VALPARAISO. 125 



which is spread over the coarser plaister, both without and within 

 the houses. 



The brick buildings, and such huts as are plaistered within and 

 without over the wattled work, and tiled, are called houses ; the 

 others are called, generally, ranchos. The word rancho is, however, 

 also applied to the whole group of buildings that form the farm- 

 steading of a Chilian peasant. Every thing here is so far back with 

 regard to the conveniences and improvements of civilised life, that if 

 we did not recollect the state of the Highlands of Scotland seventy 

 years ago, it would be scarcely credible that the country could have 

 been occupied for three centuries by so polished and enlightened a 

 people as the Spaniards undoubtedly were in the sixteenth century, 

 when they first took possession of Chile. 



The only articles of dress publicly sold are shoes, or rather slippers, 

 and hats. I do not, of course, mean that no stuffs from Europe or 

 dresses for the higher classes are to be bought; because, since the 

 openincr of the port, retail shops for all sorts of European goods are 

 nearly as common at Valparaiso as in any town of the same size in 

 England. But the people of the country are still in the habit of 

 spinning, weaving, dying, and making every article for themselves in 

 their own houses, except hats and shoes. The distaff and spindle, 

 the reel, the loom, particularly the latter, are all of the simplest and 

 grossest construction ; and the same loom, made of a few cross sticks, 

 serves to weave the linen shirt or drawers, the woollen jacket and 

 manteau, as well as the alfombra, or carpet, which is spread either 

 on the estrada, or the bed, or the saddle, or carried to church as the 

 Mussulman carries his mat to the mosque to kneel and pray on. 

 The herbs and roots of the country furnish abundance and variety of 

 dyes; and iew, if any, families are without one female knowing in the 

 properties of plants, whether for dying or for medicine. The bark 

 of the Quillai is constantly used to clear and bring out the colours. 



The dress of the Chilian men resembles that of the peasants of the 

 south of Europe ; linen shirts and drawers, cloth waistcoats, jackets, 

 and breeches with a coloured listing at the seams ; left unbuttoned at 



