. A white umbrella in Mexico. exican saddles festooned withlassos and lariats; soldiers carrying car-bines and mounted on spirited horsesguarding gangs of convicts, each one ofwhom staggers under a basket of sandheld to his back by a strap across hisforehead; great flocks of sheep blockingup the narrow streets, driven by shep-herds on horseback, changing their pas-ture from one hillside to another; thewhole completes a picture as strange asit is unique. In the centre of the plaza stands a curi-ous fountain, surrounded by a low wallbreast-high. Around this swarm hun-dreds of women. Hanging over
. A white umbrella in Mexico. exican saddles festooned withlassos and lariats; soldiers carrying car-bines and mounted on spirited horsesguarding gangs of convicts, each one ofwhom staggers under a basket of sandheld to his back by a strap across hisforehead; great flocks of sheep blockingup the narrow streets, driven by shep-herds on horseback, changing their pas-ture from one hillside to another; thewhole completes a picture as strange asit is unique. In the centre of the plaza stands a curi-ous fountain, surrounded by a low wallbreast-high. Around this swarm hun-dreds of women. Hanging over it arehalf a hundred more, reaching as faracross the circular wall as their armswill permit, scooping up the thin sheetof water into saucers with which theyfilled their jars. On the pavement, pro-tected by huge square umbrellas of straw The Old Chair at Zacatecas ^7 mats, with ribs like a boys kite, squat-ting Indian women sell oranges, prickly-pears, figs, lemons, cJm^hnoyis, great mel-ons, and other tropical fruits. On the. corners of the streets, under rags of awn-ing, sit cobblers ready to cut and fit asandal while you wait, their whole stockin trade but a pile of scraps of soleleather, a trifle larger than the humanfoot, some leather thongs, and a sharpcurved knife. Adjoining the market, fa-cing an open square, rises a great build-ing supported by immense square pillars 88 A White Umbrella in Mexico forming an arcade. At the foot of eachpillar a garrulous Mexican shouts out thewares of his impromptu shop at half min-ute intervals. Then comes the alamedaor public garden, bright with flowers andsemi-tropical plants, with a summer-houseof the time - honored pattern, octagon,lined with benches and in the centre atable containing, as usual, the fragments ofthe last loungers lunch. Here I rested out of the glare and din. Suddenly, while looking down upon thestreet across the green, listening to theplash of the fountain and watching thesenoritas on their way to mass, I saw arush
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherbostonhoughtonmiff
