Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/86

64, but often excessively whimsical and diverting.

Of an exhibition of these two qualities in happy unison, I was unexpectedly a witness, at a public room adjoining a fonda, to which I had gone for my usual evening meal of mutton, frijoles, and tortilla-cakes.

A good-looking postilion was standing—or rather drooping, with a swaying motion of the body—at one of the side tables, in the midst of a group of boon companions, who were profiting by his generosity; for he was treating them to divers cups of aguardiente at his own cost. He was in the condition I have named: a very impersonation of patronage, he lorded it over his comrades with mock-majestic mien and out-stretched hand; his head rolled from side to side in an important manner; his eyes glared fiercely and brightly from under his slightly-raised eyebrows—his long hair was pushed backwards on his shoulders—and he appeared to have appropriated the whole of the conversation to himself.

His dress and entire accoutrements also partook of the portentous swagger and solemn joviality of the man: his broad sombrero was set smartly on one side of his cranium; but