cross-legged is not an Aztec
custom. I do not think we ever saw an Indian in Mexico
sitting cross-legged. In the picture-writings of the Aztecs,
the men sit doubled up, with their dims almost touching
then' knees ; while the women have their legs tucked under
them, and their feet sticking out on the left side. On the
other hand, this attitude is quite characteristic of the
Yucatan sculptures. At Copan there is an altar, with six-
teen chiefs sitting cross-legged round it ; and, moreover,
one of them has a head-dress very much like that of the
Xochicalco chief (except that it has no serpent), and others
are more or less similar ; while I do not recollect anything
like it in the Mexican picture-wi'itmgs. The curious perfo-
rated eye-plates of the Xochicalco chief, which he wore —
apparently — to keep arrows and javelins out of his eyes, are
part of the equipment of the Aztec wanior in the picture-
writings, while Palenque and Copan seemed to afford no
instance of them ; so that in two peculiarities the remark-
able sculptm-e before us seems to belong rather to Yucatan
than to Mexico, and in one to Mexico rather than to
Yucatan.

It is not even possible in all cases to distinguish Central
American sculptures from those of Mexican origin. Among

CIVILIZATION OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 191

the numerous stone figures in Mr. Christy's museum, some
are unmistakeably of Central American origin, and some as
certainly Mexican ; but beside these, there are many which
both then- owner and myself, though we had handled hun-
dreds of such things, were obliged to leave on the debate-
able ground between the two classes.

So much for the resemblances. But the differences are
of much gi-eater weight. The pear-shaped heads of most
of the Central American figures, whose peculiar configura-
tion is only approached by the wildest caricatures of Louis
Philippe, are perfectly distinctive. So are the hieroglyphics
an-anged in squares, found on the sculptures of Central
America and in the Dresden Codex. So is the general
character of the architecture and sculptm-e, as any one may
see at a glance.

It is quite true that the so-called Aztec Astronomical
Calendar was in use in Central America, and that many of
the rehgious observances in both countries, such as the
method of sacrificing the human victims, and the practice
of the worshippers drawing blood from themselves in hon-
our of the gods, are identical. But there were several ways
in which this might have been brought about, and it is no
real proof that the civilization of either country was an
offshoot from that of the other. To consider it as such
would be like arguing that the negroes of Cuba and the
Indians of Yucatan had deiived their civilization one fi-om
the other, because both peoples are Roman Catholics, and
use the same almanac. On the whole I am disposed to
conclude that the civilizations of Mexico and Central
America were originally independent, but that they came
much into contact, and thus modified one another to no
small extent.

At the risk of being prosy, I will mention the a priori

gi'ounds upon wliich we may argue that the civilization of

A A

1 92 ANAHUAC.

Central America did not grow up there, but was brought
ready-made by a people who emigi-ated there from some
other country. There is a theory afloat, that it is only in
temperate climates that barbarous nations make much pro-
gress in civilizing themselves. In tropical countries the
intensity of the heat makes man little disposed for exer-
tion, and the luxuriance of the vegetation supphes him
with the little he requires. In such climates — say the
advocates of this theory — man acknowledges the supre-
macy of nature over himself, and gives up the attempt to
shape her to his own purposes ; and thus, in these coun-
tries, the inhabitants go on from generation to generation,
lazily enjoying their existence, making no eflbrt, and mdeed
feeling no deske to raise themselves in the social scale.
Upon this theory, therefore, when we find a high civiliza-
tion in hot countries, as in the plains of India, we have to
account for it by supposing an immigration of races bring-
ing their civilization with them from more temperate
climates. This theory of civilization favours the idea of
the Central American cities having been built by a people
from Mexico. The climate of the Mexican highlands,
which may be taken in a rough way to correspond
with that of North Italy, is well suited to a nation's
development. But the cities of Yucatan and Chia-
pas, though geographicaUy not ftir removed from the
Mexican plateau, are brought by their small elevation
above the sea into a very different climate. They are in
the land of tropical heat and the rankest vegetation, in
tlie midst of dense forests where pestilential fevers and
overwhelming lassitude make it almost impossible for
Europeans to live, and where the Indians who stiU
inhabit the neighbouiliood of the ruined cities are the
merest savages sunk in the lowest depths of lazy igno-
rance.

XOCHICALCO AND ITS SHRINES. 193

If this climate-theory of progress have any truth in it,
no barbarous tribe could have raised itself in such a
coiuitry to the social state which is indicated by the ruins
of such temples and cities. They must have been settlers
fi'om some more temperate region.

While wandering about the hill of Xochicalco we came
upon a spot that strongly excited our curiosity. It was
simply a small paved oval space with a little altar at one
end, and, lying round about it, some fi'agments of what
seemed to have been a hideous gTotesque idol of baked clay.
Perhaps it was a slu'ine dedicated to one of the inferior
deities, such as often sun-ounded the greater temples ; for,
in Mexico, astronomy, astrology, and religion had become
mixed up together, as they have been in other quarters of
the globe, and even the astronomical 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 places and people, such as the lake of Xochimilco
— " In the Flower-plantation." TlilxocJdtl, literally "black
flower," is the Aztec name for vanilla, so that the name of
that famous Mexican historian, Ixtlilxochitl, whose name
sticks in the throats of readers of Prescott, means "Vanilla-
face." Why the place was called "In the House of
Flowers" is not clear. The usual explanation seems not
unlikely, that it. was because offerings of flowers and first-
fi-uits were made upon its shrines. The Toltecs, say the
Mexican chroniclers, did not sacrifice human victims ; and
it was not until long after other tribes had taken possession
of their deserted temples, that the Aztecs introduced the
custom by sacrificing then- prisoners of war. It seems odd,
however, that one of the Toltec kings should liave been
called Topiltzin, which was the title of the chief priest
among the Aztecs, whose duty it was to cut open the
breasts of the human victims and tear out their hearts.

194< ANAHUAC.

The Indians always delighted in carrying flowers in
their solemn processions, crowning themselves with gar-
lands, and decollating their houses and temples with them ;
and, while they worshipped their gods according to the sim-
ple rites which tradition says their prophet, Quetzalcoatl,
("Feathered Snake,") appointed, before he left them and
embarked in his canoe on the Eastern ocean, no name could
have been more appropriate for their temple. Tliis plea-
sant custom did not disappear after the Conquest ; and to
this day the churches in the Indian districts are beautiful
with their brilliant garlands and nosegays, and are as
emphatically " houses of flowers " as were the temples in
ages long past.

Since wiiting the above notice of the P^i'amid of
Xocliicalco, I have come upon a new piece of evidence,
which, if it may be depended on, proves more about the
history of this remarkable monument than all the rest put
together. Dupaix made a drawing of the ruins at Xoclii-
calco in 1805, which is to be found in Lord Kingsborough's
'Antiquities of Mexico,' and among the sculptures of
the upper tier of blocks is represented a reed, with its
leaves set in a square frame, with three smaU circles under-
neath ; the whole forming, in the most unmistakeable way,
the sign 8 Acatl (3 Cane) of the Mexican Astronomical
Calendar.

Now it must be admitted that Dupaix's drawing of
these ruins is most grossly incorrect ; but still no amount
of mere carelessness in an artist will justify us in suppos-
ing him to have invented and put in out of his own head
a design so entirely sui generis as this. It does not even
follow that the drawing is wrong because the sign may
not be found there now ; for it was in an upper tier, and
no doubt many stones have been removed since 1805, for
building-purposes.

BUILDERS OF XOCHICALCO. MIACATLAN. 105

If the existence of the sign 3 Acatl on the pyi*amid
may be considered as certain, it will fit in perfectly with
the accounts of the Mexican historians, who state that
Xochicalco was built by a king of the Toltec race, and also
that the Aztecs adopted the astronomical calendars of
years and days in use among the Toltecs.

It was afternoon when we left Xochicalco and rode on
over a gently undulating country, crossing streams here
and there, and had our breakfast at Miacatlan under a
shed in front of the village shop, where aU the acti\'ity of
the little Indian town seemed to be concentrated. By the
road-side were beautiful tamarind-trees with their dark
green foHage, and the mamei-tree as large as a fine Eng-
Hsh horse-chestnut, and not imlike it at a distance. On
the branches were hanging the gi'eat mameis, just like the
inside of cocoa-nuts when the inner shell has been cracked
ofi". It appeared that Natui-e was not acquainted with
M. De La Fontaine's works, or she would probably have
got a hint fi-om the fable of the acorn and the pumpkin,
and not have himg mameis and cocoa-nuts at such a dan-
gerous height.

AZTEC HEAD IN TERRA-COTTA.

(From Mr. (hriitj/'s ColU'ctionJ

CHAP. VIII.

COCOYOTLA. CACA.HUAMILPAN. CHALMA. OCULAN.
TENANCINGO. TOLUCA.

IXTACALCO CHURCH

A little before dark we came to the hacienda of Santa
Rosita de Cocoyotla, another sugar-plantation which was
to be our head-quarters for some days to come. We pre-
sented our letter of introduction from the owner of the
estate, and the two admuiistradors received us with open
arms. We were conducted into the strangers' sleeping-
room, a long barrack -like apartment with stone walls and
a stone floor that seemed refreshingly dark and cool ; we
could look out through its ban-ed windows into the garden,
where a rapid little stream of water running along the
channel just outside made a pleasant gurgling sound.
Appearances were delusive, however, and it was only the
change from the outside that made us feel the inside cool

HACIENDA. INDIAN LABOURERS. 1 97

and pleasant. For days our clothes clung to us as if we
had been drowned, and the pocket-handkerchiefs with
which we mopped oiu' faces had to be hung on chair-backs
to dry. Except in the early morning, there was no cool-
ness in that sweltering place.

In one comer of oiu- room I discerned a brown toad of
monstrous size squatting in gi'eat comfort on the damp
flags. He was as big as a trussed chicken, and looked
something like one in the twilight. We pointed him out
to the administrador, who brought in two fierce watch-
dogs, but the toad set up his back and spirted his acrid
liquor, and the dogs could not be got to go near him. We
stm-ed him up with a bamboo and drove him into the gar-
den, but he left his portrait painted in sHme upon our
floor.

The Indian choir chanted the Oracion as we had heard
it the night before at Temisco, and then came the calling
over of the raya. After that we walked about the place,
and sat talking in the open corridor. Owners of estates,
and indeed aU white folks living in this part of the coun-
try were beginning to feel very anxious about their posi-
tion, and not without reason. Ordinary poHtical events
excite but little interest in these Indian districts, and so
trifling a matter as a revolution and a change of people in
power does not affect them perceptibly. The Indians are
absolutely fii'ee, and have their votes and theii- civil privi-
leges like any other citizens. All that the owners of the
plantations ask of them is to work for high wages, and
hithei"to they have done this, but for years it has been be-
coming more and more difficult to get them to work. All
they do with the money when they get it, is to spend it
in drinking and gambling, if they are of an extravagant
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-

198 _ ANAHUAC.

caste Mexicans they would spend their money upon fine
clothes and horses, but the Indian keeps to the white
cotton dress of his fathers, and is never seen on horse-
back. Now this being the case, it does not seem un-
reasonable that they should not much care about working
hard for money that is of so little use to them when they
have got it, and that they should prefer living in their
little huts walled with canes and thatched with palm-
leaves, and cultivating the little patch of garden-ground
that lies round it — which will produce enough fruit and
vegetables for their own subsistence, and more besides,
which they can sell for clothes and tobacco. A day or
two of this pleasant easy work at then- own ground will
provide this, and they do not see why they should labour
as hired servants to get more. This is bad enough, think
the hacendados, but there is worse behind. The Indians
have been of late years becoming gradually aware that the
government of the country is quite rotten and powerless,
and that in their own districts at least, the power is
very much in their own hands, for the few scattered
whites could offer but shglit resistance. The doctrine of
" America for the Americans" is rapidly spreading among
them, and active emissaries are going about reminding
them that the Spaniards only got their lands by the right
of the strongest, and that now is the time for them to re-
assert their rights.

The name of Alvarez is circulated among them, as the
man who is to lead them in the coming struggle — Alvarez
the mulatto genera^ whose hideous portrait is in every
print-shop in Mexico. He was President before Comon-
fort, and is now estabhshed with his Indian regiments in
the hot pestilential regions of the Pacific coast.

The undisguised contempt with which the Indians
have been treated for ages by the whites and the mestizos

POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE INDIANS. 199

has not been without its effect. The revolution, and the
abolition of all legal distinctions of caste still left the In-
dians mere senseless unreasoning creatures in the eyes of
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. Only a day or two before we came
down fi'om Mexico, the government had endeavoured to
quarter some troops in one of the little Indian towns wliich
we passed through on our way from Temisco. But the in-
habitants saluted them with volleys of stones from the
church-steeple and the house-tops, and they had to retreat
most ignominiously into their old quarters among "reason-
able people."

I have put down our notions on the " Indian
Question," just as they presented themselves to us at the
time. The dismal forebodings of the planters seem to
have been fulfilled to some extent at least, for we heard,
not long after our return to Em'ope, that the Indians had
plundered and set fire to numbers of the haciendas of the
south countiy, and that our fiiends the administradors of
Cocoyotla had escaped with their lives. The hacienda
itself, if our information is correct, which I can hardly
doubt, is now a blackened deserted ruin.

At supper appeared two more guests besides ourselves,
apparently traders caiTying goods to seU at the villages and
haciendas on the road. In such places the hacienda offers
its hospitality to all travellers, and there was room in om*
caravanserai for yet more visitors if they had come. Our
beds were like those in general use in the tro})ics, where
mattresses would be unendurable, and even the pillows
become a nuisance. The fiame of the bed has a piece of
coarse cloth stretched tightly over it ; a sheet is laid upon
this, and another sheet covers the sleeper. This compro-
mise between a bed and a hammock answers the pm-pose

B B

200 ANAHUAC.

better than anything else, and admits of some circulation
of air, especially when you have kicked off the sheet and
lie fully exposed to the air and the mosquitos.

I cannot say that it is pleasant to wake an hour or two
after going to bed, with your exact profile depicted in a
wet patch on the pillow ; nor is it agreeable to become con-
scious at the same time of an intolerable itcliing, and to
find, on lighting a candle, that an army of small ants are
walking over you, and biting furiously. These were my
experiences during my first night at Cocoyotla ; and I
finished the night, lying half-dressed on my bed, with the
ends of my trousers-legs tied close with handkerchiefs to
keep the creatures out. But when we got into our saddles
in the early morning, we forgot all these little miseries,
and started merrily on our expedition to the great stalac-
titic cave of Cacahuamilpan.

Our day's journey had two objects ; one was to see the
cave, and the other to visit the village close by, — one of the
genuine unmixed Indian communities, where even the
Alcalde and the Cura, the temporal and spiritual heads of
the society, are both of pure Indian blood, and white in-
fluence has never been much felt.

A ride of two or three hours from the hacienda brought
us into a mountainous district, and there we found the vil-
lage of Cacahuamilpan on the slope of a hill. In the midst
of neat trim gardens stood the little white church, and the
ranchos of the inhabitants, cottages of one room, with
walls of canes which one can see through in all direc-
tions, and roofs of thatch, with the ground smoothed and
trodden hard for a floor. Everything seemed clean and
prosperous, and there was a bright sunny look about the
whole place ; but to Englishmen, accustomed to the innu-
merable appliances of civilized life, it seems surprising how
very few and simple are the wants of these people. The

.;.3>^^

lb fcuAp Wt

JxSm^j/iji

i" W,.:l Imi

NDI.ANS MAKING &J3A.KING 'COUTH, I, AS.
(Aflf3r Wodels mjude by a Mali.ve ArUsL.)

INDIAN HUTS. COTTON-SPINNING. 201

inventory of their whole possessions will only occupy a
few lines. The nictate for gi'inding or rubbing down the
maize to be patted out into tortillas, a few calabashes for
bottles, and pieces of calabashes for bowls and cups, prettily
ornamented and painted, and hanging on pegs round the
walls. A few pahn-leaf mats (petates) to sleep upon,
some pots of thin unglazed earthenware for the cooking,
which is done over a wood-fire in the middle of the floor.
A chimney is not necessary in houses which are like the
Irishman's coat, consisting principally of holes. A wooden
box, somewhere, contains such of the clothes of the family
as are not in wear. There is really hardly anything I can
think of to add to this catalogue, except the agricultural
implements, which consist of a wooden spade, a hoe, some
sharp stakes to make the drills with, and the machete —
which is an ii'on bill-hook, and serves for pruning, wood-
cutting, and now and then for less peaceful pm-poses.
Sometimes one sees women wea\dng cotton-cloth, or quanta,
as it is called, in a loom of the simplest possible constnic-
tion ; or sitting at their doors in gi'oups, spinning cotton-
thread with the malacates, and apparently finding as much
material for gossip here as elsewhere.

The Mexicans spun and wove their cotton-cloth just
in this way before the Conquest, and malacates of baked
clay are found in great numbers in the neighbourhood of
the old Mexican cities. They aa-e simple, Uke very large
button-moulds, and a thin wooden skewer stuck in the
hole in the middle makes them ready for use. Such
spindles were used by the lake-men of Switzerland, but
the earthen heads were not quite the same in shape, being
like balls pierced with a hole, as are those at present used
in Mexico.

The Indians here had not the duU sullen look we saw
among those who inhabit the colder regions ; and, though

202 ANAHUAC.

belonging to the same race, they were better formed and
had a much freer bearing than their less fortunate coun-
trymen of the colder districts.

Our business in the village was to get guides for the
cavern. Wliile some men were gone to look for the
Alcalde, we walked about the village, and finally en-
camped luider a tree. One of our men had got us a bag
full of fruit, — limes, za.potes, and nisperos, which last are a
large kind of medlar, besides a number of other kinds of
fruit, which we ate without knowing what they were.
Though rather insipid, the Kmes are dehciously refresliing
in this thii"sty country ; and they do no harm, however
enormously one may indulge in them. The whole neigh-
bourhood abounds in fruit, and its name Cacaliuainiilpan
means " the plantation of cacahuate nuts."

It soon became evident that the Alcalde was keeping
us waiting as a matter of dignity, and to show that, though
the white men might be held in great estimation else-
where, they did not think so much of them in this free
and independent village. At last a man came to summon
us to a solemn 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 his escribano or secretary at
his left hand. Other Indians were standing outside at the
door. The little man scarcely condescended to take any
notice of us when we saluted him, but sat bolt upright,
positively bvu'sting with suppressed dignity, and the escri-
bano inquired in a loud voice 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 to talk
to the Alcalde. We quite appreciated the pleasure it must
have been to the two functionaries to show off before us
and their assembled countrymen, who were looking on at
the proceedings with great respect ; and we had not minded

GREAT CAVE OF CACAHUA3IILPAN. 203

afFording them this cheap satisfaction; but at last the joke
seemed to be getting stale, so we proceeded some to sit and
some to lie down at full length, and to go on eating limes
in the presence of the august company. Thereupon they
mformed us what would be the cost of guides and candles,
and we eventually made a bargain with them and started
on foot.

On looking at the map of the State of Mexico, there is
to be seen a river which stops suddenly on reaching the
mountains of Cacahuamilpan, and begins again on the
other side, having found a passage for itself through caves
in the mountain for six or seven miles. Not far from the
place where this river flows out of the side of the hill, is a
path which leads to the entrance of the cave. A long
downward slope brought us into the first great vaulted
chamber, perhaps a quarter of a mile long and eighty feet
high ; then a long scramble through a naiTow passage, and
another hall still grander than the first. At the end of this
hall is another passage leading on into another chamber.
Beyond this we did not go. As it was, we must have
walked between one and two miles into the cavern, but
people have explored it to twice this distance, always find-
ing a repetition of the same arrangement, gi'eat vaulted
chambers alternating with long passages almost choked by
fallen rocks. In one of the passages, I think the last we
came to, the roaring of the river in its subterranean bed
was distinctly audible below us.

Excepting the gi'eat cave of Kentucky, I beHeve there
is no stalactitic cavern known so vast and beautiful as this.
The appearance of the largest hall was wonderful when
some twenty of our Indian guides stationed themselves on
pinnacles of stalagmite, each one holding up a blazing
torch, while two more climbed upon a gi-eat mass at one
end called the altar, and bm'nt Bengal lights there ; the

204 ANAHUAC.

rest stood at the other extremity of the cave sending up
rockets in rapid succession into the vaulted roof, and mak-
ino- the milhons of grotesque incrustations glitter as if they
had been masses of diamonds. All the quaint shapes that
are found in such caverns were to be seen here on the
grandest scale, columns, arched roof, organ-pipes, trees,
altars, and squatting monsters ranged in long lines like
idols in a temple. There may very well be some truth in
the notion that the origin of Gothic architecture was in
stalactites of a limestone cavern, so numerous and perfect
are the long slender columns crowned with pointed Gothic
arches.

Our procession through the cave was a picturesque
one. We carried long wax altar-candles, and our guides
huge torches made of threads of aloe -fibre soaked in resin
and wrapped round with cloth, in appearance and texture
exactly like the legs and arms of mummies. As we went,
the Indians sang Mexican songs to strange, monotonous,
plaintive tunes, or raced about into dark corners shouting
with laughter. They talked about adventures in the cave,
to them of course the great phenomenon of the whole
world ; but it did not seem, as far as we could hear, that
they associated with it any recollections of the old Aztec
divinities and the mystic rites performed in their honour.

No fossil bones have been found in the cavern, nor
human remains except in one of the passages far within,
where a little wooden cross still marks the spot where the
skeleton of an Indian was found. Whether he went alone
for mere curiosity to explore the cave, or, what is more
likely, with an idea of finding treasure, is not known ;
nothing is certain but that his candle was burnt out while
he was still far from the entrance, and that he died there. I
said no fossil remains had been found, but the level floors
of the great halls are continually being raised by fresh

OPTICAL PHENOMENON. PRIEST ON HOESEBACK. 205

layers of stalagmite fi-om the water dropping fi-om the roof,
and no one knows what may lie under them. These floors
are in many places covered with httle loose concretions
like marbles, and these concretions in the course of time
are imbedded in the horizontal layers of the same material.

As we left the entrance hall and began to ascend the
sloping passage that leads to daylight, we saw an optical
appearance which, had we not seen it with our o^vn eyes,
we could never have believed to be a natural effect of
light and shade. To us, still far down in the cave, the en-
trance was only illuminated by reflected light ; but as the
Indians reached it, the dii-ect rays of sunlight fell upon
them, and their wliite dresses shone with an intense phos-
phoric light, as though they had been self-luminous. It is
just such an effect that is wanting in our pictures of the
Transfiguration, but I fear it is as impossible to paint it
upon canvas as to describe it in words.

Next morning our friend Don Guillermo said good-bye
to us, and started to return post-haste to his aflau's in the
capital. We stayed a few days longer at Cocoyotla, never
tii-ing of the beautiful garden with its groves of orange-
trees and cocoanut- palms, and the river which, run-
ning through 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 favourite clerical animal. They say it is impos-
sible to ride a mule unless you are either an aniero or a
priest. Not that it is by any means necessary, however,
that he should ride a mule. I shall not soon forget the
jaunty young monk we saw at Tezcuco, just setting out
for a country festival, mounted on a splendid little horse,
with his frock tucked up, and a pair of hairy goat-skin
chaparreros underneath, a broad Mexican hat, a pair of
monstrous silver spurs, and a very large cigar in his

206 ANAHUAC.

mouth. The girls came out of the cottage doors to look at
him, as he made the fiery little beast curvet and prance
along the road ; and he was evidently not insensible to the
looks of admu'ation of these young ladies, as they muffled
up their faces in their blue rebozos and looked at him
through the narrow opening.

Nearly two hundred Indians crowded into the church
to mass, and went through the service with evident devo-
tion. There are no more sincere Catholics in the world
than the Indians, though, as I have said, they are apt to
keep up some of their old rites in holes and corners. The
administradors did not trouble themselves to attend mass,
but went on posting up their books just outside the
church-door; in this, as in a great many other little mat-
ters, showing their contempt for the brown men, and
adding sometliing every day to the feeling of disHke they
are regarded with.

We speak of the Indians still keeping up their ancient
superstitious rites in secret, as we often heard it said so in
Mexico, though we ourselves never saw anything of it.
The Abb^ Clavigero, who wrote in the last century, de-
clares the charge to be untrue, except perhaps in a few
isolated cases. " The few examples of idolatry," he says,
"which can be produced are partly excusable; since it is
"not to be wondered at that rude uncultured men should
"not be able to distinguish the idolatrous worship of a rough
"figure of wood or stone from that which is rightly paid to
"the holy images." (There are people who would quite
agree with the good Abbe that tlie distinction is rather a
difficult one to make.) " But how often has prejudice
"against them declared things to be 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
"be idols; but I had no doubt that they were figures re-
" presenting the mystery of the Holy Nativity."

INDIAN BAPTISM. VILLAGE AMUSEMENTS. 207

A good illustration of the wholesale way in whicli
the eai'ly Catholic missionaries went about the woik of
conversion is given in a remark of Clavigero's. There is
one part of the order of baptism which proceeds thus :
" Then the Priest, wetting his right thunilj with spittle
from his mouth, and touching therewith in the fonn of a
cross the right ear of the person to be baptized, &c." The
Mexican missionaries, it seems, had to leave out this cere-
mony, from sheer inability to provide enough of the requi-
site material for their crowds of converts.

After mass we rode out to a mound that had attracted
our attention a day or two before, and wliich proved to be
a fort or temple, or probably both combined. There were
no remains to be found there except the usual fragments
of pottery and obsidian. Then we returned to the haci-
enda to say good-bye to our friends there, before starting
on our journey back to Mexico. All the population were
hard at work amusing themselves, and the shop was doing
a roaring trade in glasses of aguardiente. The Indian who
had been our guide for some days past had opened a
Montd bank with the dollars we had given him, and was
sitting on the ground solemnly dealing cards one by one
from the bottom of a dirty pack, a crowd of gamblers stand-
ing or sitting in a semicircle before him, sUently watching
the cards and keeping a vigilant eye upon their stakes
which lay on the gi-ound before the banker. Other parties
were busy at the same game in other parts of the open
space before the shop, which served as the gi-eat square
for the colony.

Under the arcades in front of the shop a fandango was
going on, though it was quite early in the afternoon. A
man and a woman stood facing each other, an old man
tinkled a guitar, producing a strange, endless, monotonous
tune, and the two dancers stamped with their feet, and

c c

208 ANAHUAC.

moved their arms and bodies about in time to the music,
throwing themselves into affected and vokiptuous atti-
tudes which evidently met with the approval of the by-
standers, though to us, who did not see with Indian eyes,
they seemed anything but beautiful. When the danseuse
had tired out one partner, another took his place. An
admiring crowd stood round or sat on the stone benches,
smoking cigarettes, and looking on gravely and silently,
with evident enjoyment. Just as we saw it, it would go
on probably through half the night, one couple, or perhaps
two, keeping it up constantly, the rest looking on and re-
freshing themselves from time to time with raw spirits.
Though inferior to the Eastern dancing, it resembled it
most strikingly, my companion said. It has little to do
with the really beautiful and artistic dancing of Old
Sjiain, but seems to be the same that the people delighted
in long before they ever saw a white man. Montezuma's
palace contained a perfect colony of professional dancers,
whose sole business was to entertain him with then- per-
formances, which only resembled those of the Old World
because human nature is similar everywhere, and the same
wants and instincts often find their development in the
same way among nations totally separated from each
other.

We left the natives to their amusement, and started on
oiu" twenty miles ride. By the time the evening had
fairly begun to close in upon us, we crossed 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
horses find their way as well as they could along the
rocky path, and got down into the valley. A light be-
hind us made us turn round, and we saw a grand sight.
The coarse grass on a large hiU further down the valley
had been set fire to, and a broad band of flame stretched

CHALIHA. THE MESON AND THE CONVENT. 209

right across the base of the hill, and was slowly moving
upwards towards its top, throwing a hmd glare over the
sui'rounding country, and upon the clouds of smoke that
were rising fi'om the flames. Every now and then we
turned to watch the line of fire as it rose higher and
higher, till at last it closed in together at the summit with
one final blaze, and left us in the darkness. We dis-
mounted and stumbled along, leadmg our horses down the
precipitous sides of the deep ravines that run into the
valley, mounting again to cross the streams at the bottom,
and clambering up on the other side to the level of the
road. At last a tm^n in the valley showed hghts just be-
fore us, and we entered the village of Chalma, which was
illuminated with flaring oil-lamps in the streets, where
men were hard at work setting up stalls and booths of
planks. It seemed there was to be a fair next day.

They showed us the way to the meson* and there we
left Antonio with the horses, while the proprietor sent an
idiot boy to show us the way to the convent, for oui' in-
spection of the meson decided us at once on seeking the
hospitality of the monks for the night. We climbed up
the hill, went in at the convent-gate, across a courtyard,
along a dim cloister, and through another door where our
guide made his way out by a different opening, leaving us
standing in total darkness. After a time another door
opened, and a good-natured-looking friar came in with a
lamp in his hand, and conducted us upstans to his cell. I
tlimk om* friend was the sub-prior of the convent. His
cell was a very comfortable bachelor's apartment, in a
plain way, vaulted and whitewashed, with good chafrs
and a table and a very comfortable-looking bed.

* The mvfsnn of Mexico is n, lineal descendant of the Eastern Caravanserai,
and has preserved its peculiarities unchanged for centuries. It consists of two
court-yards, one surrounded by stabling and the other by miserable rooms for
the travellers, who must cook thoir food themselves, or go elsewhere for it.

210 ANAHUAC.

We sat talking with him for a long while, and heard
that the fair next day would be attended by numbers of
Inchans from remote places among the mountains, and that
at noon there would be an Indian dance in the church.
It is not the gi'eat festival, however, he said. That is once
a year ; and then the Indians come from fifty miles round,
and stay here several days, Uving in the caves in the rock
just by the town, bu3T[ng and selling in the fair, attending
mass, and having solemn dances in the church. We asked
him about the ill feeling between the Indians and the
whites. He said that among the planters it might be as
we said, but that in the neighbourhood of his convent the
respect and affection of the Indians for the clergy, whether
white or Indian, was as great as ever. Then we gossipped
about horses, of which our fi-iend was evidently an ama-
teur, and when the conversation flagged, he turned to the
table in the middle of the room and handed us httle bowls
made of calabashes, prettily decorated and carved, and full
of sweetmeats. There were ten or twelve of these little
bowls on the table, each with a different kind of " tuck "
in it. We inquired where aU those good things came
from, and learnt that making them was one of the favourite
occupations of the Mexican nuns, who keep their brethren
in the monasteries well supphed. At last the good monk
went away to his duties and left us, when I could not
resist the temptation of having a look at the little books
in blue and green paper covers which were lying on the
table with the sweetmeat-bowls and the venerable old
missal. They proved to be aU French novels done into
Spanish, and "Notre-Dame de Paris" was lying open
(under a sheet of paper) ; so I conclude that our visit had
inteiTupted the sub-prior while deep in that improving
work.

