contributed to their ancestral pedigree, and their race is consequently mixed; yet, impure as they are by descent they have not failed, like all imitative inferiors to catch the manners and bearing of the aristocracy. There is hardly a Mexican girl,—whose whole wardrobe consists of her chemise, petticoat, rebozo, comb, looking-glass and shoes,—who does not move along the street, when in full dress, with the queenly step and coquettish display of eye and hair from beneath her cotton rebozo, which we have just admired in the Mexican doña.
The costume of Mexican gentlemen is the usual European dress worn by the same class among northern nations. But, in addition, the broad folds of a massive cloak are always thrown over their shoulders upon the slightest pretext or provocation of the weather, whilst their nostrils are constantly refreshed by the fragrant fumes of a cigar or cigaritto.
The city of Mexico possesses two magnificent Passeos and an Alameda in which all classes of the people habitually recreate themselves. The city is supplied with water by splendid aqueducts, bringing the limpid streams from the neighboring hills.
The Passeo Nuevo lies west of the city towards Chapultepec and Tacubaya. It is a broad avenue, laid out tastefully amid the beautiful meadows that surround the city, and is broken at intervals by fountains of stone, and shaded by rows of stately trees. When the weather is fine, which it usually is for six or eight months of the year, the disengaged people pour out to this gay resort, near sunset, on foot, in coach, or on horseback, to enjoy the refreshing breeze and to greet each other on this social exchange. The Passeo is broad enough to allow several coaches, to drive abreast if needful, but the course is usually occupied by only two lines of advancing and returning carriages or horsemen. This promenade parade circulates up and down the highway for an hour; but when the evening bells toll for oracion, every hat is raised for a moment and every horse's head immediately turned homewards.
The Passeo de la Viga, is on the other side of the city, and is preferred by many persons to the Passeo Nuevo. It skirts one of the canals leading to the lake of Chalco, and affords the stranger an opportunity of observing the crowds of Indians who linger along the banks, or push off at evening in their boats, crowned with flowers and strumming their guitars if the day happens to be one of festivity.
This Passeo was constructed under the viceroyalty of Revilla-Gigedo, whose improvements of the city and neighborhood of Mexico have contributed so greatly to the elegance and beauty of the capital.