United States or Benin ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The door of every house stands open, and even balls take place in some of the larger hamlets. The Spanish and mestizo cavaliers, however, condescend to dance only with mestiza partners, and very seldom invite a pretty native girl to join them.
But when, obliged to wander from country to country, in search no longer of a fortune, but of some commodity to sustain his life for the remainder of his days; when, deluded by the accounts of his countrymen who came from beyond the seas, he embarked for the Philippines then the vision of a housekeeper gave way to an image of an arrogant mestiza, a beautiful native with large black eyes, draped in silks and transparent garments, loaded with diamonds and gold, offering him her love and her carriages.
Seeing no one among the fruit-trees and flowerbeds, she began to despair; but the thick grove at the bottom of the garden gave her promise that was a likely place of meeting capital for such a purpose, as the mestiza, experienced in such matters, well knew. To approach the grove, however, presented a difficulty. There was a space of open ground a green parterre between it and the flowerbeds.
Also the mustang mare which belongs to Adela Miranda her own "Lolita" and the mule set apart for the mestiza. The troop horses already caparisoned are to remain so. Ignorant of their object, the troopers wonder at these precautions, though not so much as might be expected. They are accustomed to receive mysterious commands, and obey them without cavil or question.
"Perhaps Father Pedro is right, and this young twig of the Church is as dry and sapless as himself. Let the mestiza burn if she likes." "Quick, Pancho," said the young girl, eagerly leading him along the corridor. "This way. I must talk with thee before thou seest Don Juan; that is why I ran to intercept thee, and not as that fool Antonio would signify, to shame thee.
"Perhaps Father Pedro is right, and this young twig of the Church is as dry and sapless as himself. Let the mestiza burn if she likes." "Quick, Pancho," said the young girl, eagerly leading him along the corridor. "This way. I must talk with thee before thou seest Don Juan; that is why I ran to intercept thee, and not as that fool Antonio would signify, to shame thee.
She once had a strip of skin cut out of a mestiza maiden's back, to see whether it was the same color on both sides. But she seems to have taken quite a liking for you; says you are the prettiest man she ever saw; and if you cure her of her illness I have no doubt she will give you a condor's skull helmet and make you a cacique."
At many of their fiestas, besides the devotional exercises, there is a great deal of amusement going on, the Mestiza girls being frequently good-looking, and nearly all of them addicted to dancing; many of them are passionately fond of waltzes, and dance them remarkably well better, I think, than any women I have elsewhere seen in a private room.
"But who are these?" he said, pointing to two figures who now appeared upon the trail. Antonio turned. "It is the Americano, Senor Cranch, and his adopted daughter, the mestiza Juanita, seeking your reverence, methinks." "Ah!" said Father Pedro. Cranch came forward and greeted the priest cordially.
"True, true," said the priest, with rapid accents; "and this girl, Señor, this girl is" "Juanita, the mestiza, adopted daughter of Don Juan Briones, over on the Santa Clare Valley," replied Cranch, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, and then sitting down upon the bench beside Father Pedro.
Word Of The Day