Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/287

 than in Spain, and yet less corrupt than in the large cities of Europe." This opinion is given by a writer who is commended in unqualified terms by Señor Cubas, himself a Mexican, or I should have much hesitancy in accepting it. Personally speaking, I saw no indication of this laxity of morals among the better classes, although among certain Indian tribes women of easy virtue are the rule rather than the exception.

In their dress, the Creoles differ in no important particular from the French, the ladies especially conforming to the latest fashion plates from Paris, with this exception, that at morning mass, and in making unceremonious calls, they wear that graceful Spanish head-dress, the mantilla; and the gentlemen, when on horseback, or in the country, adopt the picturesque riding costume of the Mestizos. They have many lovable traits: their goodness of heart, their cheerful endurance of the petty ills of life, the respect and courtesy paid by children to their parents, and the frankness with which a stranger is received by the family, who all combine to please and entertain him,—these are but few of their amiable qualities.

The deeper we get into this subject, the more delicate becomes the nature of it. We now approach that third race (so called) of Mexico, the Mestizo, or mixed people. Again, although I have already expressed myself regarding the Mestizo character, I shall doubt my ability to deal with it satisfactorily, and shall present the opinions of one longer a resident of Mexico than myself.

"The noblest of the Aztecs," says the author of Mexico and the Mexicans, "fell in battle with the Spaniards; their property fell into the hands of the victors, who at the same time became possessed of the families of those who had fallen; the rude warriors married the dusky daughters, who were rendered their equals by baptism. It was not considered a mésalliance to marry a noble Aztec girl. The sons of Montezuma, who were educated in Spain, received the title of Count. The Indian aristocracy adopted Christianity, and became amalgamated with the new population. It was not so with the poorer classes, who from the earliest periods had been subjected to the Indian