Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/88

62 before your eyes! May your flesh rot and wither upon your bones from day to day! May you die in pain and horror, amid curses and blasphemy! And may your remains lie unburied for ever and ever!" Thus the hardened caitiff deals out his entreaties and his threats, his prayers and maledictions; and well it is for you that he has you not at his mercy.

The life of a female of this class is miserable and degraded in the extreme; they are accustomed to brawls and warfare, and in the habit of carrying concealed cuchillos with them as matters of course.

Debased as the léperos usually are, however, they are not all equally depraved; there may occasionally be found one somewhat less vile than the mass. Devoid of enlightenment and cultivation, they have sunk almost to the level of the brutes; but when some redeeming points thus present themselves, they appear all the more pitiable from the contrast.

A friend of mine encountered one at Attakapas, who was employed as herdsman on one of the prairies there, where cattle are bred and pastured. Driven to this region by a singular train of circumstances, he was living more