Humboldt considers the Mexican Indian as destitute of all imagination,
though when to a certain degree educated, he attributes to him
facility in learning, a clearness of understanding, a natural turn for
reasoning, and a particular aptitude to subtilize and seize trifling
distinctions.

The music and dancing are as dull as might be expected among beings so
full of phlegm. The Mexican has a turn for painting and sculpture; and
retains the same fondness for flowers that struck Cortez so forcibly
upwards of three centuries ago. The "Indios Bravos," or Wild Indians,
are said to display more energy; but our information respecting them
is remarkably scanty.

Among the active vices of the Mexican Indian, that of drunkenness
prevails to a most lamentable extent. In the upper districts,
_pulque_, or the fermented juice of the aloe, is the principal
tempter; sometimes a spirit, distilled from the same plant, called
_Vino de Mescal_; while, in the hotter districts, the same effects are
ensured by the _chinguirito_, a very coarse kind of rum. Combined with
this disposition to intoxication, the Indian is constitutionally
indolent; and, now that he is a free man, he will rarely work, except
to obtain just as much as will afford him the means of enjoying his
greatest luxury--that of steeping his senses in oblivion. This last
tendency is much to be deplored, as, in the larger towns, we know that
every Sunday (which is the day of greatest indulgence) assassinations,
to the extent of six or eight each day, are the melancholy consequence
of its indulgence. Humboldt states that the police were in the
practice of sending tumbrels round, to collect the unhappy victims of
intoxication. The punishment was, and we believe still is, three days'
labour in the streets; but it does not seem to be very efficacious,