Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1846-07-23

'ngs, or calls to spend an evening are
quite as unusual, except among very
near relations, and even then the
restraint and espionage are not at all
relaxed. Persons who have seen each
other, and been attached for years,
often meet at the alter without ever
having spent haitian hour in each 9TH
err $ company. Ladies of the better
classes never walk the streets except
one day in the year, the day before
Good Friday, | believe it is. But
they make the most Of this their satur.
MALTA; on that day all the fashionable
streets are crowded with them, in their
'b'bs and fuckers and glittering IN
diamonds.
The streets are always, however,
swarming with women and lower elias.
SEES. The only articles of dress worn
by these are a chemise and petticoat,
satin slippers, bat no stockings, and a
rebozo, a long shawl improperly called
by our ladies a manti|la. This they
wear over the head wrapped close a.
round the chin, and thrown over the
Jeff shoulder. Whatever they may be
in private, no people can be more OBJ
servant of proprieiy in public; one may
walk the streets OF Mexico for a year,
and he will not see wanton gesture
or look on the part of a female of any
description, with the single exception,
tina: if you NEE, woman with a fine
bust, which they are very ap, TO have,
she finds some occasion to adjust her
rebozo, and throws it open for Sc.
cond. This robozo answers all the
purposes of shawl, bonnet and frock-
body.
The women of Mexic5, I think, gen
orally smoke; i, is getting TO be regar.
ded as not exactly CONNIE IL faut, and
therefore they do it privately. AS the
men generally smoke, they have the
very same advantage which Dean
Swift recommends to all who eat on
ions, to make their sweethearls do so
too.
One ofthe favori.e and most pleas
ant recreations of the MexicanS is what
they call undo de campo, day in the
country. n party is made up to spend
the day at Tacubaya, or some other of
the neighboring villages, or at some
house IN the suburbs Of the city, where
4 dinner is prepared, and band of mu.
sic sent out; and the day and large
portion of the night spent in dancing.
Never have ! seen more joyous hila-
rious people than they are on these oc-
caSionS.
l shall never forget one of these par
tics which was given to General AL
monte, just before he left Mexico on
his mission to This country. /; was a
genuine, roisie:ing, country frolic.-
We got into boats, and with The music
playing, were rowed for some consid-
cradle distance by moonlight, in the
canal which terminates in the Lake of
Cha!co,an then amongst he Gilman
pas or floating gardens which are now
nothing more than shaking bogs. The
very thin stratum Of soil which had
formed on the water of the Lake is
made more unsteady, when small
space ofan acre or two is surrounded
BY canal. There are now none of
the floating gardens described by the
cocquereru, which were formed by ar
tficlal means, and moved about from
one part of the lake to another.
The men who are me, in the streets,
are almost exclusively officers and SOL
d'ers of,he army, priests and leperos,
the latter quite as useful AND much the
least Cumbersome and pernicious of the
three classes. The Mexicans of the
better classes generally wear cloth
cloaks at all seasons of the year, and
The Indian blankets; for ornament, !
suppose, for the weather is never cold
enough to make either necessary
One thing. however, could never &C.
count for, ! did not feel uncomfortable
warm with my cloak on. AIl,he phys
ical pecularilies of the Indians of Mex.
leo are precisely the same as those of
our own Indians; they are, however.
mach smaller. Their appearance is
very much the same in all respects as
those Of the Struggling Indians who are
seen about our cities; nothing of the
elastic step and proud bearing of our
natives of the forest. Such a noble
looking fellow as the Seminole Chief,
Wild Cat, would create sensation
there; he might possibly get up pro-
hunciomento-l have No doubt he
would attempt it. In word, | am by
& 4