Presently a monk came to conduct us down into the
refectory, and there they gave us an uncommonly good

THE CONVENT. CHURCH DANCES. 211

supper of "wonderfal Mexican stews, red-hot as usual, and
plenty of good Spanish wine withal. The great dignita-
ries of the cloister did not appear, but some fifteen or
twenty monks were at table with us, and never tired of
questioning us — exactly in the same fashion that the ladies
of the harem questioned Dona Juana. We delighted
them with stories of the miraculous Easter fire at Jerusa-
lem, and the illumination of St. Peter's, of the Sistine chapel
and the Pope, and we parted for the night in high good
humoiu'.

Next morning a monk attached himself to us as our
cicerone, a fine young fellow with a handsome face, and no
end of fun in him.

Now that we saw the convent by daylight, we were
delighted with the beauty of its situation. The broad fer-
tile valley grows narrower and narrower until it becomes
a gorge in the mountains ; and here the convent is built,
with the mountain-stream rvmning through its beautiful
gardens, and tui-ning the wheel of the convent-mill before
it flows on into the plain to fertilize the broad lands of the
reverend fathers.

When we had visited the gardens and the stables, our
young monk brought us back to the great church of
the convent, where we took oiu' places near the monks, who
had mustered in full force to be present at the dancing.
Presently the music anived, an old man with a harp, and
a woman with a violin ; and then came the dancers, eight
Indian boys with short tunics and head-dresses of feathers,
and as many girls with white dresses, and garlands of
flowers on their heads. The costumes were evidently in-
tended to represent the Indian di^esscs of the days of Monte-
zuma, but they were rather modernized by the necessity
of wearing various articles of dress which would have been
superfluous in old times. They stationed themselves in the

212 ANAHUAC.

middle of the church, opposite the high altar, and, to our
unspeakable astonishment, began to dance the polka. Then
came a waltz, then a schottisch, then another waltz, and
finally a quadrille, set to unmitigated English tunes. They
danced exceedingly well, and behaved as though they had
been used to European ball-rooms all their lives. The
spectators looked on as though it were all a matter of course
for these brown-skinned boys and girls to have acquired so
singular an accomplishment in their out-of-the-way village
among the mountains. As for us we looked on in open-
mouthed astonishment ; and when, in the middle of the
quadi'ille, the harp and violin struck up no less a tune than
" The King of the Cannibal Islands," we could hardly help
bm-sting out into fits of laughter. We restrained ourselves,
however, and kept as grave a coimtenance as the rest of the
lookers-on, who had not the faintest idea that anything
odd was happening. The quadi'ille finished in perfect
order ; each dancer took his partner by the hand and led
her foi-ward ; and so, forming a line in front of the high altar,
they all knelt down, and the rest of the congTegation fol-
lowed tliek example ; there was a dead silence in the
church for about the space of an Ave Maria, then everyone
rose, and the ceremony was over.*

Om' young monk asked permission of his superior to
take us out for a walk, and we went down together to the
convent-mill. There we saw the mill, which was primi-

* The Aztecs were accustomed, before the Conquest, to perform dances as
part of the celebration of tbcir religious festivals, and the missionaries allowed
them to continue the practice after their conversion. 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. The
solemn Advent dances in Seville cathedral were described to me, by an eye-
witness, as consisting of minuets, or some such stately old-fashioned dances,
performed in front of the high altar by boys in white surplices, with the
greatest gravity and decorum.

miller's daughter, young friar. 213

tive, and the miller, who was bm-ly ; and also something
much more worth seeing, at least to our young acquaint-
ance, who tucked up his skirts and ran briskly up a ladder
into the upper regions, calling to us to follow him. A door
led fi'om the granary into the miller's house, and the
miller's daughter happened, of coiu'se entii'ely by chance,
to be coming through that way. A very pretty girl she
was too, and I never in my life saw anything more in-
tensely comic than the looks of intelligence that passed
between her and the young friar when he presented us.
It was decidedly contrary to good monastic discipline it is
true, and we ought to have been shocked, but it was so
intolerably laughable that my companion bolted into the
granary to examine the wheat, and I took refuge in a
violent fit of coughing. Our nerves had been already
rudely shaken by the King of the Cannibal Islands, and
this little scene of convent-life fairly finished us.

We asked our young friend what his day's work con-
sisted of, and how he liked convent-life. He yawned, and
intimated that it was very slow. We enquired whether
the monks had not some parochial duties to perform, such
as visiting the sick and the poor in then- neighbourhood.
He evidently wondered whether we were really ignorant,
or whether we were "chaffing" him, and observed that
that was no business of their's, the curas of the villaires did
all that sort of thing. " Then, what have you to do ?" we
said. " Well," he said, " there are so many services every
"day, and high mass on Sundays and holidays; and besides
"that, there's — well, there isn't anything particular. It's
"rather a dull life. I myself should like uncommonly to go
"and travel and see the world, or go and fight somewhere."
We were quite sorry for the young fellow when we shook
hands with him at parting, and he left us to go back to his
convent.

214 ANAHUAC.

We had been clambering about the hill, seeing the
caves with which it is honeycombed, but at present they
were uninhabited. At the time of the great festival, when
they are full of Indian families, the scene must be a curi-
ous 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 to start directly afterwards.
Here the people gave us a regular reception, entertained
us with their best, and could not be prevailed upon to
accept any payment whatever. The proprietor of the
meson sat down before the barley-bin which served him
for a desk, and indited a long and eloquent letter of intro-
duction for us to a friend of his in Oculan, who was to find
a night's lodging for us. Before he sealed up the despatch
he read it to us in a loud voice, sentence by sentence. It
might have been an autograph letter from King Philip to
some foreign potentate. Armed with this important mis-
sive, we mounted oui' 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. Our directions for finding the
way were simple enough. We were to go up the valley
past the Cerra de los Atambores, " the hill of drums," and
the great ahuehuete. What the Cerra de los Atambores
might be, we could not teU, but when we had followed
the valley for an hour or so, it came into view. On the
other side of the stream rose a precipitous cliff, several
hundred feet high, and near the top a perpendicular wall
of rock was carved with rude designs. People have sup-
posed, it seems, that these carvings represented drums, and
hence the name.

HILL OF DRUMS. OLD CYPRESS. OCULAN. 215

Had we known of the place before, we should have
made an effort to explore it, and copy the sculptured de-
signs ; but now it was too late, and from the other side of
the valley we could not make out more than that there
seemed to be a figure of the sun among them.

A little further on we came to the "Ahuehuete." The
name means a deciduous cypress, a common tree in Mexico,
and of which we had already seen such splendid specimens
in the grove near Tezcuco, and in the wood of Chapoltepec.
This was a remarkable tree as to size, some sixty feet
round at the lower part where the roots began to spread
out. A copious spring of water rose within the hollow
trunk itself, and ran down between the roots into the little
river. All over its spreading branches were fastened votive
offerings of the Indians, hundreds of locks of coarse black
hair, teeth, bits of coloured cloth, rags, and morsels of
ribbon. The tree was many centm'ies old, and had proba-
bly had some mysterious influence ascribed to it, and been
decorated with such simple offerings long before the dis-
covery of America. In Brittany the peasants still keep
up the custom of hanging up locks of their hair in certain
chapels, to charm away diseases; and there it is certain
that the Christians only appropriated to their own worship
places already held sacred in the estimation of the people.

Ocidan is a dismal little place. We found the great
man of the village standing at his door, but our letter to
him was dishonoiu"ed in the most decided manner. He
read the epistle, carefully folded it up and pocketed it,
then pointed in the direction of two or three houses on
the other side of the way, and saying he supposed we
might get a lodging over there, he wished us good-day and
retired into his own premises. The landlord of "over
there" was very civil. He had a shed for the horses, and
could give us palm-mats to sleep upon on the floor, or

D D

216 ANAHUAC.

on the shop-counter, which was very narrow, but long
enough for us both ; and this latter alternative we chose.

We walked up to the top of a hill close by the
village, and were surveying the country from thence,
keeping a sharp look-out all the while for Mexican re-
mains in the furrows. For a wonder, we found nothing
but some broken spindle - heads ; but, while we were
thus occupied, two Indians suddenly made theii" appear-
ance, each with his machete in his hands, and wanted
to know what we were doing on their land. We pacified
them by pohteness and a cigar apiece, but we were still
evidentl}'' objects of suspicion, and they were quite re-
lieved to see us return to the village. There, an old
woman cooked us hard-boiled eggs and tortillas, and then
we went tranquilly to bed on our counter, with our
saddles for pillows, and our scrapes for bed-clothes.

All the way from Cocoyotla our height above the sea
had been gTadually increasing; and soon after we started
from Oculan next morning, we came to the foot of one of
the grand passes that lead up into the high lands, where
the road mounts by zig-zag turns through a splendid
forest of pines and oaks, and at the top of the ascent we
were in a broad fertile plain as high or higher than the
valley of Mexico. It was like England to ride between
large fields of wheat and barley, and to pick blackberries
in the hedges. It was only April, and yet the gi'ain was
almost ready for the sickle, and the blackberries were
fully ripe. Fresh green grass was growing in the woods
under the oak-trees, and the banks were covered with
Alpine strawberries.

We are m the gTcat gi'ain-district of the Republic. Wheat
is grown for the supply of the large towns, and barley for
the horses. Green barley is the favourite fodder for the
horses in the Mexican highlands, and in the hotter dis-

GRAIN-DISTRICTS OF MEXICO. 217

tricts tlie leaves of young Indian corn. Oats are to be
seen growing by chance among other grain, but they are
never cultivated. Though wheat is so much growoi upon
the plains, it is not because the soil and clmiate are more
favoui-able than elsewhere for such culture. In the plains
of Toluca and Tenancingo the yield of wheat is 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 much gi-eater. Labour is tolerably cheap and plenti-
ful here, however ; and then each large town must draw
its supplies of grain from the neighbouring districts, for, in
a country where it pays to carry goods on mules' backs, it
is clear that gi-ain cannot be carried far to market.

In the question of the population of Mexico, one begins
to speculate why — in a country with a splendid climate, a
fertile soil, and almost unhmited space to spread in, the
inhabitants do not increase one-half so fast as in England,
and about one-sixth as fast as their neighbom's of the
United States. One of the most important causes which
tend to bring about this state of things is the impossibility
of conveying grain to any distance, except by doubling
and trebling its price. The disastrous effects of a failure
of the crop in one district cannot be remedied by a plenti-
ful hai'vest fifty miles off; for the peasants, ah-eady ruined
by the loss of their own hai-vest, can find neither money
nor credit to buy food brought fi-om a distance at so great
an expense. Next year may be fi-uitful again, but num-
bers die in the interval, and the constitutions of a gi'cat
proportion of the childi-en never recover the effects of that
one year's famine.

We left the regular road and struck up still higher into
the hills, ridhig amongst winding roads with forest above
and below us, and gi-eat orchids of the most brilliant
colours, blue, white, and crimson, shining among the

218 ANAHUAC,

branches of the oak-trees. The boughs were often break-
ing down with the bulbs of such epiphytes ; but as yet it
was early in the season, and only here and there one was in
flower. At the top of the hill, still in the midst of the woods,
is the Desierto, "the desert," the place we had selected
for our noon-day halt. There are many of these Desiertos
in Mexico, founded by rich people in old times. They are
a kind of convent, with some few resident ecclesiastics, and
numbers of cells for laymen who retire for a time into this
secluded place and are received gratuitously. They spend
a week or two in prayer and fasting, then confess them-
selves, receive the sacrament, and retm-n into the world.
The situation of this quiet place was well chosen in the
midst of the forest, and once upon a time the cells used to
be fall of penitents ; but now we saw no one but the old
porter, as we walked about the gardens and explored the
quadrangle and the rows of cells, each with a hideous little
wood-cut of a martyr being tortured, upon the door.

Thence we rode down into the plain, looking down, as
we descended, upon a hill which seemed to be an old
crater, rising from the level gi'ound ; and then our path lay
among broad fields where oxen were ploughing, and across
marshes covered with coarse grass, until we came to the
quaint little town of Tenancingo. There we found the
meson; and the landlord handed us the key of our room,
which was square, whitewashed, and with a tiled floor.
There was no window, so we had to keep the door open
for light. The furniture consisted of three articles, —
two low tables on four 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 special attention to
us, the patron produced two old mattresses ; the first sight
of them was enough for us, and we expelled them with
shouts of execration. We had to go to a shop in the

TOLUCA AND HAMS. LERIVIA AND ROBBERS. 219

square to get some supper ; and on our return, about nine
o'clock, our man Antonio remarked that he was going to
sleep, which he did at once in the following manner. He
took off his broad- brimmed hat and himg it on a nail, tied
a red cotton handkerchief round his head, rolled himself up
in his serape, lay down on the flags in the courtyard out-
side our door, and was asleep in an instant. We retired
to our planks inside and followed his example.

The next afternoon we reached Toluca, a large and
prosperous town, but with little noticeable in it except the
arcades (portales) along the streets, and the hams wliich
are cm-ed with sugar, and are famous all over the Republic.
Om' road passed near the Nevado de Toluca, an extinct
snow-covered volcano, nearly 15,000 feet above the sea.
It consists entirely of grey and red porphyry, and in the
interior of its crater are two small lakes. We were not
Sony to take up our quarters in a comfortable European-
looking hotel again, for roughing it is much less pleasant
in these high altitudes — where the nio-hts and mornings
are bitterly cold — than in the hotter cKmate of the lower
levels.

Our next day's ride brought us back to Mexico, cross-
ing the corn-land of the plain of Lerma, where the soil
consists of disintegrated porphyry from the mountains
around, and is very fertile. Lerma itself is the worst den
of robbers in all Mexico ; and, as we rode through the
street of dingy adobe houses, and saw the rascally -looking
fellows who were standing at the doors in knots, with
their horses ready saddled and bridled close by, we got a
very strong impression that the reputation of the place
was no worse than it deserved. After Lerma, there still
remained the pass over the mountains which border the
valley of Mexico ; and here in the midst of a dense pine-
forest is Las Cruzes, " the crosses," a place with an ugly

220

ANAHUAC.

name, where several robberies are done every week. We
waited for the Dihgence at some little glass-works at the
entrance of the pass, and then let it go on first, as a sop to
those gentlemen if they should be out that day. I sup-
pose they knew pretty accurately that no one had much
to lose, for they never made tlieir appearance.

SPANISH-MEXICAN SPURS.

From 5 to 6 inches long, with rnrfeh from aj to 3 inches in diavutn: Thr broad insl'pslrnp „J emhossei
leather is also sheivn. (From Mr. Christy's Collection.)

CHAP. IX.

ANTIQUITIES. PRISON. SPORTS.

STATUE OF THE MEXICAN GODDESS OF WAR (OR OF DEATH), TEOYAOMIQUI.

(Afltr Nehel.)
Height of the originnl^ about Nine Feet,

It was like getting home again to reach Mexico, we had
so many friends there, though oiu' stay had been so short.
We wei'e fully occupied, for weeks of hard sight-seeing

222 ANAHUAC.

are hardly enough to investigate the objects of interest to
be found in the city. We saw these things under the best
auspices, for Mr. Christy had letters to the Minister of
Public Instruction and other people in authority, who
were exceedingly civil, and did all they could to put us in
the way of seeing everything we wished. Among the
places we visited, the Museum must have some notice. It
is in part of the building of the University ; but we were
rather surprised, when we reached the gate leading into
the com't-yard, to be stopped by a sentry who demanded
what we wanted. The lower storey had been turned into a
barrack by the Government, there being a want of quarters
for the soldiers. As the ground-floor under the cloisters
is used for the heavier pieces of sculpture, the scene was
somewhat curious. The soldiers had laid several of the
smaller idols down on their faces, and were sitting on the
comfortable seat on the small of their backs, busy playing
at cards. An enterprising soldier had built up a hutch
with idols and sculptured stones against the statue of the
great war-goddess Teoyaomiqui herself, and kept rabbits
there. The state which the whole place was in when thus
left to the tender mercies of a Mexican regiment may be
imagined by any one who knows what a dii'ty and des-
tructive animal a Mexican soldier is.

The guardians of the Museum have treated it even
worse. People who know how often the curators of the
Museums of southern Europe are ready to sell anything
not very hkely to be missed will not be astonished to hear
of the same thing being done to a great extent some six or
eight years before our visit.

The stone known as the statue of the war-goddess is a
huge block of basalt covered with scul})tvu-es. The anti-
quaries think that the figm-es on it stand for different per-
sonages, and that it is three gods, — Hidtzilopochtli the god

THE WAR-IDOL AND SACRIFICIAL STONE. 223

of war, Teoyaomiqiii his wife, and Mictlanteuctli the god
of hell. It has necklaces of alternate hearts and dead
man's hands, with death's heads for a central ornament.
At the bottom of the block is a strange sprawling figure,
which one cannot see now, for it is the base which rests
on the gi'ound; but there are two shoulders projecting from
the idol, which show plainly that it did not stand on the
ground, but was supported aloft on the tops of two pil-
lars. The figure carved upon the bottom represents a
monster holding a skull in each hand, while others hang
fi-om his knees and elbows. His mouth is a mere oval
ring, a common featm'e of Mexican idols, and four tusks
project just above it. The new moon laid down hke a
bridge forms his forehead, and a star is placed on each side
of it. This is thought to have been the conventional re-
presentation of Mictlanteuctli (Lord of the Land of the
Dead), the god of hell, which was a place of utter and
eternal darkness. Probably each victim as he was led to
the altar could look up between the two pillars and see
the hideous god of hell staring down upon him from above.

There is little doubt that this is the famous war-idol
which stood on the great teocaUi of Mexico, and before
which so many thousands of human victims were sacri-
ficed. It lay undisturbed underground in the great square,
close to the very site of the teocalli, imtil sixty years ago.
For many years after that it was kept buried, lest the
sifjht of one of their old deities mifjlit be too excitinof for
the Indians, who, as I have mentioned before, had cer-
tainly not forgotten it, and secretly ornamented it with
garlands of flowers while it remained above ground.

The " sacrificial stone," so called, which also stands in

the court-yard of the Museum, was not one of the ordinary

altars on which victims were sacrificed. These altars seem

to have been raised slabs of hard stone with a protuberant

E E

224 ANAHUAC.

part near one end, so that the breast of the victim was
raised into an arch, which made it more easy for the priest
to cut across it with his obsidian knife. The Breton altars,
where the slab was hollowed into the outline of a human
figure, have some analogy to this ; but, though there were
very many of these altars in different cities of Mexico,
none are now known to exist. The stone we are now ob-
serving is quite a different thing, a cylindrical block of
basalt nine feet across and three feet high : and Humboldt
considers it to be the stone described by early Spanish
writers, and called temalacatl (spindle-stone) from its cir-
cular shape, something like a distaff-head. Upon this
the captive chiefs stood in the gladiatorial fights which
took place within the space surrounding the great teo-
calli. Slightly armed, they stood upon this raised platform
in the midst of the crowd of spectators ; and six champions
in succession, armed with better weapons, came up to fight
with them. If the captive worsted his assailants in this
unequal contest, he was set free with presents; but this
success was the lot of but few, and the fate of most was
to be overpowered and dragged off ignominiously to be
sacrificed like ordinary prisoners. On the top of the stone
is sculptured an outline of the sun with its eight rays, and
a hollow in the centre, whence a groove runs to the edge
of the stone, probably to let the blood run down. All
round it is an appropriate bas-relief repeated several
times. A vanquished warrior is giving up his stone-sword
and his spears to his conqueror, who is tearing the plumed
crest from his head.

The above explanation by Humboldt is a plausible one.
But in Central America altars not unlike tliis, and with
grooves upon the top, stand in front of the great stone
idols ; and this cm^ious monument may have been nothing
after all but an ordinary altar to sacrifice birds and small
animals upon.

THrtEE VIEWS UFA SACRIFICIAL COLLAR,

C'tirved out of hard mottled (freenstime. {In Mr, Christtf'i CoUcctvm,)

Tfiii IS 17 (Ht/jci foiig, and varies from 14 to 16 inches in width. The arms are 4 inrhes ividc and 5 indei

drrp ; nnd nrr ft iurhrs opart at tthi u/ half their Unffth.

MUSEUM AT MEXICO. "225

Seiior Leon Ramirez, the curator, had come to the
Museum to meet us, and we went over the collection of
smaller objects, which are kept up stau's in glass-cases, —
at any rate out of the way of the soldiers.

Here are the stone clamps shaped like the letter \J,
which were put over the wi'ists and ancles of the victims,
to hold them down on the sacrificial stone. They are
of hard stone, very heavy and covered with carvings.
It is remarkable that, though the altars for human sacri-
fices are no longer to be found, these accessory stone
clamps, or yoke-like collars, are not uncommon. A fine one
fi-om Mr. Christy's collection is fig-ured. (See opposite page.)

The obsidian knives and arrow-heads are very good, but
these I have spoken of already, as well as of the stone
hammers. The axes and chisels of stone are so exactly
like those found in Europe that it is quite impossible to
distinguish them. The bronze hatchet-blades are thin
and flat, slightly thickened at the sides to give them
strength, and mostly of a very pecuhar shape, something
like a 7", but still more resembling the section of a mush-
room cut vertically through the middle of the stalk.

The obsidian mask is an extraordinary piece of work,
considering the difficulty of cutting such a material. It
was chipped into a rude outline, and finished into its
exact shape by polishing down with jeweller's sand. The
polish is perfect, and there is hardly a scratch upon it. At
least one of the old Spanish writers on Mexico gives the
details of the process of cutting precious stones and polish-
ing them with teoxalli or " god's sand." Masks in stone,
wood, and terra-cotta are to be seen in considerable num-
ber in museums of Mexican antiquities. Tlieir use is
explained by passages in tlu; old Mexican writers, who
mention that it was customary to mask the idols on the
occasion of the king being sick, or of any other public

226 ANAHUAC.

calamity; and that men and women wore masks in some
of the religious ceremonies. A fine mask of brown lava (from
Mr. Christy's collection), which has been coloured, is here
figured. (See illustration.) The mirrors of obsidian have
the same beautifully polished surface as the obsidian
mask shows ; and those made of nodules of pyi'ites, cut
and polished, are worth notice.

The Mexicans were very skilful in making pottery ;
and of coiu'se there is a good collection here of terra-cotta
vases, little altars and incense - dishes, rattles, fiageolets,
and whistles, tobacco-pipes and masks. Some of the large
vases, which were formerly filled with skulls and bones,
are admirable in their designs and decorations ; and many
specimens are to be seen of the red and black ware of
Cholula, which was famous at the time of the Conquest,
and was sent to all parts of the country. The art of
glazing pottery seems only to have been introduced by
the Spaniards, and to this day the Indians hardly care to
use it. The terra-cotta rattles are very characteristic.
They have little balls in them which shake about, and
they puzzled us much as the apple-dumpling did good
King George, for we could not make out very easily how
the balls got inside. They were probably attached very
slightly to the inside, and so baked and then broken loose.
We often got little balls like schoolboys' marbles, among
lots of Mexican antiquities, and these were most likely the
balls out of broken rattles.

Bm"ning incense was always an important part of the
Mexican ceremonies. When the white men were on their
march to the capital, the inhabitants used to come out to
meet them with such plates as we saw here, and burn
copal before the leaders ; and in Indian villages to this
day the procession on saints' days would not be complete
without men burning incense, not in regular censers, but
in unglazed earthen platters such as their forefathers used.

^
i

MEXICAN WORDS. 227

Our word coiKil is the Mexican copalli. There are a
few other Mexican words which have been naturalized in
our European languages, of course indicating that the
things they represent came fi'om Mexico. Ocelotl is ocelot;
Tomatl is toraata; Chilli is the Spanish chile and our
chili; Cacahuatl is cacao or cocoa; and Chocolatl, the
beverage made from the cacao-bean with a mixtm^e of
vanilla, is our chocolate.

Cacao-beans were used by the Mexicans as money.
Even in Humboldt's time, when there was no copper
coinage, they were used as small change, six for a half-
penny ; and Stephens says the Central Americans use them
to this day. A mat in Mexican is ijetlatl, and thence a
basket made of matting was called petlacalli — "mat-
house." The name passed to the plaited grass cigar-cases
that are exported to Europe ; and now in Spain any kind
of cigar-case is called a petaca.

The pretty little ornamented calabashes — used, among
other pui'poses, for drinking chocolate out of — were called
by the Mexicans xicalli, a word which the Spaniards
made into jicara, and now use to mean a chocolate-cup ;
and even the Italians have taken to it, and call a tea-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 corniptions of the Aztec name of the fruit, ahuacatl.

Vanilla and cochineal were first found in Mexico ; but
the Spaniards did not 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. Cochinilkc is from coccus, a beiTy,
as it was at first supposed to be of vegetable origin. The
Aztec name for cochineal, nocheztli, means " cactus-blood,"

228 ANAHUAC.

and is a very apt description of the insect, which has in
it a drop of deep crimson fluid, in which the colouring
matter of the dye is contained.

The turkey, which was introduced into Europe from
Mexico, was called huexolotl from the gobbling noise it
makes. (It must be remembered that x and j in Spanish
are not the same letters as in English, but a hard guttural
aspirate, like the German cli). The name, shghtly altered
into guajalote, is still used in Mexico ; but when these birds
were brought to Europe, the Spaniards called them jDcacocks
(ixivos). To get rid of the confusion, it became necessary
to call the real peacock "pavoii" (big peacock), or " pavo
TeaV (royal peacock). The German name for a turkey,
" Wdlscher Hahn" " Italian fowl," is reasonable, for the
Germans got them from Italy ; but our name " turkey" is
wonderfully absurd.

There may be other Mexican words to be found in our
language, but not many. The Mexicans were cultivating
maize and tobacco when the Spaniards invaded the country,
and had done so for ages ; but these vegetables had been
found already in the West India islands, and had got their
name from the language of Hayti, inahiz and tabaco ; the
latter word, it seems, meaning not the tobacco itself, but
the cigars made of it.

I do not recollect anything else worthy of note that
Europe has borrowed from Ancient Mexico, except Botanic
Gardens, and dishes made to keep hot at dinner-time,
wliich the Aztecs managed by having a pan of burning
charcoal underneath them.

To return to the Museum. There are stamps in teiTa-
cotta with geometrical patterns, for making lines and
ornaments on the vases before they were baked, and for
stamping patterns upon the cotton cloth which was one of
their principal manufactures, as it is now. Connected

ANTIQUE TEKRA-COTTA FIGUEES. 229

with the same art are the malacates, or winders, which I
have ah-eady described. Little grotesque heads made of
baked clay, like those I have mentioned as being found in
such immense numbers on the sites of old Mexican cities,
are here by hundreds. I think there were, besides,
some of the moulds, also in teiTa-cotta, in which they
were formed ; at any rate, they are to be seen, so that
making the little heads must have been a regular
trade. What they were for is not so easy to say. Some
have bodies, and are made with flat backs to stand
against a wall, and these were probably idols. The an-
cient Mexicans, we read, had household-gods in gi-eat
numbers, and called them Tepitotons, "little ones." The
gi'eatest proportion, however, are mere heads which never
had had bodies, and will not stand anyhow. They could
not have been personal ornaments, for there is nothing to
fasten them on by. They are rather a puzzle. I have
seen a suggestion somewhere, that when a man was
buried, each surviving member of his family put one of
these heads into his gxave. This sounds plausible enough,
especially as both male and 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 it contains numbers of the
sham antiquities, the manufacture of which is a regular
thing in Mexico, as it is in Italy. They are principally
vases and idols of earthenware, for the art of workin<jf ob-
sidian is lost, and there can be no trickery about that ;* and
as to the hammers, chisels, and idols in green jade, serpen-
tine, and such like hard materials, they are decidedly

• This assertion must be qualified by a remark of the Abb^ Brasseur do
Bourbourg, who tells us that in some places the Indians still use lancets of ob-
sidian to bleed themselves with. I believe there is nothing of the kind to bo
found in the part of Mexico which we visited.

230 ANAHUAC.

cheaper to find than to make. The Indians in Mexico
make their unglazed pottery just as they did before the
Conquest, so that, if they unitate real antiques exactly,
there is no possibility of detecting the fraud ; but when
they begin to work from their own designs, or even to
copy from memory, they are almost sure to put in some-
thing that betrays them.

As soon as the Spaniards came, they began to introduce
drawing as it was understood in Europe ; and from that
moment the peculiarities of Mexican art began to disappear.
The foreheads of the Mexican races are all very low, and
their painters and sculptors even exaggerated this pecu-
liarity, to make the faces they depicted more beautifrd, —
so producing an effect which to us Europeans seems hide-
ously ugly, but which is not more unnatural than the ideal
type of beauty we see in the Greek statues. After the era
of the Spaniards we see no more of such foreheads ; and
the eyes, which were drawn in profiles as one sees them
in the full face, are put in their natural position. The
short squat figures become slim and tall ; and in number-
less little details of dress, modelling, and ornament, the
acquaintance of the artist with European types is shown ;
and it is very seldom that the modern counterfeiter can
keep clear of these and get back to the old standard.

Among the things on the condemned shelf were men's
faces too correctly drawn to be genuine, gi'otesque animals
that no artist would ever have designed who had not seen
a horse, head-dresses and drapery that were European and
not Mexican. Among the figures in Mayer's Mexico, a
vase is represented as a real antique, which, I think, is one
of the worst cases I ever noticed. There is a man's head
upon it, with long projecting pointed nose and chin, a long
thin pendant moustache, an eye drawn in profile, and a cap.
It is true the pm^e Mexican race occasionally have mous-

AZTEC DRUMS. 231

taclies, but tliey are very slight, not like this, which falls
in a curve on both sides of the mouth ; and no Mexican of
pure Indian race ever had such a nose and cliin, which
must have been modelled from the face of some tootliless
old Spaniard.

Mention must be made of the wooden drums — te^^o-
naztli — of which some few specimens are still to be seen
in Mexico. Such di'ums figui-ed in the rehgious ceremonies
of the Aztecs, and one often hears of them in Mexican liis-
tory. I have mentioned already the great di'um which
Bemal Diaz saw when he went up the Mexican teocaUi
with Cortes, and which he describes as a helhsh instru-
ment, made with skins of great serpents ; and which, wlien
it was struck, gave a loud and melancholy sound, that
could be heard at two leagvies' distance. Indeed, they did
afterwards hear it from their camp a mile or two off, when
then- unfortunate companions were being sacrificed on the
teocalh.

