Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1916 Jul
Contents
FIGHTING COCKS: QUERETARO, MEXICO The peon with Spanish blood in his veins is nearly always fond of the sight of gore. At a Mexican cockpit the betting is faster and more furious than the fun at a three-ring circus, and the enthusiasm is about as great when the steel-spurred cocks cut one another to pieces as when a mad bull gores a horse to death in the bull-ring. Moral sense, after all, it would seem, is largely a question of geography. work. With this they could produce all the effect of a beautiful mosaic. The gorgeous plumage of the tropical birds, especially of the parrot tribe, afforded every variety of color; and the fine down of the humming-bird, which reveled in swarms among the honeysuckle bowers of Mexico, supplied them with soft aerial tints that gave an exquisite finish to the picture. The feathers, pasted on a fine cotton web, were wrought into dresses for the wealthy, hangings for apartments, and ornaments for the temples. No one of the American fabrics excited such ad miration in Europe, whither numerous specimens were sent by the Conquerors. The ancient city of Mexico covered the same spot occupied by the modern capi tal. The great causeways touched it in the same points; the streets ran in much the same direction, nearly from north to south and from east to west; the cathe dral in the plaza mayor stands on the same ground that was covered by the temple of the Aztec war-god, and the four principal quarters of the town are
Links
Archive
1916 Aug
1916 Jun
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page
