THE MEXICAN PEON.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2665, 10 August 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE MEXICAN PEON.

♦ "Amojtg the most curious people of this continent," lomarked John Olendroff to a knot of three or four friends at the Occidental hotel, "are the native peon* of Mexico, and when you look at the female portion of that unaccountable race you get a curious representation that makes yon pause with wonder. Living on the borders of Arizona and Mexico, as I have for nine years past, I have had a good opportunity to see many things that most transient peoplo would pas* by unnoticed, The longer I stay tho more I am impressed with unaccountable ways of the descendants of the Aztcos. Tho society "lady" of the poena, if I may speak of her as such, has a way of doing up her back hair that I have never seen duplicated anywhere. It is no less than to put a great clay crown on the top of her cranium, in which the hair is matted, like pigs bristles in plaster. This crown reaches up say eight or nine inches and looks like a great plaster cone. It serves a double purpose. Not only is it worn at evening parties, but throughout the day. Indeed, the primary object of the mud cone was to preserve the head from the intense-heat of the southern sun. Now, however, it is worn at evening balls, and no 1 lady ' thinks herself recherche aud in positively guod form unless she has her novel crown on. Tho hair is matted and twisted and coiled all around in it, and it may be depended 011 that it cannot con.e loose and come tumbling down pnd cause her any embarrassment in company. The longer a cone is worn the harder it gets, aud when it has readied the age of a month, say, it is as hard as a brickbat, and would have to be smashed to pieces with a if there were no other way discovered. This, however, happily is the case. Tho old Aztecs invented, and the secret has been perpetuated in the race, a peculiar solution compounded from wild plants which knocks tho plaster topknot to smithereens. It takes some time to do it, however, usually from five to six hours, and during this time the lovely Aztec maiden or matron must soak her head in a big jar of this solution. It is the proper thing for the women to change these cones at least onc.o a month. After thnt the whitish soil of which it is composed changes to a dull yellow and the woiror loses ca«te. Aud there is caste among among the peons as much as there is among any other classes of people. Thc>e native women are fond of necklaces, ami you will often see them piing about with nothing on except a necklaeo and a mud crown. Others ntrain will have very slight raiment. The u e:i do not wear mud crowns, but they are often as limited in their attire as the fe'iiinino sex. Their habits are extremely simple in tho main, thoujrh in some other rospects they go off on wild tun-rents. During a large part of the year you will see, if you will journey throuirh this reffion, hammocks slung from all the trees at night time. Indeed, if you were to be out of a moonlight night, and it was your fnvt experience, you would think the p-ilm and pine trees were bearing singular fruit. Tho natives are all in these hammocks. They are there to escape the tarantulas, centipedes and Mexican scorpions, which are out on the rampage. Let one of these things get into your blankets and he will never be easy until ho gets a nip at the occupant. This is why the natives never sleep on the ground. Besides, it is cooler and more comfortable in the trees. The peon, when he rises in the morning, makes a queer obeisance to the cast. He is saluting the morning sun, and does it by first bowing until he lias his body at right angles to his legs and horizontal to the earth. In this position he pauses devoutly for perhaps a quarter of a minute, and then, raising his body to its prooer position, he abruptly thrifts his right leg, and then his left, forward. Another polite how to Aurora, delivered by an inclination of tho head alone, and tho business is done. This salutation is supposed to win him favour with tho ri-isrnin<r forces of the heavens and make him 'solid' for the day. Tho women never go through this moruintr performance. They leave all such things to tho men. Hie children of bo'h sexes quickly catch up tho ways of their elders, and thus grow up perpetuating all the customs of tho race."—San Franc'.-co Examiner.