The Aztec di-ums, which are still to be seen, are alto-
gether of wood, nearly cylindrical, but sweUing out in the
middle, and hollowed out of solid logs. Some have the
sounding-board made unequally thick in different parts, so
as to give several notes when struck. All are elaborately
carved ov€r with various designs, such as faces, head-
dresses, weapons, suns with rays, and fanciful patterns,
among which the twisted cord is one of the commonest.

Besides the dinims which are preserved in museums,
there are others, carefully kept in Indian villages, not as
curiosities, but as instruments of magical power. HeUer
mentions such a teponaztli, which is still preserved among
the Indians of Huatusco, an Indinii village near Mirador
in the tien*a templada, where the iuliabitants have had^
their customs comparatively little altered by intercourse
with wliite men. They keep this drum as a sacred instru-

F F

232 ANAHUAC.

ment, and beat it only at certain times of the year, though
they have no reason to give for doing so. It is to be re-
gretted that Heller did not take a note of the particular
days on which this took place ; for the times of the Mexi-
can festivals are well known, and this information would
have settled the question whether the Indians of the
present day have reaUy any definite recollection of their
old customs.

Drums of this kind do not belong exclusively to Mexico.
Among all the tribes of North America they were one of
the principal "properties" used by the Medicine-men in
their ceremonies ; and among the tribes which have not
been christianized they are still to be found in use. After
we left Mexico, Mr. Christy visited some tribes in the
Hudson's Bay Territory ; and on one occasion, happening
to assist at a festival in which just such a wooden drum
was used, he bought it of the Medicine-man of the tribe,
and packed it off triumphantly to his museum.

A few picture-writings are still to be seen in the
Museum, which, with the few preserved in Europe, are aU
we have left of these interesting records, of which there
were thousands upon thousands in Mexico and Tezcuco.
Some were burnt or destroyed diu-ing the sieges of the
cities, some perished by mere neglect, but the great mass
was destroyed by archbishop Zumarraga, when he made an
attemj)t — and, to some extent, a succcssfvd one — to ob-
literate every trace of heathenism, by destroying all the
monuments and records in the country. One of the
picture-writings hanging on the Avail is very probably the
same that was sent up from Vera Cruz to Montezuma,
with figures of the newly -arrived white men, their 8hi])s
and horses, and their -cannons with fire and smoke issuing
from their mouths. Another shows a white man being
sacrificed, of course one of the Spanish prisoners. The

AZTEC PICTURE-WKITINGS. 233

pictorial liistoiy of the migi-ation of the Aztecs is here, and
a list of tributes paid to the Mexican sovereign ; the dif-
ferent articles being cbawn with numbers against each,
to show the qiiantities to be paid, as in the Egyptian in-
scriptions. Lord Kingsborough's gi-eat work contains
fac-similes of several Mexican manuscripts, and in Hum-
boldt's Vues des Cordilleres some of the most remarkable
are figured and described.

One of the most curious of the Aztec picture-writings
is in the Bodleian Library, and in fac-simile in Lord
Kingsborough's Antiquities of Mexico. In it are shown,
in a series of little pictures, the education of Mexican boys
and girls, as prescribed by law. The cliild four days old
is being sprinkled with water, and receiving its name. At
fom- years old they are to be allowed one tortilla a meal,
which is indicated by a di'aAving above then- heads, of four
cu'cles representing years, and one cake ; and the father
sends the son to cany water, while the mother shows the
daughter how to spin. A tortilla is like an oat-cake, but
is made of Indian corn.

At seven years old the boy is taken to learn to fish,
while the gu-1 spins ; and so on with different occupations
for one year after another. At nine years old the father
is allowed to punish his son for disobedience, by sticking
aloe-points all over his naked body, while the daughters
only have them stuck into their hands ; and at eleven
years old, both boy and girl were to be punished by hold-
ing their faces in the smoke of burning capsicums.

At fifteen the youth is married by the simple process
of tying the corner of his shu't to the corner of the bride's
petticoat (thus literally "splicing" them, as my companion
remarked). And so on ; after scenes of cutting wood, visit-
ing the temples, fighting and feasting, we come to the last

234) ANAHUAC.

scene of all, headed " seventy years'' and see an old man
and woman reeling about helplessly drunk with pulque ;
for drunkenness, which was severely punished up to that
age, was tolerated afterwards as a compensation for the
sorrows and infii-mities of the last period of life.

Astrological charts formed a large proportion of these
picture-wiitings. Here, as elsewhere, we may trace the
origin of astrology. The signs of the days and years
were represented, for convenience sake, by different ani-
mals and objects, like the signs of the Zodiac which we
still retain. The signs remained after the history of their
origin was lost ; and then — what more natural than to
imagine that the symbols handed down by then- wise an-
cestors had some mysterious 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 signs that " pre-
vailed" at his birth ?

There is little to be seen here or elsewhere, of one kind
of work in which the Mexicans excelled perhaps more
than in any other, the goldsmith's work. Where are the
calendars of sohd gold and silver — as big as gi'eat wheels,
and covered with hieroglyphics, and the cups and collars, the
golden birds, beasts, and fishes ? The Spaniards who saw
them record how admirable their workmansliip was, and
they were good judges of such matters. Benvenuto Cel-
lini saw some of these things, and was filled with admira-
tion. They have all gone to the melting-pot centuries
ago ! How important the goldsmith's trade was accounted
in old times is shown by a strange Aztec law. It was no
ordinary ofience to steal gold and silver. Criminals con-
victed of this offence were not treated as common thieves,
but were kept till the time when the goldsmiths cele-
brated their annual festival, and were then solemnly

MEXICAN ANTIQUITIES. 235

sacrificed to their god Xipe ;* the priests flaying their
bodies, cooking and eating them, and walking about
dressed in then- skins, a ceremony which was called
tiacaxipehimliztll, " the man-flaying."

Museums of Mexican antiqvxities are so much aUke,
that, in general, one description will do for all of them. Mr.
Uhde's Museum at Heidelberg is a far finer one than that
at Mexico, except as regards the picture-writings. I was
astonished at the enormous quantity of stone idols, deli-
cately worked trinkets in various hard stones and even in
obsidian, teiTa-cotta tobacco-pipes, figm-es, and astro-
nomical calendars, &c., displayed there.

Mr. Christy's collection is richer than any other in
small sculptured figm-es fi-om Central America. It con-
tains a squatting female figui-e in hard brown lava, hke
the one in black basalt wliich is drawn in Hum-
boldt's Vues cles Cordilleres, and there called (I camiot
imagine why) an Aztec priestess. Above all, it contains
what I beheve to be the three finest specimens of Aztec
decorative art which exist in the world. One of these is
the knife of wliich the figiu-e at page 101 gives some ftiint
idea, the other two being a wooden mask overlaid with
mosaic, and a human skull decorated in the same manner,
of which a more particular description will be found in
the Appendix. There are two kinds of Aztec articles in
Mr. Christy's collection which I did not observe either at
Mexico or Heidelberg. These are bronze needles, resem-
bling our packing-needles, and little cast bronze bells,
called in Aztec yotl, not unlike small horse -bells made in

* The Aztecs had hut one word to denote both gold and silver, as they
afterwards made one serve for both iron and copper. This curious word
teocuitlall we may translate as " Precious iVIetal," but it means literally " Dung
of the Gods." Gold was "Yellow Precious Metal," and silver "White Precious
Metal." Lead tiicy called (cmelztli, " IMoon-stono ;" and when the Spaniards
showed them quicksilver, they gave it the name of yoli amuchitl, "Live Tin."

236 ANAHUAC.

England at the present clay ; these are figured in the
tribute-lists in the pictui'e-writings.

ANTIQUE BRONZE BELLS FROM MEXICO,

Such as are often sculpiured on Aztec Images*

Apropos of the mammoth hones preserved in the Mexi-
can Museum, I must insert a quotation from Bernal Diaz.
It is clear that the traditions of giants which exist in
almost every country had their origin in the discovery of
fossil bones, whose real character was not suspected until
a century ago ; but I never saw so good an example of
this as in the Tlascalan 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 of
" great size, with huge bones ; and, as they were wicked and
" of evil dispositions, they (the ancestors of the Tlascalans)
" fought against them and killed them; and those who were
" left died out. And that we might see what stature they
" were of, they brought a bone of one of them, and it was
" very big, and its height was that of a man of reasonable
" statm'e ; it was a thigh-bone, and I (Bernal Diaz) mea-
" sured myself agamst it, and it was as tall as I am, who
" am a man of reasonable stature ; and they brought other
" pieces of bones like the first, but they were ah-eady eaten
" through and rotted by the earth ; and we were all amazed

CORTES' ARMOUR. MEXICAN CALENDAR. 237

" to see those bones, and held that for certain there had been
"giants in tliat hmd ; and our captain, Cortes, said to us
" that it would be well to send the gi'eat bone to Castile,
"that His Majesty might see it; and so we did send it by
" the fii'st messengers who went."

Among other things belonging to the Spanish period is
the banner, with the picture of the Virgin, which accom-
panied the Spanish army duiing the Conquest. Authentic
or not, it is certainly very well painted. There is a suit of
armour said to have belonged to Cortes. Its genuineness
has been doubted ; but I think its extreme smallness
seems to go towards proving that it is a true relic, for
Bullock saw the tomb of Cortes opened some thu-ty years
ago, and was sui-prised at the small proportions of his
skeleton. Specimens of the pottery and glass now made
in the country, and other ciu'iosities, complete the cata-
logue of this interestincj collection.

The Mexican calendar is not in the Museum, but is
built into the wall of the cathedral, in the Plaza Mayor. It
is sculptured on the face of a single block of basalt, which
weighs between twenty and thirty tons, and must have
been transported thu-ty miles by Mexican labourers, for
the stone is not found nearer than that distance from the
city ; and this transportation was, of course, managed by
hand-labour alone, as there were no beasts of burden.

We know pretty well the whole system of Mexican
astronomy from this calendar-stone and a few manuscripts
which still exist, and from the information given in the
work of Gama the astronomer and other writers. The
Aztecs and Tezcucans who used it, did not claim its in-
vention as their own, but said they liad received it from
the Toltccs, their predecessors. The year consisted of 3G5
days, with an intercalation of 13 days for each cj^clc of
52 years, which brought it to the same length as the

238 ANAHUAC,

Julian year of 865 days 6 hours. The theory of Gama,
that the intercalation was still more exact, namely, 12|
days instead of 1 3, seems to be erroneous.

Oui' reckoning only became more exact than this when
we adopted the Gregorian calendar in ] 752, and the people
marched about the streets in procession, crying " Give us
back our eleven days !" Perhaps this is not quite a fair
way of putting the case, however, for the new style would
have been adopted in our country long before, had it not
been a Komish institution. It was the deliberate opinion
of the English, as of people in other Protestant countries,
that it was much better to have the almanack a few days
wrong than to adopt a Popish innovation. One often
hears of the Papal Bull which settles the question of the
earth's standing still. The history of the Gregorian
calendar is not a bad set-off against it on the other side.
At any rate, the new style was not introduced any-
where until sixty or seventy years after the discovery of
Mexico, and five hundred years after the introduction of
the Toltec calendar in Mexico.

The Mexican calendar-stone should be photographed on
a large scale, and studied yet more carefully than it has
been, for only a part of the divided circles which surround
it have been explained. It should be photographed, be-
cause, to my certain knowledge, Mayer's drawing gives the
year, above the figure of the sun which indicates the date
of the calendar, quite wrongly ; and yet, presuming on his
own accuracy, he accuses another writer of leaving out the
hieroglyph of the winter solstice. What is much more
strange is, that Humboldt's drawing in the small edition
of the Vues ties Cordilleres is wi'ong in both points. The
drawing in Nebel's great work is probably the best. As
to the wax models which Mr. Christy and I bought in
Mexico, in the innocence of our hearts, a nearer inspection

MEXICAN CALENDAR. 239

showed that the artist, observing that the circle of days
would divide more neatly into sixteen parts than into
twenty, had arranged his divisions accordingly ; appa-
rently leaving out the four hierogl}'plucs which he consi-
dered the ugliest.

The details made out at present on the calendar are as
follows: — the summer and winter solstices, the spring
and autumn equinoxes, the two passages of the Sun over
the zenith of Mexico, and some dates which possibly
beloncr to religious festivals. The dates of the two zenith-
transits are especially interesting ; for, as they vary with
the latitude, they must have been made out by actual
observation in Mexico itself, and not boiTowed from some
more civilised people in the distant countries through
which the Mexicans migrated. This fact alone is sufficient
to prove a considerable practical knowledge of astronomy.

Besides this, the Mexican cycle of fifty -two years
seems to be indicated in the circle outside the signs of
days, and also the days in the priestly year of 260 days ;
but to make these numbers, we must allow for the com-
partments supposed to be hidden by the projecting rays
of the sun.

The arrangement of the Mexican cycle of fifty-two
years is very curious. They had four signs of years,
tochtli, acatl, tecpatl, and calli, — rabbit, canes, flint, and
house; and against these signs they ranged numbers, from
1 to 13, so that a cycle exactly con-esponds to a pack of
cards, the four signs being the four suits, thh-teen of each.
Now, any one would suppose that in making such a reck-
oning, they would first take one suit, count one, two,
three, &c. in it, up to 13, and then begin another suit.
This is not the Mexican idea, however. Their reckoning
is 1 tochtli, 2 acatl, 3 tecpatl, &c., just as it may be made
with the cards thus : ace of hearts, two of diamonds, 3 of

24)0 ANAHUAC.

spades, 4 of clubs, 5 of hearts, 6 of diamonds, and so on
through the pack. The correspondence between the cycle
of 52 years, divided among 4 signs, and o\ir year of 52
weeks, divided among 4 seasons, is also curious, though as
entirely accidental as the resemblance to the pack of cards,
for the Mexican week (if we may call it so) consisted of 5
days instead of 7, which to a great extent nullifies the
comparison.

The reckoning of days is still more cumbrous. It con-
sists of the days of the week wi-itten in succession from 1
to 13, underneath these the 20 signs of days, and under-
neath these again another series of 9 signs ; so that each
day was distinguished by a combination of a number and
two signs, which combination could not belong to any
other day.

The date of the year at the top of the calendar is 13
acatl (13 canes), which stands for 1479, 1427, 1375, 1323,
and so on, subtracting 52 years each time. Now, why
was this year chosen ? It was not the beginning of a
cycle, but the 26 th year ; and so, in ascertaining the
meaning of the dates on the calendar, allowance has to be
made for six days which have been gained by the leap-
years only being adjusted at the end of the cycle ; but
this certainly offers no advantage whatever ; and if an ar-
bitrary date had been chosen to stai't the calendar with,
of coui-se it would have been the first year of a cycle. The
year may have been chosen in commemoration of the found-
ation of Mexico or Tenochtitlan, which historians give as
somewhere about 1324 or 1325. The sign 13 acatl would
stand for 1323. It is more likely that the date merely
refers to the year in which the calendar was put up. As
such a massive and elaborate piece of sculptui-e could only
belong to the most flourishing period of the Aztec empire,
the year indicated would be 1279, nine years before the
building of the great pyramid close by.

MONGOLIAN CALENDAR. 241

Baron Humboldt's celebrated argument to prove the
Asiatic origin of the Mexicans is principally founded upon
the remarkable resemblance of this system of cycles in
reckoning years to those found in use in different parts of
Asia. For instance, we may take that described by Hue
and Gabet as still existing in Tartary and Thibet, which
consists of one set of sig-ns, wood, fire, earth, &c., combined
with a set of names of animals, mouse, ox, tiger, &c. The
combination is made almost exactly in the same way as
that in which the Aztecs combine their signs and numbers,
as for instance, the year of the fire-pig, the iron-hare, kc.
If these were simple systems of counting years, or even if,
although difficult, they had some advantages to offer, we
might suppose that two different races in want of a system
to count their years by, had devised them independently.
But, in fact, both the Asiatic and the Mexican cycles are
not only most inti'icate and troublesome to work, but by
the constant Kability to confound one cycle with another,
they lead to endless mistakes. Hue says that the Mongols,
to get over this difficulty, 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 not seeing that to
give the special name and the number of the year of the
reign, and call it the 44tli year of Tao-Kouang, would
answer the same purpose, with one-tenth of the trouble.

Not only are the Mexican and Asiatic systems alike in
the sing-ular principle they go upon, but there are resem-
blances in the sifms used that seem too close for chance.*

o

• It is curious that those latter resemblances (as far ns I linve been able to
investigate the subject) disappear in the signs of the Yucatan calendar, though
its arrangement is precisely that of the Mexican. Any one interested in tiie
theory of the Toltecs being the builders of Palenquc and Copan will see the im-
portance of this point. If the Toltecs ever took the original calendar, with the
traces of its Asiatic origin fresh upon it, down into Yucatan with them, it is at
any rate not to be found there now.

242 ANAHUAC.

The other arguments which tend to prove that the
Mexicans either came from the Old World or had in some
way been brought into connexion with tribes from thence,
are principally founded on coincidences in customs and
traditions. We must be careful to eliminate from them all
such as we can imagine to have originated fr-om the same
outward causes at work in both hemispheres, and from the
fact that man is fundamentally the same everywhere. To
take an instance from Peru. We find the Incas there
calling themselves "Child of the Sun," and marrying their
own sisters, just as the EgjqDtian kings did. But this
proves nothing whatever as to connexion between the two
people. The worship of the Sun, the giver of light and
heat, may easily spring up among different people without
any external teaching ; and what more natural, among
imperfectly civilized tribes, than that the monarch should
claim relationship with the divinity ? And the second
custom was introduced that the royal race might be kept
unmixed.

Thu.s, when we find the Aztecs burning incense before
their gods, kings, and great men, and propitiating their
deities with human sacrifices, we can conclude nothing
from this. But we find them baptizing their children,
anointing their kings, and sprinkling them with holy
water, punishing the crime of adultery by stoning the
criminals to death, and practising several other Old World
usages of which I have already spoken. We must give
some weight to these coincidences.

Of some of the supposed Aztec Bible-traditions I have
already spoken in no very high terms. There is another
tradition, however, resting upon unimpeachable evidence,
which relates the occurrence of a series of destructions
and regenerations of the world, and recalls in the most
striking manner the Indian cosmogony ; and, when added

PECULIARITIES OF AZTEC CIVILIZATION. 243

to the argument from the similarity of the systems of as-
tronomical notation of Mexico and Asia, goes far towards
proving a more or less remote connection between the in-
habitants of the two continents.

There is another side to the question, however, as
has been stated ah-eady. How could the Mexicans have
had these traditions and customs from the Old World,
and not have got the knowledge of some of the com-
monest arts of life fi-om the same source ? As I have
said, they do not seem to have known the proper way
of putting the handle on to a stone-hammer ; and, though
they used bronze, they had not applied it to making
such things as knives and spear-heads. They had no
beasts of burden ; and, though there were animals m the
country which they probably might have domesticated
and milked, they had no idea of anything of the kind.
They had oil, and employed it for various purposes, but
had no notion of using it or wax for bm-ning. They
lighted thefr houses with pine-torches ; and in fact the
Aztec name for a pine-torch — ocotl — was transferred to
candles when they were introduced.

Though they were a commercial people, and had several
substitutes for money — such as cacao-gi'ains, quills of gold-
dust, and pieces of tin of a particular shape, they had no
knowledge of the art of weigliing anything, but sold en-
tirely by tale and measure. This statement, made by
the best authorities, their language tends to confii-m.
After the Conquest they made the word tlapexouia out
of the Spanish "peso," and also gave the meaning of
weighing to two other words which mean properly to
measure and to divide equally. Had they had a proper
word of thuir own for the process, we should find it. The
Mexicans scarcely ever adopted a Spanish word even for
Spanish animals or implements, if they could possibly

244 ANAHUAC.

make tlieir own language serve. They called a slieep an
ichcatl, literally a " thread-thing," or " cotton ;" a gun a
"fire-trumpet ;" and sulphur " fire-trumpet-earth." And
yet, a people ignorant of some of the commonest arts had
extraordinary knowledge of astronomj^, and even knew
the real cause of eclipses,* and represented them in their
sacred dances.

Set the difficulties on one side of the question against
those on the other, and they will nearly balance. We
must wait for fmther evidence.

Our friend Don Jose Miguel Cervantes, the President
of the Ayuntamiento, took us one day to see the great
prison of Mexico, the Acordada. As to the prison itself,
it is a great gloomy building, with its rooms and conidors
aiTanged round two courtyards, one appropriated to the
men, the other to the women. A few of the men were
at work making shoes and baskets, but most were sitting
and lying about in the sun, smoking cigarettes and talking
together in knots, the young ones hard at work taking
lessons in villainy from the older hands; just the old story.

Offenders of all orders, from drunkards and vagrants
up to highway robbers and murderers, all were mixed in-
discriminately together. But we should remember that
in England twenty years ago it was usual for prisons to be
such places as this ; and even now, in spite of model pri-
sons and severe disciphne, the miserable results of our
prison-system show, as plainly as can be, that when we
have caught our criminal we do not in the least know how
to reform him, now that oiu' colonists have refused liim
the only chance he ever had.

* The Aztec name foi' an eclipse of the snn is wortli}' of remark. They
called it tonaVnih qualo, literally " the sun's being eaten." The exprespion
seems to belong to a time when they knew less about the phenomenon, and had
some idea like that of the Asiatic nations who thought the sun was occasionally
swallowed up by the great dragon.

THE PEISON AT MEXICO, 245

It is bad enouorli to mix too-ether these men under the
most favoiu'able cii'cum&tances for coiTupting one another.
Everyman must come out worse than lie weut in; Lat
this wrong is not so great as that wh Ich the untried pri-
soners suffer in being forced into the society of condemned
criminals, while their trials drag on from session to ses-
sion, through the endless technicalities and quibbles of
Spanish law.

We made rather a curious observation in this prison.
When one enters such a place in Europe, one expects to
see in a moment, by the faces and demeanour of the occu-
pants, that most of them belong to a special criminal class,
brought up to a life of crime which is tlieJr only possible
career, belonging natm-ally to pohce-comts and prisons,
herding together when out of prison in their own districts
and theii- own streets, and carefully avoided by the rest
of society. You may know a London thief when you see
him ; he carries his profession in his face and in the very
curl of liis hau-. Now in this prison there was nothing of
the kind to be seen. The imnates were brown Indians
and half-bred Mexicans, appearing generally to belong to
the poorest class, but just like the average of the people
in the streets outside. As my companion said, " If these
" fellows are thieves and murderers, so are om- servants,
" and so is every man in a serape we meet in the streets,
" for all we can tell to the contrary." There was positively
nothing at all peculiar about them.

If they had been all Indians we might have been
easily deceived. Nothing can be more true than Hum-
boldt's observation that the Indian face differs so much
from ours that it is only after years of experience that a
European can learn to distinguish the varieties of feature
by which character can be judged of He mistakes pecu-
liarities which belong to the race in general for personal

246 ANAHUAC.

characteristics ; and the thickness of the skin serves still
more to mask the expression of their faces. Bnt the
greater part of these men were Mexicans of mixed Indian
and Spanish blood, and their faces are pretty much Euro-
pean.

The only explanation we could give of this identity of
character inside the prison and outside is not flattering to
the Mexican people, but I really believe it to be true. We
came to the conclusion that the prisoners did not belong
to a class apart, but that they were a tolerably fair speci-
men of the poorer population of the table-lands of Mexico.
They had been more tempted than others, or they had
been more unlucky, and that was why they were here.

There were perhaps a thousand prisoners in the place,
two men to one woman. Their crimes were — one -third,
drunken disturbance and vagrancy ; another third, rob-
beries of various kinds ; a fourth, wounding and homicides,
mostly arising out of quarrels ; leaving a small residue for
all other crimes.

Our idea was confirmed by many foreigners who had
lived long in the country and had been brought into per-
sonal contact with the people. Every Mexican, they said,
has a thief and a miu'derer in him, which the slightest
provocation will bring out. This of course is an exagger-
ation, but there is a great deal of ti-uth in it. The crimes
in the prison-calendar belong as characteristics to tlie popu-
lation in general. Highway -robbery, cutting and wound-
ing in drunken brawls, and deliberate assassination, are
offences which prevail among the half- white Mexicans ;
while stealing is common to them and the pure Indian
popvilation. We noticed several instances of bigamy, a
crime which Mexican law is very severe upon. As far as
we could judge by the amount of punishment inflicted, it is
a gi'eatcr crime bo marry two women than to IdU two men.

PRISON-DISCIPLINE. 247

In one gallery are the cells for criminals condemned to
death, but the occupants were allowed to mix fi-eely with
the rest of the prisoners, and they seemed comfortable
enough.

Everybody knows how much in England the condi-
tion of a prisoner depends on the disposition of the gover-
nor in office and the system in vogue for the moment.
The mere words of his sentence do not indicate at all what
his fate will be. He comes in — under Sir John — to liffht
labour, much schoolmaster and chaplain, and the expecta-
tion of a ticket-of-leave when a fraction of his time is ex-
pired. All at once Sir James supersedes Sir John, and
with him comes in a regime 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, his late companions.

Things ought not to be so in England, but we need
hardly wonder at their being still worse in Mexico in this
respect as in all others. There have been twenty changes
of government in ten years, and sometimes extreme se-
verity has been the rule, which may change at a day's
notice into the extreme of mildness. In Santa Ana's time
the utmost rigour of the law prevailed. Our friends in
the Calle Seminario, as they came back from their morn-
ing's ride in the Paseo, had to pass through the great
square ; and used to see there, day after day, pairs of ga-
rotted malefactors sitting bolt upright in the high wooden
chairs they had just been executed in, with a fi'ightful
calm look on their dead faces.

For the last year or so all this had ceased, and there
had scarcely been an execution. It seems that one prin-
cipal reason of this lenity is that the government is too
weak to support its judges; and tliat the ministers of jus-
tice are actually intimidated by threats mysteriously cou-
ld H

24)8 ANAHUAC.

veyed to witnesses and authorities, that, if such or such
a criminal is executed, his Mends have sworn to avenge
his death, and are on the look-out, every man with his
knife ready. To political offences the same mercy is ex-
tended. In the early times of the war of independence,
and for years aftei*wards, when one leader caught an offi-
cer on the other 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 waged for the benefit
of individuals who wish for their tm-n of power and their
pull at the public purse ; and the successful leader spares
his opponent, not caring to establish a precedent which
might prove so very inconvenient to liimself

We were taken to see the garotte by the President,
who took it out of its little mahogany case, into which it
was fitted like any other surgical instrument. We noticed
that it was rusty, and indeed it had not been used for
many months. It is not worth while to describe it.

Mexican law well administered is bad enough, not es-
sentially unjust, but hampered with endless quibbles and
technicalities, quite justifying the Spanish proverb, " Mas
vale una mala composicion que un buen i^leito," — a bad
compromise is better than a good lawsuit. As things
stand now, the law of any case is the least item in the
account, there are so many ways of woiking upon judges
and witnesses. Bribery first and foremost ; and — if that
fails — personal intimidation, political influence, private
friendship, and the compadrazgo. Naturally, if you have
a lawsuit or are tried for a ciime, you should lay a good
foundation. This is done by working upon the Jues de
primera instancia, who con-esponds in some degi*ee to the
Juge d^ instruction in Fiunce. This functionary is wretch-
edly paid, so that a small sum is acceptable to him ; and,
moreover, the i-ecords of the case, as tried by him, form

MEXICAN LAW-COURTS AND STATISTICS. 249

the basis of all futui-e litigation, so that it is veiy bad
economy not to get him into proper order. If you do not,
it will cost you three times as much afterwards. If your
suit is with a soldier or a priest, the ordinary tribunals
will not help you. These two classes — the most influen-
tial in the community — have their fuero, their special
jurisdiction ; and woe to the unfortunate civiHan who at-
tacks them in their own courts !

Don Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, whose sense of humour
occasionally peeps out fi'om among his statistics, remarks
gravely that " the clergy has its special legislation, which
" consists of the Sacred Volumes, the decision of General
"and Provincial Councils, the Pontifical Decretals, and
"doctrines of the Holy Fathers." Of what sort of justice
is dealt out in that com't, one may form some faint idea.

One of our firiends m 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 years afterwards, 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 get the priest out. I believe that, eventually, he gave
liim something handsome to take his departm-e.

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, and seem to be generally re-
hable. The annual balance-sheet of the country he sums
up in three lines —

Amiual Expenditure . . . 25,000,000 dollars.
Aimual Revenue 15,000,000 „

Annual Deficit 1 0,000,000

The President of the Ayuutamiento was a pleasant
person to know, among the dishonest, intriguing Mexican

250 ANAHUAC.

officials. He received but little pay in return for a great
deal of hard work ; but he liked to be in office for the
opportunities it afforded him of improving the condition
of the poor of the city. It was a sight to see the prisoners
crowd round him as he entered the court. They all knew
him, and it was quite evident they all considered him as a
friend. In what little can be done for the ignorant and
destitute under the unfavourable cucumstances of the
country, Don Miguel has had a large share ; but until an
orderly government, 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 thing itself is curious, and quite novel to an
Englishman of the present day. The godfathers and god-
mothers of a child become, by their participation in the
ceremony, relations to one another and to the priest who
baptizes the child, and call one another ever afterwards
compadve and comadre. Just such a relationship was once
expressed by the word "gossip," "God-sib," that is "akin
in God." Gossip has quite degenerated from its old mean-
ing, and even "sib" though good English in Chaucer's
time, is now only to be found in provincial dialects ; but
in German " sipp'' still means "kin."

In Mexico this connexion obliges the compadres and
comadres to hospitality and honesty and all sorts of good
offices towards one another ; and it is wonderful how con-
scientiously this obligation is kept to, even by people who
have no conscience at all for the rest of the world. A man
who will cheat his own father or his o^vn son will keep
faith with his comj^adre. To such an extent does this in-
fluence become mixed up with all sorts of affairs, and so
important is it, that it is necessary to count it among the
things that tend to alter the course of justice in the
countiy.

LEPERS AMD LEPROSY. 251

The French have the words com2:)h'e and coinmere;
and it is cmious to observe that the name of compere is
given to the confederate of the juggler, who stands among
the crowd, and shly helps in the performance of the trick.

