Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

TH-IEIR DWELLINGS AND MANNEIRSo 55
try people are in quite as "' parlous a state 9 as shepherd
Corin, whom that rare fellow, Touchstone, makes the subject
of some exquisite fooling. They are just such "6 ncrcttC philosophers," and know simply " that the property of rain is
to wet, and fire to burn; that good pasture makes fat sheep;
and that a great eause of the night is lack of the sun."I Never
elsewhere have I seen such an idle, ignorant, and unenterprising a community. Their habitations are constructed of the
most flimsy materials, and utterly devoid of taste or comfort.
Along the river we saw some formed of hides, fastened to a
light frame work, and many of reeds placed upright in the
ground, and interwoven and thatched with leaves or grass.
These domiciles are decorated with rude crucifixes, and perhaps a few wretched prints of the Virgin, or 6 Our Lady of
Gaudaulupe," the greatest of the native Mexican saints.
iHow striking was the contrast everywhere with the United
States, in which personal comforts of every kind are inconceivably multiplied and brought within the reach of all!
The population of Mexico is said to be about eight millions;
more than half of whom are pure blooded Indians, and the
remainder of every cross and color. Three-fourths or more
of the inhabitants of the Northern States are of unmixed Indian blood. With scarcely an exception, the country people
are brown, broad, and big-headed bipeds; and it is only in
the towns that the traveler sees the fair complexion, regular
features, and graceful forms of Castile. In regarding the aspect, bearing, and manners of modern Mexicans,it is difficult
to believe that many of them can be the descendants of that
chivalrous Spanish race which once gave laws to both hemis