Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/65

Rh that all the engagements are made at this season, and the poor lovers have little chance for meeting again, before another carnival, except in the watchful presence of the lady's mother. They yield themselves to the sweet abandon of the hour, and float through the dances; but they quake inwardly at the thought of the scoldings they will get from the lynx-eyed duennas, who—now old and ugly—enviously begrudge their daughters these little pleasures.

No people in the world are pleasanter, or possessed of more delightful manners, than the Yucatecos, and they might be taken as models to be studied with advantage. The Yucatan dance is slow and measured, simply a walk-around, and so no one gets warm and perspiring. Dance follows dance, until twelve o'clock, when the ladies begin to lessen in number, and by one the hall is empty.

Five nights they kept the ball in motion, improving every precious hour of the carnival; and at its ending there were, doubtless, many souls made happy with the thought that they twain should some time be one; while a great many more were disappointed, and were relegated to another year's imprisonment.

To the great regret of the people, the carnival finally ended, the noise of revelry ceased, all the fair señoritas were safely housed in their respective prisons, the lights of the ball-room extinguished; and we walked home to our hammocks beneath the glimmer of the serenest of stars, and through an atmosphere delicious in its coolness.