We went one day to the Hospital of San Lazaro. I
have mentioned the word " lepero" as apphed to the poor
and idle class of half-caste Mexicans. It is only a term of
reproach, exactly corresponding to the " lazzarone" of
Naples, who resembles the Mexican lepers in his social
condition, and whose name implies the same thing ; for, of
coui"se. Saint Lazarus is the patron saint of lepers and foul
beggars. There are some few real lepers in Mexico, who are
obliged by law to be shut up in tliis hospital. We rather
expected to see sometliing like what one reads of the
treatment of lepers which prevailed m Em-ope until a few
years ago — shutting them up in dismal dens cut off from
communication with other human beino-s. We were aeree-

o o

ably disappointed. They were confined, it is true, but
in a spacioas building, with com-t-yard and garden ; their
nurses and attendants appeared to be very kmd to them ;
and it seems that many charitable people come to visit
the inmates, and bring them cigars and other small luxu-
ries, to reheve the monotony of then- dismal lives. Some
had their faces horribly distorted by the falling of the
corners of the eyes and mouth, and the disappearance of
the cartilage of the nose ; and a few, in whom the disease
had terminated in a sort of gangrene, were frightful ob-
jects, with then' featm-es scarcely distinguishable ; but in
the majority of cases the leprosy had caused a gradual
disappearance of the ends of the fingers and toes, and even
of the whole hands and feet. The limbs thus mutilated
looked as though the parts which were wanting had been
amputated, and the wound had quite healed over, but it
is caused by a gradual absorption without wound and

252 ANAHUAC.

without pain. As every one knows, leprosy of these kinds
was held until quite lately to be dangerously contagious;
but, fortunately for the poor creatui'es themselves, tliis is
quite clearly proved to be false, 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 at Tisapan, that Don Juan recounted to us his
experience of garrotted malefactors sitting dead in their
chaus in the great square across which we were riding.
" It was really almost enough to spoil a fellow's break-
fast," he added pathetically. Though an Englishman, and
only arrived in the country a few years before, Don Juan
was as clever with the lazo as most Mexicans, and could
colear a bull in gi-eat style. Indeed, we had started early
that morning in order to have time enough to look at the
bulls in the potreros — the great grass-meadows — that lie
for miles outside the city, and which are made immensely
fertile by flooding from time to time. Wherever we saw
a bull in the distance, Don Juan and his grand little horse
Pancho plunged over a bank and through a gap, and we
after hun. No one ever leaps anything in this country,
indeed the form of the saddle puts it out of the question.
One or two buUs looked up as we entered the enclosm-e,
and bolted into other fields, pushing in among the thorns
of the aloes which formed close hedges of fixed bayonets
round the meadows. At last Don Juan cut off the re-
treat of an old bull, and galloping after him like mad,
flung the running loop of the lazo over his horns, at
the same time winding the other end round the pum-
mel of his saddle. The bull was still standing on all
four legs, pulling with all its might against Pancho. Gal-
loping after him, so as to slacken the end of the lazo,
we contrived to transfer it from Don Juan's saddle to

LAZOING THE BULL. 253

mine. Now my own horse happened to be a little lame,
and I was riding a poor little black beast whose bones
reaUy seemed to rattle in his skin. Oiu* acquaintances
in the Paseo had been quite facetious about him, re-
commending us to be careful and not to smoke up against
him, for fear we should blow him over, and otheiTv^ise
whetting their wit upon him. He acquitted himself very
creditably, however, and when the bull began to pull
against him, he leant over on the other side, as if he had
been galloping round a circus ; and the bull could not
move him an inch. It was quite evident that it was not
his first experiment. In the mean time Don Juan had
dropped the noose of my lazo just before the bull's nose,
and presently that animal incautiously put his foot into it,
when Don Juan whipped it up round his leg and went off
at full gallop. My little black horse knew perfectly well
what had happened, though his head was exactly in the
opposite direction ; and he tugged with aU his might, and
leant over more than ever. The two lazos tightened with
a twang, as though they had been guitar-strings ; and in
a moment tlie unfortunate buU was rollino- with all liis leirs
in the air, in the midst of a whirlwind of dust. Having
thus humihated him we let him go, and off he went at full
speed. All this time the proprietor of the field was tran-
quilly standing on a bank, looking on. Far from raging at
us for treating his property in this fiee and easy manner,
he returned our salutation when we rode vip to him, and,
addressing our sporting countryman, said, " Well done, old
fellow, come another day and try again."

Our whole ride to Tisapan was enlivened by a series of
Don Juan's exploits. He raced after bulls, got hold of
tlieir tails, and coleared them over into the dust. He
lazo'd everything in the road, from milestones and trunks
of trees upwards ; and I shall never forget our meeting

254

ANAHUAC.

with a great mule which was trotting along the road
without a burden, — just as he passed us, our companion
slipped the noose round his hind leg, and the beast went
down as if he had been shot, the luuleteers pulling up on
purpose to have a good open-mouthed laugh at the inci-
dent.

We seemed to be in rather a sporting line that day,
for, after our return fi-om Tisapan, Don Juan and I went
to see a cockfight. In Mexico, as in Cuba and all Spanish
America, this is the favourite sport of the people. In
Cuba, the principal shopkeeper in every village keeps
the cockpit — the "plaza de gallos." The people from the
whole district round about come in on Sunday to the vil-
lage, with a triple object ; first, to hear mass ; secondly, to
buy their supplies for the ensuing week ; and thirdly, to
spend the afternoon in cockfighting, at which amusement
it is easy to win or lose two or three hundred pounds in
an afternoon. The custom that the cockpit brings to the
shop more than repays the proprietor for the expense and
trouble of keeping it. In Cuba, the spurs of the cock are
artificially pointed by paring with a penknife, but the
Mexican way of arming them is even more abominable.

STEEL COCK-SPURS f4 i«<-7,« /o„y;, WITH SHEATH AND PAOOINC

COCKFIGHTING IN MEXICO. 255

Each bird has a shai-p steel knife three or four inches long,
just like a little scythe-blade, fastened over the natural spur
before the fight commences. A leather sheath covers the
weapon while the cocks are being put into the ring, and
held with their beaks almost touching till they are furi-
ous. Then they are drawn back to opposite sides of the
ring, the sheaths are taken oflf, and they fly at one another,
giving desperate 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 was fiill of people, mostly Mexi-
cans of the lower orders, smoking, betting, and talking sport-
ing-slang. The betting was surprising, when one compared
its amount with the appearance of the spectators, among
whom there was hardly a decent coat to be seen. Every
now and then, a dirty scoundrel in a shabby leather jacket
would walk round the ring with a handful of gold, offer-
ing the odds — ten to five, ten to seven, ten to nine, or
v/hatever they might be, in gold ounces, which coins are
worth above three pounds apiece.

Cockfighting is such a passion here that we thought it
as well to see it for once. Santa Ana, now he has retired
from politics, spends liis time at Carthagena pretty much
entirely in this his favourite sport, which forms one of the
great items among the pleasures and excitements of a
Mexican hfe. We saw a couple of mains fought, in which
the victorious birds were dreadfully mangled, while the
vanquished were hterally cut to pieces ; as much money
changed hands as we should have thought sufficient to buy
up the whole of the people present, cockpit and all. Then,
being both agi-eed that it was a disgusting sight, we went
away.

Before we left Mexico we were taken by our man
Antonio to a cutler's shop, where the principal trade

I I

256 ANAHUAC.

seemed to be the making of these cuchiUos to ann 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 some things which were done better in
Mexico than anywhere else. I fear we left liim under the
pleasing impression that we were taking home the blades
to introduce as models in our own benighted country.

The Mexican is a great gambler. Bad fortune he
bears with the greatest equanimity. You never hear of
his committing suicide after being ruined at play ; he just
goes away, and sets to work to earn enough for a fresh
stake. The government have tried to put down gam-
bling in the State of Mexico, but not with much success.
For three days in the year, however, at the festival of San
Agustin de las Cuevas, public gambling-tables are tole-
rated, though soldiers and ofiicials are strictly forbidden
to play, an mj unction which they carefully set at nought.
Oddly enough, the government, while doing all it could to
keep its own functionaries away from the inionte table,
did not scruple to send a military escort to convoy the
bankers with their bags of gold from Mexico to San
Agustin. On one of the three days, Mr. Christy and I
went there. There was a great crowd, this time mostly a
well-di'essed one, and the cockpit was on a large scale.
But of course the great attraction was the tiionte, which
was being played everywhere, the stakes in some places
being coppers, in others silver, while more aristocratic
establishments would allow no stake under a gold ounce.
Dead silence prevailed in these places, and the players
seemed to pride themselves upon not showing the slight-
est change in their countenances, whether they won or
lost. The game itself is very simple, and has some
points of resemblance to that of lansquenet, known in
Europe. The first two cards in the pack, say a four

GAMBLING IN MEXICO. 257

and a king, are laid down, face up, on the table, and
the gamblers put down their money against one or the
other. Then the croiqjier deals the cards out slowly
and solemnly one after another, caUing out theii' names
as they fall, until he comes — say to a king ; when
those who have betted on the king have their stakes
doubled, and the others lose theirs. The banker has a
great advantage to compensate him for his expense and
risk. If the fii-st card which is thrown out be one of the
two numbers on the table, the banker withholds a quarter
of the stake he would otherwise have lost, paying only a
stake and three-quarters, instead of two stakes. Now, as
there are forty cards in a Spanish pack, two of which
have been already thrown out, the chances for a throw
favourable to the banker are about one in six, 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 the course of the games, and regulating their play
accordingly, as they do at Baden-Baden and Hombourg.
I suppose that now and then these scientific calculators
must be told that their whole theory of chances is the most
baseless delusion, but they certainly do not believe it ; and
at any rate this curious pseudo-science of winning by skill
at games of pure chance will last our time, if not longer.

On some tables there were as much as three or four
thousand gold ounces. This struck us the more because
we had often tried to get gold coin for our own use, in-
stead of the silver dollars, the general currency of the
country, of which twenty pounds' worth to carry home on
a hot day was enough to break one's heart. We often
tried to get gold, but the answer was always that what
Uttle there was in the country was in the hands of the
gamblers, whose operations could not be worked on a
large scale without it.

258 ANAHUAC.

The prevalence of mining, as a means of getting wealth,
has contributed greatly to make the love of gambling an
important part of the national character. Silver-mining
in the old times was a most hazardous speculation, and
people engaged in it used to make and lose great fortunes
a dozen times in their lives. The miners worked not on
fixed wages, but for a share of the produce, and so every
man became a gambler on his own account. To a great
extent the same evils prevail now, but two things have
tended to lessen them. Poor ores are now worked profit-
ably which used to be neglected by the miners ; and, as
these ores occur in almost inexhaustible masses, their
mining is a much less 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, how-
ever, the work is still done on shares by the miners, who
pass their Kves in alternations 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 these men. One week, a party of three miners
had come upon a very rich bit of ore, and went away
from the raya, each man with a handkerchief full of dol-
lars. This was on Saturday evening. On Monday morn-
ing our informant went out for a ride, and on the road he
met three dirty haggard -looking men, di'essed in some old
rags ; one of the three came forward, taking off" the sort of
apology for a hat which he had on, and said, " Good morn-
ing, Senor Doctor, would you mind doing us the favour of
lending us half a dollar to get something to eat ?" They
were the three successful miners ; and when, a few days
afterwards, the man who had asked for the money came
back to return it, the Doctor inquired what had happened.

GAMBLING MINERS. 259

It seemed that the three, as soon as they had received
their money on Saturday, got a lift to the nearest town,
and there rigged themselves out with new clothes, silver
buttons, five-pound serapes, and a horse for each, with
magnificent silver mountings to the saddle and spin's.
Here they have dinner, and lots of pulque, and swagger
about outside the door, smoking cigarettes. There, quite
by chance, an acquaintance meets them, and admu-es the
horses, but would like to see their paces tried a httle out-
side the town. So they pace and gallop along for half a
mile or so ; when, also quite accidentally, they find two
men sitting outside a rancho, j)laying at cards. The two
men — strangely enough — are old acquaintances of the
cm-ious friend, and they produce a bowl of cool pulque
from within, which om' miners find quite refreshing
after the ride. Thereupon they sit down to have a little
game at lyionte, then more pulque, then more cards ;
and when they awake the next morning, they find them-
selves possessed of a suit of old rags, with no money in
the pockets. They had dim recollections of losing — fii'st
money, then horses, and lastly clothes, the night before ;
but — as they were informed by the old woman, who was
the only occupant of the place besides themselves — then-
friends had been obliged to go away on urgent business,
and could not be so impolite as to disturb them. So they
walked back to the mines, ragged and hungry, and bor-
rowed the doctor's half-dollar.

LEATHER SANDALS, WORN BY THE NATIVE INDIANS.

CHAP. X.

TEZCUCO. MIRAFLORES. POPOCATEPETL. CHOLULA.

WALKING AND RIDING COSTUMES IN MEXICO.

(After Ncbcl.)

The wet season was fast coming on when we left
Mexico for the last time. We had to pass through Vera
Cruz, where the rain and the yellow fever generally set in
together ; so that to stay longer would have been too great
a risk.

Our first stage was to Tezcuco, across the lake in a
canoe, just as we had been before. We noticed on our
way to the canoes, a clim'ch, apparently from one to two

DEPENDENT ON HIS WITS. 261

centuries old, with the followdng doggrel inscription in
huge lettei'S over the portico, which shows that the dogma
of the Immaculate Conception is by no means a recent in-
stitution in Mexico :

A ntes cle entrar afii^ma con tu vida,
S. Maria fue sin pecado concebida :
Which may be translated into verse of equal quahty,

Confess on thy life before coming in,

2 hat blessed Saint Mary was conceived without sin.
Nothing particular happened on our journey, except that
a well-dressed Mexican tm-ned up at the landing-place,
wanting a passage, and as we had taken a canoe for oui'-
selves, we offered to let him come with us. He was a
well-bred young man, speaking one or two lang-uages be-
sides his own ; and he presently informed us that he was
going on'a visit to a rich old lady at Tezcuco, whose name
was Doiia Maria Lopez, or something of the kind. When
we drove away from the other end of the lake, towards
Tezcuco, we took him as far as the road leading to the old
lady's house ; when he rather astonished vis by hinting
that he should like to go on with us to the Casa Grande,
and could walk back. At the same time, it struck us that
the youth, though so well dressed, had no luggage ; and
we began to understand the queer expression of the
coachman's face when he saw him get into the carnage
with us. So we stopped at the corner of the road, and the
yoimg gentleman had to get out.

At the Casa Grande, our friends laughed at us im-
mensely when we told them of the incident, and offered
us twenty to one that he would come to ask for money
within twenty-four hours. He came the same evening,
and brought a wonderful story about his passport not
being en regie, and that unless we could lend him ten
dollars to bribe the police, he should be in a dreadful

262 ANAHLTAC.

scrape. We referred him to the master of the house, who
said something to him which caused him to depart preci-
pitately, and we never saw him again ; but we heard
afterwards that he had been to the other foreigners in the
neighbourhood with various histories. We made more en-
qukies about him in the town, and it appeared that his
expedition to Tezcuco was improvised when he saw us
going down to the boat, and of course the visit to the rich
old lady was purely imaginary. Now this youth was not
more than eighteen, and looked and spoke like a gentle-
man. They say that the class he belonged to is to be
counted rather by thousands than by hundreds in Mexico.
They are the children of white Creoles, or nearly white
mestizos ; they get a superficial education and the art of
dressing, and with this slender capital go out into the
world to live by their wits, until they get a government
apj)ointment or set up as political adventurers, and so have
a chance of helping themselves out of tlie public pm-se,
which is natui'ally easier and more profitable than mere
sponging upon individuals. One gets to understand the
course of Mexican affairs much better by knowing what
sort of raw material the politicians are recruited from.

We saw some good things in a small collection of an-
tiquities, on this second visit to Tezcuco. Among them
was a nude female figure in alabaster, four or five feet
high, and — comparatively speaking — of high artistic merit.
Such figures are not common in Mexico, and they are
supposed to represent the Aztec Venus, who was called
Tlazolteocihiia, " Goddess of Pleasure." A figure, labo-
riously cut in hard stone, representing a man wearing a
jackal's head as a mask, was supposed to be a figurative
representation of the celebrated king of Tezcuco, Neza-
hualcoyotl, "hungry jackal," of whom Mexican history
relates that he walked about the streets of his capital in

THE JACKAL-MASKS, ETC. 263

disguise, after the manner of the Caliph in the Arabian
Nights. The explanation is plausible, but I think not
correct. The coyote or jackal was a sacred animal among
the Aztecs, as the Anubis-jackal was among the Egyi)tians.
Humboldt found in Mexico the tomb of a coyote, which
had been carefidly interred with an earthen vase, and a
number of the little cast-bronze bells which I noticed in
the last chapter. The Mexicans used actually to make a
kind of fetish — or charm — of a jackal's skin, prepared in a
peculiar way, and called by the same name, nezahualcoyotl,
and very likely they do so still. From this fetish the
king's name was, no doubt, borrowed ; and it is not im-
probable that the whole story of the king's walking in dis-
guise may have grown up out of his name being the same
as that of the figure we saw, muffled up in a jackal's skin.

It is cm-ious that the jackal, or the human figure in a
jackal-mask, should have been an object of superstitious
veneration both in Mexico and in Egypt. This, the ex-
traordinary serpent-crown of Xochicalco, and the pyramids,
are the three most striking resemblances to be found be-
tween the two countries ; all probably accidental, but not
the less noteworthy on that account.

The collection contained a number of spherical beads
in gi-een jade, highly polished, and some as large as
pigeon's eggs. They were found in an alabaster box, of
such elaborate and beautiful workmanship that the owner
deemed it worthy to be presented as a sort of peace-offer-
ing to the 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, with several Spanish words, into
what we may call the American dialect of our lanfrua^-e.
Prairie-hunters and Californians have introduced several
other words in this way, such as ranch, gulch, corral, &c.

K K

264 ANAHUAC.

The word lariat one is constantly meeting with in books
about American 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 Ameri-
can politicians use in arguing with their opponents.

Our last day at Tezcuco was spent in packing up anti-
quities to be sent to England, the express orders of the
Government against such exportation to the contrary not-
withstanding. Next morning we rode off to Mu-aflores,
passing on our way the curious stratum of alluvial soil
containing pottery, &c., which I have described already.
Miraflores is a cotton-factory, in the opening of a pictu-
resque gorge just at the edge of the plain of Mexico. The
machinery is American, for the mill dates from the time
when it was considered expedient to prohibit the export-
ation of cotton-mill machinery from England ; and having
begun with American work, it naturally suits them to go
on with it. It is driven by a great Barker's mill, which
works in a sort of well, having an outlet into the valley,
and roars as though it would tear the place down. It is
not common to see this kind of machine working on a
large scale ; but here, with a gi'eat fall of water, it does
very well. Otherwise the place was like an ordinary
cotton- factory, and one cannot be surprised at people
thinking that such establishments are a som'ce of pros-
perity to the country. They see a popuhition hard at
work and getting good wages, masters making great pro-
fits, and no end of bales going off to town ; and do not
consider that half the price of the cloth is wasted, and
that the protection-duty sets the people to work which
they cannot do to advantage, while it takes them away
from occupations which theii' country is fit for.

SACRED MOUNT AT AMECAJtfECA. 265

Next morning took us to Amecameca, a town in a
little plain at the foot of Popocatepetl, whose snow-covered
top towers high up in the clouds, like Mont Blanc over
Sallanches. We had at one time cherished hopes of get-
ting to the top of this grand volcano, but had heard such
frightful reports of difficulties and dangers that we had
concluded not to do more than look at it from a distance,
the more especially as there had been a heavy fall of snow
upon it a day or two before. We presented oui- letter to
the Spaniard who kept the great shop at Amecameca, and
asked him, casually, about the mountain. He assured us
that the surface of the snow would be frozen over, and
that instead of being a disadvantage the fall of snow was
in oui' favour, for it was easier to climb over frozen snow
than up a loose heap of volcanic ashes. So we sent for
the guide, a big man, who used to manage the sulphur-
workings in the crater until that undertaking was given
up. He set to work to get things ready for the expedition,
and we strolled out for a walk.

Close by the town is a " sacred mount," with little
stations, and on one day in the year numbers of pilgrims
come to visit the place. Near the top, 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
caverns not unfrequently do in Roman Catholic countries !
What was more worth noticing was that here there was a
cypress-tree, covered with votive offerings, like the great
ahuehuete in the valley above Chalma ; so that it is likely
that the place was sacred long before chapels and stations
were built upon it. Our guide told us that whenever a
man touched the tree, all feeling of weariness left him.
How characteristic this superstition is of a nation of car-
riers of burdens !

266 ANAHUAC.

In the afternoon we started — ourselves, our guide, and
an Indian to carry cloaks, &c. up the mountain. We soon
left the cultivated region, and entered upon the pine-forest,
which we never left during our afternoon journey. One
of the first showers of the rainy season came down upon
us as we rode through the forest. It only lasted half an
hour, but it was a deluge. In a shower of the same kind
at Tezcuco, a day or tv/o before, rain to the amount of 1 ^^g-
inches fell in the hour. By dusk we reached the highest
habitation in North America, the place where the sulphur
used to be sublimed from the pumice brought down fi'om
the crater. This place was shut up, for the undertaking
has been abandoned ; but in a rancho close by we found
some Indian women and children, and there we took up
our quarters. The rancho was a circular hut, built and
thatched with reeds, though in the midst of a pine-forest ;
and presently a smart shower began, which came in upon
us as thouo-h the roof had been a sieve.

The Indian women were kneeling all the evening round
the wood-fire in the centre of the hut, baking tortillas and
boihng beans and cofiee in earthen pots. The wood was
green, and the place was full of sufibcating smoke, except
within eighteen inches of the ground, where lay a stratum
of purer air. We were obliged to lie down at once, upon
mats and serapes, for we covdd not exist in the smoke ;
and as often as we raised ourselves into a sitting postm-e,
we had to dive down again, half suffocated. The line of
demarcation was so accurately drawn that it 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 mostly about adventures with
wolves, and about the sulphur- workings, now discon-
tinued. The weather had cleai-ed, and as we lay we could

ASCENT OF POPOCATEPETL. 267

see the stars shininof in tlu'ousrh the roof. About three in
the mornino: I awoke, feelino- bruised all over, as was
natural after sleeping on a mat on the ground. Moreover,
the fire had gone out, and it was horribly cold, as well it
might be at 13,000 feet above the sea. I shook some one
up to make up the fire, and went out into the open air.
It was neai'ly full moon ; but the moonlight was very dif-
ferent from what we can see in E norland, even on the
clearest nights. On the plateau of Mexico, the rarity and
dryness of the air are such that distant objects are seen
far more distinctly than at the level of the sea, and the
European traveller's measurements of distance by the eye
are always too small. The sunlight and moonlight, for the
same reason, are more intense than at lower levels. Here,
at about the same elevation as the top of the Jungfrau,
the effect was far more striking, and I shall never forsfet
the brilliant flood of light that illuminated that grand
scene. Far down below I could see the plain, with houses
and fields dimly visible. At the bottom of the slope began
the dark pine -forest, which enveloped the mountains up to
the level at which I stood, and there broke into an uneven
line, with straggling patches running up a few hundred
feet hiojher in sheltered crevices. Above the forest came
a region of bare volcanic sand, and then began the snow.
The highest peak no longer looked steep and pointed as
from below, but seemed to rise from the darker line of
sand in a gentle swelling curve up into the sky. There
did not seem to be a speck or a wrinkle on this smooth
snowy dome, the brilKant whiteness of which contrasted so
wonderfully with the dark pine-forest below.

About seven in the moi"ning we started on horseback,
rode up across the sandy district, and entered upon the
snow. After we left the pines, small bushes and tufts of
coarse Alpine grass succeeded. Where rocks of basaltic

268 ANAHUAC.

lava stood out fi-om the heaps of crumbling ashes, after the
grass had ceased, lichens — the occupants of the highest
zone — were still to be seen. Before we reached the snow,
we were in the midst of utter desolation, where no sign
of life was visible. From this point we sent back the
horses, and started for the ascent of the cone. On our
yesterday's ride we had cut young pine-trees in the forest,
for alpenstocks ; and we tied silk handkerchiefs com-
pletely over our faces, to keep off the glare of the sun.
Our guide did the same ; but the Indian, 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 guide first, sounding the depth of the snow with his
pole, and keeping as nearly as he could along ridges just
covered with snow, where we did not sink far. It was
from the lower part of the snow that we began to under-
stand the magnificent proportions of Izfcaccihuatl — the
" White Woman," the twin mountain which is connected
with Popocatepetl by an immense col, which stretches
across below the snow-line. This mountain is not conical
like Popocatepetl, but its shoulders are broader, and break
into grand peaks, like some of the Dents of Switzerland,
and it has no crater.* Indeed, the two mountains, joined
together Hke Siamese twins, look as though they had been
set up, side by side, to illustrate the two contending theo-
ries of the formation of volcanos. Von Buch and Humboldt
might have made Iztaccihuatl on the " upheaval theory,"
by a force pushing up fi'om below, without breaking
through the crust to form a crater ; while Poulett Scrope
was building Popocatepetl on the " accumulation theory,"

* I was surprised to find Iztnccilmatl classed among the active volcanos in
Johnston's Pliysical Atlas, and supposed at first that a crater had really been
found. But it is likely to bo only a mistake, caused by the name of " Volcan "
being given to both mountains by the Mexicans, who used the word in a very
loose way.

POPOCATEPETL — THE CKATER. 269

by throwing up lava and volcanic aslies out of an open
vent, until he had formed a conical heap some five thou-
sand feet high, with a great crater at the top.

As we toiled slowly up the snow, we took off our veils
from time to time, to look more clearly about us. The
glare of the sun upon the snow was dazzling, and its in-
tense whiteness contrasted wonderfully with the cloudless
dark indigo-blue of the sky. Between twelve and one we
reached the edge of the crater, 17,884 feet above the sea.
The ridge upon 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 crater itself clear, for none lay on
the bottom, or in clefts on the steep sides.

The crater was oval, fall a mile in its longest diameter,
and perhaps 700 to 800 feet in depth ; and its almost per-
pendicular walls of basaltic lava are covered with red and
yellow patches of subhmed sulphur. We climbed a little
way down into it to get protection from the wind, but to
descend further unassisted was not possible, so we sat
there, with our legs dangling down into the abyss. Part
of the malacate, or winder, used by the Indians in descend-
ing, was still there ; but it was not complete, and even if
it had been, so many months had elapsed since it was last
used that we should not have cared to try it. It consisted
of a rope of hide, descending into the bottom of the crater
in a slanting direction ; and the sulphur-collectors were
lowered and drawn up it by a windlass, in a basket to
which another rope was attached. A few years back, the
volcano used to send up showers of ashes, and even large
stones ; l)ut now it has sunk to the condition of a mere
solfatara, sending out, from two crevices in the floor, groat
volumes of sulphurous acid and steam, with a loud roar-
ing noise. The sulphur- working merely consisted in look-
ing for places where the pumice-stone was fully improg-

270 ANAHUAC.

natecl with sulphur, and breaking out pieces, which were
hauled up in the basket. The chief risk which the
labourers ran was from the terrific snow-storms, which
come on suddenly and without the slightest notice. Men
at work collecting sulphur have once or twice been caught
by such storms in parts of the crater at a distance from
the rope, and buried in the snow.

The appearance of the " White Woman," but Httle
lower than the point where we stood, was very grand, but
all other objects looked small. The two great plains of
Mexico and Puebla, with their lakes and towns, were laid
out like a map ; and the ranges of mountains which hem
them in made them look like Roman encampments sur-
rounded by earthwoiks. Even now that the lakes have
shrunk to a fraction of their former size, we could see 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 and Perote were conspicuous to the east ;
to the north lay the silver-mountains of Pachuca ; and to
the south-west a darker shade of green indicated the
forests and plantations of the tierra caliente, below Cuer-
navaca.

It was a novel sensation to be at an altitude where the
barometer stands at 15| inches, so that the pressure on
our lungs was hardly more than one-half what we are
accustomed to in England ; but we did not experience
much inconvenience from it. The last thousand feet or so
had been very hard work, and we were obliged to stop
every few steps, but on the comparatively level edge of
the crater we felt no difficulty in moving about.

Popocatepetl means "Smoking Mountain," The In-
dians naturally enough considered it to be the abode of
evil spirits, and told Cortes and his companions that they
could never reach the top. One of the Spaniards, Diego

DESCENT FROM POPOCATEPETL. 271

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 in his coat of arms, in commemora-
tion of the exploit ! If, as he declared, a high wind was
blowing, and showers of ashes falling, his turning back
was excusable, though his bragging was not. He seems
to have afterwards told Bernal Diaz that he got to the
top, which we know, by Cortes' letters to Spain, was not
true. A few years later, Francesco Montano went up, and
was lowered into the crater to get sulphur. When Hum-
boldt relates the story, in his Neiv Spain, he seems incre-
dulous about this ; but since the Essai Politique was
wi'itten the same thing has been regularly done by the
Indians, as the merest matter of business, until the crater
has been fairly worked out.

We took our last look at Mexico from the ridire of the
crater, and, descending twenty feet at a stride, soon
reached the bottom of the cone. As far as we could see,
the substance of the hiU seemed to be of basaltic lava,
which was mostly covered with the ktpilli which I have
spoken of before as ashes and volcanic sand. Even before
we reached the pine-forest there was evidence of the action
of water, which had covered the slope of the mountain with
beds of thick compact tufa, composed of these lapilli mixed
with fragments of lava. The water-courses had cut deep
channels through these beds, and down into the rock be-
low ; so that the streams fi-om the melted snow rushed
down between walls of lava, in which traces of columnar
structure were observable.

The snow we had travelled over was sometimes dry
and powdery, and sometimes hard and compact. There
were no glaciers, and no glacier-ice, properly so called. It
never rains at this elevation ; and, though evaporation
goes on rapidly with half the pressure taken oft' the air,

L L

272 ANAHUAC.

and a great increase in the intensity of the sun's rays, the
snow either passes directly into vapour, or cames the
water off instantaneously, as it is formed. Only so much
water seems to be produced and re-frozen as suffices to
make the snow hard, and in some favourable places near
the rocks to form lumps of ice, and some of those great
icicles which the Spaniards brought down from the moun-
tain on 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 not returned, and everything
was eaten up except beans, which are all very well as ac-
cessories to dinner, but our English digestions could not
stand living upon them ; so we started at once for San
Nicolas de los Ranchos. Our ride was down a deep ravine,
by the side of a mountain-torrent coming down from the
snows of Popocatepetl ; and, when we stopped now and
then to look behind us, we had one of the grandest views
which I have ever witnessed. The elements of the picture
were simple enough. A deep gorge at our feet, with a
fierce torrent rushing down it, dark pine-trees all round us,
and above us — on either side — a snow-covered mountain
towering up into the sky. We were just in the track of
the Spanish invaders, who crossed most likely by this very
road between the two volcanos ; and they record the
amazement which they felt that in the tropics snow should
be unmelted upon the mountains.

