er in salutation. Along comes a bull-fighter now, with his
distinctive hat, slouch, and shaven face, the redoubtable _torero_,
accompanied by admiring _amigos_, ready to pay for all the _copas_
their hero might, with lordly dignity, desire to partake of. In the
middle of the stone-paved street the _peones_, or perhaps some Indians
from the country, porters, _cargadores_, or other humble occupation,
slink along--the footpath is not for them--with their pantaloons of
cotton _manta_ rolled up to their knees and their feet unshod or
sandalled. The Mexican woman of the Indian class prefers to carry her
shoes in her hand when she enters or leaves the city streets, putting
them on only as a concession to civilisation and removing them when
away. Some years ago it was necessary to pass a regulation to the
effect that the Indians must wear trousers or other covering when in
the city, as they continually asserted their aboriginal love of bodily
freedom by appearing without them! The life and colour of Mexican towns
is characteristic, and the Mexican journeying to Britain's cities finds
life flat and colourless, without gleam of interest for him, its more
solid basis of existence not easily falling into his comprehension.

[Illustration: THE FAMOUS MEXICAN "RURALES," OR RURAL MOUNTED POLICE.]

It is the spectacular which more readily appeals to the Mexican. The
bull-fight, with its accompaniments of showy dress, tense excitement,
and elements of danger and bloodshed, is his favourite amusement.
Military parades and political functions enter largely into the
distractions of polite life, as indeed is the case throughout
Spanish-America generally. Military titles are exceedingly numerous.
Formerly it was rare that a President, a Cabinet Minister, the Governor
of a State, or the official head of a department did not carry the
distinction of general or colonel. The dormant military spirit,
indeed--and in view of Mexico's history it could hardly be
otherwise--permeates the whole body politic, and its influence and
effects give place very slowly to civil ideas. The tramp of armed men
and accoutred horses, the roll of drum and call of trumpet, appeal ever
to this race of warlike instinct. The gleam of arms and sabre possesses
for them an attraction which the ploughshare or the miner's drill can
never impart. Their ancestors, on the one side, were the warlike Aztecs
and other aboriginal races, and on the other the Conquistadores and
marti