Page:Mexico of the Mexicans.djvu/167

Rh his polite and graceful manner of a ride in one of these. Several times did he warn the driver against recklessness, until at last, becoming alarmed, he lapsed from his usual courteous speech and spoke to him with some warmth. The effect was electric, for the driver, in the belief that he had been chidden for not going fast enough, whipped up his mules and deposited the eminent scientist in the nastiest possible part of a ditch.

The true Mexican haciendado is, generally speaking, a most hospitable fellow, cheerful, if somewhat reserved, but manly and pleasant-mannered. In the old days, when feudal customs ruled agricultural Mexico, he was inclined to be somewhat of a despot, and had almost powers of pit and gallows over the peons in his service, who belonged to the land quite as much as did the serf in England in Anglo-Saxon times, or the moujik in Holy Russia. But too often the Mexican farm or estate suffers from the evils of absenteeism, as does many an estate in Ireland or Scotland, aye, in England itself, for that matter. Like all Latin-Americans, the wealthy Mexican regards Paris as his paradise; and you have probably a much better chance of meeting him there than on his native heath, just as you have a better opportunity of finding the Scottish nobleman, who prides himself on his Caledonian descent, in London. Strange that the land-owner cannot recognise the high privilege of territorial possession! Better, surely, to be "King in Kippen" than to be one of a thousand in any metropolis.

The average Mexican hacienda has, usually, its purely agricultural and its cattle-raising sides, the latter of which is generally the more important. There is usually a clever sub-division of the beasts according to different colours, a practice which greatly facilitates identification. This, of course, applies to large haciendas only. The staff of a Mexican ranch bears a close resemblance to that of a travelling circus, the cowboys being arrayed in brightly-coloured shirts and leathern trousers, plentifully decorated