Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/60

36 belonging to the nobles, with cuchillos and daggers deposited by léperos; silver-mounted rifles and revolving pistols, side by side with rusty barrels, damaged locks, and shattered gun-stocks, broken powder-horns and hinge-less flasks. Also a fine collection of massive gold and silver plate,—gold vases, silver services, gilt trays, chased bowls, urns, and other vessels.

Of books and pictures none—with the exception of a few attractive-looking missals, some pieces of embroidery in gold frames, and a few foreign perpetrations, reminding us of the Chinese. And articles of furniture very few; for the upper classes seldom pledge their furniture, and the lower ranks have no furniture in the world to pledge.

The various groups are as opposite in appearance as can be imagined: léperos and léperas, beggars and ladrones, shoulder the fashionable and well-attired; and filthy Indians, whose earthly possessions are centred in the ragged blankets that but half conceal their nakedness, encounter the haughty and supercilious dames and caballeros at every turn.

The place of a mendicant who has just deposited a faded frezada, is taken by a