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nydus/Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2Public
Page 485 of 678
Table of Contents

CHAPTER VIII.

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!

Church and school matters, particularly the latter, are provided for in the State of Jalisco in an inferior manner to other parts of the Mexican Republic. A few years ago, there were in the entire State only 113 elementary schools attended by not more than 6,167 children. The

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