Matracas, 49.

Mestizos, 48, 61, 300.

Metate, 88.

Mexican Dishes, 51; Ladies, 51; Words, 227, 263.

Mexican Police, 149; War with United States, 118.

Mexico, City of, 41-44, 111; Old, 147; Formation of the country of, 27; Future of, 329; People of, 55; Valley of, 40-46, 270.

Military Statistics, 115.

Miners, 79, 258.

Miraflores, 264.

Mineria, or School of Mines, 47.

Mirage, 30.

Mongolian Calendar, 241.

Monks, 205, 209, 213.

Morals of Servitude, 81, 293.

Mosaic work, 101, 110, 235.

Mosquitos, 5, 325.

Mules, Mexican, 175.

Museum of Mexico, 222-237.

Negress, white, 323.

Negros in Mexico, 13, 323.

Nevado de Toluca, 219.

Nopals, Plantations of, 24.

Nopalucan, 296.

Nortes, 21, 23.

Nuestra Senora de Remedies, 121.

Nueva Gerona, 4, 8.

Numerals, Mexican, &c., 107-110.

Obsidian, mines of, 95, 99; knives, &c., 95-102, 137, 229, 331.

Oculan, 215.

Old Mexico, 147; Baths near Tezcuco, 153; Bridge near Tezcuco, 153.

Organ-cactus, 73.

Orizaba, town of, 26; volcano of, 18, 29, 226.

Ornament, common styles of, 185.

Pachuca, 69, 74.

Palma Christi, 9.

Paseo, or Alameda, 57.

Passport-system (Cuba), 3.

Penon de los Banos, 131.

Peons, 291-294.

People of Mexico, 55.

Picture-writings, 104, 130, 232-234.

Pintos, 309.

Pirates of the Spanish Main, 5.

Ploughing, 172.

Police, Mexican, 149.

Political Economy, 105, 217, 264, 294, 302-309, 328.

Politics of Mexico, 19, 111-118, 282-284, 290, 328.

Popocatepetl, ascent of, 265-273.

Population, 217, 302-309.

Potrero, 307.

Pottery, 85, 88, 151, 226, 275.

Priests, 9, 79, 285-290.

Prisons, 244-248.

Promenade of Las Vigas, 64.

Protective duties, 104, 264.

Puebla, 113, 281-291.

Pulque, 35, 37, 91.

Pulque-shops, 63.

Pyramids, 43, 141-148, 190, 274-278.

Quarries in the Isle of Pines, 6; of obsidian, 99; of Teotihuacan, 137.

Rag-fair in Mexico, 169.

Railway, 2, 24, 121.

Rain, 136, 266.

Rainy Region, 26.

Ranches, 25, 266, 299.

Rattles, 49.

Real del Monte, 77.

Rebozo, 56.

Reform in Mexico, 117.

Regla, 78; cascade of, 93.

Revolutions, 20, 114, 282-284.

Roads in Mexico, 29, 37, 76.

Robbers, 32, 117, 170, 297; Priest-captain of, 34.

Sacred trees, 215, 265.

Sacrifice of Spaniards, 145.

Sacrificial Clamps, 225; Stone, 223.

Saddles, &c., 162-167.

St. Thomas's, W. Indies, 327.

Salinas of Campeche, 84.

Saline condition of the soil, 133.

Salt, 83, 154.

Salt-pans, 155.

Salto del Agua, 55.

Sand-pillars, 30.

San Andres Chalchicomula, 312.

San Antonio de Abajo, 296.

San Jose and Earthquakes, 67.

San Nicolas, 272.

Santa Anita, 63.

Santa Maria de Guadalupe, 121.

Santa Rosita de Cocoyotla, 196.

Sardines, 87.

School of Mines, 47.

Scorpions, 319, 322.

Sculptures at Xochicalco, 185.

Serape, 169.

Sheep, 324.

Shrines of Xochicalco, 193.

Silver-mines, &c., 74, 92, 105, 107.

Siege & Capitulation of Puebla, 113, 282.

Sisal, 16.

Skull decorated with mosaic work, 337.

Slave-trade, 13, 16.

Smuggling, 273, 296.

Solar Eclipses observed in Mexico, 331.

Soldiers, 23, 114, 171.

Soquital, 82.

Spanish-moss, 57.

Spurs, 295.

