Every one knows how the snow lies in the valleys of the Alps, forming a plain which slopes gradually downward towards the outlet Imagine such a valley ten miles across, with just such a sloping plain, not of snow but of earth.
Culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
The journey and excursions in Mexico which have originated the narrative and remarks contained in this volume were made in the months of March, April, May, and June of 1856, for the most part on horseback.
We are at last on the high lands of Mexico, the districts which at least three different races have chosen to settle in, neglecting the fertile country below.
If you are a married man resident in Cuba, you cannot get a passport to go to the next town without your wife’s permission in writing.
The habit of building houses upon piles, which was first forced upon the people by the position they had chosen, was afterwards followed as a matter of taste, just as it is in Holland.
Even if severe wounds are given, the Indian has many chances in his favor, for his organization is somewhat different from that of white men, and he recovers easily from wounds that would kill any European outright.
There are even many huts built entirely of the universal aloe.
The plateau of Mexico is 8,000 feet high, and that of Puebla 9,000 feet.
Everything that is really Mexican is either Aztec or Spanish.
During the Tertiary period the whole valley of Mexico was one great lake.
The interior of Mexico consists of a mass of volcanic rocks, thrust up to a great height above the sea-level.
I am afraid the Spanish American has not always a very strict regard for truth.
There was no romance about the mosquitos, however.
Coughs seem very common here, especially among the children, though people look strong and healthy, but in the absence of proper statistics one cannot undertake to say whether the district is a healthy one or not.
We were very kindly received by the English merchants to whom my companion had letters, and we set ourselves to learn what was the real state of things in Mexico.
At sunset we are rattling through the streets of the little town of Cordova.
Animism characterizes tribes very low in the scale of humanity, and thence ascends, deeply modified in its transmission, but from first to last preserving an unbroken continuity, into the midst of high modern culture.