A few hours riding down the steep descent, and we
were in the flat plain of Puebla. There were our two
mountains behind us, but now they looked as we had so
often seen them before from a distance. The power of
realizing their size was gone, and with it most of their
grandeur and beauty. Nothing was left us but a vivid

PLAIN OF PUEBLA. HOSPITABLE SHOPKEEPER. 273

recollection of the wonderful scenes that were before us a
few hours ago, impressions not likely to be ever effaced from
our minds, where the pictui'e of the great snowy cone seen
in the bright moonlight, and the descent between the
mountains, remain indelibly impressed as the types of all
that is most gi*and and impressive in the scenery of lofty
mountains.

We slept at San Nicolas de los Ranchos, " St. Nicholas
of the huts," where the shopkeeper, to whom we had a
letter, insisted upon turning out of his own room for us,
and treated us like prmces. The reason of our often being
provided with letters to the shopkeepers in small places,
was, that they are the only people who have houses fit for
entertaining travellers. Many of them are very rich, and
in the United States they would call themselves mer-
chants. Next morning our Indian carrier, who had as-
cended the mountain without a veil, was brought in by
our guide, a pitiful object. All the skin of his face was
peeling off, and his eyes were frightfully inflamed, so that
he was all but blind, and had to be led about. Fortunately,
this blindness only lasts for 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. We wanted some one
who knew this district well ; and when a friend of ours
mentioned that there was a young man to be had who
had a good horse and Avas a smuggler by profession, we
engaged him directly, and he proved a great acquisition.
Of course, from the nature of his trade, he knew every by-
path between Mexico and the tobacco-districts towards
which we were going ; he was always ready with an ex-
pedient whenever there was a difficulty, he was never
tired and never out of temper. As for the morality of his

27-i ANAHUAC.

peculiar profession, it probably does harm to the honesty
of the people ; but, considering it as a question of abstract
justice, we must remember that almost the whole of the
taxes which the Mexicans are compelled to pay to the
general government are utterly wasted upon paying offi-
cials who do nothing but intrigue, and keeping up ai'mies
which — far from bemg a protection to life and property —
are a permanent and most destructive nuisance. The con-
tract between government and subject ought to be a two-
sided one ; and when the government so entirely misuses
the taxes paid by the people, I am quite inclined to sym-
pathize with the svibjects who will not pay them if they
can 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. The Spanish city of Puebla, only
a few miles off, quite ruined it.

We went straight to the great pyi"amid, which lies
close to the town, and which had been rising before us
like a hill during the last miles of our journey. This ex-
traordinary structure is perhaps the oldest ruin in Mexico,
and certainly the largest. A close examination of its
structure in places where the outline is still to some ex-
tent preserved, and a comparison of it with better pre-
served structm^es of the 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
Cordilleres. But let no one imagine that the well-defined
and symmetrical stmcture represented in that drawing is
in the least like what we saw, and from which Humboldt
made the rough sketch, which he and his artist afterwards
"idealized" for his great work. At the present day, the
appearance of the structure is that of a shapeless tree-
grown hill ; and until the traveller comes quite close to it

PYRAMID AND ANTIQUITIES OF CHOLULA. 275

he may be excused for not believing that it is an artificial
mound at all.

The pyi-amid is built of rows of bricks baked in the
sun, and cemented together with mortar in which had
been stuck quantities of small stones, fragments of pottery,
and bits of obsidian knives and weapons. Between rows
of bricks are alternate layers of clay. It was built in four
terraces, of which traces are still to be distinguished ; and
is about 200 feet high. Upon the platform at the top stand
some trees and a chm-ch. The sides front the four car-
dinal points, and the base line is of immense length, over
thu-teen hundred feet, so that the ascent is very gradual.

When we reached Cholula we sent the two men to en-
quire in the neighbourhood for antiquities, of which num-
bers are to be found in every 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
was a mould for making little jackal-heads in the clay,
ready for baking ; the httle earthen heads which are found
in such quantities in the country being evidently made by
wholesale in moulds of this kind, not modelled separately.
We got also several terra-cotta stamps, used in old times
for stamping coloured patterns upon the native cloth,
and perhaps also for ornamentmg vases and other articles
of earthenware. Cholula used to be a famous place for
making pottery, and its red-and-black ware was famous
at the time of the Conquest, but the trade now seems to
have left it. We were struck by observing that, though
there was plenty of coloiu-ed pottery to be found in the
neighbourhood of the pyramid, the pyi'amid itself had only
fi-agments of uncolom-ed ware imbedded in its structure ;
which .seems to prove that it was built before the art of
colouring pottery was invented.

They have cut a road through one corner of the pyi'a-
mid, and this cutting exposed a chamber within. Hinn-

27C ANAHUAC.

boldt describes this chamber as roofed with blocks, each
overlajjping the one before, till they can be made to meet
by a block of ordinary size. This is the false arch so com-
mon in Egypt and Peru, and in the mined cities of Central
America. Every child who builds houses with a box of
bricks discovers it for himself The bridge at Tezcuco,
already described, is much more remarkable in its struc-
ture. Whether our inspection was careless, or whether
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 Clio-
lula. That recorded by Humboldt on the authority of a
certain Dominican friar, Pedro de los Rios, I mention —
not because of its intrinsic value, which is very slight, but
because it will enable us to see the way in which legends
grew up under the hands of the early missionaries, who
were delighted to find fragments of Scripture -history
among the traditions of the Ancient Mexicans, and who
seem to have taken down from the lips of their converts,
as native traditions, the very Bible -stories that they had
been teaching them, mixed however with other details,
of which it is hard to say whether they were imagined on
purpose to fill up gaps in the story, or whether they were
really of native traditional origin.

Pedro de los Rios' story tells us that the land of Ana-
huac was inhabited by giants ; that there was a great
deluge, which devastated the earth ; that all the inhabit-
ants were turned into fishes, except seven who took refuge
in a cave (apparently with their wives). Years after the
waters had subsided, and the earth had been re-peopled
by these seven men, their leader began to build a vast
pyramid, whose top should reach to heaven. He built it
of bricks baked in the sun, which were brought from a
great distance, passing them from hand to hand by a file

HYBRID LEGENDS OF MEXICO. 277

of men. The gods were enraged at the presumption of
these men, and they sent down fire from heaven upon the
pyramid, which caused its building to be discontinued.
It is stated that at the time of the Spanish Conquest, the
inhabitants of Cholula preserved with great veneration a
large aerolite, wliich they said was the thunderbolt that
fell upon the tojD of the pyramid when the fire struck it.

The history of the confusion of tongues seems also to
have existed in the country, not long after the Conquest,
having very probably been learnt from the missionaries ;
but it does not seem to have been connected with the
Tower-of-Babel legend of Cholula. Something like it at
least appears in the GemeUi table of Mexican migrations,
reproduced in Humboldt, where a bkd in a tree is sending
down a number of tonofues to a crowd of men standinar
below.

I think we need not hesitate in condemninor the leo-end
of Cholula, which I have just related, as not genuine, or at
lea.st as partly of late fabrication. But we fortunately
possess another version of it, which shows the legend to
have developed itself farther than was quite discreet. A
MS. history, wi'itten by Duran in 1579, and quoted by
the Ahh4 Brasseur de Bom-bourg, relates that people built
the pyramid to reach heaven, finding clay or mud ("terre
glaise" ) and a very sticky bitumen (" bitiime fort glu-
ant" ), with which they began at once to build, &;c. This
is evidently the sHme or bitumen of the Book of Genesis ;
but I believe I may safely assert that the Mexicans never
used bitumen for any such purpose, and that it is not
found anjrwhere near Cholula.

The Aztec historians ascribe the building of the Pyra-
mid of Cliolula to the prophet Quetzalcoatl. The legends
which relate to this celebrated personage are to be found
in writers on Mexican history, and, more fully thau else-
where, in the Abbe Brasseiu' de Bourbourg's work.

278 ANAHUAC.

I am inclined to consider Quetzalcoatl a real person-
age, and not a mytliical one. He is said to have been a
white, bearded man, to have come from the East, to have
reigned in Tollan, and to have been driven out from
thence by the votaries of human sacrifices, which he op-
posed. He took refrige in Cholollan, now called Cholula
(which means the " place of the fugitive"), and taught the
inhabitants to work in metals, to observe various fasts and
festivals, to use the Toltec calendar of days and years,
and to perform penance to appease the gods.

A relic of the father of Quetzalcoatl is said to have
been kept until after the Spanish Conquest, when it was
opened, and found to contain a quantity of fafr human
hair. The prophet himself departed from Cholida, and
put to sea in a canoe, promising to return. So strong was
the behef in the tradition of these events amonsf the
Aztecs, that when the Spaniards appeared on the coast,
they were supposed to be of the race of the prophet, and
the strange conduct of Montezuma to Cortes is to be as-
cribed to the influence of this behef

There is a singular legend, mentioned by the Abb^
Brasseur de Bourbourg, of a white man, with a hooded
robe and white beard, bearing a cross in his hand, who
lands at Tehuantepec (on the Pacific coast of Mexico), and
introduces among the Indians auricular confession, pen-
ance, and vows of chastity.

The coming of white, bearded men from the East, cen-
turies before the Spanish invasion in the 16th century,
and the introduction of new arts and rites by them in
Mexico, is as certain as most historical events of which we
have only legendary knowledge. As to who they were I
cannot offer an opinion. There are, however, one or two
points connected with the presence of the Irish and
Northmen in America in the 9th and following centuries

FOREIGN ANALOGIES IN WORDS AND CUSTOMS. 279

— a period not very far from that ascribed to Quetzal-
coatl — which are worthy of notice.

The Scandinavian antiquarians make the "white-man's
land" (Hvitrainaniialand) extend down as far as Florida,
on the very Gidf of Mexico. It is curious to notice the
coincidence between the remark of Bernal Diaz, that the
Mexicans called their priests papa (more properly papctr-
hua), and that in the old Norse Chronicle, which tells of
the first colonization of Iceland by the Northmen, and re-
lates that they found living there " Christian men whom
"the Northmen caU Papa." These latter are shown by
the context to have been Irish priests. The Aztec root
teo (teo-tl, God) comes nearer to the Greek and Latin, but
is not unlike the Irish dia and the Norse ty-r. The
Aztec root col (charcoal) is exactly the Norse kol (our
word coal), but not so near to the Irish gual. It is desi-
rable to notice such coincidences, even when they are too
slight to ground an argument upon.

This seems to be the proper place to mention the
many Christian analogies to be found in the customs of
the ancient Aztecs.

Childi-en were sprinkled with water when their names
were given to them. This is certainly true, though the
statement that they believed that the process purified
them from original sin is probably a monkish fiction.
Water was consecrated by the priests, and was supposed
thus to acquu'e magical qualities. In the coronation of
kings, anointing was part of the ceremony, as well as the
use of holy water. The festival of All Souls' Day reminds
us of the Aztec feasts of the Dead in the autumn of each
year ; and in Mexico the Indians still keep up some of
their old rites on that day. There was a singular rite ob-
served by the Aztecs, which they called the teoqiialo, that
is, " the eating of the god." A figure of one of theii- gods

M M

280 ANAHUAC.

was made in dough, and after certain ceremonies they
made a pretence of killing it, and divided it into morsels,
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 nunne-
ries, in which the monks wore long hau', but the nuns had
their hair cut off: and the use of the cross as a religious
emblem in Mexico and Central America.

Less certain is the recorded use of knotted scourges in
performing penance, and the existence of a peculiar kind
of aui'icular 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, with Christians. Perhaps these pecu-
liar rites came, with the Mexican system of astronomy, from
Asia ; or perhaps the white, bearded men from the East
may have brought them. It is true that such a supposition
runs quite counter to the argument founded on the igno-
rance of the Mexicans of common arts known in Europe
and Asia. We should have expected Christian mission-
aries to have brought with them the knowledge of the use
of iron, and the alphabet. Perhaps our increasing know-
ledge of the ancient Mexicans may some day allow us to
adopt a theory which shall at least have the merit of
being consistent with itself; but at present tliis seems
impossible.

CHAR XL

PUEBLA. NOPALUCAN. ORIZABA. POTRERO.

We reached Puebla
in the afternoon, and
found, it a fine Span-
ish city, with straight
streets of handsome
stone houses, and paved
with flag-stones. We
rather wondered at the
pasadizos, a kind of
arched stone-pavement
across the streets at
short intervals, very-
much impeding the pro-
gress of the carriages,
which had to go up and
down them upon in-
chned planes. In the
VIEW OF THE VOLCANO ORIZABA. evening we saw the use

of them however, for a shower of rain came down which
turned every street into a furious river within five minutes
after the first drop fell. For half an hour the pasadizos
did their duty, letting the water pass through underneath,
while passengers could get across the streets dryshod. At
last, the flood swept clear along, over bridges and all ; but
this only lasted a few minutes, and then the way was
practicaltle again. The moveable iron bridges on wheels,
which are to be seen standinu" in the streets of Sicilian

282 ANAHUAC.

cities, ready to be wheeled across them for the benefit of
foot-passengers whenever the carriage-way is flooded, are
on the whole a better an-angement.

We should never have thought, fi'om looking at Puebla,
that it had just been undergoing a siege ; for, beyond a
few patches of whitewash in the great 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 invalidate our former estimate of twenty-five
killed, — one per cent, of the number stated in the govern-
ment manifestos. Among the casualties we heard of an
Eng'lishman who went out to see the fun, and was wounded
in a particularly ignominious manner as he was going back
to his house.

Revolutions and sieges form curious episodes in the
life of the foreigii merchants in the Republic. Their trade
is flourishing, perhaps, — plenty of buyers and good prices ;
and hundreds of mules are on the road, brmging up their
wares from the coast. All at once there is a pronuncia-
miento. The street-walls are covered with proclamations.
Half the army takes one side, half the other ; and crowds
of volunteers and self-made officers join them, in the hope
of present pillage or future emolument. Barricades appear
in the streets ; and at intervals there is to be heard the
roaring of cannon, and desultory firing of musketry from
the flat roofs, killing a peaceable citizen now and then,
but doing little execution on the enemy.

Trade comes to a dead stop. Our merchant gets his
house well furnished with provisions, shuts the outer
shutters, locks up the great gates, and retires into seclu-
sion for a week or a fortnight, or a month or two, as may
be. At the time we were there he used to run no great
risk, for neither pai'ty was hostile to him ; and if a stray

FOREIGN MERCHANTS AND CIVIL WAR. 283

cannon-ball did hit his house, or the insurgents shot his
cook going out on an expedition in search of fresh beef, it
was only by accident.

Ha\'ino; no business to do, the coimtinjr-house would
probably take stock, and balance the books ; but when
this is finished tliere is little to be done but to practice
pistol-shooting and hold toiu'naments in the court-yard,
and to teach the horses to rayar; while the head of the
house sits moodily smoking in his arm-chair, reckoning up
how many of his debtors would be ruined, and wondering
whether the loaded mules with his goods had got into
shelter, or had been seized by one party or the other.

At last the revolution is over. The new president is
inaugm-ated with pompous speeches. The newspapers
announce that now the glorious reign of justice, order, and
prosperity has begun at last. If the millennium had come,
they could not make much more talk about it. Om* un-
fortunate friend, coming out of his den only to hear dis-
mal news of runaway debtors and confiscated bales, has to
illuminate his house, and set to getting Ms affau's into
somethino- like order ao^ain.

Since we left the country things have got even worse.
Formerly, all that the foreign merchants had to sufier
were the incidental miseries of a state of civil war. Now,
the revolutionary leaders put them in prison ; and, if
threats are not sufficient, they get forced loans out of
them, much as King John did out of his Jews.

Even in times of peace, foreign goods must be dear in
Mexico. In a country where they have to be earned nearly
three hundred miles on mules' backs, and where credit is
so long that the merchant can never hope to see his money
again in less than two years, lie cannot be expected to sell
very cheaply. Bat the continual revolutions and the
insecurity of property make things far worse, and one
almost wonders how foreign trade can go on at all.

284 ANAHUAC,

One of our friends in Mexico liad three or four hun-
dred mules coming up the country laden with American
cotton for his mill, just when Haro's revolution began.
He got off much better than most people, however ; for,
greatly to the disgust of the legitimate authorities, he went
down into the enemy's camp, and gave the revolutionary
chief a dollar a bale to let them go.

As may be supposed, commercial transactions have
often very curious features here. Strange things happen
in the eastern states ; but people there say that they are
nothing to the doings on the Pacific coast, where the mer-
chants get up a revolution when their ships appear in the
offing, and turn out the Custom-house officers, who do not
enter upon then- functions again until the rich cargos have
started for the interior.

One little incident, which happened — I think — at Vera
Cruz, rather amused us. Wlien the Government is hard-
uj), a favourite way of raising ready money is to sell — of
course at a very low price — orders upon the Custom-house,
to pass certain quantities of goods, duty-free. Such a
transaction as this was concluded between the Minister of
Finance and a merchant's house who gave hard dollars in
exchange for an order to pass so many hundred bales of
cotton, free of duty. When the ship arrived at port, how-
ever, the Yankee captain brought in his manifest ^vith a
broad grin upon his face. The inspectors went down to
the ship, and stood aghast. There were the bales of cot-
ton, but such bales ! They had to be shoved and coaxed
to get them up through the hatchways at all. The Custom-
house officials protested in vain. The order was for so
many bales of cotton, and these overgrown monsters were
bales of cotton, and the merchants sent them up to Mexico
in triumph.

To us, Puebla was not an interesting city. It was
built by the Spaniards, and called Puebla de los Angeles,

ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS AT PUEBLA. 285

because angels assisted in building the cathedral, which
does no great credit to then- good taste. Its costly orna-
ments of gold, silver, jewels, and variegated marbles, are
most extraordinary. One does not know which to won-
der at most, the value and beauty of the materials, or the
unmitigated uo-liness of the desifjns.

We saw the festival of Corpus Christi while we were
in Puebla ; but were to a certain extent disappointed in the
display of plate and jewelled vestments for the clergy,
whose attempt to overthrow Comonfort's government had
only resulted in themselves being heavily fined, and who
were in consequence keeping their wealth in the back-
ground, and making as little display as possible. The
most interesting part of the ceremonial to us was to see
the processions of Indians from the surrounding villages,
walking crowned with flowers, and carrying Madonnas
in bowers of green branches and blossoms.

At the head of each procession walked an Indian beat-
ing a drum, tap, tap, tap, without a vestige of time. The
other processions with stoles and canopies, and the officials
of the city in dress-coats and yellow kid gloves, were paltry
affairs enough.

Neither dm-ing this ceremonial, nor at Easter in the
Capital were any miracles exhibited, like the performances
of the Madonna at Palermo, which the coachmen of the
city carry about at Easter, weeping real tears into a cam-
bric pocket-handkerchief; nor is anything done in the
country like the lighting of the Greek fire, or the melting
of the blood of St. Januarius.

Puebla pretty much belongs to the clergy, who are
paramount there. A population of some sixty thousand
has seventy-two churches, some of them very large. It is
the focus of the church-party, whose steady powerful resist-
ance to reform is one of the causes of the unhappy political

286 ANAHUAC.

state of the country. As is usual in cathedi-al-towns, the
morality of the people is rather lower than elsewhere. I
have said already that the revenues of the Mexican Church
are very large. Tejada estimates the income at twenty
millions of dollars yearly, more than the whole revenue of
the State ; but this calculation far exceeds that given by
any other authority. He remarks that the Church has
always tried as much as possible to conceal its riches, and
probably he makes a very large allowance for this. At
any rate, I think we may reasonably estimate the annual
income of the Church at $10,000,000, or de'2,000,000, two-
tliirds of the income of the State.

There is nothing extraordinary in the Church having
become very rich by the accumulations of three centuries
in a Spanish colony, where the manners and customs re-
mained in the 18th century to a gi'eat extent as they were
in the 16th, and the practice of giving and leaving great
properties to the Church was in full vigour — long after it
had declined in Europe. It is considered that half the
city of Mexico belongs to the Chui'ch. This seems an ex-
traordinary statement ; but, if we remember that in Philip
the Second's time half the freehold property of Spain be-
longed to the Chm'ch, we shall cease to wonder at this.
The extraordinary feature of the case is that, counting
both secular and regular clergy, there are only 4600 eccle-
siastics in the country. The number has been steadily
decreasing for years. In 1826 it was 6000 ; in 18-i-i it
had fallen to 5200, in 1856 to 4600, giving, on the
lowest reckoning, an average of over d£^200 a year for each
priest and monk. A great part of this income is probably
left to accumulate ; but, when we remember that the pay
of the country curas is very small, often not more than
0^30 to £50, there must be fine incomes left for the church-
dignitaries and the monks. Now any one would suppose

MEXICAN CLERGY — BAD AND GOOD. 287

that a profession with such prizes to give away would be-
come more and more crowded. Why it is not so I cannot
tell. It is true that the lives of the ecclesiastics are any-
thing but respectable, and that the profession is in such bad
odour that many fathers of famihes, though good Catholics,
will not let a priest enter then- houses ; but we do not
generally find Mexicans deterred by a Httle bad reputation
from occupations where much money and influence are to
be had for very little work.

The ill conduct of the Mexican clergy, especially of the
monks, is matter of common notoriety, and every writer
on Mexico mentions it, fi'om the time of Father Gage — the
English friar — who travelled with a number of Spanish
monks through Mexico in 1625, and described the clergy
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 Enghsh acquaintance of
mine was coming down the Calle San Francisco late one
night, and saw a man who had been stabbed in the street
close to the convent-gate. People sent into the convent
to fetch a confessor for the dying man, but none was to be
had. There was only one monk in the place, and he was
bed-ridden. The rest were enjoying themselves in the
city, or fast asleep at their lodgings in the bosom of their
famihes.

In condemning the Mexican clergy, some exception
must be made. There are many of the country curas who
lead most exemplary lives, and do much good. So do the
priests of the order of St. Vincent de Paule, and the Sis-
ters of Chai-ity with whom they are associated ; but then,
few of these, either priests or sisters, are Mexicans.

N N

288 ANAHUAC.

Among the curious odds and ends which we came upon
in Puebla, in the shop of a dealer in old iron and things in
general, were two or three very curious old scourges, made
of light iron chains with projecting points on the links —
terrific instruments, once in very general use. Up to the
present time, there are certain nights when penitents as-
semble in churches, in total darkness, and kneehng on the
pavement, scourge themselves, while a monk in the pulpit
screams out fierce exhortations to strike harder. The de-
scription carries us back at once to the Egyptian origin of
this strange custom ; and we think of the annual festival
of Isis, where the multitudes scourged themselves in
memory of the sufferings of Osiris. A story is told of a
sceptical individual who got admission to this ceremony
by making great professions of devotion, and did terrific
execution on the backs of his kneeling fellow -penitents.
Before he began, the place was resounding with doleful
cries and groans ; but he noticed that the cry which arose
when he struck was not like these other sounds, but had
quite a different accent. The practice of devotional
scourging is still kept up in Rome, but in a very mild
form, as it appears that the penitents keep their coats on,
and only use a kind of miniature cat-o'-nine-tails of thin
cord, with a morsel of lead at the end of each tail, and
not such bloodthirsty implements as those we found at
Puebla.

It seemed to us tliat the gi'eat influence of the priests
in Mexico was among the women of all classes, the Indians,
and the poorer and less educated half-castes. The men of
the higher classes, especially the younger ones, did not ap-
pear to have much respect for the priests or for religion,
and, indeed, seemed to be sceptical, after the manner of the
French school of freethinking. It was quite curious to
see the young dandies, dressed in their finest clothes, at

THE RELIGION OF THE PEOPLE. 289

the doors of the fashionable chui'ches on Sunday morning.
None of them seemed to go to mass, but they simply went
to stare at the ladies, who, as they came out, had to run
the gaunilet through a double Hue of these critical young
gentlemen. As far as we could see, however, they did not
mind being looked at. Tlie poorer mestizos and Indians,
on the other hand, are still zealous chui"chmen, and spend
theii' time and money on masses and rehgious duties so
perseveringly that one wishes they had a religion which
was of some use to them. As it is, I cannot ascertain that
Christianity has produced any improvement in the Mexi-
can people. They no longer sacrifice and eat theu* enemies,
it is true, but against this we must debit them with a
great increase of dishonesty and general immorality, which
will pretty well square the account.

Practically, there is not' much difference between the
old heathenism and the new Christianity. We may put
the dogmas out of the question. They hear them and
believe in them devoutly, and do not understand them in
the least. They had just received the Immaculate Con-
ception, as they had received many mysteries before it ;
and were not a Httle deUghted to have a new occasion for
decorating themselves and then- churches with flowers,
marching in procession, dancing, beating drums, and let-
tmg off" rockets by daylight, as then' manner is. The real
essence of both rehgions is the same to them. They had
gods, to whom they built temples, and in whose honour
they gave oflerings, maintained })riests, danced and walked
in processions — much as they do now, that theii- divmi-
ties might be favourable to them, and give them good
crops and success in their enterprises. This is pretty
much what then present Christianity consists of As a
moral influence, working upon the character of the i)eople,
it seems scarcely to have had the slightest effect, except,

290 ANAHUAC.

as I said, in causing them to leave off human sacrifices,
which were probably not an original feature of their wor-
ship, but were introduced comparatively at a late time,
and had aheady been almost abolished by one king.

The Indians still show the greatest veneration for a
priest ; and Heller well illustrates this feeling when he
tells us how he happened to ride through the comitry in a
long black cloak, and the Indians he met on the road used
to fall on their knees as he passed, and ask for his blessing,
regardless of the deep mud and their white trousers.
However, this was ten years before we were in the coun-
try, and I doubt whether the cloak would get so much
veneration now. The best measure of the influence of the
Church is the fact that when Mexico adopted a repubhcan
constitution, in imitation of that of the United States, it
was settled that no Church but that of Rome should be
tolerated in the country ; and this law still remains one
of the fundamental principles of the State, in which uni-
versal liberty and equality, fi-eedom of the press, and
absolute religious intolerance form rather a strange jumble.
It is curious to observe that, though the Independence
confirmed the authority of the Roman Cathohc religion, it
considerably reduced the church-revenues, by making the
payment of tithes a matter of mere option. The Church — of
course — diligently preaches the necessity of paying tithes,
putting tlieu- obligation in the catechism, between the ten
commandments and the seven sacraments, and they still
get a good deal in tliis way.

We sent our horses to the bath at Puebla. This is
usually done once a week in the cities of Mexico. We
went once to see the process while we were in the capital,
and were very much amused. The horses had been to the
place before, and turned in of their own accord through a
gateway in a shabby back street ; and when they got into

HORSE-BATH. DEBT-SLAVERY. 291

the courtyard, began to dance about in such a frantic
manner that the mozos could hardly hold them in while
their saddles and bridles were being taken off. Then they
put their heads down, and bolted into a large shed, with
a sort of floor of dust several inches deep, in which six or
eight other horses were rushing about, kicking, prancing,
plunging, and Hterally screaming with delight. I will not
positively assert that I saw an old white horse stand upon
his head in a corner and kick with all his four legs at
once, but he certainly did something very much like it.
Presently the old mozo walked into the shed, with his
lazo over his arm, and carelessly flung the noose across.
Of course it fell over the right horse's neck, when the ani-
mal was quiet in a moment, and walked out after the old
man in quite a subdued fi-ame of mind. One horse came
out after another in the same way, took his swim obedi-
ently across a great tank of water, was rubbed down, and
went off' home in high sphits.

Though slavery has long been abolished in the Repub-
lic, there still exists a curious "domestic institution"
wliich is nearly akin to it. It is not peculiar to the
plains of Puebla, but flourishes there more than elsewhere.
It is called " peonaje," and its operation is in this wise.
If a debtor owes money and cannot pay it, his creditor is
allowed by law to make a slave or peou of him until the
debt is liquidated. Though the name is Spanish, I believe
the ori<:m of the custom is to be found in an Aztec usacje
which prevailed before the Conquest.

A peon means a man on foot, that is, a labourer,
jom-neyman, or foot-soldier. We have the word in Eng-
lish as "pimieer," and as the "iJaimi' among chessmen;
but I think not with any meaning like that it has come
to bear in Mexico.

On the great haciendas in the neighliourhood of Pucbia,
the Indian labourers are very generally in this condition.

292 AN AH U AC.

They owe money to their masters, and are skives ; nomi-
nally till they can work off the sum they owe, but practi-
cally for their whole lives. Even should they earn enough
to be able to pay their debt, the contract cannot be can-
celled so easily. A particular day is fixed for striking a
balance, generally, I believe, Easter Monday, just after a
season when the custom of centmies has made it incum-
bent upon the Indians to spend all that they have and all
that they can borrow upon church-fees, wax-candles, and
rockets, for the religious ceremonies of the season, and the
drunken debauches which form an essential part of the
festival. The masters, or at least the administradors, are
accused of mystifying the annual statement of accounts
between the labourer and the estate, and it is certain that
the Indian's feeble knowledge of arithmetic leaves him
quite helpless in the hands of the bookkeeper; but whether
this is mere slander or not, we never had any means of
ascertaining.

Long servitude has obliterated every feeling of in-
dependence from the minds of these Indians. Their fathers
were slaves, and they are quite content to be so too.
Totally wanting in self-restraint, they cannot resist the
shghtest temptation to run into debt ; and they are not
insensible to the miserable advantage which a slave enjoys
over a free labourer, that his master, having a pecuniary
interest in him, will not let him starve. They have a cat-
like attachment to the places they live in ; and to be ex-
pelled from the estate they were born on, and turned out
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 fi-om oi-dinary free In-
dians ; and om^ having travelled hastily through the dis-

SLAVERY OF PEONS : ITS CAUSE AND EFFECT. 293

trict where the system prevails does not give us a right to
judge of its working. We can but compare the opinions
of "writers who have studied it, and who speak of it in
terms of the strongest reprobation, as deliberately using
the moral weakness of the Indians as a means of reducing
them to slavery. Sartorius, however, takes the other side,
and throws the whole blame upon the careless improvi-
dent character of the brown men, whose masters are
obliged to lend them money to supply their pressing
wants, and must take the only security they can get. He
says, and truly enough, that the system works wi'etchedly
both for masters and labourers. Any one who knows the
working of the common English system of allowing work-
men to nin into debt with the view of retaining them per-
manently in their master's service may form some faint
idea of the way in which this Mexican debt -slavery de-
stroys the energy and self-reliance of the people.

