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bouring peasantry for several leagues round. The balconies of 

 those houses, which command the best views of the spectacle, are 

 crowded with ladies in their gala dresses, who consider the daj as 

 a kind of festival ; the evening is generally concluded by tea and 

 card-parties or dances. , 



We found very little difficulty in accommodating ourselves to the 

 general mode of living at St. Paul's. The bread is pretty good, and 

 the butter tolerable, but rarely used except with coffee for break- 

 fast, or tea in the evening. A more common breakfast is a very 

 pleasant sort of beans, called feijones, boiled or mixed with man- 

 dioca. Dinner, which is usually served up at noon or before, com- 

 monly consists of a quantity of greens boiled with a little fat pork 

 or beef, a root of the potatoe kind, and a stewed fowl, with excel- 

 lent sallad, to which succeeds a great variety of delicious conserves 

 and sweet-meats. Very little wine is taken at meals ; the usual 

 beverage is water. On public occasions, or when a feast is given to 

 a large party, the table is most sumptuously spread ; from thirty to 

 fifty dishes are served up at once, by which arrangement a succes- 

 sion of courses is obviated. Wine circulates copiously, and toasts 

 are given during the repast, which usually occupies two or three 

 hours, and is succeeded by sweet-meats, the pride of their tables ; 

 after coffee the company pass the evening in dancing, music, or cards. 



I may here observe, that neither in St. Paul's nor in any other 

 place which I visited, did I witness any instance of that levity in 

 the females of Brazil, which some writers alledge to be the leading 

 trait in their character. I allude to the custom which has been said 

 to prevail among them, of throwing flowers from the balconies on 

 such of the passers-by as they take a fancy to, or of presenting a 

 flower or a nosegay to their favourites, as a mark of partiality. The 

 circumstance which seems to have given rise to such an ill-founded 

 conjecture is this : flowers are here considered an indispensable part 

 of the female head-dress, and when a stranger is introduced to a 

 lady, it is nothing more than an act of common courtesy for 



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