Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/46

32 and his dinner for the day, it is quite likely that he is prepared to creep into a hovel or shelter with his family, where they may sleep off the debauch that universally finishes these ecclesiastical functions. Similar wild indulgences are permitted among them at marriages, baptisms and interments, and in consequence of this thriftlessness, these miserable wretches are never able either to leave property to their offspring or to afford them an education by which they may improve their lot in life.

The Indian woman is the true and faithful companion of her husband's fortunes. She works incessantly at her appropriate tasks. She grinds the corn for the tortillias and atolé of the family, and carries them to her husband wherever he is at work; she weaves, in her rude manner, all the materials of cotton or wool that are worn by her household; she makes the garments of her spouse and children; she keeps the domestic premises in order without an assistant; nor does she cease, for a moment, to nourish and watch her offspring during their infancy. If her husband departs to another district, or is enlisted as a soldier, she straps her pack and her youngest child on her back, and accompanies her liege lord, whilst a train of their mutual descendants, "small by degrees and beautifully less," follows in their rear.

We have said that the Indians are frugal in their food and economical in their dress, for in reality, their meals commonly consist only of cereal products, and, especially, of corn. Atolé, tortillias, Chili peppers and frijoles, are sufficient to support them. They do not eat flesh habitually, and yet they are healthy and robust, nor is it extraordinary to see individuals among them who attain the advanced age of more than of ninety years.

Their occasional indulgence in drunkenness, disgusting and injurious as it is at the moment, does not generally destroy the constitutions of these hardy laborers, whose subsequent compulsory temperance, not only in drink but in food, soon repairs the momentary inroads of a day's debauch.

The dress of both men and women is the simplest and the cheapest possible. In the state of ignorance and abjection in which this race has been so long held, it is not easy to conceive whether their intellectual faculties might be again aroused. In some of the colleges of Mexico, individuals have applied themselves with great care, have received classical educations, and made remarkable progress even in the sciences, in some of which they excelled. But generally speaking, these instances may be regarded as remarkable exceptions. The Indian, as we have