Page:Mexico of the Mexicans.djvu/59

Rh The sale of tortillas in the streets is undertaken by the enchiladera, who is but the "middle-woman" between the manufacturer of the Mexican staff of life and the working classes. A woman will collect a small army of, say, a dozen assistants, who manufacture the tortillas, and it falls to the enchiladera to retail the dainties. She usually establishes herself at the door of a pulqueria, where she dispenses the pancakes of maize-flour smoking hot, which she manages to do by spreading them on a chafing-dish. Sometimes she sells turn-over tortillas, in shape resembling what in Scotland are known as "Forfar bridies," and which contain meat and chilli, or cheese and onions. These she retails at the extraordinary price of two for a cent and a half, and manages to make a profit out of the transaction!

Other lesser occupations abound. There are, for instance, the cateiteros, or wooden-tray sellers; the petatero, or seller of reed mats, at a medio or about threepence apiece, and used as beds by the very poor, of whom there are sometimes twenty sleeping in the same room. There are also the jaulero, or bird-cage sellers; the cedaceros, or sieve sellers; the canasteros, or basket sellers; and others who make and carry articles in huge loads from town to town, manufacturing and selling them on their way. Then there are the cabazeros, whose street-cry is "Good heads of sheep hot!" the cafatero, or proprietor of a coffee-stand; the velero, or candle seller; the mereillero, or pedlar of hardware; the tripero, or vendor of entrails used as the casing for sausage meat; the pollero, or chicken seller; the escobero, or broom-corn seller; the nevero, or ice-cream seller; the mantequero, or lard carrier; and the pirulero, or seller of piru, a red berry used for feeding birds. There are men termed leñadores, whose lifetime is spent in gathering sticks, from which to manufacture charcoal; there are women called casureras, whose days are passed in gathering rags; and there are the lavanderas, or washer-women, of whom the better class wear a hat over the rebozo, while the rest go bareheaded.