Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of that Country from the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.Mayer, Brantz
History
Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of that Country from the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.
The aborigines of Jalisco, formerly warlike and devoted to a bloody
religion, belong to the tribes of Cazçanes, Guachichiles and Guamanes.
They are most generally tillers of the ground, adhering to the doctrines
of the Catholic church, and they have particular fondness for settling a
while in lonely and wild regions, and for changing their place of
residence frequently. The manners and customs of the Guachichiles are in
many respects peculiar. They still use the bow and arrow as weapons.
Their quivers are made of deer and shark skins, and the points of their
reed arrows are formed of a hard wood and rarely of copper. The garments
of the men consist of a kind of short tunic, roughly made by themselves
of blue or brown cotton material, with a girdle hanging down in front
and behind, to which is generally added a pair of trousers of tanned
goat or deer skin. Married persons, men as well as women, wear straw
hats with broad rims and high crowns, ornamented with a narrow ribbon of
bright colored wool and tassels. Their black bushy hair is worn very
long, bound with bright colored ribbons and tassels, or plaited in
queues. No unmarried person, male or female, dare wear a hat. The women
are clothed with an under garment of rough wool or cotton and a mantle
of the same material, which has an aperture on top through which they
pass their heads. When sober they are peaceable and easily controlled,
but when intoxicated violent and quarrelsome. At marriage the husband
has the right of taking his wife on trial and of sending her back to her
parents after some time if she should not please him, and this, even if
she should be pregnant by him. This, however, does not prevent such a
female marrying afterwards. If she gives satisfaction, the husband has
the ceremony performed by a priest or monk, who for this purpose makes a
yearly circuit, and often performs the marriage and a baptism at the
same time!
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