106 



THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



ply to the lady in an appropriate stanza, from some of the poets^j. 

 or make one impromptu for the occasion. This alternate danc- 

 ing and recitation, are continued till the lady has exhausted 

 her memory, or till she has repeated six or eight stanzas. 

 When the dancers possess humor or wit/ as they frequently 

 do, "la perdiz" becomes the source of great merriment and 

 enjoyment. 



About eleven o'clock, the old ladies begin to embrace their 

 friends, the young ones imitate them, and the " tertulia" is 

 broken up. Nothing, in the way of evening party, can exceed 

 the social cordiality, the freedom from restraint, and the gene- 

 ral enjoyment, afforded at the " tertulias'', and " reuniones" of 

 Chile. 



The English-speaking foreigners, in Valparaiso, who pre- 

 tend to be of substance, and somewhat aristocratical withal, 

 have formed little coteries amongst themselves, and never ad- 

 mit the Chilians into their society, except on some grand oc- 

 casion, or unless the ladies are married to some Englishman 

 or North American. All the English and American ladies 

 here, are married ; therefore, the young men seek amusement 

 in the society of the natives, at least till they acquire the lan- 

 guage. Few of them are able to speak it on their arrival, and 

 even after a long residence in the country, they rarely learn 

 to speak well. The Germans and French possess an innate 

 power, and naturally, more industry for acquiring languages, 

 and perhaps greater facilities than others ; we generally find 

 them speaking with grammatical propriety, and often with ele- 

 gance, though not with the purity of accent often attained by 

 the Americans and English. 



A difference of education and religion, a difference in the es- 

 timate of pleasures and amusements, together with the inabili- 

 ty to speak fluently the languages of each other, are sufficient 

 reasons for the want of congeniality, observable between the 

 foreign and Chilian ladies : and I have invariably remarked, 

 that when they have met petit es soirees, the society has been 

 under restraint, and hilarity repressed. This is particularly 

 true of water parties, for which the Chilenas have a great lik- 

 ing, and which are most cheerful when entirely Chilian, or 



