FAYAL AND THE PORTUGUESE 305 
white-robed belles, in a manner not to be wit- 
nessed on our farthest western borders. 
The position of woman in Portuguese coun- 
tries brings one nearer to that Oriental type 
from which modern society has been gradually 
diverging. Woman is secluded, so far as each 
household can afford it, and this is the key to 
the Oriental system. Seclusion is aristocracy, 
and if it cannot be made complete, the family 
must do the best they can. Thus, in the lowest 
classes, one daughter is often decreed by the 
parents to be brought up like a lady, and for 
this every sacrifice is to be made. Her robust 
sisters go barefooted to the wells for water; 
they go miles unprotected into the lonely moun- 
tains ; no social ambition, no genteel helpless- 
ness for them. But Mariquinha is taught to 
read, write, and sew; she is as carefully looked 
after as if the world wished to steal her; she 
wears shoes and stockings and an embroidered 
kerchief and a hooded cloak; and she never 
steps outside the door alone. You meet her, 
pale and demure, plodding along to mass with 
her mother. The sisters will marry laborers 
and fishermen ; Mariquinha will marry a small 
shopkeeper or the mate of a vessel, or else die 
single, It is not very pleasant for the poor girl 
in the mean time; she is neither healthy nor 
happy ; but “let us be genteel or die.” 
