Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/116

114 hours of one memorable day. Far away on the other side, like a pale shadow, the beautiful peak of Orizaba showed upon the horizon; and fainter yet, the outline of Malinche made itself visible beyond.

It is impossible yet to reconcile the personal dirt of the lower classes, which is indisputable, with the cleanliness of their clothes. Few, even of the poorest, but have a very respectable whiteness in their cotton shirts and drawers; and the towels and napkins, which they use abundantly about their baskets of cakes and dulces, are as snowy as laundry work can make them. They are, besides, beautifully embroidered with the exquisite fine drawn-work for which the women of Mexico are celebrated. It was astonishing to see the beauty and value which had often been added to coarse or common material in this way. The bodices and short-sleeved chemises of the young girls, and even the woollen petticoats of the Indians, were almost invariably ornamented, either in colors or in white. The ease and accuracy with which intricate designs were conceived, or followed from some minute strips of pattern, were astonishing. The recent "crazes" of