How would you like to live in this house? Throughout Mexico there are thousands of homes no better than the one here seen. The hut is made of adobe (å-d´ b)-clay, sun-dried into bricks. It is covered with mud, leaves, straw-anything to keep out the wind, sun and rain. The yard in front of the house is not promising. Inside the surroundings are no more pleasant. There are no stoves in these houses, because Mexico lies in a semi-tropical climate. Some of the cooking is done outdoors. Some of it is done inside the house in earthenware vessels. There is no chimney, so the smoke gets out the best way it can. The floor is the bare clay which the hut covers. There are no beds and no furnishings. The family sit on the floor, sometimes on a blanket, sometimes on the bare ground. When they go to bed they merely roll themselves in a blanket and lie down. The man of the house undresses by removing his hat and pulling off his shoes. He wears no socks, and his shoes consist of leather sandals with heavy soles. The women and the children go barefoot. There are two articles of dress of which all Mexicans are proud. These are the tall hats of the men and the shawls of both men and women. The hats are wide brimmed, tall crowned affairs. The shawls are usually very gaudy in color. The food of the peon (p´n) consists of corn cakes, called tortillas (tr-tl´ yä), and baked beans, called frijoles (fr-h´ls). The corn for the cakes is ground by hand. Women grind it between two stones sitting in front of the houses. The peon man entering the hut wears his shirt outside his trousers, as is the custom. What is a peon? Keystone ID: 10809 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.