their own gray hair, sometimes cut short, sometimes turned up with a comb, and not unusually tied behind in a pig-tail. There is no attempt to conceal the ravages of time. . . .
It appears to me, that amongst the young girls here there is not that desire to enter upon the cares of matrimony, which is to be observed in many other countries. The opprobrious epithet of old maid is unknown. A girl is not the less admired because she has been ten or a dozen years in society; the most severe remark made on her is that she is hard to please. No one calls her passée, or looks out for a newer face to admire. I have seen no courting of the young men either in mothers or daughters; no match-making mammas, or daughters looking out for their own interests. In fact, young people have so few opportunities of being together, that Mexican marriages must be made in Heaven, for I see no opportunity of bringing them about upon earth. The young men when they do meet with young ladies in society, appear devoted to and very much afraid of them. I know but one lady in Mexico who has the reputation of having manœuvred all her daughters into great marriages; but she is so clever, and her daughters were such beauties, that it can have cost her no trouble. As for flirtation, the name is unknown, and the thing.
I have been taking lessons in the Indian dances from Doña R a; they are not ungraceful, but lazy and monotonous. . . .
On every door in this house, there is a printed paper to the following effect;—
