The subjoined list shows the parentage of the different varieties of half-casts, and also the proper designations of the latter:—
| PARENTS. | CHILDREN. |
| White Father and Negro Mother | Mulatto. |
| White Father and Indian Mother | Mestizo. |
| Indian Father and Negro Mother | Chino. |
| White Father and Mulatta Mother | Cuarteron. |
| White Father and Mestiza Mother | Creole (only distinguished from the White, by a pale-brownish complexion). |
| White Father and China Mother | Chino-Blanco. |
| White Father and Cuarterona Mother | Quintero. |
| White Father and Quintera Mother | White. |
| Negro Father and Mulatta Mother | Zambo-Negro. |
| Negro Father and Mestiza Mother | Mulatto-Oscuro. |
| Negro Father and China Mother | Zambo-Chino. |
| Negro Father and Zamba Mother | Zambo-Negro (perfectly bl'k). |
| Negro Father and Cuarterona or Quintera Mother | Mulatto (rather dark). |
| Indian Father and Mulatta Mother | Chino-Oscuro. |
| Indian Father and Mestiza Mother | Mestizo-Claro (frequently very beautiful). |
| Indian Father and China Mother | Chino-Cholo. |
| Indian Father and Zamba Mother | Zambo-Claro. |
| Indian Father and China-Chola Mother | Indian (with rather short frizzy hair). |
| Indian Father and Cuarterona or Quintera Mother | Mestizo (rather brown). |
| Mulatto Father and Zamba Mother | Zambo (a miserable race). |
| Mulatto Father and Mestiza Mother | Chino (of rather clear complexion). |
| Mulatto Father and China Mother | Chino (rather dark). |
Besides the half-casts here enumerated, there are many others, not distinguished by particular names, as they do not in color materially differ from those above specified. The best criterion for determining the varieties is the hair of the women: this is far less deceiving than the complexion, for the color of the skin is sometimes decidedly at variance with that characteristic of the race. Some of the Mulatta females have complexions brilliantly fair, and features which, for regularity, may vie with those of the most beautiful women of Europe; but they bear the unmistakeable stamp of descent in the short woolly hair.
The white Creole women of Lima have a peculiar quickness in detecting a person of half-cast at the very first glance; and to the less practised observer they communicate their discoveries in this way, with an air of triumph; for they have the very pardonable weakness of priding themselves in the purity of their European descent. Despite the republican constitution, there prevails throughout Peru a strong pride of cast, which shows itself at every opportunity. In quarrels, for example, the fairer antagonist always taunts the darker one about his descent. By all the varieties, the white skin is envied, and no one thinks of disputing its superiority of rank. The Indian looks with abhorrence on the Negro; the latter with scorn on the Indio. The Mulatto fancies himself next to the European, and thinks that the little tinge of black in his skin does not justify his being ranked lower than the Mestizo, who after all is only an Indio bruto.[27] The Zambo laughs at them all, and says "if he himself is not worth much, yet he is better than his parents." In short, each race finds a reason for thinking itself better than another.
In the commencement of the present chapter I made the observation that the people of mixed blood unite in themselves all the faults without any of the virtues of their progenitors. To this general remark, however, the Mestizos form an honorable exception. They inherit many of the good qualities both of the Whites and the Indians. They are mild and affectionate. Their feelings are very excitable, and they readily perform an act of kindness or generosity on the impulse of the moment—but they are irresolute and timid. They attach themselves affectionately to the Whites; but they are not partial to the Indians, whom they regard with some degree of contempt. In Lima their number is less considerable than in the interior of the country, where whole villages are inhabited solely by Mestizos. In those places they style themselves Whites, and hold themselves very much aloof from the Indians. One cannot pay them a better compliment than to inquire whether they are Spaniards, a question which they always answer in the affirmative, though their features are plainly impressed with the Indian stamp. The complexion of the Mestizos is usually a clear brown; but in some individuals it has a very dark tinge. Their hair is sleek, long, and very strong. The women frequently wear their hair in two long plaits descending nearly to the knees. The men are strongly made, have marked features and but very little beard. In Lima they are chiefly handicraftsmen and traders. Most of the hawkers (Mercachifles) in Lima are Mestizos.
The Mulattos differ very widely from the Mestizos. In person they are less strongly made; but in intellect they are superior to any of the half-casts. They possess a very great aptitude for mechanical employments, great dexterity and a remarkable degree of imitative talent, which, if well directed, might be brilliantly developed. They are exceedingly impressionable, and all their feelings are readily exalted into passions. Indifferent to all out sensual enjoyments, they indulge in the fleeting pleasure of the present moment, and are regardless of the future. There is a certain class of Mulattos, who, in a psychological point of view, are very remarkable. They are distinguished by the nick-name of Palanganas.[28] They are gifted with wonderful memory, and after the lapse of years they will repeat, word for word, speeches or sermons which they have heard only once. With this extraordinary power of memory, they combine a fertile fancy, and a boundless share of self-confidence. Wherever there is anything to be seen or heard, the Palanganas never fail to attend, and they repeat with the most ludicrous attitudes and gestures all that they hear, be it a sermon in church, a speech in Congress, or an address delivered at any public solemnity.
The Mulattos now study theology; for, since the establishment of independence, the Indian law, which prohibited any person of mixed blood from entering the ecclesiastical state, is no longer observed. Many have devoted themselves to medicine; and most of the physicians in Lima are Mulattos; but they are remarkable only for their ignorance, as they receive neither theoretical nor clinical instruction. Nevertheless, they enjoy the full confidence of the public, who rank the ignorant native far above the educated foreigner. The business of a barber is one that is much followed by the Mulattos of Lima. In that occupation they are quite in their element, for they possess all the qualifications for which the members of that fraternity are distinguished in all parts of the world.
Among the Mulatto females many are remarkably beautiful—though they are always wanting in that oval form of the face which is the first condition of classic beauty. Their countenances are generally round and broad, their features strongly marked, and their expression impassioned. Their beauty soon fades; and as they advance in life the negro character of their features becomes distinctly defined. Their hair, which does not grow beyond a finger's length, is jet black and frizzy. They plait it very ingeniously in small tresses, frequently making more than a hundred. Their complexions vary from white to dark-brown; but most of them are dark brunettes, with large black eyes and pearl-white teeth.
Their vanity is quite equal to that of the Negresses, but it is combined with a certain degree of taste, in which the latter are wanting. The Mulatto women are passionately fond of music, singing and dancing. They play the guitar and have pleasing voices, but their singing is quite uninstructed.
The Zambos are the most miserable class of half-casts. With them every vice seems to have attained its utmost degree of development; and it may confidently be said that not one in a thousand is a useful member of society, or a good subject of the state. Four-fifths of the criminals in the city jail of Lima are Zambos. They commit the most hideous crimes with the utmost indifference, and their lawless propensities are continually bringing them into collision with the constituted authorities. In moral nature they are below the Negroes; for they are totally wanting in any good qualities possessed by the latter. Their figures are athletic, and their color black, sometimes slightly tinged with olive-brown. Their noses are much less flat than those of the Negroes, but their lips are quite as prominent. Their eyes are sunk and penetrating, and their hair very little longer than that of the Negroes, but curling in larger locks. The men have very little beard.