Page:Mexico of the Mexicans.djvu/199

Rh and fruit market to-day in Mexico is one of the sights of the city, and the native taste displayed in arrangement of both fruit and blossoms is quite remarkable. The Mexican Indian is, like most people with an ancient civilisation behind them, a good trader, but he is by no means insatiable. Strangely enough, however, he is extremely given to litigation, and it is by no means uncommon for the members of a family to wage furious legal warfare with one another as to the division of an inheritance until not one fraction of their birthright remains.

Some Aztec Indians live on the most approved lines of civilisation, having their houses furnished in the European manner and wearing the garments of fashion. But it has to be recorded that when a favourable opportunity presents itself, they vacate their cushioned seats and squat upon the floor!

The marriage relation between the sexes is a peculiar one. The Aztecs are often inordinately jealous of their wives and, if their suspicions are in any way aroused, beat them mercilessly. But to this the women do not seem to object. Indeed, if a husband ceases to beat his wife, she usually makes it a matter for complaint, and argues therefrom that he has grown careless and has ceased to love her. The Aztecs, like the ancient Hebrews, must by custom labour for at least a year with their prospective fathers-in-law before earning the right to wed their brides. On the day of the wedding, the groom presents the lady of his choice with a sum of money, about a sovereign, with which she purchases dress material or provisions. These articles are not supposed to be worn or eaten, but sold by her at the local market in order that she may make a profit upon them and thus lay the nucleus of savings for a rainy day.

There is a strange belief among the Aztecs that, as the country once belonged to them, they have a perfect right to all within its borders. Thus no one can draw from them admission that they have stolen anything. Racial feeling