LISBON. 41 



pride has been aroused by such encroachments, and so f^reat 

 has been their courage and determination that they have 

 never relaxed their efforts till they have shaken off the 

 hated yoke. Thus to this day they are always looking on 

 one another with suspicion and distrust : they stand at bay, 

 rather in the attitude of combatants during a truce than of 

 friends and neighl)ours ; and if the Spaniard expresses for 

 the Portuguese the same contempt which the Englishniau 

 of the last century was wont to heap upon the French, the 

 Lusitanian is not a whit behindhand in bitter feelings of 

 aversion, as well as in ridicule and mockery w^th which he 

 in turn regards his Spanish brother. 



But enough of these ' odious comparisons.' Let me now 

 pass on to those daily rendezvous, where not only the peo- 

 ple may be best studied by the stranger, but the productions 

 of the country, animal and vegetable, game and fowl and 

 fish, flowers and fruits and vegetables, may be examined 

 at leisure ; I mean the markets, which I regularly attended 

 every morning, and where I learnt more of the general 

 appearance and habits of the peasants, as well as of" the 

 fauna and flora of the country, than I gained after many 

 long and laborious excursions, gun in hand, through her 

 mountains and rocks, and forests and fields and gardens, 

 and along the banks of her rivers, and on her sea-shore. 



Now the great market of Lisbon (for there is a smaller 

 and a very inferior one near the quay, which I may at once 

 pass over) occupies the whole of the Pra^a da Figueira, 

 near the great Prapa de Dom Pedro, more generally known 

 as the Pocio. The peculiarity which at once strikes the 

 stranger as he first makes its acquaintance is, that the area 

 is occupied by colossal white umbrellas, of homely make 

 and rough aspect, tethered above the stalls they protect 

 from the scorching sun by small ropes, and in every stage 

 of dilapidation. These huge canvas coverings stretched 

 over the flowers and fruits and vegetables which occupy 



