NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



189 



burned by night, in the kitchen, and sweet scented herbs in the 

 alcoves. 



Gentlemen wore cotton-shirts, neatly made with open work and 

 lace at the breast, and the collar sprucely tied with a black ribbon. 

 Their coats resembled our surtouts, in some cases adorned with loops and 

 tassels, in others with large silver buttons ; the waistcoats were made 

 of calico, generally printed in a large running pattern ; the trowsers of 

 white cotton-cloth. In the house, when perfectly at ease, the coat was 

 often exchanged for a calico jacket, and the feet thrust into slippers. 

 Elderly men, when dressed, wore large buckles ; the yovinger, departing 

 from the state of their fathers, used shoe-strings. On few occasions, 

 and by few people, even of the highest rank, were stockings of any 

 kind worn ; and no one went out, on occasions of ceremony, without a 

 cocked hat and a dirk. If about to travel, they put on pantaloons of 

 white cotton-cloth, and drew over them long boots, fastened below the knee 

 with a strap and buckle. In the country, and passing from one place to 

 another, they wore broad-brimmed hats, made of plaited straw, or the 

 leaf of the Palm, and a woollen or cotton Poncho, a garment made of 

 one large piece, with a hole in the middle, through which the head is 

 thrust, and falling loosely before, behind, and over the arms. The 

 Poncho, if made of cloth, is frequently trimmed all round with velveteen, 

 and lined with baize of some gay colour ; if of cotton, it is ornamented 

 with a border of various colours, woven with the piece, and is of South 

 American manufacture. Ordinary working-people, such as sailors, boat- 

 men, guides, and the lower order of farmers and peasantry, wear wooUen 

 jackets, with quarter dollars for buttons, in such number and order as 

 means may allow or fancy dictate. I never saw here the poorest white 

 peasant, who, besides these ornaments of the jacket, did not carry about 

 him a silver fork and spoon. This practice makes them more cleanly in 

 their habits of eating than their Northern brethren ; and one good habit 

 usually introduces others. 



Ladies appear in public in the Mantilha, a square piece of silk, 

 bordered with . broad lace, which is fastened on the head, and falls over 



