Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/77

Rh the glistening earth and foliage—have together the most superb effect imaginable; and are more striking still from the suddenness and completeness of their changes. The houses in Xalapa are more comfortable and better furnished than in almost any other district of Mexico: the walls and ceilings are often pleasingly decorated, and the apartments, though low, have a cheerful aspect.

The inhabitants number 11,000. The general tone of society is above the average in the country: there are fewer beggars in the streets, the Indian population is not so wretched, and virtue and religion are held in somewhat higher respect. The ladies of Xalapa are celebrated throughout the land for their beauty, in such wild poetry and song as have survived the shock of revolutions, and the degradations of war and superstition. Their features are well shaped, their complexions rosy, and their eyes fine and lustrous; their manners are refined, their dispositions pleasing; and, upon the whole, they furnish as favourable a specimen of the female character as can be found in Mexico.

Perote is a small town on the road from