The characteristics of Nicaraguan life are sobriety and uniformity of food.[XXVIII-64] Families make a practice of not laying in supplies, but purchase what they need from day to day. Some buy their food already cooked.
The custom of extending invitations to dinner with one's family, so common in other countries, does not obtain in Nicaragua, except among relatives or very intimate friends. Men are asked to eat only on special occasions, when banquets are given, at which the English custom of giving toasts is followed.
Amusements are few in Nicaragua. However, the upper classes have their tertulias and balls, often improvised, at which the polka, waltz, bolero, and other well-known Spanish dances are performed with grace and spirit. The lower classes frequently have fandangoes and other characteristic dances. There is no place of general resort for the better classes, unless it is the billiard-room, which serves alike as a gambling-den.[XXVIII-65] The cockpit is in full operation every Sunday, the people being fond of the amusement, and even the most respectable indulge in it.[XXVIII-66] Gambling at monte and other games of hazard is common enough, but the vice has not attained the development noticed in other parts of Spanish America.[XXVIII-67] It is certainly conducted with less publicity.
There are neither bull-pits nor professional bull-fighters. Now and then a performance of the kind takes place in some plaza; the bull is much worried, but not killed.[XXVIII-68]
After describing the manners and customs of the Nicaraguans, there is but little left to say of their neighbors the Salvadorans, who resemble them in most characteristics. It must be acknowledged, however, that the people of Salvador are entitled to the first rank in Central America for their industry, general intelligence, and love of order. Individual rights are respected among them, and well-behaved foreigners are at all times made welcome. The Salvadorans seem to understand what are the duties of republicans.[XXVIII-69]
The population of Salvador consists of Indians, ladinos, and zambos. The ladinos comprise the whites, of which class the proportion is small, and the several mixtures of white and Indian. The mode of living of the latter scarcely differs from that of the Nicaraguans or other Central Americans of the same standing.
SALVADORAN SOCIETY.
The aboriginal peoples have undergone considerable modification from the three centuries of contact with the white men, and of subjugation to the Spanish rulers. But there are towns, even near San Salvador, the capital, which have retained many of their primitive customs, and where the aboriginal blood has suffered but little, if any, intermixture. The native language has fallen into disuse in most places, and only a few words, also accepted by the whites, are retained.[XXVIII-70] The region known as costa del bálsamo[XXVIII-71] is entirely occupied by Nahua nations, whose habits have scarcely changed since the conquest. They are not absolutely hostile to the Europeans, but certainly dislike any intrusion on their part. They are an industrious people.
The aboriginal Salvadoran is, as a rule, slender in form but muscular. Some of the women have fine figures and graceful carriage; they walk with a firm step and body erect. They are, both men and women, gentle, affable, and rather hospitable; their temperament is melancholy and dreamy. They are well-disposed toward foreigners, and though they will not tolerate any doubt as to the purity of their blood, yet consider themselves insulted by being called indios. They also look upon the whites and ladinos as usurpers in the land. They are much given to boasting of their courage and generosity, and wish to be taken for a brave people. The Indian possesses a certain quantum of honesty, but will fulfil his contracts faithfully when his interests do not suffer by it; otherwise, he will find a loop-hole of escape. He cannot understand the value put by others on capital; his present needs being covered, he cares nothing for the superfluous.[XXVIII-72]
The men are quite reserved in their manner; the women are different. Their desire to have children by white men promotes looseness. They do not see any dishonor in having foreign lovers, and children born out of wedlock. Nearly all the Indians can read and write, and have some knowledge of arithmetic.