Page:Life in Mexico vol 1.djvu/88

68 very grandiloquent effect, we entered, by four o'clock, Puebla de los Angeles, the second city to Mexico, (after Guadalajara) in the Republic, where we found very fine apartments prepared for us in the inn, and where, after a short rest and a fresh toilette, we went out to see what we could of the city before it grew dusk, before it actually became what it now is, Christmas Eve!

It certainly does require some time for the eye to become accustomed to the style of building adopted in the Spanish colonies. There is something at first sight exceedingly desolate-looking in these great wooden doors, like those of immense barns, the great iron-barred windows, the ill-paved court-yards, even the flat roofs; and then the streets, where, though this is a fête-day, we see nothing but groups of peasants or of beggars—the whole gives the idea of a total absence of comfort. Yet the streets of Puebla are clean and regular, the houses large, the cathedral magnificent, and the plaza spacious and handsome.

The cathedral was shut, and is not to be opened till midnight mass, which I regret the less as we must probably return here some day.

The dress of the Poblana peasants is pretty, especially upon fête-days. A white muslin chemise, trimmed with lace round the skirt, neck and sleeves, which are plaited neatly; a petticoat shorter than the chemise, and divided in two colors, the lower part made generally of a scarlet and black stuff, a manufacture of the country, and the upper part of yellow satin, with a satin vest of some bright color, and covered with gold or silver, open in front, and turned