Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/304

252 weather is fine, which it usually is for six or eight months of the year, the disengaged people pour out to this gay resort, near sunset, on foot, in coach, or on horseback, to enjoy the refreshing breeze and to greet each other on this social exchange. The Passeo is broad enough to allow several coaches, to drive abreast if needful, but the course is usually occupied by only two lines of advancing and returning carriages or horsemen. This promenade parade circulates up and down the highway for an hour; but when the evening bells toll for oracion, every hat is raised for a moment and every horse's head immediately turned homewards.

The Passeo de la Viga, is on the other side of the city, and is preferred by many persons to the Passeo Nuevo. It skirts one of the canals leading to the lake of Chalco, and affords the stranger an opportunity of observing the crowds of Indians who linger along the banks, or push off at evening in their boats, crowned with flowers and strumming their guitars if the day happens to be one of festivity.

This Passeo was constructed under the viceroyalty of Revilla-Gigedo, whose improvements of the city and neighborhood of Mexico have contributed so greatly to the elegance and beauty of the capital.

The Alameda is a beautiful grove of lofty forest trees planted in a rich soil in the western section of the city and on the road to the