Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/54

46 whose presence was tolerable from the fact that they sold it extremely cheap. For a medio (six cents) one could buy a dozen oranges, a bunch of bananas, or a large lot of mangoes. The court was filled with little shelters made by planting a pole in the ground, and making a framework on it like the ribs of an umbrella, and covering it with matting. Beneath each one sat a woman or girl, with her articles for sale spread about and before her,—a little fruit, cabbage, lettuce, or cooked meat. Upon a square of cloth, spread on the pavement, would be half a dozen eggs, right out where everybody was passing, or a few peppers, a bunch of flowers, or a pint of beans. Some of these market-women wore elegantly embroidered uipils; some were pretty, all were modest, and all were peaceable. During the time I was in that country I did not see one quarrelsome or disorderly person, hardly heard a baby cry, or any one raise his voice to another above a tone of polite conversation; the place was crowded, but there was no jostling or confusion.

In a circular space in the Calle de Hidalgo is a market devoted entirely to the sale of hats and hammocks, the handiwork of Indians, who squat there all day in the blazing sun. Near this place is the corn-market, a long line of arcades beneath which the merchants sit with corn and beans emptied in heaps on the pavement. There are sold here, also, pottery and fancy wares. Under the castle walls, the mule teams that have come in the night before from the interior are grouped, resting, or waiting for return loads. Above all, the ruined cupolas of the monastery peer over the castle walls that surround it, and the cries and the drumming of the guard occasionally ring out from within. This monastery was built on the ruins of an artificial mound, was of vast proportions, and covered that mysterious arch mentioned by Stephens, which has so long been a puzzle and a stumbling-block to archaeologists.

The air of morning is so sweet, so cool, that a walk into the suburbs is almost imperative. The first noises are just preceding daybreak, when the soldiers change guard at the "palace"; then the bells of the cathedral strike up, and shortly after appear dawn and sunrise. Passing through one of the quaint and