Nothing in Lima can strike the attention of a stranger, who understands their language, more than the propriety and fluency with which serving-people express their thoughts, and this they commonly do with an agreeable seasoning of the ease and manner of the higher classes; a fact, no doubt, attributable to much native ability on their own part, and to their having been brought up on a footing of great familiarity with their superiors. This recommendatory trait in the humblest ranks of the community is, we regret, fast giving way to the intrusive manners of the unrestrained and rising aristocracy of a mongrel brood,—a dusky and bronzed brotherhood, whose very complexion indicates an incapacity to blush as apparent, at first sight, as among the white race used to be the long-honoured badge of the proud Spanish lineage,—the “sangre azul!” blue blood!—so called, by the inferior races, in consideration of the hue of the veins rising to view under the delicate tissue of a pure white skin. Wit, not unknown among the white women, is a general attribute of the mestizo and zambo septs, as well male as female. These people of colour are too much addicted to sarcasm, and too fond of the ludicrous and fantastical. When in a bilious or choleric mood, they are outrageously passionate; but then, with _chicha-piña_ (fermented juice of the pine-apple), and _nieve_ (ice or iced-water), they soon drown or freeze their fury, and restore to themselves equanimity and mirth. Instances of death from impetuous gusts of passion are, we believe, rare among them; though we have had occasion to hear of some such, and we have witnessed severe nervous ailments that arose from the turbulent emotion of their savage anger. Such mixed castes are remarkable for a great deal of what is by themselves called “_broma_,”—a facetious kind of bantering, with noisy fun and sensual dalliance, which is most displayed at their “_jarranas_,” or merry meetings: they like the theatre, and they are passionately fond of bull-fights, cock-fights, religious processions, and that sort of song and music which inflame the passions and deprave the heart,—their feasts too often degenerate into debauchery, and their merriment into obscenity. Boys of pure Spanish parentage or descent, in Lima, are usually animated and intelligent, like their sisters; but, as their bodily powers approach to maturity, their attention is engrossed with frivolous pleasures, which seem to enervate the mental faculties, and stint and vitiate their future expansion. It is, therefore, not unusual for hopeful boys to become childish and fickle, silly and fatuous men. The latter imbecility of mind we observe with striking frequency in the families of the suppressed nobility.