MEXICO. 413 MEXICO. is a party; to cases in which a State is a party; to cases arising under treaties with foreign Pow- ers; and to cases concerning diplomatic agents. In those cases in which the Republic or a State is a party, and in those cases in which the question of jurisdiction arising between the State and Federal courts is involved, the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction. In all other cases it has appellate jurisdiction. The individual States of the Mexican Republic have a large degree of local autonomy, although the Federal Constitution requires that they shall
- iilopt the popular, representative, republican
lorm of government. They have their own con- stitutions and codes of laws: their own Gov- ernors and legislatures, and local officials. They are allowed to regulate with one another their own boundaries subject to the approval of Con- gress, but may not form alliances or treaties with one another, grant letters of marque and reprisal, coin money or issue paper currency, lay duties on interstate commerce, or without the consent of Congress levy tonnage duties, keep troops or ships of war, or wage war except in case of inva- sion or peril so imminent as to admit of no delay. Each State is under an obligation to de- liver without delay criminal refugees from other States and to give full faith and credit to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. It is made the duty of the State executives to publish the Federal laws and cause them to be obeyed. On- the other hand, it is made the constitutional duty of the Federal Gov- ernment to protect the States against invasion or domestic insurrection upon request of the Legis- lature of the State concerned or of the execu- tive if the Legislature be not in session. As in the United States, all powers not expressly con- ferred upon the Federal authorities are reser-ed to the individual States. Similarly the Federal Constitution, the Jaws of Congress, and all treaties made in y)ursuance thereof arc declared to be the supreme law of the whole L'nion, and the judges are boimd thereby, anything in the constitutions or laws of the States to the con- trary notwithstanding. Amendments to the Federal Constitution may be proposed by Congress, two-thirds of all mem- bers present concurring. If approved by a ma- jority of the State legislatures, they shall be a valid part of the Constitution. Money. Weights. . d Measures. The stand- ard of value is silver, the only paper currency being ordinary bank notes. The silver peso or dollar is the unit of coinage. The metric sys- tem of weights and measures was introduced in 1856, but the old Spanish denominations, the libra (1.01 pounds avoirdupois), the quintal 1 101.fi pounds), and the vara (33 inches), are very commonly used. Peoples of Me.nico. The population of ifex- ioo at the present day is largely Indian, and in many parts of the country ancient customs, >up<'rstitions. and languages hold sway. It is im- possible to estimate the exact proportion of T>ure Indian blond, mestizo, or mixed blood, and ■vhite: probably there are about five million pure- l)looded Indians, and a somewhat larger mim- l>er of mestizos. Dr. Leon, the most recent -Indent of the linguistic families of Mexico. has divided them' into 17 families and ISO dialects, and is of the opinion that future studies and investigations will resolve this num- ber of families to three mother tongues, which will be the Otoml^ Maya-Quiche, and the Xahua. In many parts of the Republic where certain lan- guages are spoken over extended areas, we find dialectal diderenc-es in every village. In some parts of Mexico the tribes occur in masses, while in other parts people speaking difTerent lan- guages are strangely intermingled. In the same town, separated by a single street, we may find two diirerent languages spoken, while in one town Starr reports Aztecs, Otonil, Tepehuas, and Totonacs, each group preserving its independ- ence in language, dress, cu.stoms. and supersti- tions, and occupying its own distinct quarter of the town. Most of the Mexican Indians have been con- verted to Cliristianity ; some are still idolaters, but have lost much of their knowledge of ancient traditions and rcliuion. These are superstitious to a degree, and believe in omens, witchcraft, and divination. Among the Huicholes, whose habits, customs, religion, and symbolism have been ex- haustively studied by Lumboltz, and the Mixes, who have been briefly investigated by .Starr and liclniar, we find greater adherence to primitive ideas than among any other Mexican people. All over Mexico the commerce of the people is carried on in very much the same manner as be- fore the Spanish Conquest, and their periodic markets, the "tianguis,' are held weekly, as in for- mer times; they also carry merchandise for long distances, to attend annual festivals of c-ertain saints, whose modern shrines are built on the sites of ancient temples. The Indians are prin- cipally agriculturists, though certain aboriginal trades still prevail, such as weaving, basket and mat making, and the manufacture of pottery; and the products of these industries, for which certain villages are noted, are scattered through- out extended areas. Their mode of living, habi- tations, and clothing have changed but little under white influence. Their food consists main- ly of corn, beans, and chili peppers; the corn is made into cakes, or 'tortillas,' or a thin mush called possole: their food is prepared as before the Conquest, although to a certain extent cook- ing vessels of tin and iron are used as well as those of clay. Their great vice lies in the use of alcoholic stimulants; they make many native drinks as in former times, and on every possible occasion they indulge in their use. mSTOEV. The Aztec or Xahuatl tribes whom the Spanish conquerors found in the central valley of Mexico had been preceded by at least two other races in that region. From the hopelessly confused legendary accounts of events in prehistoric Mex- ico, it is possible to make out only a rough out- line of what probably happened. The Toltecs were said to trace their history back to the year 720 of the Christian Era. when they began a long course of wan<lerings which finally led them, atwut the year !I70. into the Valley of Mexico. There they erecte<l vast cities, whose ruins, at Tul- lantzinco and at Tula or ToUan. some fifty miles north and northeast of the present City of Mex- ico, justify the name of 'the Builders' given them by their successors. In the year 1103 the Toltec power was overthrown and they were eventually driven from the country, going off toward the south, where they are supposed to have erected some at least of the immense build- ings now in ruins in Yucatan, Honduras, and
