Yet it is not to be supposed that under this autocratic and patriarchal rule—for the régime in some respects has an atmosphere of the pastoral scenes of the Old Testament—the peones are oppressed or unhappy. Men who know no other state are contented with their lot, and the poor Mexican creates matters of pastime and enjoyment in his simple life. Bull-fights, horse-racing, cock-fighting, together with dancing and the consumption of liquor—the latter his serious and principal vice—furnish him with distraction, whilst religious feast-days make up the sum.
This description applies mainly to the agricultural labourer. The miner stands somewhat apart as a class, pursuing his more arduous, yet possibly more independent, labour under the ground, and living in the clustered adobe huts upon the bare hillside in the vicinity of the mine-mouth. With his pick, bar, and dynamite he jovially enters his subterranean passage, where, generally working under some system of contract, his energies are spurred by the hope of profit depending upon his own efforts—ever a stimulus which the mere day-worker lacks.
The system of contract work also obtains in some cases with the agricultural labourer, especially in the cultivation of sugar-cane, which is an important Mexican industry. Fields, with water for irrigation, are allotted to the responsible worker—Mexico is a country whose rainfall generally is insufficient for cultivation without irrigation—and this he cultivates, the hacienda lending seed and implements, and taking as payment a stated portion of the crop.
So, if the people generally are poor, they are not discontented. Their wants are exceedingly simple and easily supplied. Furniture and other household chattels are not acquired nor required by the poorer class of peon. If he has no bedstead, the earthen floor serves the purpose, and here he and his family sleep, rolled together in their ponchos or blankets for warmth, with an utter disregard for ventilation, damp, or kindred matters. Indeed, if need be, the hardy peon will sleep out upon the open plain without feeling any particular discomfort.
The interior ménage of a Mexican hut is naturally primitive. The fireplace is often outside, and consists of unshaped stones, between which charcoal or firewood is ignited, and upon these the earthen pot, or olla, is balanced, containing whatever comestible the moment may have afforded, and whose contents we will proceed to investigate. If the fireplace is inside, there is often no chimney, and the habitation is smoky and dark, with only a hole in the roof for ventilation. En passant, it may be said that some of the methods of the poorer Mexican peones are not much in advance of those of our common ancestor—primeval man!
To observe now the contents of the olla. First it should be noted that earthenware vessels fulfil nearly all the purposes of the peones' culinary requirements. In these seemingly fragile articles the women bake, stew, boil, and fry in a fashion which would astonish the English or American housewife, accustomed to the use of iron utensils. The diet of the peon is largely vegetarian, and indeed he is a living example of the working force contained in cereals and leguminous plants. Meat is a scarce and expensive luxury which he is rarely able to obtain.
| MEXICAN PEON LIFE: TYPICAL VILLAGE MARKET-PLACE. |
Most important of all in this primitive menu is the tortilla; and, indeed, this simple article of food is worthy of being blazoned upon the country's escutcheon! for it may be said to be the basis of all labour here. The tortilla is simply an unsweetened pancake of maiz flour, patted out thin in the hands and baked, and its preparation is the principal occupation of the women of the peones during the time their men are toiling in the fields. Let us watch a Mexican woman of the working class making her tortillas, probably sitting on the threshold of her habitation for purposes of light and neighbourly gossip. She has brought forth a grinding-stone or flat mortar known as a metate, for the purpose of grinding the maiz—an article shaped out of a block of a special kind of volcanic stone, called recinta, an implement inherited from Aztec times. The maiz has been boiled with a little lime, and is somewhat softened, and she places handfuls of the grain upon the metate, adding water, and shortly reduces it to a stiff paste under the grinding of the upper stone. The tortilla is then patted out into the form of a thin pancake and baked in an earthenware dish, or casuela. If it is to be our fortune to partake of this preparation—and if we have been travelling in a remote part of the country it may be so—it is advisable not to inquire too closely into the cleanliness of the operation, for the Mexican peon and his woman do not consider morning ablutions at all a necessary part of their toilette! The supply of tortillas being finished, they are sufficient for the day's requirements, and take the place of bread, and, indeed, of plates, knives and forks, for the peones scoop up their food or put it upon these handy pancakes for depositing it in their mouths, and munch them with their frijoles with the utmost gusto. To re-heat the tortillas they are placed for a few moments upon the glowing embers of the fire, and with a roll of tortillas in his pocket the peon will undertake a day's work, or toilsome march, and ask little else. The tortilla, and, indeed, the consumption of maiz in this form, seems to be peculiar to Mexico. In Peru, Chile, or other Spanish-American countries it is unknown.
Mention has been made of frijoles. There is more contained in that word—which we should translate as haricot beans, a small white variety—than might be supposed. Next to the tortilla it is the staple article of diet of a good many millions of Mexico's inhabitants. The preparation of the frijoles is simple. They are boiled in an earthen pot until they are cooked, and then fried in lard or other fat. They acquire a rich brown colour, and are appetising and wholesome. Even in the homes of the upper class frijoles are—or were—served as one of the courses, although there is a certain tendency to despise this as a national or Indian dish—a little weakness of advancing civilisation! But beans cooked in the Mexican way might well be adapted in English households, whether for reasons of novelty or economy. In the United States they are used in the form of "Boston baked pork and beans," but are considered a delicacy rather than an article of ordinary diet.