790 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



it is but justice to the Brasilian la- 

 dies to say, that they bear no part 

 ia this destructive vice, but whether 

 from want of incliaation, or from 

 restraint, 1 cannot take upon me to 

 say. 



The manners of (he Brasilians are, 

 however, gradually converging to- 

 wards that liberal system, which ap- 

 pears to be continually gaining 

 ground throughout the world, and 

 which will probably be one day 

 universally established, in exact pro- 

 portion to the peculiar physical and 

 moral attributes of man, in the cli- 

 mate he inhabits. The usual dress 

 of both sexes is adopted from the 

 French ; swords and cocked hats 

 are entirely out of fashion, and 

 cloaks are now only worn by the 

 vulgar. The men who have had 

 any intercourse with the English, 

 adopt their customs, even to minute- 

 ness ; hence, cropped heads, round 

 hats, and half boots, have ceased to 

 be considered a foreign costume ; 

 the women wear their wastes 

 very short, their bosoms much ex- 

 posed, and their head-dresses and 

 naked arms, covered with a profu- 

 sion ofsparkling stones, * which are 

 of little value here ; the ladies, how. 

 ever, as well as the men, seem to 

 prefer attiring themselves a-lu-iiiodc 

 il'A/iglclcrrc, when it is in their 

 power. An English milliner, who 

 stopped here on her way to India, 

 performed greater metamorphoses 



on the external form of some young 

 ladies, than can be equalled in pages 

 of Ovid +. The features of the fe- 

 males can, in no instance that I saw, 

 claim the title of beautiful, and even 

 very few deserve the epithet of 

 pretty : however, their black eyes, 

 large, full, and sparkling, give a de- 

 gree of brilliancy to their dark com. 

 piexions, and throw some expression 

 into their countenances ; but it is 

 too generally the mere jexpression 

 of animal vivacity, untcmpcred by 

 the soft chastising power of tender 

 sensibility. Their eyebrows arc. 

 finely arched ; their eye-lashcs long 

 and silken ; their hair is long, 

 black, and coarsely luxuriant; and, 

 if we may judge from the frequent 

 application of the fingers, is not 

 always without inhabitants. In 

 their persons they are unacquainted 

 Avith that delicate jiropre/v, from 

 which our countrywomen derive 

 so large a portion of their power 

 over the other sex, and for which 

 they are conspicuous over all the 

 nations' of Europe. Among other 

 habits of theiirasiiian ladies, which, 

 separately considered, are, perhaps, 

 trifling, but, when combined, form a 

 powerful opposition to the empire 

 of female charms, is that of conti- 

 nually spitting, without regard ei- 

 ther to niauTier, time, or p!ac( 

 The young ladies, who are educated 

 in the convents, are permitted to 

 converse, even with strangers, at th(j 



gate, 



♦ Topazes, aqua marinas, amethysts, and chrysol.ytes, &c. 

 t the amorous precepts of this author, aie well followed by the Rio ladies. 

 It snowy white your neck, you still should wear 

 That, and the siioulflcr of the left arm, bare ; 

 Such si<ihts ne'er fail to fire my am'rous heart, 

 And make me jiant to kiss the naked part. 



Art (if' Love, translated hy Covgreve. 

 But they should recollert, that this voluptuous author addressed himself to Ita-: 

 lian womeu, and that the " Parian marble," to wlii(ph their skins were compared, 

 is by no means ajplicable to Brasilian complexions. 



1 