But in one essential particular Sartorius mis-states the
case. It is not the money which the masters lend the peons
to help them in distress and sickness that keeps them in
slavery. It is the money spent in wax-candles and rockets,
and such like fooleries, for Easter and All Saints ; in the
reckless profusion of drmiken feasts on the days of their
patron saints, and on the occasion of births, deaths, and
marriages. These feasts are as utterly disproportioned to
the means of the givers as the Irish wakes which reduce
whole families to beggary. The sums of money spent upon
them are provided by the owners of the estates, who know
exactly how they are to be spent. If they preferred tliat
their labourers should be free fi-om debt, they could with-
hold this money ; and their not doing so proves that it is
their desire to keep the 'peona in a state of slavery, and
throws the whole blame of the system upon them.

I have spoken of the peons as Indians, and so they are
for the most part in the districts we visited ; but travellers

294 ANAHUAC.

who have been in Chihuahua and other northern states
tell stories of creditors travelling through the countiy to
collect their debts, and, where money was not forthcoming,
collecting their debtors instead, — not merely brown In-
dians, but also nearly white mestizos.

Mexico is one of the countries in which the contrast
between great riches and great poverty is most striking.
No traveller ever enters the country without making this
remark. The mass of the people are hardly even with the
world ; and there are some few capitalists whose incomes
can scarcely be matched in England or Russia. Yet this
state of things has not produced a pennanent aristocracy.

The general history of great fortunes repeats itself with
monotonous regularity. Fortunate miners or clever specu-
lators, who have happened to possess the gift of accumu-
lating in addition to that of getting, often make colossal
fortunes. Miners have made the greatest sums, and made
them most rapidly. Fortunes of two or three millions
sterling are not uncommon now, and we often meet with
them in the history of the last century. They never seem
to have lasted many years. Before the Independence, the
capitalist used to buy a patent of nobility, and leave great
sums to his children to maintain the new dignity ; but
they hardly ever seem to have done anything but squander
away their inheritance, and we find the family returning
to its original poverty by the third or fourth generation.

Mexico is an easy place to make money in, in spite of
the continual disorders that prevail. In the mining-dis-
tricts most men make money at some time or other. The
difficulty lies in keeping it. There seems to be no train-
ing better suited for making a capitalist than the life of
the retail shopkeeper, especially in the neighbourhood of a
mine. A good share of all the money that is won and of all
that is lost stops in his till. Whoever makes a lucky hit

CAPITALISTS. SPURS. 295

in a mining-speculation, he has a share of the profits, and
when there is a " good thing " going, he is on the spot to
profit by it.

When once a man becomes a capitalist, there are many-
very profitable ways of employing his money. Mines
and cotton-factories pay well, so do cattle-haciendas in the
north, when honest administradors can be got to manage
them ; and discounting merchants' bills is a lucrative
business. But far better than these ordinary investments
are the monopolies, such as the farming of the tobacco-
duty, the mints, and those mj'^sterious transactions with
the government in which ready cash is exchanged for or-
ders to pass goods at the Custom-house, and the other
financial transactions familiar to those who know the shifts
and mystifications of that astonishing institution, the
Finance-department of Mexico.

We rode from Puebla to Orizaba. Amozoquc, the first
town on the road, is a famous place for spurs, and we bought
some. They are of blue steel inlaid with strips of silver, and
the rowel is a sort of cogged wheel, fi:"om an inch and a half
to three inches in diameter. (See page 220.^ They look terri-
fic instruments, but really the cogs or points of the rowels
are quite blunt, and they keep the horse going less by hurt-
ing him than by their incessant jingling, which is increased
by bits of steel put on for the purpose. Monstrous as the
spurs now used are, they are small in comparison with
those of a centmy or two ago. One reads of spurs, of gold
and silver, with rowels in the shape of five-pointed stars
six inches in diameter. These have quite gone out now,
and seem to have been melted up, for they arc hardly ever
to be seen ; but we bought at the baratillo of Mexico
spurs of steel quite as large as this.

My companion sent to the Art-exhibition at Manches-
ter a couple of pairs of the onlinaiy spurs of the country,

o o

296 ANAHUAC.

such as we ourselves and everybody else wore. They were
put among the medireval armour, and excited great admi-
ration in that capacity!

We slept at Nopalucan that night, and rode on next
day to San Antonio de Abajo, a little out-of-the-way vil-
lage at the foot of the mountain of Orizaba. Our principal
adventure in the day's ride was that, finding that our road
made a detour of a mile or so round a beautiful piece of
green tui-f, we boldly struck across it, and nearly lamed
our horses thereby ; for the ground was completely under-
mined by moles, and at every third step the horses' feet
went into a deep hole. We had to get off and lead them
back to the road.

Orizaba is the great feature in the scenery of this dis-
trict of Mexico. It is one point in the line of volcanos
which stretches across the continent fi'om east to west. It
is a conical mountain, like Popocatepetl, and about the
same height ; measurements vary from twenty feet higher
to sixty feet lower. The crater has fallen in on one side,
leaving a deep notch clearly visible from below. At pre-
sent, as we hear from travellers who have ascended it, the
crater, like that of Popocatepetl, is in the condition of a
aolfatara, sending out jets of steam and sulphurous acid
gas. About three centuries ago its eruptions were fre-
quent ; and its Mexican name, Citlaltepetl, " Mountain of
the Star," canies us back to the time when it showed in
the darkness a star-like light from its crater, like that of
Stromboli at the present time, when one sees it from a
distance.

San Antonio de Abajo is a quaint little village, fre-
quented by muleteers and smugglers. Tobacco, the prin-
cipal contraband article, is grown in the plains just below;
and, once carried up into the paths among the mountains,
it is hard for any custom-house officer to catch sight of it.

SMUGGLING. ROBBERS. 297

When there was a government, there used sometimes to
be fighting between the revenue-officers and the smug-
glers; but now, if there is a meeting, a few dollars will
settle the disputed question to the satisfaction of both
parties, so that the contraband trade, though profitable, is
by no means so exciting as it used to be.

On the road towards San Antonio we saw ancient re-
mains in the banks by the road-side, but had no time for
a regular examination. We slept on damp mattresses in
a room of the inn, where the fowls roosted on the rafters
above our heads, and walked over our faces in the eai-ly
morning in an unpleasant manner. We started before
daybreak, and a descent down a winding road, through a
forest of ])ines and oaks, brought us by seven in the morn-
ing from the region of pines and barley down to the district
where tobacco and the sugar-cane flourish, at the level of
3000 to 4000 feet above the sea.

We met a jaunty-looking party in the valley, two
women and five or six men, all on good horses, and dressed
in the extreme of fashion which the Mexican ranchero
affects — broad-biimmed hats with costly gold and silver
serpents for hat-bands, and clothes and saddles glitteiing
with silver. Martin rode up to us as they passed, and
said he knew them well for the boldest highwaymen in
Mexico. Had we started an hour or two latc^^ we should
have met them in the forest, and have had an adventure to
tell of As it was, the descent of three thousand feet had
brought us from a land of thieves to a region where high-
way robbeiy is never known, unless when a party from the
liigh lands come down on a marauding expedition. It is
an unquestionable fact that the Mexican robbers, whose
exploits have become a matter of world-wide notoriety, all
belong to the cold region of the plateaus, the tierra frla.
Once down in the tierra templada, or the tierra caliente.

208 ANAHUAC.

the temperate or the hot regions, you hear no more of
them ; or at least this is the case in the parts of Mexico we
visited. The reason is clear ; it is only on the plateaus
that the whites, preferring a region where the climate was
not unlike that of Castile, settled in large numbers ; so
that it is there that Creoles and mestizos predominate, and
they are the robbers.

We rode over great beds of gravel, cut up in deep
trenches by the mountain - streams ; then along the banks
of the river, among plantations of tobacco, looking like
beds of lettuces. As we were riding along tlie valley, we
saw before us a curious dark cloud, hanging over some
fields near the river. Our men, who had seen the appear-
ance before, recognized it 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 a meadow. They
covered the branches and foliage until only the outline of
the trees was visible, while the rest of tlie swarm des-
cended on a green hedge, and on the grass. As for us, we
went and knocked them down with our riding- whips, and
carried away specimens in our hats ; but the survivors
took no manner of notice of us, and in about ten minutes
they left the trees mere skeletons, leafless and stripped of
their bark, and moved across the field in a dense mass to-
wards some fi'uit-trees a little way off. For days after
this, when we met with travellers on the road, or stop})ed
at the door of a cottage to get a light or sometliing to
drink, and chatted a few minutes with the inhabitants, we
found that our descent of the mountain-pass had brought
us into a new set of intei^ests. News of the government
and of the revolutionary party excited no curiosity, — talk
of robbers still less. At every house the question was,
** iDe donde vienen, Senores ?" "Where are you fi-om, gen-
" tlemcn ?" — and when we told them, " <i Y estahaii alii las

LOCUSTS. INDIAN VILLAGE. 299

" IcDigostas f "And were the locusts there?" The whole
country was being devastated by them ; and the large re-
wards offered for them to the peasants, though they caused
dead locusts to be brought by tons, seemed hardly to
diminish their numbers. Firing guns had some slight
effect in driving oti' the swarms of locusts ; and in some
places the reports of muskets were to be heard, at short
intervals, all day long. Some idea of the destruction
caused by the locusts may be formed from the fact that in
six 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 last forty-eight hours, and were glad to get a rest
at Orizaba ; but on the morning of the third day we were
in the saddle again, accompanied by a new friend, the
Eno-lish administrador of the cotton-mill at Orizaba. Until
we left the high-road, the country seemed well cultivated,
with jjlautations of tobacco, coffee, and sugar-cane ; but as
soon as we turned into by-paths and struck across coun-
try, we found woods and grassy patches, but little tilled
gi'oimd, until we amved at the Indian village which we
had gone out of oui* way to visit, Amatlan, that is to say,
" The plctce of paper."

In its aiTangement this village was like the one that I
have already described, with its scattered huts of canes
and palm-leaf thatch ; but the vegetation indicated a more
tropical climate. Large fields, the joint proi)erty of the
community, were cultivated with pine -apples in close
rows, now just rijoening ; and l)ananas, with broad leaves
and heavy clusters of fruit, were growing in the little gar-
den behmirinir to each hut. The inhabitants stared at us
sulkily, and gave short answers to <iur cpiestions. We
went to the cottajic of the Indian alcalde, who declared

300 ANAHUAC.

that there was nothing to eat or drink in the village,
though we were standing in his doorway and could see
the strings of plantains hanging to the roof, and the old
women were hard at work cooking. However, when Mr.
G. explained who he was, the old man became more plac-
able ; and we were soon sitting on mats and benches in-
side the hut, on the best of terms with the whole village.
The hfe of these people is simple enough, and not un-
suited to their beautiful climate. The white men have
never interfered much with them ; and it has been then-
pride for centuries to keep as much as possible from asso-
ciating with Europeans, whom they poUtely speak of as
coyotes, jackals. The priest was a mestizo, and, as the
Alcalde said, he was the only coyote in the settlement ; but
his sacred office neutralized the dislike that his parishion-
ers felt for his race.

These Indian communities always rejoiced in being
able to produce for themselves almost everythmg neces-
sary for their simple wants ; but of late years the law of
supply and demand has begun to undermine tliis principle,
and the cotton-cloth, spun and woven at home, is yielding
to the cheaper material supplied by the factories. Though
so averse to receiving Europeans among them, they do not
object to go themselves to work for good wages on the
plantations. Those who leave then- native place, however,
brinef back witli them tastes and wants hitherto unknown,
and inconsistent with their primitive way of life.

Another habit of theirs brings them into contact with
the " reasonable people," not to their advantage. They
are excessively litigious, and their continual law-suits take
them to the large towns where the courts of justice are
held, and where lawyers' fees swallow up a large propor-
tion of their savings. There is a natural connexion be-
tween farming and law-suits ; and the taste for writs and

NOBLE AND PLEBEIAN INDIANS. HOT-BATH. 301

hard swearing is as remarkable amono; this asn-icultural
people as it is among our own small farmers in England.

Theoretically, the Indians in their villages live under
the general government, like any other citizens ; for, since
the establisliment of the republic, the civil disabilities
which had kept them down for three centuries were all
abolished at a sweep, and the brown people have their
votes, and are eligible for any oifice. Practically, these
advantages do not come to much at present, for custom,
which is stronger than law, keeps them under the govern-
ment of their own aristocracy, composed of certain families
whose nobility dates beyond the Conquest, and was always
recognized by the Spaniards. These noble Indians seem
to be pretty much as dirty, as ignorant, and as idle as the
plebeians — the ordinary field-labourers or "earth-hands''
{tlalmaitl), as they were called in ancient times, — and a
stranger cannot recognize their claims to superiorit}'' by
anything in theii' houses, dress, language, or bearing ;
nevertheless, they are the patrician families, and repub-
licanism has not yet deprived them of their power over
the other Indians. In early times, when men of white or
mixed blood were few in the country, it suited the Spanish
government to maintain the authority of these families, who
collected the taxes and managed the estates of the little
communities. The common people were the sufferers by
this arrangement, for the Alcaldes of their own race cheat-
ed them without mercy, and were harder upon them than
even their white rulers, just as on slave-estates a black
driver is much severer than a white one.

Near some of the houses we noticed that carious insti-
tution— the teTnazcalli, which corresponds exactly to the
Russian vapour-bath. It is a sort of oven, into which the
bather creeps on all fours, and lies down, and the stones
at one end are heated by a fire outside. Upon these stones

302 ANAHUAC.

tlie bather sprinkles cold water, which fills the place with
suffocating steam. When he feels himself to have been
sufficiently sweated, he crawls out again, and has jars of
cold water poured over him ; whereupon he dresses him-
self (which is not a long process, as he only 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
keep the hot one for his clothes, which want it sadly, it
would be all the better for him, for the constant indul-
gence in this enervating luxury weakens him very much.
One would think the bath wonld make the Indians cleanly
in their persons, but it hardly seems so, for they look
rather dirtier after they have been in the temazcalli than
before, just as the author of A Journey due North says of
the Russian peasants.

To us the most interesting question about the Mexican
Indians of this district was this, WJiy are there so feiv of
them ? There are five thousand square leagues in the State
of Vera Cruz, and about fifty inhabitants 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 men
to flourish in, and suppose the whole population concen-
trated on the other half, which lies upon the rising gi'ound
from three thousand to six thousand feet above the sea.
This is not very far from the truth, and gives us one hundred
inhabitants to the square league — about one-sixth of the
population of the plains of Puebla, in a climate which may
be compared to that of North Italy, and where the chief
products are maize and European grain.

In the district of the lower temperate region, which we
are now speaking of, nature would seem to have done
everything to encourage the formation of a dense popula-
tion. In the lower part of this favoured region the banana
grows. This plant requires scarcely any labour in its cul-

FOOD AND POPULATION. 303

tivation ; and, according to the most moderate estimate,
taking an acre of wheat against an acre of bananas, the
bananas will support twenty times as many people as the
wheat. Though it is a fruit of sweet, rather luscious taste,
and only acceptable to us Europeans as one small item of
our complicated diet, the Indians who have been brought
up in the districts where it flourishes can live almost en-
tirely upon it, just as the inhabitants of North Africa live
upon dates.

In the upper portion of this district, where the banana
no longer flourishes, nutiitious plants produce an immense
yield with easy cultivation. The yucca which produces
cassava, rice, the sweet potato, yams, all flourish here, and
maize produces 200 to 300 fold. According to the accepted
theory among political economists, where the soil produces
with slight labour an abundant nutriment for man, there
we ought to find a teeming population, unless other coun-
teracting causes are to be found.

The history of the country, as far as we can get at it,
indicates a movement in the opposite direction. Judging
from the numerous towns the Spanish invaders found in
the district, the numbers of armed men they could raise,
and the abundance of provisions, we must reckon the
population at that time to have been more dense than at
present ; and the numerous ruins of Indian settlements
that exist in the upper temperate region are unquestion-
able evidence of the former existence of an aijricultural
people, perhaps ten times as numerous as at present. The
ruins of their fortifications and temples are still to be seen
in great numbers, and the soil all over large districts is full
of the remains of their pottery and weapons.

How far these settlements were depopulated by wars
before the Spanish Conquest, it is not easy to say. During
the Conquest itself they did not offer much resistance to

p P

30^5 ANAHUAC.

the European invaders, and consequently they escaped the
wholesale destruction which fell upon the more patriotic
inhabitants of the higher regions. Since that time the
country has been peaceable enough ; and even since the
Mexican Independence, the wars and revolutions which
have done so much injury to the inhabitants of the
plateaus have not been much felt here.

In reasoning upon Mexican statistics we have to go to
a great extent upon guess-work. A very slight investiga-
tion, however, shows that the calculation made in Mexico,
that the population increases between one and two per
cent, annually, is incorrect. The present population of the
country is reckoned at a little under eight millions ; and
in 1806, it seems, from the best authorities we can get, to
have been a little under six millions. Even this rate of
increase, one-third every half-century, is far above the rate
of increase since the Conquest ; for, at that rate, a popula-
tion a little over a million and a quarter would have
brought up the number to what it is at present, and we
cannot at the lowest estimation suppose the inhabitants
after the siege of Mexico to have been less than three or
four milHons. So that, badly as Mexico is now going on
with regard to the increase of its popidation, about | per
cent, per annum, while England increases over 1-^ per
cent., and the United States twice as much, we may still
discern an improvement upon the times of the Spanish
dominion, when it was almost stationary.

Why then has this fertile and beautifid country only a
small fraction of the number of inhabitants that formerly
lived in it ? That it is not caused by the climate being
imfavourable to man is clear, for this district is free from
the intense heat and the pestilential fevers of the low lands
which lie nearer the sea.

It is a noticeable fact that the remains of the old settle-
ments generally lie above the district where the banana

PRESENT PAUCITY OF POPULATION. 305

gi-ows ; and the higher we rise above the sea, the more
abundant do we &id the signs of ancient population, until
we reach the level of 8000 feet or a little higher. The
actual inhabitants at the present day are distributed ac-
cording to the same rule, increasing in numbers, according
to the elevation, from 3000 to 8000 feet, after which the
severity of the climate causes a rapid decrease.

In making these observations, I leave out of the ques-
tion the hot unhealthy coast-lands of the tierra caliente,
and the cold and comparatively sterile plains of the tierra
fria, and confine myself to that part of the country which
lies between the altitudes of 3000 and 8000 feet, between
which limits the European races flourish under circum-
stances of climate which also suited the various Mexican
races, who probably came from a colder northern country.
Now, if we begin to descend from the level of the Mexican
plateau— *-say 8000 feet above the sea — we find that less
and less labour will provide nourishment for the cultivator
of the soil, until we reach the limit of the banana, where
the inhabitants ought to be crowded together like Chi-
nese on their rice-grounds, or the inhabitants of Egypt in
the time of Herodotus. Exactly the opposite rule takes
effect ; the banana- country is a mere wilderness, and the
higher the traveller rises the more abundant become both
present population and the remains of ancient settlements.

I suppose the reason of this is to be found in the
habits and constitution of the tribes who colonized the
country, and preferred to settle in a climate resembling
that of their native land, without troubling themselves
about the extra labour it would cost them to obtain their
food. The European invaders have acted precisely in the
.same way ; and the distribution of the white and partly
white inhabitants of the country follows the same rule as
tliat of the Indians.

300 ANAHUAC.

So far the matter is intelligible, on the principle that
the constitution and habits of the races which have suc-
cessively taken up their residence in the country have
been strong enough to prevail over the rule which regu-
lates the supply of men by the abundance of food ; but
this does not explain the fact of an actual diminution of
the inhabitants of the lower temperate districts. They
were not mere migratory tribes, staying for a few years
before moving forward. They had been settled in the
country long enough to be perfectly acclimatized ; and yet,
under circumstances apparently so favourable to their in-
crease, they have been diminishing for centuries, and are
perhaps even doing so now.

The only intelligible solution I can find for this pro-
blem is that given by Sartorius, whose work on Mexico
is well known in Germany, and has been translated and
published in England. This author's remarks on the con-
dition of the Indians are very valuable ; and, as he was for
years a planter in this very district, he may be taken as
an excellent authority on the subject. He considers the
evil to lie principally in the diet and habits of the people.
The children are not weaned till very late, and then are
allowed to feed all day without restriction on boiled maize,
or beans, or whatever other vegetable diet may be eaten
by the family. The climate does not dispose them to take
much exercise ; so that this unwholesome cramming with
vegetable food has nothing to counteract its evil effects,
and the poor little children get miserably pot-bellied and
scrofulous, — an observation of which we can confu-m the
truth. A great proportion of the children die young, and
those that grow up have their constitutions impaired.
Then they live in close communities, and many " in-and-
in," so that the effect of unhealthy living becomes strength-
ened into hereditary disease ; and habitual intemperance

GREAT MORTALITY OF THE INDIANS. NEGROS. 307

does its work upon their constitutions, though the quanti-
ties of raw spirits they consume appear to produce scarcely
any immediate effect. Among a race in this bodily con-
dition, the ordinary epidemics of the country — cholera,
small-pox, and dysentery — make fearful havoc. Whole
villages have often been depopulated in a few days by
these diseases ; and a deadly fever which used to appear
from time to time among the Indians, until the last
century, sometimes carried off ten thousand and twen-
ty thousand at once. It seemed to me worth while to
make some remarks about this question, with a view of
showing that the theory as to the relation between food
and population, though partly true, is not wholly so ; and
that in the region of which we have been speaking it can
be clearly shown to fail.

After spending a long morning with the Indians and
their cura, we took quite an affectionate leave of them.
Theii' last words were an apology for making us pay
threepence apiece for the pineapples which we loaded our
horses with. In the season, they said, twelve for sixpence
is the price, but the fruit was scarce and dear as yet.

Our companion, besides being engaged in the Orizaba
cotton-mill, was one of the owners of the sugar-hacienda
of the Potrero, below Cordova, and we all rode down there
together from the Indian village, and spent the evening
in walking about the plantation, and inspecting the new
machinery and mills. It was a pleasant sight to see the
people coming to the well with thek earthen jars, after
their work was done, in an unceasing procession, laugliing
and chattering. They were partly Indian, but with a
considerable admixture of negi'o blood, for many black
slaves were brought into the country in old times by the
Spanish planters. Now, of course, they and their descend-
ants are free, and the hotter parts of Mexico are the para-

308 ANAHUAC.

dise of runaway slaves from Louisiana and Texas ; for, so
far from their race being despised, the Indian women
seek them as husbands, Hking their liveliness and good-
humour better than the quieter ways of their own coun-
trymen. Even Eiu-opeans settled in 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. In Europe, the parent races are
too nearly ahke for the children of such mixed marriages
to be strikingly different from either parent. In America
and the West Indies we are famihar with the various
mixtures of white and negro, mulatto, quadroon, &c. ; but
in Mexico we have three races, Spanish, pure Mexican,
and Negro, which, with their combinations, make a list of
twenty -five varieties of the human race, distinguishable
fi'om one another, and with regular names, which Mayer
gives in his work on Mexico, such as mulatto, mestizo,
zamho, 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. If we come to
dividing out the various tribes which have been or still
are existing in the country, we can count over a hundred
and fifty, with fi-om fifty to a hundred distinct languages
among them.

Out of this immense variety of tribes, we can make
one great classification. The men of one race are brown
in complexion, and have been for ages cultivators of the
land. It is among them only that the Mexican civiliza-
tion sprang up, and they still remain in the country, hav-
ing acquiesced in the authority of the Europeans, and to a
great extent mingled with them by marriage. This class
includes the Aztecs, Acolhuans, Chichemecs, Zapotecs, &c.,
the old Toltecs, the present Indians of Central America,

RED INDIANS. PINTOS. 309

and, it' we may consider them to be the same race, the
nations who built the now ruined cities of Palenque,
Copan, Uxmal, and so forth. The other race is that of
the Red Indians who inhabit the prairie-states of North
Mexico, such as the Apaches, Comanches, and Navajos.
They are hunters, as they always were, and they will never
preserve their existence by adopting agriculture as their
regular means of subsistence, and settling in peace among
the white men. As it has been with their countrymen
further north, so it will be with them ; a few years more,
and the Americans will settle Chihuahua and Sonora, and
we shall only know these tribes by specimens of their flmt
arrow-heads and theii' pipes in collections of curiosities, and
their 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 time before we were in the country General
Alvarez had quartered a whole regiment of them in the
capital ; but when we were there they had retui'ned with
their commander into the tierra caliente towards Aca-
pulco. They are called "Pintos" or painted men, from
their faces and bodies being marked with great daubs of
deep blue, like our British ancestors ; but here the deco-
ration is natural and cannot be effaced.

They have the reputation of being a set of most fero-
cious savages; and, badly armed as they are with ricketty
flint- or match-locks, and sabres of hoop-iron, they are the
terror of the other Mexican soldiery, especially when the
war has to be carried on in the hot pestilential coast-re-
gion, their native country.

CHAP. XII.

CHALCHICOMULA. JALAPA. VERA CRUZ. CONCLUSION.

The mountain -
slopes which descend
from the Sierra Madre
eastward toward the
sea are frirrowed by
barrancas — deep ra-
vines with perpendi-
cular sides, and with
streams flowing at
the bottom. But here
all these barrancas
run almost due east
and west, so that our
journey from Vera
Cruz to Mexico was
made, as far as I
can recollect, without
crossing one. Now,
the case was quite different. We had to go from the
Potrero to 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 hard riding.

By the road it cannot be much less than eighty miles ;
but people used to tell us that, during the American war,
an Indian went from Orizaba to Jalapa with despatches
within tlic twenty -four hours, probably by mountain-
paths which made it a little shorter. He came quite

INDIANS OF THE PLATEAU.

(After Nebel.J

CROSSING THE BARRANCAS. 311

easily into Jalapa at the same shuffling trot which he had
kept up almost without intermission for the whole dis-
tance. This is the Indian's regular pace when he is on a
journey, and I beheve that the Red Indians 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 on there would be a barranca, in-
visible tiU we came close to it, perhaps not more than a
few hundred feet wide, so that it was easy to talk to
people on the other bank. But the bottom of the chasm
might be five hundred or a thousand feet below us ; and
the only way to cross was to ride along the bank, often
for miles, until we reached a place where it had been pos-
sible to make a steep bridle-path zigzagging down to the
stream below, and up again on the other side. It is only
here and there that even such paths can be made, for the
walls of rock are generally too steep even for any vegeta-
tion, except grass and climbing plants in the crevices. Our
half-hour's ride, as we supposed it would be, would often
extend to two or three hours, for on these slopes two or
three baiTancas — large and small — have sometimes to be
crossed within as many miles.

If our journey had been even slower and more difficult,
we should not have regretted it ; the countiy through
which we were riding was so beautiful. There were but
few inhabitants, and the landscape was much as nature
had left it. The great volcano of Orizaba came into view
now and then with its snowy cone,* mountain -streams
came rushing along the ravines, and the forests of oaks were
covered with innumerable species of orchids and creepers,
breaking down the branches with their weight. Many

• See the illustration at page 281. ^

Q Q

312 ANAHUAC,

kinds were already in flower, and their great blossoms of
white, purple, blue, and yellow, stood out against the dark
green of the oak -leaves. Wherever a mountain -stream
ran down some shady little valley, there were tree-ferns
thirty feet high, with the new fronds forming a tuft at the
top of the old scarred trunk. Round the Indian cottages
were cactuses with splendid crimson flowers, daturas with
brilliant white blossoms, palm- and fruit-trees of fifty
kinds. We stopped at one of the cottages, and bought an
armadillo that had just been caught in the woods close by,
while routine^ amono; his favourite ants' nests. He was
put into a palm-leaf basket, which held him all but the
tip of his long taper tail, which, like the rest of his body,
was covered with rings of armour fitting beautifully into
one another. One of 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 who knows the appearance of the little animal.

The villages and towns we passed were dismal places
enough, and the population scanty ; but that this had not
always been the case was evident from the numerous re-
mains of ancient Indian mound-forts or temples which we
passed on our road, indicating the existence of large towns
at some former period. There is a drawing in Lord Kings-
borough's work of a teocalli or pyramid at San Andres Chal-
chicomula, which we seem to have missed on account of the
darkness having come on before we reached the town. We
were several times deceived that evening by the fireflies,
which we took for lio-hts movino^ about in some village
just ahead of us j and we became so incredulous at last
that we would not believe we had reached our journey's end
until we could made out the dim outlines of the houses.
At the inn at San Andres we found that we could have

COUNTRY-INN. BARRANCA. ORCHIDS. 31

o

no rooms, as all the little windowless dens were occupied
by people from the country who had come in for a
fiesta. There were indeed a good many men loafing about
the courtyard, but scarcely any women, and we could
hardly understand a fandango happening without them.
They thought otherwise, however; and presently, hearing
the tinkling of a guitar, we went out and saw two great
fellows in broad hats, jackets, and serapes, solemnly dan-
cing opposite to one another ; while more men looked on,
smoking cigarettes, and an old fellow with a face like a
baboon was squatting in one corner and producing the
music we had heard. To do them justice, I must say that
we found, on further enquiry, they had not come from
then- respective ranchos merely to make fools of them-
selves in this way, but that there was to be some horse -
feiir in the neighbourhood next day, and they were going
there.

Our not being able to get any supper but eggs and
bread, and having to sleep on the supper - table after-
wards, confirmed us in the theory we were beginning
to adopt, that nature and mankind vary in an inverse
ratio ; and we were off" at daybreak, delighted to get into
the forest again. We rode over hill and dale for fom- or
five hours, and then along the edge of a banunca for the
rest of the day. This was one of the grandest chasms we
had ever seen, even in Mexico. It was four or five miles
wide, and two or three thousand feet deep, and its floor
was a mass of tropical verdure, with here and tlieio an
Indian rancho and a patch of cultivated ground on the
bank of the rapid river, whose sound we heard when we
approached the edge of the barranca. There were more
orchids and epidendrites than ever in the forest. In some
places they had killed every third tree, by forming so
and close a covering over its branches as to destroy its life ;

314 ANAHUAC.

they were flourishing unimpaired on the rotting branches
of trees which tliey liad brought down to the gi-ouud
years before. The rainy season liad not yet set-in in this
part of the country ; and, though we could hear the rush-
ing of the torrent below, we looked in vain for water in
the forest, until our man Martin showed us the bromelias
in the forks of the branches, in the inside of whose hollow
leaves nature has laid up a supply of water for the thirsty
traveller.

