Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-06-05


tasteful habit of doing. The inevitable
pulque was at hand in pig-skin bottle
(which retains the perfect shape of the
animal, minus head and tail), and gurgled
an approving note alarmingly like life
while its contents were being implied into
our mugs. These so-called "pig-skins
are really the undressed hides of sheep
with the woolly side turned in. Nothing
else is considered so good for holding the
popular beverage-though we are told that
q skin of small size costs not less than
81 80, and lasts little more than month
as the constant fermentation going on in
side soon eats the wool of In this vol
canic country the traveller must eschew
water, or suffer serious consequences;
good claret or Spanish wines are not al
ways obtainable outside the larger cities
and one must drink something besides the
bitter Mexican coffee; therefore We long
ago made up our minds TO pulque-the
cheap and
HEALTHFUL DRINK OF THE NATIVES
And pulque ii is, every day of our lives at
dinner. | confess, however, that it re-
quired considerable effort to educate our
selves up to it, and was only accomplished
by resolutely fixing our thoughts upon
that glorious product of the years-the cen
fury plant-from whence it came, and by
repeatedly assuring one another that the
thick, white, nasty liquid resembles home
butter milk, though we knew it TO be an out
ragous libel OH northern diaries But, even
now, Betsy and | sometimes amuse our
selves in leisure moments striving to COM
pute the quantity of Sleeps wool which
we must haue absorbed in course of the
last two years, since the contents of each
alleged pig-skin contains good deal of it
in solution" so to speak
Immediately following this dainty re-
past, the mistress of the .t0ndtd produced
her private cigarette holder and rendered
us the customary courtesy with the air of a
princess-an act of kindly hospitality
which we would not for the world have
wounded her feelings by refusing. After
wards, while the mules were resting, and
| the drivers enjoying their usual siestd, we
wandered out to view the village, whose
low-roofed and no-roofed cGsaS are nestled
at the foot of dark hills. Its quaint church
/ as usual, the prominent feature of the
! place-rejoices under a fresh coat of sky
| blue plaster without, and much gliding
within, spread over the mold and cracks of
| centuries, which gives it the appearance of
a wrinkled octogenarian fashionably be-
wigged. The weedy Enclosure behind it
| that serves as q campo santo, or grave
y
all along its adobe walls. / picked up one
of these, with the intention of adding it to
my somewhat varied collection of
"REcUERDAs DE MEXICO"
But it crumbIed to dust at touch and
| filled the air with fine powder. Then we
strayed into the school-house, where bevy
of ragged urchins were shouting their
lessons in sing-song chorus. In Mexican
| schools children never study silently, but
all tasks are committed to memory by
loud repetition-as may be imagined, max
| ing the vicinity of these temples of Mi
nerva by no means desirable places of
abode. Here the noise was deafening, and
| the poor, pale, shabby-looking old woman
who presided seemed half distracted, as no
doubt she was. The dog cared books which
these children We're using had been selected
| by some local priest years and years before,
and appeared to contain more information
about the lives of the Saints, the require
ments of the Church and the terrors OF
purgatory, than the lore o. this mundane
sphere. The girls were also taught needle
work, TO the extent of embroidering altar
cloths for the village sanctuary and vest
ments for the Virgin; while upon the
| blackboard were some lessons in spelling
and arithmetic, which were given by the
preceptress " out of her own head as she
explained TO Us.
| 1t was intensely hot, with the tropic sun
| beating down upon the roof without a tree
| to intercept its rays, and streaming into
| the uncurtained windows Every body was
| sleepy, the teacher cross, and the pupils
| irredeemably stupid. A tat centipede was
slowly dragging his loathsome, greenish-
yellow body and hundred legs surcharged
with poison along the floor in q corner,
and counted more than a dozen scorpions
eating about the walls, but nobody minds
such trifes as these in Mexico. l observed
| there that the climate cusSedneSs" of the
small boy seems to be about the same the
wide world over, for little Mexican ur
chin who had evidently been made to
stand up il the corner for some misde-
meanor, was delighting himself beyond
measure by torturing a small lizard which
| he had fastened to the wall by the tail,
sticking pins into il, and otherwise proving
| the
DOCTRINE OF TOTAL DEPRAyITY,
At least so far as small boys are concerned.
We LETT the little Babel reluctantly,
knowing full well by the vicious clutch of
the schoolma ans thin claw upon the
stout stick she carried, and by an ominous
snap in her beady eyes, that she only wait
ed our departure to urge certain tagging
steps up the thorny sleeps OF learning by
vigorous switch-suasion. Poor little .raga-
mullins The nervous irritability of that
ancient maiden. vented upon their half
naked and poorly-fed bodies, must be hard
indeed to bear And the small amount of
useless knowledge which may be beaten
into them will not abate by one jot or title
the utter hopelessness of their lives, nor
even result in SO much as improving their
apparel as the first taste of 1.-THE tree of
good and evil is said to have done by our
earliest ancestors FANNIE B. WARD