Page:Life in Mexico vol 1.djvu/172

152 teeth and the over corpulency so common amongst them, are no doubt the natural consequences of want of exercise and of injudicious food. There is no country in the world where so much animal food is consumed, and there is no country in the world where so little is required. The consumers are not the Indians, who cannot afford it, but the better classes who generally eat meat three times a day. This, with the quantities of chile and sweetmeats, in a climate which every one complains of as being irritating and inflammatory, probably produces those nervous complants which are here so general, and for which constant hot baths are the universal and agreeable remedy.

In point of amiability and warmth of manner, I have met with no women who can possibly compete with those in Mexico, and it appears to me that women of all other countries will appear cold and stiff by comparison. To strangers, this is an unfailing charm, and it is to be hoped that whatever advantages they may derive from their intercourse with foreigners, they may never lose this graceful cordiality, which forms so agreeable a contrast with English and American frigidity. . ..

Cn received an invitation some time ago to attend the honras of the daughter of the Marquis of Sa, that is, the celebration of mass for the repose of her soul. M was observing to-day, that if this Catholic doctrine be firmly believed, and that the prayers of the church are indeed availing to shorten the sufferings of those who have gone before us; to relieve those whom we love from thousands