185 Portugal Illustrated. [ Aueusr, 
Our limits, which have already been carried nearly to their extent, 
prevent us from following Mr. Kinsey in his route, first down the 
Douro, and then by Coimbra and Leiria, from Oporto back to Lisbon. 
The tour, however, which he manages to accomplish altogether, includes, 
if not the whole, certainly the greater part, of the interesting scenery 
and positions of Portugal. Into the Alemtejo, if we understand rightly, 
he does not penetrate ; but describes it—as he is too apt to do, a great 
many things—upon “hearsay.” The return to Lisbon again brings us 
back to the dogs and the ecclesiastics, with anecdotes told fifty thousand 
times before, and laid at five hundred different places, and attributed to 
more than five hundred different people: all of which the writer may 
never have heard before, but which, we fear, will be sadly familiar to a 
great proportion of his readers. There is no very great point, for 
instance, in such descriptions as the following :-— 
“ Notwithstanding the effects produced by the ardent beams of the sun 
upon men, and almost every animal excepting the mule, the Lisbon dogs seem 
to luxuriate under the violence of the heat, and to avoid the shady sides of the 
streets, though the thermometer of Fahrenheit should indicate the state of the 
atmosphere to be at 110 degrees ; and scarcely an instance of canine madness 
indeed is ever known to occur. Certain trades and professions, such as gro- 
cers and shoemakers, are compelled bylaw to keep at their doors small sunken 
cisterns, which are constantly replenished with water for the use of these 
animals, who, since Junot’s bloody edict against them has ceased to have 
effect, and the restoration of the city to the uninterupted enjoyment of its 
‘ priesthood, and doghood,’ and filth, seem to have recovered their former 
numerical strength. 
** The canine confederacy, basking in the sun under our windows or upon 
the dunghill by the principal entrance into the Franciscan convent, which is 
opposite, consists of curs of high and of low degree ; some without a tail ; 
others with their ears shorn, or an eye lost in battle ; some lame, dragging a 
broken leg after them, perhaps, in addition, writhing under the mange, and 
proving their antiquity by the leanuness of their condition; poodles, who knew 
a master sixteen long years since ; pointers, who have been fixed to the same 
spot during the tenth part of a century ; and others who, from the variety in 
their colour and difference of shape, can boast no common origin. Such is the 
character of the motley group of dogs assembled together in the occupation of 
the Rua San Francisco. During the day, one is constantly molested by the 
yelpings and growlingsand snarlings of the pack, whenever a carriage or horse 
pass rapidly along, or the permanent possession of their territory seems endan- 
gered ; and in the night one is agreeably serenaded by the domestic broils of 
the vigilant cabal over the offerings made, to the great danger of the pas- 
senger, from the upper windows of the houses, to noctivagant Cloacina. The 
singular cry of one old gentleman, who, from infirmity, was not so ready as 
his brethren in joining the feast, still tingles in my ear.” ; 
Considering that, in the very next paragraph we are informed, that, 
for these dogs “ the Portuguese entertain the most religious commi- 
seration, and no one is found to do them an intentional injury,” it 
seems very odd how such an amazing supply of shorn ears and absent 
tails, lost eyes, and broken legs, can arise, as Mr. Kinsey describes ? 
The case that follows too, about the apothecary that was starved to 
death by attending noblemen and gentlemen, is a story for the Morning 
Post newspaper—for “the charitable and humane, and those whom 
Providence has blessed with affluence,” rather than for the quarto volume 
of the traveller and historian. 
Of the same character with these narratives are far too many other 
of the strange instances gathered in the course of Mr. Kinsey’s travels ; 
but it is not necessary to the advantage of our readers, nor would it be 
a CS ee ee 