Stalactitic Cave, 200.

Statistics of Mexico, 115, 249, 286.

Stone-hammers, 137.

Stone knives and weapons, 90, 103.

Streets of Mexico, 41, 55.

Sugar-canes, 179.

Sugar-hacienda, of Santa Rosita, 196; of Temisco, 180.

Sugar-plantations of Havana, 2.

Tacubaya, 57, 69.

Tallow, 324.

Tasco, Silver-mines at, 74.

Temisco, 179.

Temple-pyramids—see Pyramids.

Tenancingo, 218.

Tenochtitlan, 41.

Ten Tribes, the, 17.

Teocallis, see Pyramids.

Teotihuacan, Pyramids of, 141-148; Quarries of, 137, 141.

Tequesquite, 133.

Tezcotzinco, 152.

Tezcuco, 129, 150, 260-264; Aztec Bridge at, 153.

Tezcuco, Lake of, 65, 129, 138.

Thieves, 52, 170, 245.

Tisapan, 118-120.

Toluca, 219.

Tortillas, 38.

Tropical Vegetation, 2, 24, 179.

Turkey-buzzards, 22.

Valley of Mexico, 45.

Yapour-bath, native, 301.

Vegetation, zones of, 21-27, 178, 216.

Vera Cruz, 18-21, 325.

Virjen de Remedios, 123.

Virgins, the rival, 123.

Volantes, 2.

War-idol, 222.

Water-bottles, 171.

Water-pipes, 157.

Xochimilco, Lake of, 173.

Xochicalco, Ruins of, 183-195.

Yucatan, 16.

Zopilites, 22.



NOTES



[1: The mahagua tree furnishes that curious fibrous network which is known as bast, and used to wrap bundles of cigars in. The mahogany tree is called caoba in Spanish, apparently the original Indian name, as the Spaniards probably first became acquainted with it in Cuba. Is our word "mahogany" the result of a confusion of words, and corrupted from "mahagua?"]

[2: We heard talk elsewhere, however, of a war going on in the interior of the country between the white inhabitants and the Indian race; the apparent object of the whites being to take Indian prisoners, and ship them off for slaves to Cuba.]

[3: They must be judged by courts whose members belong to their own body, and in these special tribunals one can imagine what sort of justice is meted out to complainants and creditors. Comonfort's hope was to conciliate the mass of the people by attempting to relieve them of this enormous abuse. I believe he was honest in his intentions, but unfortunately the people had already had to do with too many politicians who were to redress their wrongs and inaugurate a reign of liberty. They had found very little to come of such movements, but extra-taxation and civil war, which left them worse off than they were before, and the patriots generally turned out rather more greedy and unprincipled than the others; so it was not to be wondered at that no one came forward to give any very energetic support to the new President.]

[4: No one ill uses them but the dogs, who drive them away when anything better than usual is met with, and they have to stand round in a circle, waiting for their turn.]

[5: Ahuehuete, pronounced a-hwe-hwete. Thus, Anahuac is pronounced Ana-hwac; and Chihuahua, Chi-hwa-hwa.]

[6: In the Swiss Alps, between 4,000 and 5,000 feet above the sea, there is a similar plant to be seen fringing the branches of the pine-trees; but it only grows to the length of a few inches, and will hardly bear comparison to the long trailing festoons of the Spanish moss, often fifteen or twenty feet in length.]

[7: Chalco was and is a freshwater lake, and here they had not even this to do.]

[8: The "Lonja" is a feature in the commercial towns of Spanish America. It is not only the Merchants' Exchange, but their club, billiard-room, and smoking-room; in fact, their "lounge," and I fancy the two words are connected with one another.]

[9: Atotonilco, "Hot-water-place," so called from the hot springs in the neighbourhood.]

[10: Soquital, "Clay-place," from the potter's clay which abounds in the district. Earthenware is the staple manufacture here.]

[11: The book-name for obsidian is itztli, a word which seems to mean originally "sharp thing, knife," and thence to have been applied to the material knives are made of. Obsidian was also called itztetl, knife-stone. But no Indian to whom I spoke on the subject would ever acknowledge the existence of such a word as itztli for obsidian, but insisted that it was called bizcli, which is apparently the corrupt modern pronunciation of another old name for the same mineral, petztli, shiny-stone.]

