Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/472

466 The music made a deep impression on my sensibilities. At times it seemed like the gentlest breathings from a reed instrument; then it would mellow down to mere sighing sounds, like whisperings from an Æolian harp. It was mournful, pathetic, imploring, and was the language of the soul in quaint, almost unearthly sounds. These weird strains were wafted to my ear on the calm morning air, and the invocation inspired me with the same sad and dependent thoughts and feelings so deeply rooted in the hearts of the dusky chanters of the dirge-like melody.

Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, in Ramona, makes mention of the observance of this beautiful custom by the Mexicans in the early days of California.

We were shown that remarkable grass known as raiz zacaton, from which whisk-brooms and stout brushes for heavier uses are manufactured. The top is a luxuriant green, several inches in height, but no use is made of it, only the root being profitable. The peons employed to gather this fibrous substance call to their aid powerful mechanical appliances to remove it from the soil, so deep does it extend below the surface, and so tough are its myriad tendrils. It is exported all over the world and constitutes one of the most important products of the haciendas in this section of the country.

This hacienda, like all others, has its administrador, and an important office is his. While in many respects his duties are similar to those of an overseer, yet he differs very materially from that functionary. In the present instance the young gentleman who fills this position is a college graduate, speaking several languages, a bachelor of arts, and a justice of the peace. His accomplishments do not in the least militate against his efficiency as administrador, for he manages the estate most admirably, enjoying the utmost confidence of the family. He preferred his assured salary of twelve hundred dollars a year to the uncertain returns of the practice of his profession.

During this visit I obtained a better insight into the life of the peons than I had before known. From their evident contentment, I concluded that their condition was not, after all, so lamentable as I