132 



PERU. 



Between the acts, the Viceroy retires to the 

 back seat of his box, which, being taken as a sig- 

 nal that he may be considered as absent, every 

 man in the pit draws forth his steel and flint, 

 lights his segar, and puffs away furiously, in 

 order to make the most of his time ; for when the 

 curtain rises, and the Viceroy again comes for- 

 ward, there can no longer be any smoking, con- 

 sistently with Spanish etiquette. The sparkling 

 of so many flints at once, which makes the pit 

 look as if a thousand fire-flies had been let loose, 

 and the cloud of smoke rising immediately after- 

 wards and filling the house, are little circumstan- 

 ces which strike the eye of a stranger, as being 

 more decidedly characteristic, than incidents real- 

 ly important. I may add, that the gentlemen in 

 the boxes also smoke on these occasions ; and I 

 once fairly detected a lady taking a sly whiff be- 

 hind her fan. The Viceroy's presence or absence, 

 however, produces no change in the gallery aloft, 

 where the goddesses keep up an unceasing fire 

 during the whole evening. 



