Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/295

 policemen are efficient and well drilled, courteous and affable. At night, the policeman is furnished with a lantern, which he places exactly in the centre of the street, while he sits in a doorway on the opposite corner, and snoozes at intervals in his sarape, or blanket-shawl. At certain periods he disturbs the nocturnal quiet with ear-piercing whistles; in the smaller cities and provincial towns, he cries the time of night, always ending up with "Tiempo seréno," or, "All serene." From this the mischievous Mexican youth have nicknamed him the Sereno, although his trim appearance now, clad in neat uniform, is in great contrast to the ancient watchmen, who first acquired, and bore with serenity, this appellation.

But commend to me the honest aguador; who, with his burden of earthen jars, his leathern armor and quaint ways, is the most interesting individual of the Mexican street. All the water of the city being brought over aqueducts, it is only obtainable at the fountains, and the aguador thus becomes the most important personage of the household; and as he is the bearer of gossip and news, he is always most welcome.

Society in Mexico differs little from society in Spain, or in Cuba, or other Spanish-speaking country, so that to describe it would be an unnecessary task. There is one phase of it, however, that has reached a development not surpassed either in the mother country or the Gem of the Antilles. I allude to courtship, or perhaps it may be merely flirtation. From my secure post of observation on the azotea of my boarding-house, I often noticed a haggard and emaciated young man, pacing the sidewalk in front of the next house. Seeing him day after day, I inquired the reason of his perambulations in that particular spot, and was informed that he was "playing the bear"; or, in other words, paying his attentions to the fair señorita in the balcony above. Hacer el oso is the Mexican for this idiotic performance, or "to play the bear,"—from the uneasy walking to and fro in one spot, like a bear in a cage. In his hand the imitator of the bear carries either a cigar or cigarette, with which he conducts a correspondence with his inamorata, she replying through the medium of her fan or handkerchief. I