Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-04-27
MEXICO'S PEASANT GIRL.
FASCINATING PIcTUREsouENEss OF
THE MEXICAN MUCHACHA
Tho Feminine Representative Of . Bo-
mantle kace-Her Simplicity Of Cos
tume-Sly CoQuettishnsss-Narri and

The Feminine Representative Of . Ro-
mantle k.ce-Her Simplicity Of Cos
| tume-sly Experimentation and
sHousekeeper-Skill ~ . Cook.
In the more unfrequentsd portions Of this
republic the peasant girl Is seen in all her
primitive simplicity. As the numbering
stage-coach, with its dozen passengers
slackens up at the adobe gate Of some
hacienda, and the driver shouts his 4Buenos
Dias!" Or words OF greeting, the first to issue
from the gray-walled hacienda is Mexican
muchacha- True to the vein Of curiosity
which forms a fiber of the feminine heart
ever since the day that curiosity led Mother
Eve to taste the forbidden fruit, the much
| acha must sea who are tho new arrivala
She stands at the great gate Of tho
hacienda shyly watching tho newcomers
| She is but developed child; simple, pict-
| ureslue, content; one whose face is not
| frecklei, whose limbs are not attenuatsd
and never know the manacling Of . stock
ing. Her hair is not golden; her feet are
bare, and the two long braids Of jetty hair
falling behind are caught at the ends with
the inevitable lit of bright ribbon. When
| speaking she generally catches the braids
| and filings them over her breast and her
| brown, bare shoulders She wears no Pomp-
adour, no Grecian coil, and no bangs, but
her hair, parted in the middle, is as glossy
| and black as the famous atzabatche Of her
| native hills She wears only short skirt,
| and that intimate, low-cut vesture Of white
| texture and scant pattern SO well known
| and seldom mentioned, which hangs sus-
pended from her nut-brown shoulders, and
| is caught inside the skirt before it is gathered
| in at the waist She Is entirely unconscious
of a want Of further clothing.
REPRESENTATIVE OF A ROMANTIC RACE
Among the different types Of women in
| America none Is more unique than the
Mexican muchacha; for she is q woman
governed rather by the characteristics of q
| race than by the shackles of education,
coquettish from instinct, graceful because
| natural The traveller remembers well a
| creature who watched him with less Of in
quisitiye curiosity than sly coquettishness in
| those very black eyes But beyond the
| mere attraction of her glances are the asso-
Citations which environ that creature. she
is the representation of q romantic race
| whose civilization, coeval with the palmest
days Of Egypt and Persia, partase strangely
ct the Orient Like her sister on the Ganges,
| the Nile, and the Euphrates, she mases her
| Iui tllidS DTcdu, sue C6IIlc5
water on her head as gracefully as Rsbecca,
and spins like Penelope.
But her race has bent below the fluttering
of cros,-emblazoned flag, which, wherever
it has gone, has left behind it a trail OF desc
| ton. 1t was beneath that Castilian Gag
that the native American woman became
Spanish in the olden time Of strength and
conquest and unchanged in manner, APP
pearance, or taste, she has acquired the new
characteristic coquetry 20 essentially
Spanish While the pretty oval ia e, the
bright black eyes, and the quick, glib
tongue Of the Mexican muchacha is the
same as it was so or 1000 years ago, she
has attained other characteristics brought ~
her By the chivalric soldiers Of Cortez
MARRIED AND IN THE KITCHEN.
Once married her domestic surroundings
are such rs she would have them lie, for she
knows no better. Her domestic system may
be primitive She has no chairs. no closets,
no stoves, no tin or glassware, and no soap.
Her cooking, celebrated for its savOry char
acter, is carried on in alias, or pots OF brown
earth over brasero, or open brick fireplace.
The great national dish, frijoles-beans-is
not prepared by her Is it would lie by her
golden haired and blue eyed Boston sister-
with rich morsels OF pork.
The muchacha soaks and steams the fri
joies for two days or SO, and then cooks
them with onions and seasonings, and serves
them hot from a fat cazuela, or earthe3
frying pan and covered with thick gravy.
Her torti,las -bread-are fiat, round cases
of corn-four, toasted over the chGrcoi,
they contain no yeast or bicarbonate poi
sons; these tortiIlas, CURED up, are ussi to
scoop the friso,e like a spoon, only tn,
spoon is eaten each time
Every Mexican peasant girl is an adept In
the cooking Of atole, or corn meal cruel,
euchilades, an tamales, spicy preparations
wrapped in the plant tortiiias, and shs is
also gooi judge Of Mexico's national bev
erages-pulque and mezcal-Mexico Cor.
Providence Journal