We loaded our horses with the bulbs of such orchids
as were still in the dry state, and would travel safely to
Europe. Sometimes we climbed into the trees for pro-
mising specimens, but oftener contented ourselves with
tearing them fi-om the branches as we rode below. When
saddle-bags and pockets were full, we were for a time at
fault, for there seemed no place for new treasures, when
suddenly I remembered a pair of old trousers. We tied
up the ends of the legs, which we filled with orchids ; and
the garment travelled to Jalapa sitting in its natural posi-
tion across my saddle, to the amazement of such Mexican
society as we met. The contents of the two pendant legs
are now producing splendid flowers in several English
hothouses.

By evening we reached the Junta, a place where the
gi-eat ravine was joined by a smaller one, and a long slant-
ing descent brought us to the edge of the river. There
was a ferry here, consisting of a raft of logs which the In-
dian ferryman hauled across along a stout rope. The
horses were attached to the raft by their halters, and so
swam across. On the point of land between the two
rivers the Indians had their huts, and there we spent the
night. We chose the fattest gaajalote of the turkey-pen,
and in ten minutes he was simmering in the great earthen
pot over the fire, having been cut into many pieces for

LIFE AT THE FERRY. 315

convenience of cooking, and the women were busy gi'ind-
ing Indian corn to be patted out into tortillas. While
supper was getting ready, and Mr. Christy's day's collec-
tion of plants was being pressed (the country we had been
passing through is so rich that the new specimens gathered
that day filled several quires of paper), we had a good
deal of talk with the brown people, who could all speak
a little Spanish. Some years before, the two old people
liad settled there, and set up the ferry. Besides this, they
made nets and caught much fish in the river, and culti-
vated the Httle piece of ground which formed the point of
the promontory. While their descendants went no fur-
ther than grandchildren the colony had done very well ;
but now great-grandchildren had begun to arrive, and
they would soon have to divide, and form a settlement up
in the woods across the river, or upon some patch of
ground at the bottom of one of the barrancas.

We were interested in studying the home-hfe of these
people, so difierent from what we are accustomed to among
our peasants of Northern Europe, whose hard continuous
labour is quite unknown here. For the men, an occasional
pull at the balsas (the rafts of the ferry), a Httle fisliing,
and now and then — when they are in the humour for it —
a little digging in the garden-ground with a wooden spade,
or dibbling with a pointed stick. The women have a
harder life of it, with the eternal grinding and cooking,
cotton-spinning, mat-weaving, and tending of the crowds
of babies. Still it is an easy lazy life, without mucli trou-
ble for to-day or care for to-morrow. When the simi)lc
occupations of the day are finished, the time does not
seem to hang heavy upon tlieir hands. The men lie about,
" thinking of nothing at all ;" and the women — old and
young — gossip by the hour, in obedience to that beneficent
law of nature which provides that their talk shall increase

316 ANAHUAC.

inversely in proportion to what they have to talk about.
We find this law attaining to its most complete fulfilment
when they shut themselves up in nunneries, to escape as
much as possible from all sources of worldly interest, and
gossip there more industriously than anywhere else, as we
are informed on very good authority.

Like all the other Mexican Indians whose houses we
visited, the people here showed but little taste in adorn-
ing their dwellings, theii' dresses and their household im-
plements. Beyond a few calabashes scraped smooth and
ornamented with colom-ed devices, and the blue patterns
on the women's cotton skirts, there was scarcely anything
to be seen in the way of ornament. How great was the
skill of the Mexicans in ornamental work at the time of
the Conquest, we can tell from the carved work in wood
and stone preserved in museums, the graceful designs on
the pottery, the tapestry, and the beautiful feather- work ;
but this taste has almost disappeared in the country. Just
in the same way, contact with Europeans has almost de-
stroyed the little decorative arts among most barbarous
people, as, for example, the Red Indians and the natives
of the Pacific Islands ; and what little skill in these things
is left among them is employed less for themselves than
in making curious trifles for the white people, and even in
these we find that European patterns have mixed with
the old designs, or totally superseded them.

The Indians lodged us in an empty cane-hut, where
they spread mats upon the ground, and we made pillows
of our saddles. We were soon tired of looking uj) at the
stars through the chinks in the roof, and slept till long
after sunrise. Then the Indians rafted us across the
second river ; and we rode on to Jalapa, having accom-
]>lislied our horseback journey of nearly three hundred
miles with hut one accident, the death of a horse, the four-

JALAPA. 317

pound one. He had been rather overworked, but would
most likely have got through, had we not stopped the last
night at the Indian ranchos, where there was no forage
but gi'een maize leaves, a food our beasts were not accus-
tomed to. It seems our men gave him too much of this,
and then allowed him to ckink excessively ; and next
morning he grew weaker and weaker, and died not long
after we reached Jalapa. Our other two horses were
rather thin, but otherwise in good condition ; and the
horse-dealers, after no end of diplomacy on both sides,
knocked under to our threat of sendino- them back to
Mexico in charge of Antonio, and gave us within a pound
or two of what they had cost us. There is a good deal of
trading in horses done at Jalapa, where travellers coming
down from Mexico seU theii" beasts, which are disposed of
at great prices to other travellers coming up from the coast.
Between here and Vera Cruz, people prefer travelling in
the Diligence, or in some covered carriage, to exposing
themselves to the sun in the hot and pestilential region of
the coast.

Jalapa is a pleasant city among the hills, in a country
of forests, green tm-f, and running sti-eams. It is the very
paradise of botanists ; and its products include a wonder-
ful variety of trees and flowers, from the apple- and pear-
trees of England to the mameis and zapotes of tropical
America, and the brilliant orchids which are the ornament
of our hot-houses. The name of the town itself has a
botanical celebrity, for in the neighbouring forests gi-ows
the Purga de Jalapa, which we have shoi-tencd into
jalap.

A day's journey above it, lies the limit of eternal snow,
\ipon the peak of Orizaba ; a day's joui-ney below it is
Vera Cruz, the city of the yellow fever, surroinidcd by
burning sands and poisonous exhalations, in a district

318 ANAHUAC.

where, during the hot months now commencing, the ther-
mometer scarcely ever descends below 80° day or night.
Jalapa hardly knows summer or winter, heat or cold. The
upper cm'rent of hot air from the Gulf of Mexico, highly
charged with aqueous vapour, strikes the mountains about
this level, and forms the belt of clouds that we have already
crossed more than once during our journey. Jalapa is in
this cloudy zone, and the sky is seldom clear there. It is
hardly hotter in summer 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 lasts through the year.

We walked out on the first afternoon of our anival ;
and sat on stone seats on a piece of green turf surrounded
by trees, that reminded us pleasantly of the village-greens
of England. There we talked with the children of an
EngUsh acquaintance who had been settled for many years
in 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 language of the country. Nothing
can show more clearly how thoroughly a foreigner yields
to the influences around him, when he settles in a country
and marries among its people. An Englishman's own
character, for instance, may remain to some extent ; but
his children are scarcely English in language or in feeling,
and in the next generation there is nothing foreign about
his descendants but the name.

When we reached our hotel it was about sunset, and
the heavy dew had wetted us through, as though we had
been walking in the rain. This was no exceptional occur-
rence. All the year round such dews fall morning and
evening, as well as almost daily showers of rain. The

ARMADILLO. INSECTS. SCORPIONS. 319

climate is too warm for this dampness to injure health,
as it would in our colder regions. To us, who had just
left the bracing air of the high plateaus, it seemed close
and relaxing ; but the inhabitants are certainly strong and
healthy, and one can imagine the enjoyment which the
white inliabitants of Vera Cruz must feel, when they can
get away from that city of pestilence into the pm-e air of
the mountains.

Our quarters were at the Veracruzana, where we occu-
pied a great whitewashed room. A large grated window
opened into the garden, where the armadillo was fastened
to a tree by a long string, and had soon dug a deep hole
with his powerfid fore-claws, as the manner of the creature
is. The necessity of supplying the " little man in armour"
with insects for his daily food gave us some idea of the
amazing abundance and variety of the insects of the dis-
trict. We caught creeping things iiuiumerable in the gar-
den, but narrowly escaped being stung by a small scorpion ;
and therefore delegated the task to an old Indian, who
walked out into the fields with an earthen pot, and re-
turned with it full of insects in about half an hour. We
reckoned that there were over fifty species in the pot.

Many of the houses and Indian huts were adorned with
collections of insects pinned on the walls in patterns, among
which figured scorpions some three inches long ; and the
centre-ornament was usually a tarantula, said to be one of
the most poisonous creatures of the tropics, a monstrous
spider, whose dark grey body and legs are covered Avith
hairs. A fine specimen will have a body about as large as
a small hen's egg, and, with his legs in their natural posi-
tion, will just stand in a cheese-plate. The Boots of the
hotel went out and caught a fine scorpion for our amuse-
ment ; he brought it into our room wi'appcd in a piece of
brown paper, and was on the })oint of letting it out on our

R R

320 ANAHUAC.

table for us to see it run. We protested against tliis, and
had it put into 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 a green cloth, where the
Jalapenians were constantly playing ononte, from nine in
the morning till late at night. All classes were repre-
sented there, from the muleteer who came to lose his
hard-earned dollars, to the rich shopkeepers and planters
of the town and neighbourhood.

I went early one afternoon to the house of the princi-
pal agent for the Vera Cruz can-iers, to arrange for send-
ing down our heavy packages to the coast. There was no
one at the office but a girl. I enquired for the master —
" Fsta jugando," — "He is playing," she said. I need not
have gone so far to look for him, for he was sitting just
outside our bedroom door, and indeed had been there all
day. Before he condescended to arrange our business, he
waited to see the fate of the dollar he had just put down,
and which I was glad to see he lost.

Jalapa was not always the stagnant place it is now.
Its pleasant houses and 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 passed this
way ; and Jalapa was the entrepot where the merchants
had their warehouses, and from whence the trains of
mules distributed the European merchandise from the
coast to the different markets of the country. By this
an-angement, the carrying from the coast was done by a
small number of muleteers, who were seasoned to the cli-
mate, while the great mass of traders and carriers were
not obliged to descend from the healthy region. This was
of the more importance, because, though the pm-e Indians
are not liable to the attacks of yellow fever, the disease is

MARTIN AND ANTONIO. 321

as deadly to the other inhabitants of the high hinds as to
Europeans ; and even those of the 7)iestizos who have the
least admixture of white blood are subject to it. Of late
years, this system has been given up, and the carriers from
the high lands go down to the coast to fetch theii* loads,
and every year they leave some of then" number in the
church-yards of the City of the Dead ; while many others,
though they recover from the fever, never regain then-
former health and strength. The high-road to Mexico
now goes by Orizaba, so that the importance of Jalapa as
a trading-place has almost ceased.

Om* Mexican journey was now all but finished, and I
left my companion here, and took the Diligence to Vera
Cruz, to meet the West India Mail-packet. Mr. Christy
followed a day or two later, and went to the United
States. We dismissed our two servants, Martin and An-
tonio. Martin invested his wages in a package of to-
bacco, which he proposed to cany home on his horse,
travelling by night along unfrequented mountain-paths,
where custom-house officers seldom penetrate. We never
heard any more of him ; but no doubt he got safe home,
for he was perfectly competent to take care of himself, and
he probably made a very good thing of his journey. It was
quite with regret that we parted from him, for he was a
most sensible, useful fellow, with a continual flow of high
spirits, and no end of stories of his experiences in smug-
gling, and hunting wild cattle in the tierra caliente, in
which two adventurous occupations most of his life had
been passed. In his dealings with us, he was honesty it-
self, notwithstanding his equivocal profession.

We offered Antonio a cheque on Mexif;o for his wages,
as he was going back there, but he said he would rather
have hard dollars. We paid his fare to Mexico by the
Diligence, and gave him his money, telling him at the

322 ANAHUAC.

same time, that he was a fool for his pains. He started
next morning ; and we heard, a month or two later, that
the coach was stopped the same afternoon in the plains of
Perote, and Antonio was robbed not only of his money
but even of his jacket and serape, and reached Mexico
penniless and half-naked. He Avas always a silly fellow,
and his last exploit was worthy of him.

Mr. Cluisty sat up till daybreak to see me off, filling
up his time by wi'iting letters and pressing plants. When
I was gone, he lay down in his 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 a
hole, which struck him as being a suitable place for a
scorpion to come out of This idea had come into liis
head from the sight of the specimen in the tumbler on the
table, who had with great difficulty been drowned in
aguardiente. Presently something moved in the hole,
and the spectator below instantly became wide awake.
Then came out a claw and a head, and finally the body
and tail of a very fine scorpion, two inches and a half
long. It was rather an awkward moment, for it was not
safe to move suddenly, for fear of startling the creature,
whose footing seemed anything but secure ; and if he fell,
he would naturally sting whatever he might come in con-
tact with. However, he met with no accident on his way,
and getting into another hole, about a yard off", he drew
up his tail after him and disappeared. Mr. Christy slip-
ped out of his bed with a sense of considerable relief ; and
having ascertained that there were no holes in the ceiling
above the bed on the other side of the room, he turned in
there, and went comfortably to sleep.

My only companion in the Dihgence was a German
shopman from Vera Cruz, who was sociable, but not of an
instructive turn of conversation. When we had descended

WHITE NEGRESS. CATTLE AND VAQUEROS. 323

for a few hours, the heat became intolerable. Scarcely any
habitation but a few Indian cane-huts by the way-side,
with bananas and palm-trees. We stopped, about three
in the afternoon, at a rancho in a small village, and did not
start again until next morning, a little before day-break.
NegToes and people of negro descent began to abound in
this congenial cUmate. I remember especially the waiting-
maid at the rancho, who was a " white negTess," as they
are called. Her hair and features showed her African
origin ; but her hair was like white wool, and her face and
hands were as colourless as those of a dead body. This
animated corpse was healthy enough, however ; and this
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 the intense 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 gi-eater proportion, numbering tens of
thousands, roam wild about the country. In comparison
with these cattle of the tierra caliente, the fiercest beasts
of the plateaus are safe and quiet creatures. The only
way of bringing them into the corral is by using tame
animals for decoys, just as wild elephants are caught.

Oiu- man Martin, who had once been a vaquero on the
Vera Cruz coast, used to look upon the buUs of the high
lands with gi'eat contempt. If you chase them they rim
away, he said. If you lazo a bull of the hot country, you
have to gallop off with all yom* might, with the tore close
at your heels ; and, if the horse ftiUs, it may cost his life
or his rider's.

We thus find the horned cattle flourishing at every
elevation, from the sea-level to the mountain-pastures ten
thousand feet above it. Horses and sheep show less

324) ANAHUAC.

adaptability to this variety of climates. The horses and
mules come mostly from the States of the North, at a level
of from 5000 to 8000 feet ; that remarkable country of
which Humboldt's observation gives us the best idea,
when he says that, although there are no made roads,
wheel - carriages can travel distances of a thousand miles
over gently-undulating prairies, without meeting any ob-
struction on the way.

Numbers of sheep are reared in the mountains, princi-
pally for the sake of the tallow, for the consumption of
tallow - candles in the mines is enormous. The owners
scarcely care at all for the rest of the animal ; and popular
scandal accuses the sheep-farmers of driving their flocks
straight into the melting - coppers, without going through
the preliminary ceremony of killing them. People told
us that the tallow made in the cold regions loses its
consistency when brought down into hotter climates, but
we had no means of ascertaining the truth of this.

Artificial lighting by means of tallow was not known
to the ancient Mexicans, who could not indeed have pro-
cured tallow except from the fat of deer and smaller ani-
mals.

Bernal Diaz tells how the Spanish invaders used to
dress their wounds with " Indian Ointment." He ex-
plains the nature of this preparation in another place.
The Spaniards could get no oil in the country, nor any-
thing else to make salve with, so they took some fat
Indian who had just been killed in battle, and simply
boiled him down.

Our ride next morning was but a few hours, the jour-
ney being so divided in order that the passengers may
reach Vera Cruz before the heat of the day begins. We
passed over a dreary district, generally too dry for any-
thing but cactus and acacias, but now and then, wlien a

VERA CRUZ. COCKROACHES AND ARMADILLO. 325

little water was to Le found, displaying clumps of bam-
boos with their elegant featheiy tufts. Then the railway
took us through the dismal downs, with their swamps and
sand-hills, and so into Vera Cruz.

The English merchants we had ah-eady made acquaint-
ance with were as kind and hospitable as ever, and I
found an Englishman, whom we had Itnown before, going
as far as Havana by the same packet. The yellow fever
was unusually late this year, and, though June had begun,
thei'e were but few cases. We heard afterwards that it
set in a week or two after our departure, and by its ex-
traordinary severity made ample amends for the lateness
of its arrival.

After sunset, the air was alive with mosquitos, and
the floors of the hotel swarmed with cockroaches. The
armadillo took quite naturally to the latter creatui*es, and
crunched them up as fast as we could catch them for him.
I was sm-prised to find that our word " cocki'oaches " does
not come from the German stock, like most of our names
for insects and small creatures, but from the Latin side of
the house. The Spanish waiter called them cucarachas,
and the French ones coqueraches. The history of the
ai-madillo ends unfortunately : for some days he seemed
to take quite kindly to the diet of bits of meat which we
had to put him on, on shipboard, but he fell sick at
Havana, and died.

My late companion travelled up into the Northern
States, went to the Indian assembly at Manitoulin Island,
paid a visit to various tribes of Red Men in the Hudson's
Bay Territory — as yet unmissionized, carried away in tri-
umph the big medicine-drum I have already spoken of, and
saw and did many other things not to be related here. One
sight that he saw, some months later, reminded him of the
wild country where we had travelled together. He was

826 ANAHUAC.

in Iowa City, a little town of a year or two's growth, out
in the prairie States of the Far West. As he stood one
morning in the outskii^ts, among the plank-houses and
half-made roads, there came a solitary horseman riding in.
Evidently he had come from the Mexican frontier, a thou-
sand miles and more away across the plains ; and no doubt,
his waggons and the rest of his party were behind him on
the road, beyond the distant horizon of the prairie. By
his face he was American, but his costume was the dress
of old Mexico, the leather jacket and trowsers, the broad
white hat and huge jinghng spurs. His lazo hung in front
of his high -peaked saddle, and his well-worn serape was
rolled up behind him like a trooper's cloak. As he ap-
proached the town, he spurred his jaded beast, who broke
into the old familiar paso of the Mexican plains. " It was
my last sight of Mexico," said my companion. He saluted
the horseman in Spanish, and the well-known words of
welcome made the grim man's haggard sunburnt features
relax into a smile as he returned the salutation and rode on.

As for myself, my voyage home was short and unad-
venturous. From Vera Cruz to Havana, most of my com-
panions were Mexican refugees who had been turned out
of the country for being mixed up- with Haro's revolution
or Santa Ana's intrigues. They were showily got-up men,
elaborately polite, and with much to say for themselves ;
but everv now and then some casual remark showed what
stuff they were made of, and I pitied more than ever the
unfortunate countries whose political destinies depend on
the intrigues of these adventurers.

In the hot land-locked bay of St. Thomas's we, with
the contents of eight or nine more steamers, were shifted
into the great steamer bound homeward. I went ashore
with an old German gentleman, and walked about the
streets. St. Thomas's is a Danish island, and a free

VOYAGE HOME. 327

port, that is, a smuggling depot for the rest of the West
India islands, much as Gibi-altar is for the MediteiTanean.
It is a stifling place, fiill of mosquitos and yellow fever,
and the confusion of tongues reigns there even more than
in Gibraltar, for the blacks in the streets all speak three
or four languages, and the shopkeepers six or seven.

We were a strange mixtiu'e on board the 'Atrato', over
two hundred of us.' Peruvians and Cliilians from across
the isthmus, Spaniards and Cubans, black gentlemen from
Hayti, French colonists from Martinique, but English pre-
ponderating above all other nationalities. One or two
governors of small islands, with their families, maintaining
the dignity of Government House, at least as far as
Southampton, and unapproachable 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 India planters, who thought it was rather hard that
the Anti- slavery Society, after ruining them and their
plantations, should moreover insist on theii' believing
themselves to be gTeat gainers by the change. We were
all crowded, hot, and uncomfortable, and showed our worst
side, but as we neared England better influences got the
ascendant again.

It was pleasant to breathe a cooler air, and to feel that
I was getting back to my own country and my own
people ; but with tliis feehng tliere was mixed some regret
for the beautiful scenes I had left. The evenincfs of our
latitudes seemed poor when we lost the gorgeous sunsets
of the tropics, and the sea alive with luminous creatures.
When I came on deck one evening: and missed the brifrht-
est ornament of the sky — the Southern Cross, I felt that
I had left the tropics, and that all my efforts to realize

s s

828 ANAHUAC.

the life of the last half-year would produce but a vague
and shadowy picture.

Since we left Mexico, I have not cared to follow very
accurately even the newspaper intelHgence of what has
been and still is going on there. It is a pitiable history.
Continual wars and revolutions, utter insecurity of life
and property, the Indians burning down the haciendas in
the South and turning out the white people, the roads on
the plains impassable on account of deserters and robbers ;
sometimes no practical government at all, then two or
three at once, who raise armies and fight a little some-
times, but generally confine themselves to plundering the
peaceable inliabitants. An army besieges the capital for
months, but appears to do nothing but cut the water off
fi'om the aqueducts, shoot stragglers, and levy contribu-
tions. One leader raises a forced loan among the foreign
residents, and imprisons or expels those who do not sub-
mit. The leader on the other side does the same in his
part of the country, putting the British merchant in pri-
sons where a fortnight would be a fair average life for an
European, and threatening him mth summary court-
martial and execution if he does not pay.

London newspapers dwell on these details, and tell us
that we may learn from the condition of this unfortunate
country how useless are democratic forms among a people
incapable of liberty, and that very weak governments can
commit all sorts of crimes with impunity, from the fact
that they have no official existence which foreign powers
can recognize ; and various other weighty moral lessons,
which must be highly edifying to our countrymen in the
Republic, who are meanwhile left pretty much to shift for
themselves.

FUTURE OF MEXICO. 329

All this time the United States are steadily advancing ;
and the destiny of the country is gi-adually accomplishing
itself. That its total absorption must come, sooner or
later, we can hardly doubt. The chief difficulty seems to
be that the American constitution will not exactly suit the
case. The Republic laid down the riglit of each citizen to
his share in the government of the country as a universal
law, founded on indefeasible rights of humanity, funda-
mental laws of nature, and what not, making, it is true,
some slight exceptions with regard to red and black men.
The Mexicans, or at least the white and half-caste Mexi-
cans, will be a difficulty. Theii* claims to citizenship are
unquestionable, if Mexico were made a State of the Union ;
and, as everybody knows, they are totally incapable of
governing themselves, which they must be left to do under
the constitutional system of the United States ; moreover,
it is certain that American citizens would never allow even
the whitest of the Mexicans to be placed on a footing of
equality with themselves. Supposing these difficulties
got over by a Protectorate, an armed occupation, or some
similar contrivance, Mexico will imdcrgo a great change.
There will be roads and even rail-roads, some security for
life and property, liberty of opinion, a flourishing com-
merce, a rapidly increasing population, and a variety of
good things. Every intelligent Mexican must wish for an
event so greatly to the advantage of his country and of the
world in general.

Some of oiu' ijood fiiends in Mexico have bought land
on the American frontier by the hundred square leagues,
and can point out patches upon the map of the world as
large as Scotland or Ireland — as their private property.
What their gains will be when enterprising western men
begin to bring the country under cultivation, it is not an
easy matter to realize.

330

ANAHUAC,

As for om'selves individually, we may be excused for
cherishing a lurking kindness for the quaint, picturesque
manners and customs of Mexico, as yet un-American-
ized ; and for rejoicing that it was our fortune to travel
there before the coming change, when its most cui-ious
peculiarities and its very langiiage must yield before foreign
influences.

APPENDIX.

I. THE MANUFACTURE OF OBSIDIAN KNIVES, ETC. (Note top. %!.)

Some of the old Spanisli writers on Mexico give a tolerably full account of the
manner in which the obsidian knives, &c., were made by the Aztecs. It will be seen
that it only modifies in one particular the theory we had formed by mere inspection
as to the way in which these objects were made, which is given at p. 97 ; that is, they
were cracked off by pressure, and not, as we conjectured, by a blow of some hard
substance.

Torquemada (Monarquia Indiana, Seville, 1C15) says; (free translation)

" They had, and still have, workmen wlio make knives of a certain black stone
" or flint, which it is a most wonderful and admirable thing to see them make out of
" the stone ; and the ingenuity which invented this art is much to be praised. They
" are made and got out of the stone (if one can explain it) in this manner. One of
"these Indian workmen sits down upon the ground, and takes a piece of this black
" stone, which is like jet, and hard as flint, and is a stone which might be called pre-
" clous, more beautiful and brilliant than alabaster or jasper, so much so that of it
" are made tablets* and mirrors. The piece they lake is about 8 inches long or rather
" more, and as thick as one's leg or rather less, and cylindrical ; they have a stick as
" large as the sliaft of a lance, and 3 cubits or rather more in length ; and at the end
" of it they fasten firmly another piece of wood, 8 inches long, to give more weight to
"this part; then, pressing their naked feet together, they hold the stone as with a
" pair of pincers or the vice of a carpenter's bcncli. They take the stick (which is cut
" off smooth at the end) with both hands, and set it well home against the edge of
"the front of the stone (i/ ponenlo rwesar con cl canto de la frentc de la piedra) which
" also is cut smooth in that part ; and then they press it against their breast, and with
" the force of the pressure there flies off a knife, with its point, and edge on each side,
" as neatly as if one were to make them of a fnmi]> witli a sharj) knife, or of iron in
" the fire. Then they sharpen it on a stone, using a hone to give it a very line edge ;
"and in a very short time these workmen will make more than twenty knives in the
"aforesaid manner. They come out of the same shape as our barbers' lancets, ex-
" cept that they have a rib up the middle, and have a slight graceful curve towards
" the point. They will cut and shave the hair the first time they are used, at the first
" cut nearly as well as 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 be used ; though

• III tlie original, aras. In the Ijitiii of llcrnanJcz, nrce I suppose lo be the little polisheil stone ilabs which
are set on the altars in Roman Catholic churches, anil in which their sacred quality is, so to speak, contained.

332 APPENDIX.

" indeed they are cheap, and spoiling them is of no consequence. Many Spaniards,
"both regular and secular clergy, have been shaved with them, especially at the be-
" ginning of the colonization of these realms, when there was no such abundance as
"now of the necessary instruments, and people who gain their livelihood by practis-
" ing this occupation. But I conclude by saying that it is an admirable thing to see
" them made, and no small argument for the capacity of the men who found out such
" an invention."

Vetancurt {Teatro MejicanoJ gives an account, taken from the above.

Hernandez (Rerum Med. Nov. Hisp. Thes.: Rome, 1651) gives a similar account of
the process. He compares the wooden instrument used to a cross-bow. It was evi-
dently a T-shaped implement, and the workman held the cross-piece with his two
hands against his breast, while the end of the straight stick rested on the stone. He
furthermore gives a description of the making of the well-known maqmihuifl, or
Aztec war-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, he says, a man
could be cut in half at a blow— an absurd statement, which has been repeated by
more modern writers. .

II. ON THE SOLAR ECLIPSES BECORDED IN THE LE TELLIER MS.

The curious Aztec Picture-writing, known as the Codex Telkriano-Remenensis,
preserved in the Royal Library of Paris, contains a list or calendar of a long series
of years, indicated by the ordinary signs of the Aztec system of notation of cycles of
years. Below the signs of tlie years are a number of hieroglypliic pictures, convey-
ing the record of remarkable events which happened in them, such as the succession
and death of kings, the dates of wars, pestilences, &c. The great work of Lord
Kingsborough, which contains a fac-simile of this curious document, reproduces also
an ancient interpretation of the matters contained in it, evidently the work of a per-
son who not only understood the interpretation of the Aztec picture-writings, but
had access to some independent source of information,— probably the more ample
oral traditions, for the recalling of which the picture-writing appears only to have
served as a sort of artificial memory. It is not necessary to enter here into a fuller
description of the MS., which has also been described by Humboldt and Gallatin.

Among the events recorded in the Codex are four eclipses of the sun, depicted as
having Iiappened in the years 147G, 1496, 1507. 1510. Humboldt, in quoting these
dates, makes a remark to the effect that the record tends to prove the veracity of the
Aztec history, for solar eclipses really happened in those years, according to the list
in the well-known chronological work, L'Art de, Vi'rifii'r les Daks, as follows :
28 Feb., 147G ; 8 Aug., 140G ; 13 Jan., 1507 ; 8 May, 1510. The work quoted, however,
has only reference to eclipses visible in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and not to those in
America. The question therefore arises, whether all those four eclipses recorded in
L'Art de Vtsrijler les Dates, were visible in Mexico. As to the last three, I have no
means of answering the question ; but it appears that Gama, a Mexican astronomer
of some standing, made a scries of calculations for a totally distinct purpose about
the end of the hist century, and found that m 1470 there icas no eclipac of the nun
visible in Mexico, but that there was a great one on the l.'ith Feb., 1477, and another
on the 28th May, 1481.

Supposing that Gama made no mistake in his calculations, the idea at once sug-
gests itself, that the person who compiled or copied the Le Tellier Codex, some few

APPENDIX. ^ 333

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 document been a genuine Aztec Calendar ; as, though visible in Europe,
it teas not visible in Mexico. Tlio supposition of the compiler liaving merely inserted
this date from a European table of eclipses is strengthened by the fact that the great
edijjse of 1477, u-hicli vas visible in Mexico, but not in Europe, is not to be found there.
These two facts tend to prove that the Codex, though uudoubtedly in great part a
copy or compilation from genuine native materials, has been deliberately sophisti-
cated with a view of giving it a greater appearance of historical accuracy, by some
person who was not quite clever enough to do liis work properly.

It may, however, be urged as a proof that the mistake is merely the result of
carelessness, that we find in the MS. no notice of the eclipse of 28th May. 1481, which
was visible both in Mexico and in Europe, and so ought to have been in the record.
This supposition would be consistent with the Codex being really a document in
which the part relating to the events before the Spanish Conquest in 1.521 is of genuine
ancient and native origin, thougli the whole is compiled in a very grossly careless
manner. It would be very desirable to verify the years of all the four eclipses with
reference to their being visible in Mexico, as this might probably clear up the
difficulty.

