The old types descend, almost unchanged, from generation to generation.

Everything that is really Mexican is either Aztec or Spanish.

Among the Spanish types we may separate the Moorish.
Our knowledge of Mexico is not sufficient to enable us to analyse the Aztec civilization, so we must be content with these three classes.

I will not go further into the question here, for occasions will continually occur to show how--for three centuries at least--the inhabitants of Mexico, both white and brown, have taken their ideas at second-hand, always copying but never developing anything.
All this time my companion and I have been walking about the streets; in evening-dress, as the etiquette of the place demands, on these three days, from the "better classes." The Mexican ladies may be advantageously studied just now in their church-going black silk dress and mantilla, one of the most graceful costumes in the world.

It is not often that one has the chance of seeing them out of doors, except hurrying to and from Mass in the morning, or in carriages on the Alameda; but on these festival days one meets them by hundreds.