THE WOODS AND GARDENS OF PORTUGAL 



891 



the: royal palace 01? CINTRA 



The strange-looking towers, commonly called "champagne-bottle chimneys," are the chimneys 

 to the great fire places where oxen were roasted whole 



an excellent protection against heavy 

 rain. 



The women here have very full, short, 

 gathered skirts, and though none of them 

 wear shoes or stockings, hardly any are 

 without heavy ancient jewelry of gold fil- 

 igree, apparently of considerable value.* 



* In this connection it is interesting to read 

 the following quotation from "The Tourist in 

 Portugal," by W. H. Harrison, published as 

 long ago as 1839, by D. Appleton & Co. : 



"It is not uncommon, in some of the pro- 

 vinces, to find women who have not a shoe to 

 their feet, ornamented by necklaces of gold, 



some of them of great value. Mrs , the 



lady of a merchant of Oporto, related to us an 

 odd anecdote of a servant whom she had ob- 

 tained from the country. The girl entered 

 upon her vocation with every appearance of 

 being quite competent to its duties, as indeed 

 she proved to be ; but, to the great annoyance 

 of the English prejudices of her mistress, she 

 wore no shoes. The lady mentioned the cir- 

 cumstance to the girl as unusual in EngHsh 



The bodies of the dresses are mostly red' 

 or yellow, and a broad horizontal stripe- 

 of bright color often enlivens the skirt 

 also, their brilliant head-kerchiefs being- 

 families ; but was answered by the domestic 

 that she wore stockings, which was more than 

 servants in the country did, and that she- 

 deemed that a sufficient concession to the 

 fastidiousness of a foreigner. 



"The lady perceiving that, independently of 

 the want of shoes, the domestic's wardrobe was 

 deficient in what her mistress judged to be- 

 very essential articles of dress, and conceiving 

 that want of funds on the part of her new 

 servant was the cause of their not being pro- 

 cured, kindly volunteered an advance on ac- 

 count of wages. The offer was, however, re- 

 ceived with some marks of indignation by the- 

 domestic, who opened her box and displayed a. 

 wealth of jewelry, in the shape of gold neck- 

 laces, which quite astonished her mistress, and 

 which was adduced as irrefragable proof that,, 

 if she was not provided with the articles that 

 were deemed necessary to her equipcent, it was- 

 not for want of the means of purchasing them."' 



