deep
in white adobe dust, which rises from beneath our horse's hoofs and
covers us with an impalpable flour upon traversing the environs of the
place. Clattering over the cobble-paved streets, we rapidly approach
the central pulse of the town, the _plaza_. Singular shops, where
fruits and meats and clothing are displayed in windowless array, line
the streets, and quaint dwelling-houses, with iron grilles covering
their windows, giving them the mediaeval Hispanic aspect familiar to
the Spanish-American traveller. Into these we gaze down from the height
of the saddle in passing, and perchance some dark-haired Mexican
damsel, who has been snatching a moment from her household duties to
gaze at the outside world, retires suddenly from the balcony with
well-simulated haste and modesty before the rude gaze of the
approaching stranger. Indians or _peones_ in loose white garments of
cotton _manta_, with huge Mexican straw hats, and scarlet blankets
depending from their shoulders, stalk through the street, or issue from
ill-smelling _pulque_ shops, whose singularly-painted exteriors arrest
the attention. Gaunt dogs prowl about and lap the water of the open
_acequias_, or ditch-gutters, between the road and the footpath,
fighting for some stray morsel thrown into the street from the open
doors of the shops aforesaid. Of stone or of adobe--generally the
latter--according to the geology of the particular neighbourhood, the
houses are whitened or tinted outside, with flat roofs, or _azoteas_.
Through the wide entrance-door a glimpse is obtained of an interior
paved _patio_, adorned, in the better-class homes, with tubs of palms
and flowers; and before one of such a character we draw rein--the
_meson_ or _fonda_, the hotel under whose roof temporary shelter shall
be sought. This abode faces the _plaza_, and opposite rises the quaint
church--or cathedral if it be a State capital city--which is the
dominating note of the community.

[Footnote 2: Mexican night owl.]

[Illustration: ON THE GREAT PLATEAU: VIEW OF THE CITY OF DURANGO.]

Exceedingly picturesque are the fine cities which form Mexico's chief
centres of civilisation along the Great Plateau--Chihuahua, Durango,
Guadalajara, Puebla, and many others. They have that quaint, old-world
air ever characteristic of Spanish-America, unspoilt by the elements of
manufacturing communities. Their shady _plazas_ are centres of
recreation and social life, always in evidence, distinctive of