[12: There is an Aztec word "puztequi" (to break sticks, &c.) which may belong to the same root as "tepuztli." The first syllable "te" may be "te-tl" (stone).]

[13: The researches instituted by Mr. I. Horner in the alluvium near Heliopolis and Memphis (Philos. Transact., 1855 & 1856), although very elaborate, still leave much to be desired before we can arrive at definite conclusions.]

[14: Corixa femorala, and Notonecta uniforciata, according to MM. Meneville and Virlet d'Aoust, in a Paper on the subject of the granular or oolitic travertine of Tezcuco in the Bulletin (1859) of the Geological Society of France.]

[15: Huauhtli is an indigenous grain abounding in Michoacan, for which "wheat" is the best equivalent I can give. European wheat was, of course, unknown in the country until after the Conquest.]

[16: The meson of Mexico is a lineal descendant of the Eastern Caravanserai, and has preserved its peculiarities unchanged for centuries. It consists of two court-yards, one surrounded by stabling and the other by miserable rooms for the travellers, who must cook their food themselves, or go elsewhere for it.]

[17: The Aztecs were accustomed, before the Conquest, to perform dances as part of the celebration of their religious festivals, and the missionaries allowed them to continue the practice after their conversion. The dance in a church, described by Mr. Bullock in 1822, was a much more genuine Indian ceremony than the one which we saw.

Church-dancing may be seen in Europe even at the present day. The solemn Advent dances in Seville cathedral were described to me, by an eyewitness, as consisting of minuets, or some such stately old-fashioned dances, performed in front of the high altar by boys in white surplices, with the greatest gravity and decorum.]

[18: This assertion must be qualified by a remark of the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, who tells us that in some places the Indians still use lancets of obsidian to bleed themselves with. I believe there is nothing of the kind to be found in the part of Mexico which we visited.]

[19: The Aztecs had but one word to denote both gold and silver, as they afterwards made one serve for both iron and copper. This curious word teocuitlatl we may translate as "Precious Metal," but it means literally "Dung of the Gods." Gold was "Yellow Precious Metal," and silver "White Precious Metal." Lead they called temetztli, "Moon-stone;" and when the Spaniards showed them quicksilver, they gave it the name of yoli amuchitl, "Live Tin."]

[20: It is curious that these latter resemblances (as far as I have been able to investigate the subject) disappear in the signs of the Yucatan calendar, though its arrangement is precisely that of the Mexican. Any one interested in the theory of the Toltecs being the builders of Palenque and Copan will see the importance of this point. If the Toltecs ever took the original calendar, with the traces of its Asiatic origin fresh upon it, down into Yucatan with them, it is at any rate not to be found there now.]

[21: The Aztec name for an eclipse of the sun is worthy of remark. They called it tonatiuh qualo, literally "the sun's being eaten." The expression seems to belong to a time when they knew less about the phenomenon, and had some idea like that of the Asiatic nations who thought the sun was occasionally swallowed up by the great dragon.]

[22: I was surprised to find Iztaccihuatl classed among the active volcanos in Johnston's Physical Atlas, and supposed at first that a crater had really been found. But it is likely to be only a mistake, caused by the name of "Volcan" being given to both mountains by the Mexicans, who used the word in a very loose way.]

[23: See the illustration at page 281.]

[24: In the original, aras. In the Latin of Hernandez, arae I suppose to be the little polished stone slabs which are set on the altars in Roman Catholic churches, and in which their sacred quality is, so to speak, contained.]

[25: Popular Tales from the Norse. (Translated from Asbjoernsen and Moe's Collection.) By George Webbe Dasent, D.C.L. With an Introductory Essay on the Origin and Diffusion of Popular Tales.—Second Edition, Edinburgh: 1859.]



ERRATA:

Page 5, line 2, for verandalis read verandahs.

Page 8, line 12, for il read el.

Page 17, line 17, for part read port.

Page 20, line 8, for pronunciamento read pronunciamiento.

Page 22, line 10, for I could read one can.

Page 27, line 2, for Mexicans read Americana.

Page 31, Heading, for THE HLANS. HUEMANTLA. read THE RAINS. HUAMANTLA.

Page 31, line 4, for molina de viente read molino de viento.

Page 101, in description of woodcut. Delete bone.

Page 216, line 9, for hands read hand.

THE END