Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/43

Rh grateful: and "it's nothings when you are used to it."

The apartment was low and confined, being not quite seven feet high, by about eleven square; and the wonder was, how it had been made to contain such an immense variety of miscellaneous articles. The floor was of earthy with here and there a patch of mud; and the first thing-that attracted my attention was a full grown mule lying on a heap of straw at one end; with his leg's stretched out in a very comfortable position. In one corner stood a decayed maguey plant (aloe) of large size; while broken pots, bones, charcoal, sticks, and hoofs, lay scattered about in confusion. On one side was a miserable sleeping-cot with a rope bottom; and on the other a rough table, with a pan of exceedingly dusty frijoles (beans) in the middle.

The walls were almost covered with vermin, and hung with tawdry ornaments: the central picture—a commanding one in point of size—had evidently been perpetrated with an intent to represent the Virgin, or Holy Mother of Guadaloupe, the patron saint of Mexico; and this figure, in common with some half-dozen other saints, all in Mexican costume,