rarely subject to any deformity. In Mexico, they generally attain an advanced age, especially the women, who frequently reach a century, and preserve their muscular strength to the last. Their hair scarcely ever turns grey, and it is far more rare to find an Indian than a negro with grey hair. In Mexico, drunkenness is most common amongst the Indians who inhabit the valley of Anahuac and the environs of Puebla and Tlascala, wherever, indeed, the maguey is cultivated on a large scale. The Mexican Indian is grave, melancholic, and silent so long as he is not under the influence of pulque. He loves to throw a mysterious air over the most casual actions. He passes all at once from a state of absolute stolidity to violent and ungovernable agitation. This is especially the case with the inhabitants of Tlascala, who are still distinguished by a certain haughtiness which seems to speak of a remembrance of the independence of their ancestors. The Mexican Indians display a great aptitude in the arts of imitation, and a much greater skill in those which are purely mechanical. Humboldt was astonished at what they were able to execute in carving, with a bad knife, on the hardest wood. They are fond of painting, but have been servilely imitating for 400 years the models which the Europeans imported with them at the Conquest. Their music and dancing partake of the want of gaiety which characterises them. Their songs are melancholy. They have preserved their fondness for flowers which was noticed by Cortés. In the great market-places the Indian fruiterer appears seated behind an entrenchment of fresh herbs. Garlands of flowers and nosegays are suspended round his shop or stall, and these are renewed every day. The stranger cannot fail to be struck with the care and elegance which the natives display in distributing the fruits, which they sell in small baskets of very light wood, ornamented with flowers.
The Indians were considered by the first conquerors as their property. They were sold into captivity, and thousands perished under the harsh treatment of their inhuman masters,
