Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/47

Rh nor once think of the misery and degradation of the wretched performers.

A woman carrying the furniture of half an eating house about with her attracts numerous customers who choose between maize and tortilla-cakes cups of chocolate and pulque platters of wild fowl and turkey, eggs, valdivias, and ollas. But the boys of the neighbourhood beset her like flies:—one urchin has just snatched a handful of maize for which he has no intention of paying; and his comrade, who has just run away, has overturned a large jar of pulque! She cannot follow them, for her whole stock of provisions would vanish the while; but she will be avenged by loud outcries and vociferations: already' has she discovered their last movements; and a startling torrent of exclamations and invectives electrifies the throng.

Yonder are several groups of ladrones selling their stolen goods, at a rate remarkably under the usual prices—but it is all gain to them. You may know them by their fierce and reckless appearance, and by their downcast and discontented eyes. It cannot be unknown to the police officers and superintendents who guard the fair, that these articles