Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/297

Rh over their shoulders, and the females in chemise and closely cinctured petticoat of fanciful colors, whilst their heads, and thinly clad bosoms, are folded and partly concealed in their graceful rebozos. Then there are the wretched leperos, whose long and tangled hair falls in weird strands over their tawny necks and dirty brows, beneath which flash the sharp black eyes that are constantly on the watch for something to do, to drink, to eat, or to steal. In the neighborhood of the pulquerias or liquor shops, crowds of these social vermin swarm and sleep.

Pushing his way, eagerly and industriously through the crowd, the laborious aguador, or water carrier elbows his way, as he trots his rounds to fulfil his daily task with his twin jars of the refreshing fluid, one of which he bears upon his back, suspended by a strap around his brow, and balanced by another which depends from a leathern thong, which rests upon the back of his head. Hard by the aguador, appear the carbonero, or coal dealer,—the poultry seller,—the crockery pedlar, or the porter,—all of whom bear their burdens on their shoulders, and move along in that ambling trot which is peculiar to the laborers and Indians of Mexico. Large