Dress and Customs of the Inhabitants. 91 



The dress of the native is extremely simple ; a pair of 

 white trowsers, a shirt, and linen jacket, constitute the entire 



toilette ; with a few rare exceptions we never saw shoes : but 

 even the poorest of the poor wears a curiously-shaped small cloth 

 cap (^carapuga') of a blue colour, with red lining, terminating 

 in an erect pointed tail, six inches long. This seems to be a 

 remnant of a turbaned head-dress, worn formerly by the inha- 

 bitants of the African coast, with whom the first settlers, allured 

 by the slave-trade, once carried on an active intercourse. 



Many of the inhabitants of Funchal obtain their livelihood 

 by acting as guides to strangers. The roads being very steep, 

 and formed of pointed stones, horses of an excellent breed are 

 used in going even short distances ; however fast the visitors 

 may gallop, the guide follows the horses on foot, to which 

 the natives are habituated from their earliest years. This 

 practice is undoubtedly one of the principal causes of consump- 

 tive complaints, which are more frequently met with here than 

 might have been expected considering the climate, though bad 

 nourishment and unhealthy dwellings may have their part in 



