The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1883-07-11
LIFE AMONG THE MEXICANS.

LIFE AMONG THE MEXICANS.
CURIOUS SIGHTS WHICH MEET A
STRANGERS EYE.
Leading n Life of LeIsure---The Mexican
Adobe Huts..-The People and Their Habits
---What the Women Wear.
A Garcia (Mexico) correspondent of
the Philadelphia Times writes Many
things strike with a pleasing sense of
novelty on the eye and ear Of one who,
coming straight from the busy haunts
of more civilized man, finds himself
for the first time in the streets Of one
of the smaller Mexican towns. The
houses, to begin with, are unlike any
thing he has left behind him. Flat
rooted, one-storied editices, they are,
for the most part, built of "adobe," or
sun-dried mud bricks. The poorer
ones have no opening except the one
door leading from the street, and the
cool gloom of their interiors contrasts
pleasantly with the fierce glare out
side. The better class ones are plas-
tered and whitewashed or painted dull
pink or purple or yellow, or n
mented with designs much resembling
wallpaper, and giving the house the
appearance of having been turned in
side out. All windows have project
ing frames heavily barred with wood
or protected by iron gratings. The
space above doors and windows is
often tastefully decorated with designs
in raised plaster, and the great wooden
gates which close the entrance to the
"patio," or inner court, round which
all better-class houses are built, are
often quantity and richly carved.
Very quiet and strangely free from
all appearance Of hurry and harsh
noises are the streets. Carts are very
few and far between, and those that
do make their appearance, at long IN
tervals, are heavy two-wheeled wooden
vehicles, drawn by one or more yoke
of oxen, and their gentle rumbling, as
they are slowly dragged along, can
hardly be termed a noise, certainly not
a harsh one. The streets are sandy,
for the most part, and the foot pas
sengers lightly shod, many OF them IN
sandals and the younger ones barefoot
ed, and all these make little or no noise
as they pass quietly to and fro.
| Neither can the church bells ringing
for mathis and even-song be strictly
called a noise.
No one seems in a hurry in these
places. And why should they be?
The necessaries of life are few and
very cheap, and the extra dollars
needed for the Sunday cock-light or
the weekly game of "monte' OF the
men, and the fan or comb or silver
shawl-pin Of the women, easily earned,
and so the good man is not obliged to
walk fast on off days when he is IN
town and goes round to the "matan-
"a" or butchers shop, to buy a piece
of meat for dinner, and there is not
the least rea:on why he should
not stop for twenty minutes
on the sidewalk and talk to
Juan or Jose, whom he has en-
countered on the way, or spend half an
hour in at the "tendajo" hanging over
the counter and discussing a glass OF
mescal and the crops with Tomas or
Telesforo. The good wife, too. rises
early, and the day is still young by the
time she has fetched water from the
river and swept the earthen floor OF
the one living room and the "patlo"
outside and given the good man MS
breakfast and dispatched him to the
fields, and she has ample time to don
her black head-shawl and trot OF to
morning service, and by no means hur-
ries herself, as she walks home again
and drops Donnas Juana and MARIAN
Victoriana at their respective doors,
stopping awhile to exchange a few
parting remarks with each; ample time
has she, too, to prepare the inevitable
tortillas, beans and coffee for the mid
day meal.
From monday till between 3 and 4
o'clock in the afternoon (during which
hours the inhabitants are all indoors
eating dinner and taking the subse-
quent "siesta" is the quietest and
LATEST time of all. Then, indeed, does
the little town seem like a city of the
dead.
Between 3 and 1 o'clock the town
becins to wake I'M slowly. At 4, or
thereabouts, comes "merienda," a sort
of afternoon tea, consisting of coffee
and cakes. At S the women dress and
go out visiting. At Z the bells sound
for "oracion," or evening service; at 3
comes supper, and by 8 all is still as
the grave, except on Sunday nights,
when the band plays in the little
"plaza," or moonlight nights. when
the rich notes of the hooking bird fill
the silence and make the exiled Eng
lishman think of nightingales and
home. OF the animal life in the
streets, the dogs, by their number and
infinite variety Of size and shape, de-
serve mention. Many of them have
an evident and strong admixture OF
coyote blood in their veins. The
large, pricked-up ears, the bushy,
dropping tail, the Sinking gait,
all are there. and the resem-
blance in some cases is most striking.
The novelty to the stranger in this slime
is the pelon, or hairless dog. Sharp
nosed, short-legged, long-bodied, in
size equal to a small fOx-terrier, his
blue-black body is as innocent of hair
as the palm of ones hand, save and
except on the top of his head and the
extreme tip of his tail, where he has
tufts IF dirty yellow bristles which
give the finishing touch to his gener-
ally disgusting appearance. This in
teresting animal is said by the Next
a n to be good for the rheumatism.
The elderly Mexican female atllictedin
that way, when she feels the Fremont
tory twinges, takes to her bed in COM
pany with her "pelon." When she
gets up again she has got rid of her
troubles and the dog is laid up. How
he in turn gets rid of the complaint is
not generally known.
Children are numerous, especially
around the poorer houses. They are
of all compilations, from brownish-
black, with jet-black hair and eyes, to
fair-skinned, f~air-haired and blue-eyed.
Some of them are pretty, and notably
50 DIG of the elder ones, whose sweet
olive complexioned oval faces, dark
melting eyes and graceful forms bring
to ones mind the "angel stunt" OF Pope
Gregory.
Of the elder folk the most pictur-
ocouo ,ra tho uyaruprOs" and team