Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/303

Rh to their ancestral pedigree, and their race is consequently mixed; yet, impure as they are by descent they have not failed, like all imitative inferiors to catch the manners and bearing of the aristocracy. There is hardly a Mexican girl, —whose whole wardrobe consists of her chemise, petticoat, rebozo, comb, looking-glass and shoes,—who does not move along the street, when in full dress, with the queenly step and coquettish display of eye and hair from beneath her cotton rebozo, which we have just admired in the Mexican doña.

The costume of Mexican gentlemen is the usual European dress worn by the same class among northern nations. But, in addition, the broad folds of a massive cloak are always thrown over their shoulders upon the slightest pretext or provocation of the weather, whilst their nostrils are constantly refreshed by the fragrant fumes of a cigar or cigaritto.

The city of Mexico possesses two magnificent Passeos and an Alameda in which all classes of the people habitually recreate themselves. The city is supplied with water by splendid aqueducts, bringing the limpid streams from the neighboring hills.

The Passeo Nuevo lies west of the city towards Chapultepec and Tacubaya. It is a broad avenue, laid out tastefully amid the beautiful meadows that surround the city, and is broken at intervals by fountains of stone, and shaded by rows of stately trees. When the