NOTICES OF CHILE. 



101 



about him, and accompany her home. He consented. She de- 

 lighted the victim of her sport with her lively jeux d'^esprit, 

 as they walked along, and at last ushered him into a splendidly 

 furnished room, occupied by a brilliant party of ladies and 

 gentlemen. The youth would have escaped, but the fair one 

 held him tight by the arm, and conducted him to a seat. He 

 drew his cloak closer around him, and bent his feet under his 

 chair. The marquesa introduced several of her female friends 

 to him, after giving them a hint of her joke. The young ladies 

 insisted that he must be very warm, but he thought it was 

 cold ; — they urged him to dance, but he vowed he could not. 

 At last the ladies became rude, and, forcibly removing the 

 cloak from the young cavalier's shoulders, exposed him to the 

 whole company, standing in his drawers and boots ; after being 

 heartily laughed at, he was turned out of doors! 



When Dona Carmencita told the story, 1 asked whether she 

 believed it. She replied, laughing, ^'Quien sabe puez!" — Who 

 knows then! This expression is very constantly used by the 

 Chilians, and the word jowe^r is employed frequently without 

 any meaning being attached to it. Puez Men, puez bueno, 

 puez si, puez no, are universally used. Not unfrequently, 

 when a pause occurs in company, the dead silence will be 

 broken by some one exclaiming, with a sigh, Puez si Senor !'^ 

 which serves as a starting point for conversation. 



On a Sunday evening, I accompanied my friend, Don Samuel, 

 <'to assist" at the tertulia given weekly by Dona Juana. We 

 found a number of ladies and gentlemen, old and young, pretty 

 and plain, already assembled. The ladies were ranged, seated 

 facing each other, in a long file, extending across the room, 

 the appearance of which was much improved by the carpet 

 being spread entirely over the ^^petate," or mat. In the United 

 States the carpets are always taken up for soirees or tertulias 

 (preferring the latter word), when dancing forms a part of the 

 amusement ; but here, on the contrary, they are always spread 

 for that purpose, and kept rolled up to one side of the apart- 

 ment at other times. Even at public balls, the dancing room is 

 always carpeted ; the reason for this practice is that the floors 

 are of tiles. 



