. 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 _menage_ 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, a