Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/280

252 the sale of oranges, cream, and other trifling refreshments, stooped a figure bearing some faint resemblance to a human being—apparently, a female—whose head and face were completely covered with a tightly-fitting, reddish brown reboso. As I drew nearer, my eyes rested upon what ought to have been the face of a fellow-creature, but which was so no longer: in the place of human lineaments, was an awful void; nearly every vestige of the image in which man was created being obliterated. There remained only some dim indications of eyes, and a bleared cavity supplied the place of a mouth; but forehead and cheeks, nose and chin, lips and ears, were mingled into one hideous, shapeless mass; even the hair and eyebrows seemed to have shrunk away, and the remaining skin was seamed and barred with red and black. Still the wretched being moved in her place at the table, and her appearance in other respects resembled that of storekeepers near her in the street. I could not endure to look at her long, but hurried on: strive against it as I would, however, the revolting object haunted me for the remainder of the day and in the night.

Two days afterwards, before the impression