Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/356

348 were so little used in Mexico by the poorer people as to be more ornamental than useful; they preferred to sit on their heels or to lounge on the floor. Very few had knives or forks, and a spoon was always made of a tortilla folded together and dipped in the family-dish. The food and the clothing in such a home are generally homemade.

The women are industrious, and manage to weave with their old Aztec looms such cloth as their ancestors gave to Cortez by the bale. The apparatus looks like a few sticks tied together, and when not in use hangs on the wall.