cuAP. XV. INTERIOR OF THE NATIVE HOUSES. 407 



walked Avith him to another part of the city, and he re- 

 tui-ned with me for some medicine for the patient. 



My visits to the sick have given me peculiar opportunities 

 of becoming acquainted with the social condition of the 

 people, and I have been much impressed with the comfort 

 and convenience of their dwellings, the separation and se- 

 clusion of their sleeping-rooms, and the appropriate and 

 sometimes even elegant manner in which they are furnished. 

 I believe most of the natives still sit on the ground at their 

 meals, but there is generally a table and chairs in the open 

 room of the house. Then in the sleeping-rooms, though 

 some of the sleeping-places consist of a number of finely 

 woven mats laid on the floor, there was generally a neat four- 

 post bedstead, with a bed at the end of the room opposite 

 the window, the bed and the window being both screened 

 by white muslin curtains. A table, with sometimes white 

 jugs, cups and saucers, and glasses upon it, and a looking- 

 glass over it, generally occupies one side of the room, and 

 chairs and perhaps trunks the other, besides many other 

 little conveniences which I did not expect to see. But more 

 pleasing still was the kind, social, and affectionate feel- 

 ing which the several members of the family manifested 

 towards each other, in those instances which came under my 

 notice. The sons, even when young men, seemed to cherish 

 great affection for their mothers, and to treat them with 

 marked attention and respect. This is a very general feeling, 

 to which expression is often given in a simple and gratifying 

 manner. It is a custom for children occasionally to present 

 to their mothers a piece of money, called " Fofon damosina," 

 literally fragrance of the back, as a sort of grateful acknow- 

 ledgment for the mother's kindness when the infant was carried 

 on the back. Several families of respectability resided near 

 my house, and I noticed that the mistress of the house and 

 her daughters, arrayed in clean white dresses, usually walked 



