Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/279

Rh There is doubtless a great affinity between the races of Mexican Indians (the native Aztecs) and the Arabian tribes; there yet remains much of the Eastern type in the aspect of the people—their diminutive figures, their aversion to labour, their fiery irritable tempers, and their flowing and often poetical redundancy of language. The physical weakness of the modern Mexicans is extreme; insomuch that the Indian men are not personally stronger on the average, than the women of many climes: in the war with America the feebleness of the Mexicans was so apparent that their enemies often vanquished them at the rate of one against four or five.

Their want of mental energy also corresponds with their bodily weakness: they are totally unfit for enterprise of any sort; and are; also deficient in courage and perseverance. New kinds of employment whether manufacturing or agricultural, are regarded with suspicion and shunned as innovations; even new implements of labour are rejected as hazardous and unnecessary; while the luxurious climate and fertility of soil, by lessening the demand for labour, tend still further to enervate the population. To this mental and