Page:Mexico of the Mexicans.djvu/131

Rh Perhaps the favourite and most generally indulged-in amusement among the Mexican dwellers in cities is the afternoon or evening promenade, which is usually taken in the public square when the band is playing. Troops of sprightly and daintily-attired maidens and fashionably-dressed youths are wont to make this a place of rendezvous, and dark eyes flash greetings and signals as the gay crowd promenade to the strains of the orchestra. The Mexicans are extremely sensitive to the influence of music, and under the excitement which it produces are apt to forget or throw off that gravity of demeanour, that staid courtesy, which usually characterises them. There is an intensity of charm in the environment of a Mexican moonlight promenade. The flood of soft radiance, celestial and artificial; the suppressed chatter of the easy-moving crowd; the melodious orchestra; the arch and smiling countenances of the dark daughters of the old valley haunt the remembrance and long survive other and perhaps more serious recollections.