NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



121 



are such things, a chair or two. The chief meal is a dinner at noon, at 

 which the master, mistress, and children, occasionally sit round the 

 table ; more frequently it is taken on the floor, in which case the lady's 

 mat is sacred, and none approach it to sit down but acknowledged 

 favourites. The viands are generally soup, wherein there is abundance 

 of vegetables, Carne Secca, and Feijam of different kinds. Instead of 

 bread, Farinha, or the flour of the Cassava root, is used. The food, if 

 moist, is served up- in calabashes or tureens ; if dry, in baskets ; and is 

 eaten from small Lisbonian plates. Knives are used only by the men ; 

 w^omen and children employ their fingers. The female slaves eat 

 at the same time, in different parts of the room ; and sometimes 

 are favoured with a mess from the hands of their mistress. If 

 there be a dessert, it consists of oranges, bananas, and a few other dif- 

 ferent kinds of fruit. 



iKitchens have generally a large open chimney, and an oven ; the 

 hearth is about ten feet long, five broad, and three high ; the fire-place 

 consists of a range of partitions on the hearth, formed of bricks. These 

 partitions are about two feet long, and a fire can be placed in any one of 

 them alone ; over the top of those in use bricks or stones are laid, with 

 spaces or holes to allow the heat to reach the cooking-vessel, which is 

 commonly a pan of earthenware, manufactured in the country. Neither 

 grates, fire-irons, nor fenders are used ; such furniture would be thought 

 a superfluity and an incumbrance. A sort of fan, made of the leaves of 

 the Palm-tree, is used to quicken the fire, and well supplies the place of 

 bellows. The dresser is a solid plank of wood, fixed at one end of the 

 kitchen, and above it are a few shelves. On a stool, formed for the 

 purpose, stand pots containing water, always ready for drinking or for 

 other uses ; and over them hangs a ladle, made of a Cocoa-nut shell, 

 which serves to take the water from the pots as it is wanted, and as a 

 drinking-vessel for the slaves. 



When a gentleman calls upon another, if he be not intimate at the 

 house, he goes thither in full dress, with a cocked hat, with buckles in his 

 shoes and at the knees, and with a sword or dirk by his side. Having 



Q 



