They very readily take their new-born babies to the baptismal font, and they never refuse to bury their dead in the cemetery.
It is quite astounding how in this climate woman in general passes very rapidly from childhood into womanhood, but this development is still more remarkable in the case of the native Indian woman, prompted no doubt by their mode of life and native customs. It is quite usual to see a little Indian girl of three trot daily to the woods with her parents to help cultivate the fields; very often her excursions extend to neighboring villages, and she seems to make those trips of four and even six leagues with the greatest ease, on foot; and after she has reached five or six years, she even carries her little bundle tied on her back.
They also journey day after day out into the fields in search of firewood, small sticks perhaps not thicker than an inch or a little more, which they call _moloch_. They search for the wood themselves; they cut it and tie it with two reed or rattan rings, so that they can carry it on their backs. Then they go for water in the morning and again in the evening, having to draw it from wells forty and sixty yards deep, in buckets made of tree-bark. After they have reached the age of eleven or twelve years, they always present themselves for this particular errand, as clean as possible. They take great care to be well-washed and their hair carefully combed, almost as if they were going for a pleasure walk or to some meeting. This is particularly the case on the ranches and farms, and in almost all the villages where they have to provide themselves with water from the communal wells.
Between the ages of six and eleven years the little Indian maiden attends, either at the church door or, on big haciendas, in the main building, to the teaching of our Christian religion. She goes there with bare head and with her hair hanging loose over her shoulders.
All a mother teaches her daughters is how to cook, grind the corn, and shape the tortillas; to make _atole_ and _pozole_; to wash clothes,--and this very poorly,--at all events. Or rather the girls learn all those things by themselves through mere observation and by helping their mothers in their daily tasks. Some mothers, however, will teach them to spin and weave their rough cotton cloth, to sew their garments, and sometimes even to embroider in a very primitive way.