CHAPTER VIII
SPORTS AND PASTIMES
It has often been said that in nothing does a people exhibit its true character so much as in its amusements. If this really be the case, then the Mexicans are not free from the charge of inhumanity and callousness to suffering. But the best in Mexico does not countenance brutality in sport any more than the thinking portion of Britons countenance prize-fighting or ratting.
The average Mexican is more a gamester than a sportsman. Sport and the sporting spirit, as we know it, is almost altogether lacking in Mexico, and that fine and generous spirit of chivalry which informs those manly British games of ours. But that is not to say that the Mexican is wanting in pluck. A pluckier man, a greater dare-devil, than the average young Mexican does not breathe. He cannot abide the idea of defeat; but at the same time he will do nothing dastardly to fend it off, and he is not "slim" like the Yankee "sport." The difference between him and the British sportsman is that his pride renders him obviously uneasy and vexed at defeat, whereas the Islander takes his beatings lightly. Again, when the Mexican wins, he rather likes to parade his triumph; while the victorious Briton usually sneaks off, looking decidedly sheepish.
Most Mexican sports are, naturally, of Spanish origin, but some are universal. Of the former, bull-fighting, the ball-game, and "bear" are all Castilian; horsemanship, hunting, and cock-fighting are, however, of world-wide occurrence—and the latest importations such as golf, football, and tennis are distinctly British.
But of all national sports, that of the bull-ring is by far the most popular. Large sums of money are annually
