i82 THE VOYAGE TO CALIFORNIA.
stone, those of Santa Ana of wood. They had tiled roofs, unglazed windows, small halls, with doorways large enough to admit a man on horseback, through which the air might circulate freety. The heavy wooden balconies, which were universal, served at once for all possible purposes. One would there place his kitchen, another his laundry, another his bath- room ; they were likewise used for reception room, garden, and promenade. The family living in the upper apartments, the ground floor was usually let for shops or manufacturing purposes, or, it may be, occu- pied by servants. Santa Ana was composed of a poorer population, mechanics and laborers, and these arranged tlieir households as best they could, some living with rats, pigs, and chickens in a style inferior to that found in the villag^es of the natives. Houses decayed rapidly, and owners and tenants alike appeared averse to making repairs. Sometimes the dirty walls were whitewashed at the beginning of the dry season, and the holes of the comejcn-eaten woodwork filled with green paint, but often doors and balconies were left unwashed and unpainted. Water was brought on mules from a river three miles distant, and emptied into porous jars placed in niches in front of the better houses, where it was kept cool by evaporation. The rooms of the city houses were usually large and airy, the ceilings high and unlined ; they had no chimneys, cooking bemg done in the court-yard, or on the floor or stone table of the kitchen. In most of the rooms were hammocks, in which lazy men and loosely robed women lounged away the time.
All sorts of costumes were worn by men and women of every mingled shade of color, Caucasian, American, and African. The native female was satisfied wiLh a simple skirt; the creole loved a white cotton skirt flounced and trimmed with lace, with low, loose, sleeveless waist, leather or satin slippers, and a jipijapa hat ; the Spanish gentleman who had not yet adopted European fashions delighted in white linen pantaloons
