[53] The arrests in the year 1851 were 212 men and 182 women for infractions of police regulations; 1256 men and 1944 women for excessive drinking; 384 men and 120 women for robbery; 180 men and 84 women on suspicion of robbery; 120 men and 25 women for picking pockets; 15 men and 3 women for murder; 728 men and 246 women for affrays and wounds; 209 men and 85 women for carrying forbidden weapons; 36 men who had escaped from prison; 39 men and 17 women for false pretenses; 354 men and 403 women for incontinence and adultery; 311 men and 318 women for the violation of public decency; 64 delinquent youth for the house of correction--making a total of arrests for the year of 3918 men and 3430 women; besides, they have protected 315 persons apprehensive of assaults from evil-doers. _And they have freed the city from the plague of 6048 dogs!_ Just as many dogs arrested as human beings. These statistics furnish an inadequate idea of the number of knife-fights that are of so common occurrence among the _peons_ about the _pulque_-shops, in which women and men show an equal skill at stabbing in the back. CHAPTER XXIV. The National Museum.--Marianna and Cortez.--The small Value of this Collection.--The Botanic Garden.--The Market of Santa Anna.--The Acordada Prison.--The unfortunate Prisoner.--The Causes of that Night of Terror.--The Sacking of the City.--The Parian.--The Causes of the Ruin of the Parian.--Change in the Standard of Color.--The Ashes of Cortez. MUSEUM.--BOTANIC GARDEN.--MARKET. The National Museum has its weekly exhibitions, and attracts as great a crowd of the common people as does the Academy of Arts. Here as perfect equality reigns as in the San Carlos or in the Cathedral. The first object of interest is the large collection of stone idols which have been dug up from time to time in and about the Grand Plaza. There are dog-faced idols, and apish gods, and unearthly things, besides the sacrificial stone, and a rude attempt to represent a goddess. Whether or no this was a sort of Aztec Lady of Remedies I did not learn. The Aztecs might easily have produced these works without exhibiting much civilization; but I have heard it surmised that they must have been among the plunder of more civilized tribes.