III. TABLE OF AZTEC ROOTS COMPARED WITH SANSCRIT, ETC.

Several lists of Aztec words compared with those of various Indo-European
languages have been given by philologists. The present is larger than any I have
met with ; several words in it are taken from Buschmann's work on the Mexican
languages. It is desirable in a philological point of view that comparative lists of
words of this kind should be made, even when, as in the present instance, they are
not of sufficient extent to found any theory upon.

As the Aztec alphabet does not contain nearly all the Sanscrit consonants,
many of them must be compared with the nearest Aztec sounds, as:

Sanscbit, t, til, d, dh, &c. Aztec, t. I Sanscbit, 1, r. Aztec, 1.

k, kh, g, gh, &c. „ c q. I „ b, bh, v. „ v.oru.

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 in writing such words as iiel or
vel (English, well) instead of the more modern, but I think less correct way, h%iel.

1. a-, negative prefix (as qualli, good; aqualli, &rtf7). Sans., a-; Gbeek, a-, &c.

2. 0-, preterite augment {as nitemachtia, / teach; onitemachti, / taught);

Sans., a- ; compare Gbeek e-.

3. pal, prep, by: compare Sanb. 2'f'cp- para, had:; pari, circtim; pra, before;

Gbeek, irapa ; Lat., per.

4. ce- cen-, cem-, prefix collective [as tlalia, to place, centlalia, to collect ;)

Sans., sa-, san-, sam- ; Gbeek, aw ; Lat., syn.
6. ce, Cen-, cem-, one. Sans., sa [in sa-krit, once: comp. Bopp, Gloss., p. 3G2.)

Lat., ae-mel, ai-mul, aim-plex.
C. metz (mctz-tli), moon. Sans., mas.
7 tlal (tlal-li), earth. Sans., tala, dhara. Lat., terra, tellus.

8. citlal (citlal-in), .?/ar. Sans., stri, stflra. Lat., stella. Eno., star.

9. atoya (atoya-tl), nwr. Sans., udya.

834 APPENDIX.

10. teuh (teuh-tlij, (Z?w<. Sans., dhu-li (/rom dhfl, to drive about.)

11. teo (teo-tl),£(orf. Sans., deva. Greek, Oeo?. Lat., deus.

12. qual fqual-li), yood. Sans., kalya, kalyfina. Gbeek, KaXor.

13. uel, well. Sans., vara, excellent; vli, to choose. Lat., velle. Icel., vel.

Eng., well.

14. uel, 2}owet; brave, <i;c., (uel-e, tla-uel-e.) Sans , ha\A, strength. Lat., valeo, valor.

15. auil, vicious, wasteful. Sans., avlla, sinful, guilty; abala, iveaJc. Eng., evil.

16. miec, much. Sans., mahat, r/ceaf ; manh or mah, to flrrow. Icel. , miok, muc/^.

Eng., much.

17. yey, great. Sans., bahu, Wi«c7t.

18. -pol, augmentative affix {as tepe-tl. mountain; tepepol, great mountain.)

Sans., puru, much ; pula, great, ample. Greek, ttoXu?.

19. naua fnaua-c), near, by the side of. Sans., nab, to join or connect. German,

nab, near.

20. ten (ten-qui),/MW. Sans., tun, to Jill.

21. izta (izta-c), w/hYc. Sans., sita.

22. cuz (cuz-tic), rec?. Sans., kashaya, kasaya.

23. ta (tA-tli), father. Sans., tata.

24. cone (cone-tl), ckikl. Compare Sans., jan, to beget. Lat., gen-itus. German,

kin-d. Eng., kin.

25. pil (pil-li), diild. Compare Sans., bala, boy, child; bhri, to bear children, ibc.

Greek, niaXoi. foal. Lat., puUus, filius. ENG.,/oaZ, &c., &c.

26. cax (cax-itl), cup. Sans., chasbaka.

27. paz (?) fa-paz-tli), wase, 6asi«. Sans., bajana. Co/npare Lat., vas. Eng., vase.

28. com. (cora-itl), earthen pot. Sans., kumbha.

29. xuma (xuraa-tli), spoon. Sans., chamasa ; /row Sans., cham, to eat.

30. micb ( micb-in), /ssA. Sans., machcha.

31. zaca (zaca-tl), (/rass. Sans., saka.

32. col (te-col-li, col-ceuia, Sec), charcoal. Sans., jval, to burn, flame \ Icel., kol;

Eng., coal ; Irish, gual.

33. cen (cen-tii), grain, maize. Sans., kana, grain.

34. ebe (ehe-catl), loind. Sans., vayu.

35. mix (mi.\-tli), chiul. Sans., megba ; Icel., and Eng., mist.

36. cal (cal-li), /iOiise. Sans., sala. Grebe, KaXm; Lat., cella.

37. qua (qua-itU, hecul. Sans., ka.

38. ix (ix-tii), eye.face. Sans., aksha, eye; asya, face.

39. can (can-tli), cheek. Sans., ganda ; Lat., gena.

40. chichi fchichi-tl), fca^ Sans., cbuchuka.

41. nene (nene-tl),j9)</Jt7o/e?/e. Sans., nayana.

42. choloa, to run or leap. Sans., char.

43. caqui (caqui-ztlij, soitwZ. Sans., kacb, to soi<«<i.

44. xin (xi-xin-ia), to cut, ruin, destroy. Sans., ksin, to hurt, kill.
4-5. tlacQ (tlac9-ani), to rim. S^s-i triks, to go ; GREEk, rpex^.
4r>. patlaui, to^y. Sans., pat.

47. mati, to know. Sans., medh, to umlerstand; mati, thought, mind; Greek

root IxaO.

48. it (it-ta), to see. Sans., vid; Greek root li, ci5ouai, &c. ; Lat., video.

49. meya,, to Jloio, trickle. Sans., mih.

.50. mic (mic-tia), to kill. Sans., ml, mith.

."il. cnica, to sing. SA.na.,k(i}, to sing, as birds, kc.

-t

APPENDIX.

335

52. chichi to suck. Sans., chilsh.

53. ahuacliiii, to sprinkle : compare Sans. uks.

54. cotou (coton-a), to cut. Sans., kutt.

55. nex (nex-tia), <o s/jme. Sans., nad; Lat., niteo.

56. notz (notz-a), to call. Sans., nad.

57. choc (choc-a,), to lament, cri/. SA.ss,kuch, to cry aloud, scream; snch, to u-aiL

58. me (?) (iniae-ca.t\,biiidiivj-t/iing,cham?) to bind. Sans, mii, mava.

59. qua, to eat, bite: compare Sans, charv, to cliew, bite, gnaw; chah, to bruize;

kbad, to eat. ; Geeman, kauen ; Eng., to chew.

60. te,thou. Sans., tvam; Lat., tu.

61. qaen,?iow? SANs.kena.

OtJier curious resemblances between the Aztec and European languages are

62. pepeyol, poptor. Lat., populus ; Icel., popel.
03. pap.al (papal-otl), butterfly ; Lat., papilio.

64. ul (ul-li), ,y«ice of the India-rubber tree, used as oil for anointing, &c. Lat., oleum ;
Eng., oil, &c.

IV. GLOSSAEY,

Anahdac. 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 ; after-
wards used to denote a great part of
the present Republic of Mexico.

AcocoTE (Aztec, acocotl, water-throat),
aloe-sucker's j^ourd; seep. 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 ar-
ticle at-toob, whence adobe ?)

Agcamiel (honey-water), unfermented
aloe-juice.

Aguaediente (burning- water), ardent
spirits.

Ahueucete (Aztec, ahuehuetl), tlie deci-
duous cypress.

Alameda (poplar-avenuej, public pro-
menade ; seeji- 57.

Alcalde, a magistrate {Moorish-Spanish,
al cadi, " the cadi").

Anqcera (hauncher), covering for horses'
haunches; seep. \6i {and cut, p. 260).

Arriebo, a muleteer.

Abroto, a rivulet, mountain-torrent.
Atambor, a drum.
Atole {Aztec, atolli), porridge.
Aveesada, a freshet.

Baratillo, a Rag-fair, market of odds

and ends; seep. 169.
BARB-icoA, whence English " barbecue;"

seep. 95 ; a native Haitian word.
Barranca, a ravine.

Calzoncillos, drawers.

Capa, a cloak.

Cato, a coral-reef.

CuAPARREROs, ovcr-trouscrs of goatskin
with the hair on, used in riding.

CnixAMPA (Aztec, " a place fenced in)," a
Mexican " floating garden ;" seep. 62.

CuiNGUERiTO, Indian-corn brandy.

Chipi-chipi (Aztec, chipinij, drizzling
rain ; ."tee p 20.

CiicrA-MiUTO (inyrtlc-sucker), a hum-
ming-bird.

C'oLEAii, to throw a bull over by the tail
(cola); seep. 71.

Cohpadre. co.madrb ; French, compare,
coinmerc; seep. 250.

T

33G

APPENDIX.

Corral, an enclosure for cattle.
CosTAi,, a bag, or sack.
Coyote (Aztec, coyotl), a jackal.
CuABTA, a leather horse- whip ; sec 7?. 264.
CuARTEL, a barrack.
CocAKACHA, a cockroach.
CucHiLLo, a knife.
Cdra, a parish-priest.

Desagce, a draining-cut.
Desatcxo, breakfast.

EMANcn'ABo(emancipatednegro);see^.6.
EscopETA, a musket.
EscRiBANo, a scribe or secretary.

Fandango, a dance.

Fiesta, a church-festival.

Frijoles, beans.

FcERO, a legal privilege ; see pp. 19, 249.

Gachttpin, a native of Spain. Supposed
to be an Aztec epithet, cac-chopina,
that is, "prickly shoes," applied to the
Spanish conquerors from their wear-
ing spurs, which to the Indians were
strange and incomprehensible append-
ages.

Gareote, an instrument for strangling
criminals.

Gente de razon ("reasonable people),
white men and half-breed Mexicans,
but not Indians; seep. 61.

Goajalote (Aztec, huexolotlj, a turkey:
see p. 228.

Gulche, a ravine.

Hacendado, a planter, landed proprie-
tor, from

Hacienda (literally " doing," from hacer,
or facer, to do). An estate, establish-
ment, &c. Hacienda de beneficio, an
establishment for " benefiting" silver,
i.e., for extracting it from the ore.

Honda, a sling.

HoENiTos (little ovens), the small cones
near the volcano of Jorullo, which
formerly emitted steam ; see p. 92.

Ht7LE(/4«<ec,ulli, India-rubber?) a water-
proof coat.

Ichtli (Aztec, thread), thread or string

of aloe- fibre.
Itztli (Aztec), obsidian; seep. 100.

Lazador, one who throws the lazo.

Lazo, a running noose.

Lepero, a lazzarone, or proletaire; see

p. 251.
Llanos, plains.

Machete, a kind of bill-hook.
Malacate (Aztec, malacatl), a spindle,

spindle-head, windlass, &c.
Manta, cotton-cloth.
Mateaca, a rattle ; see p. 49.
Meson, a Mexican caravansery ; see p.

209.
MiSTizo (mixtus) a Mexican of mixed

Spanish and Aztec blood.
Metate (Aztec, metlatl) the stone used

for rubbing down Indian corn into

paste ; see p. 88.
Metalpile (Aztec, metlapilli, i.e. little

metlatl), the stone rolling-pin used in

the same process.
Mole (Aztec, mulli), Mexican stew.
MoLiNo de viento (literally a windmill),

a whirlwind ; see p. 31.
Monte fliterally a mountain), the favour-
ite Mexican game; seep. 256.
Mozo, a lad, servant, groom.

Nino, a child.

Nopal (Aztec, nopalli), the prickly pear.

Norte, the north wind ; seep, 21.

OcoTE (Aztec, ocotl), a pine-tree, pine-
torch.
Olia, a boiling-pot.

Pasadizo, a passage; seep. 281.
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.

APPENDIX.

337

FfDRioAL, a lava-field.

Peon, a debt-slave; seep. 291.

Petate {Aztec, petlatl), a palm-leaf mat.

PiTO, 1, a whistle, pipe; 2, aloe-Ubrc
thread.

PoTREBO, a water-meadow.

Pdlque, a drink made from the juice of
the aloe; see p. 38. (It is a corrup-
tion of a native South American
word, introduced into Mexico by the
Spaniards)

Ranchero, a cottager, yeoman.

Rancuo, a hut.

Rata (literally a line), the paying of

workmen at a hacienda, &c.
Ratab, to pull a horse up short at a line ;

see p. 163.
Reata, a horse-rope ; seep. 264.
Kebozo, a woman's shawl ; see p. 56.
Recua, a train of mules,

Sala, a hall, dining-room.

Serape, a Mexican blanket ; see p. 169.

SoMBREBO, a hat.

Taccmeniles, pine-shingles for roofing.
Temazcalli, Indian vapour-bath ; see p.
301.

Teocalli (Aztec, god's house), an Aztec
pyramid-temple.

Teponaztli, Indian wooden drum.

Teqcesqcite (Aztec, tequesquitl), an al-
kaline efflorescence abundant on the
soil in Mexico, used for soap-making,
&c.

Tetzoxtli, porous amygdaloid lava, a
stone much used for building in
Mexico.

TiENDA, a shop ; see p. 82.

TiEBRA caliente, the hot region.

i-BiA, tlie cold region.

TEMPLADA, the temperate region.

Tlachiquero (Aztec, tlachiqui, an over-
seer, 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) ; seep. 92.

Tortillas, thin cakes made of Indian
corn, resembling oat-cakes ; seep. 38.

Tbapiche, a sugar-mill.

UiLi, see Hule.

Vaquero, a cow-herd.

ZopiLOTE (Aztec, zopilotl), a turkey-buz-
zard.

V, DESCRIPTION OF THREE VERY RARE SPECIMENS OF ANCIENT
MEXICAN MOSAIC-WORK (iN THE COLLECTION OF HENRY
CHRISTY, ESQ.).

These Specimens, two Masks and a Knife, (see page 101.) are interesting as
presenting examples of higher art than has been supposed to have been attained
to by the ancient Mexicans, or any other of the native American peoples. Their
distinctive feature is an incrustation of Mosaic of Turquoise, cut and polished,
and fitted with extreme nicety,— a work of great labour, time, and cost in any
country, and especially so amongst a people to whom the use of iron was un-
lmo\vn,— and carried out with a perfection which suggests the idea tliat tlie art must
have been long practised under the fostering of wealth and power, although so few
examples of it have come down to us.

Although considerably varied, they arc all three of one family of work, so to
speak ; the predominant feature being the use of turquoise; and the question which
presents itself at the outset is-what are the evidences that this unique work is of
Aztec origin ?

338 APPENDIX.

The proofs are so interwoven with tlie style and structure of the specimens that
their appearance and nationality are best treated of together.

The Mask of wood is covered with minute pieces of turquoise— cnt and polished,
accurately fitted, many thousands in number, and set on a dark gum or cement. The
eyes, however, are acute-oval patches of mother-of-pearl ; and there are two small
square patches of the same on the temples, through which a string passed to suspend
the mask; and the teeth arc of hard white shell. The eyes are perforated, and so are
the nostrils, and the upper and lower teeth are separated by a transverse chink; thus
a wearer of the mask ("which sits easily on one's face) can see, breathe, and speak
with ease. The features bear that reniarkably placid and contemplative expression
which distinguishes so many of the Aztec works, in common with those of tlie Egyp-
tians, whether in their massive stone sculptures, or in the smallest and commonest
heads of baked earth. The face, which is well-proportioned, pleasing, and of great
symmetry, is studded also with numerous projecting pieces of turquoise, rounded and
polished.

In addition to the character of the work and the style of face, tlie evidence of
the Aztec origin of this mask is confirmed by the wood being of the fragrant cedar
or cypress of Mexico. It may be remarked also that the inside is painted red, as
are the wooden masks of the Indians of the North-west coast of America at the pre-
sent day.

The Knife presents, both in form and substance, more direct evidence of its
Aztec origin ; for, in addition to its incrustation with the unique mosaic of turquoise,
blended (in this case) with malachite and white and red shell, its handle is sculp-
tured in the form of a crouching human figure, covered with the skin of an eagle,
and presenting the well-known and distinctive Aztec type of the human head issuing
from the mouth of an animal. (See cut, p. 101.) Beyond this there is in the stone
blade the curious fact of a people which had attained to so complex a design and
such an elaborate ornamentation remaining in the Stone-age ; and, somewhat curi-
ously, the locality of that stoue blade is fixed, by its being of that semi-transparent
opalescent calcedony which Humboldt describes as occurring in the volcanic districts
of Mexico — the concretionary silex of the trachytic lavas.

The second Mask is yet more distinctive. The incrustation of turquoise-mosaic
is placed on the forehead, face, and jaws of a human skull, the back part of which
has been cut away to allow of its being hung, by the leather thongs which still re-
main, over the face of an idol, as was the custom in Mexico thus to mask their gods
on state-occasions. The mosaic of turquoise is interrupted by three broad transverse
bands, on the forehead, face, and chin, of a mosaic of obsidian, similarly cut (but in
larger pieces) and highly polished,— a very unusual treatment of this difficult and
intractable material, the use of which in any artistic way appears to have been con-
fined to the Aztecs (with the exception, perhaps, of the Egyptians).

The eye-balls are nodules of iron-pyrites, cut hemispherically and highly polished,
and are surrounded by circles of hard white shell, similar to that forming the teeth
of tlie wooden mask.

Tlie Aztecs made thoir mirrors of iron-pyrites polished, and are the only people
who arc known to have put this material to ornamental use.

The mixture of art, civilization, and burb.irism which tlie hideous aspect of this
green and black skull-mask presents accords with the condition of Mexico at the time
of the Conquest, under which human sacrifices on a gigantic scale were coincident
with much refinement in arts and manners.

The European history of these three specimens is somewhat curious. With the
exception of two in the Museum at Copenhagen, obtained many years ago by

APPENDIX. 331)

Professor Tliomseu frooi a convent iu Rome, and, though greatly dilapidated,
presenting some traces of the same kind of ornamentation, they are believed to be
unique.

The Wooden Mask and the Knife were long known in a collection at Florence.
Thirty years ago the mask was brought into England from that city, as Egyptian :
and, somowliat later, the knife was obtained from Venice.

Subsequently the Skull-mask, with a wig of hair said to be a scalp, was found at
Bruges; a locality which leads to the presumption that the mask was brought from
Mexico soon after the Conquest in 1521, and prior to the expulsion of the Spaniards
from Flanders consequent on the revolt of the Low Countries in 1579.

JVofe.— It happens singularly enough, that a curious old work, Aldrovaiulus,
Musiewn Metallicum, Bologna, 1648, contains drawings of a knife and wooden mask
ornamented with mosaic-work of stone, made just in the same way as those
described above, and only diflfering from them in the design. What became of them
I cannot tell.

VI. DASENT S ESSAY ON THE ETHNOGRAPHICAL, VALUE OF POPULAR
TALES AND LEGENDS.

Whilst treating of legendary lore in connection with Ethnography, we must not
forget to refer the reader to the highly useful and philosophical remarks on this sub-
ject in Dasenl's Introduction to his Popular Tales from the Norse. Here we see that
not only are the popular tales of any nation indicative of its early condition and its
later progress, but also that the legends, fables, and tales of the Indo-European
nations, at least, bear internal evidence of their having grown out of a few simple
notes— of having sprung from primooval germs originating with the old Aryan
family, from whom successive migrations carried away the original myth to be
elaborated or degratled according to the genius and habits of the people.

Thus other means of resolving the relations of the early races of Man are added
to those previously afforded by ethnographical and philological research.

« Popular Tales from the Norse. (Translati'd from Asbjornsen and Moe's Collcctiou.) By George
Webbe Dascut, D.l'.L. Willi an Introductory Essay on the Origin and Diffusion of Popular Talcs. —
Second Edition, Edinburtjh: 1B59.

INDEX.

Account-keeping . . .87

Baratillo . . .

169—171

Acodada 57

Barometer, height of

. 68

Africans and Chinese . . 13

Barrancas . 89, 179

,310, 313

Agriculture, 26, 61, 63, 89, 157—161,

Barricades

. 65

172,216

Batabano

3

Ahuehuetes . 57, 155, 215, 265

Baths of Santa F6 .

7

Alameda ..... 57

Bells, ancient .

. 235

Alluvial Deposits . . .150

Bits ....

. 167

Aloes .... 35, 136

Books ....

. 124

„ huts built of . . .36

Bronze-age

. 139

Aloe-fibre, manufacture of. . 88

Bronze, stone-cutting with,

138—140

Aloe-juice, collected for Pulque 36, 91

„ hatchets

. 225

Amatlan 299

„ bells and needles .

. 235

Amecameca .... 265

Bull-fights

. 70

American War. . . 118—120

Bull-dogs in Mexico .

. 149

Amozoque . . . .295

Bull, lazoing the

253, 323

Anahuac . . . 57, 270

Cacahuamilpan

200—205

Antiquities, collections of, 222-236, 262

Cacao-beans

. 227

Antonio, our man . . .321

Cactuses . . 73, 9C

>, 140, 144

Ants 8

Caleudar-stoue of Mexico .

237—240

Aqueduct of Chapultepec . . 55

Canals ....

58, 130

Arch, Aztec . . . 153, 276

Canoes . . 60, 129

, 132, 134

Armadillo . . 312,319,325

Capitalists

. 295

Arms of l\Iexico ... 42

Cascade of Regla

. 93

Army, Mexican . . 114 — 119

Castor-oil plant

9

Arrow-heads . . . .137

Casa Grande

77, 135

Art, Aztec . . 186, 230, 316

Cattle ... 16, 31, 323

Astronomy, Aztec . 237—241, 244

Cave of Cacahuamilpan

203—205

Atotonilco . . . 82,85

Central American Antiquities

189-193

Aztec Antiquities, 35, 137, 141 — 148,

Cerro de Navajas

95—100

150—156, 183—195, 222—244,

Chalco, Canal of

. 58

262—264, 274—280

„ Lake .

. 173

Aztec Civilization . . . 103

Chalma ....

208—214

Aztec Language, 143, 227, 235, 243,

Chacul tepee

55, 57

279, 333

Chinampas

. 62

Bananas 178

Chinese in Cuba

12

INDEX.

;s+i

Chipi-chipi

. 26

English in Mexico

73, 318

Cholula .

. 274—278

Estacion de Mejico •

. 121

Church, the 113,21

3, 285—290

Ethnology, 17, 102—104,

187—195,

Church-dances

. 211

241—244, 276—280

Churches in Mexico

3B, 46

Evaporation, rapid

. 75

Civil-war . . I

12, 283, 328

Feather-work .

. 70

Cigar-making .

3

Flies' eggs

. 156

Clergy of Mexico

. 7, 79, 287

Floating gardens

. 62

Clay figures

. 229, 275

Flooded streets

65

Coach, old-fashioned

. 59

Florida, free blacks from .

5, 10—12

Cochineal-insect

. 24

Forests, destruction of by Spaniards, 45

Cockilghting

. 254, 256

Fueros ....

19

Cockroaches

. 325

Future of Mexico

. 329

Cocoyotla

. 196

Gambling, . 15, 207, 256-

-258, 320

Colear-ing

. 71

Glass-works

. 135

Columbus

4

Glossary

. 335

Comonfort, President

19, 112

Goddess of War

. 222

Compadrazgo .

. 250

Gold and Silver work

. 234

Commerce of Mexico

. 105

Gourd-bottles .

. 171

Convents in Mexico .

46, 287

Grove of Cypresses .

. 57

Convicts .

. 22

Guadalupe (Our Lady of), 66

120—224

Cordova .

. 25

Hams, Toluca .

. 219

Corrida de Toros

. 70

Havana ....

1,326

Costumes

51, 62, 168

Hedges of Cactus

. 73

Courier .

167, 310

Highlands of Mexico

. 35

Criminals

. 245—249

Hill of Di-ums .

. 215

Cuba . . . .

2

Holy Week

47—54

Cuernavaca

. 179

Horse -bath

. 290

Cura of New Gerona

9

Horses . . . 163-

-165, 317

Cypress-trees . 57, li:

5, 215, 265

Hotel d'Yturbide

. 39

Dancing

207,211

Houses . 25, 36, 91

, 135, 172

Dasent on Popular Legen

ds, &c., 339

„ built on piles

41

Debt-slavery .

. 291

Huamantla

. 31

Diligence, travelling by

37, 173

Huehuetoca, draining-cut of

45

Dishonesty of Mexicans

80—82

Humming-birds

. 69

Dram-drinking

. 83

Indian Baptism

. 207

Dress of the Indians .

. 61

Indian Ointment

. 324

Drums . . . .

. 231

Indians of Mexico 47, 60-64, 80-88,

Eartliquakes .

. 66

173, 182, 197-199, 200-

208, 299-

Eclipses observed in Mexic

3 . 333

309, 314-316

Education

125-128

Indian Soldiers . 23

, 120, 122

Emancipados .

.6,14

Indulgences

52, 124

342

INDEX.

. 128
. 319
47, 83, 307
44, 65, 123
102, 140
86, 157-161, 179
4
. 2G8
95
;]I7-321
. 92
50
49
. 314
248,

Inquisiliou, the

Insects

Intemperance

Inundations

Iron

Irrigation

Isle of Pines

Iztaccihuatl

Jacal, Mount

Jalapa

Jorullo

Judas

Judas's Bones

Junta, La

Justice, Administration of 246

300
Lakes in Valley of Mexico, 44-46, 65,

130—134, 173
Lava-tields . . 28,35, 118

Law-courts of Blexico . . 249

Lazoing . 71,252—254,323

Legends . . 236, 276—279, 340
Leper Hospital . . .251

Leperos . . . . .251

Lerma ..... 219
Le Tellier MS., on Eclipses . 332
Machinery in Mexico . .109

Magnetic Iron-ore . . .102
Manufacture of Obsidian Knives97,331
Marble Quan-ies in the Isle of Pines 6
Loadstone mountain . . . 1 02

Locusts 298

Lonja ..... 66
Market, Indian . . 85, 89

Martin, our servant . . 273, 321
Masks . . 110, 226, 235, 337
I\Latracas ..... 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

,, People of

,, Valley of
Military Statistics
Miners ....
Miraflores

Mineria, or School of Mines
Mirage ....
Mongolian Calendar .
Monks

Morals of Servitude
Mosaic work
Mosquitos
Mules, Mexican
Museum of Mexico .
Negress, white .
Negros in Mexico
Nevado de Toluca
Nopals, Plantations of
Nopal ucan

Nortes ....
Nuestra Senora de Remedios
Nueva Gerona .
Numerals, Mexican, &c. .
Obsidian, mines of .

. 329
55

40 — 46, 270

. 115

. 79, 258

. 264

47

. 30

. 241

205, 209, 213

81,293

101, 110, 235

5, 325

. 175

. 222—237

. 323

13, 323

. 219

24

. 296

21, 23

. 121

. 4,8

107-110

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

Orizaba, volcano of . .18, 29, 226

Ornament, common styles of . 185

Pachuca . . . . 69, 74

Palma Christi .... 9

INDEX.

343

Paseo, or Alameda .

. 57

Passport-system (Cuba)

3

Penon de los Banos .

. 131

Peons

. 291—294

People of Mexico

. 55

Pictiire-mitings, 104, 130, 232—234

Pintos 309

Pii-ates of the Spanish Main . 5
Ploughing . . . .172

Police, Mesican . . .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 . .105, 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 Teotihuacan . .137

Rag-fair in Mexico

Railway .

Rain

Rainy Region .

Ranches ,

Rattles

Real del Monte

Rebozo .

Reform in Jlexico

Reg] a

,, cascade of
Revolutions
Roads in Mexico

. 169

. 2, 24, 121

. 136, 266

. 2G

25, 266, 299

. 49

77

56

. 117

78

. 93

20, 114, 282—284

. 29, 37, 76

162

Robbers . . 32,117,170,297
„ Priest-captain of . .34

Sacred trees

Sacrifice of Spaniards

Sacrificial Clamps
„ Stone

Saddles, &c. .

St. Thomas's, W. Indies

Salinas of Campeche

Saline condition of the soil

Salt

Salt-pans

Salto del Agiia

Sand-pillars

San Andres Chalchicomula

San Antonio de Abajo

San Jos6 and Earthquakes

San Nicolas

Santa Anita

Santa Maria de Guadalupe

Santa Rosita de Cocoyotla

Sardines .

School of Mines

Scorpions

Sculptures at Xochicalco

Scrape ...

Sheep

Shrines of Xochicalco

Silver-mines, &c. . 74, 92, 105, 107

Siege & Capitulation of Puebla, 1 13, 282

Sisal ..... 16

Skull decorated with mosaic work, 337

Slave-trade . . . 13, 16

Smuggling . . . 273, 296

Solar Eclipses observed in Mexico, 331

215, 265
145
225
223
—167
327

84
133
83, 154
155

55

30
312
296

67
272

63
121
196

87

47
9, .322
185
169
324
193

Soldiers .
Soquital .
Spanish-moss .
Spurs

Stalactitic Cave
Statistics of Mexico
Stone-hannncrs .

23, 114, 171

. 82
. 57
. 295
. 200
115, 249, 286
. 137

3 44

INDEX.

Stoue kuives and weapons .

95, 103

Tezcuco, Lake of . £

5, 129,

138

Streets of Mexico

41, 55

Thieves ... 52, 170,

245

Sugar-canes

. 179

Tisapan .

118-

-120

Sugar-hacienda of Santa Rosita . 196

Toluca .

219

„ of Temisco.

. 180

Tortillas .

,

38

Sugar-plantations of Havana

2

Tropical Vegetation .

• 2, 24,

179

Tacubaya

57, 69

Turkey-buzzards

.

22

Tallow ....

. 324

Valley of Mexico

.

45

Tasco, Silver-mines at

74

Vapour-bath, native

.

301

Temisco ....

. 179

Vegetation, zones of 21 — 27, 178,

216

Temple-pyramids, — see Pyramids.

Vera Cruz .

18—21

325

Tenancingo

. 218

Virjen de Remedies .

123

Tenoclititlau .

. 41

Virgins, the rival

123

Ten Tribes, the.

. 17

Volantes

2

Teocallis, see Pyramids.

"War- idol

222

Teotihuacan, Pyramids of

141—148

Water-bottles .

171

„ Quarries of .

137, 141

Water-pipes

157

Tequesquite

. 133

Xochimilco, Lake of

173

Tezcozinco

. 152

Xochicalco, Ruins of

183-

-195

Tezcuco . . 129, 150,

260—264

Yucatan ....

16

„ Aztec Bridge at .

. 153

Zopilites ....

22

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