276 



THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



of a fish or animal. The mach6ro costs from one to forty 

 dollars, and even more, according to the material and orna- 

 ments, which sometimes consist of a ring of diamonds round 

 the middle ! Without the steel and flint, however, the appa- 

 ratus is incomplete. The steel is frequently embossed with 

 gold and silver in some fanciful sketch on one side, and on the 

 reverse, the name of its owner. The steel alone is sometimes 

 worth ten dollars, and in "old times" flints sold at from 

 twenty-five cents to a dollar each ! 



From nine until one o'clock the portdles are thronged with 

 people, moving in opposite directions ; some are buying toys 

 and books, and others are there to see and be seen. The gay 

 uniforms of the officers, the sombre garb of priests and friars, 

 the learned black coats of students and judges, the new and 

 glossy saya and gay black eye peeping from behind the manto, 

 the shrivelled uncovered face of age, no longer stirred by joy, 

 but still arrayed in manto and saya of her younger days, the 

 disguised belle, the blind mendicant in tatters, led by a squalid 

 child, the mulatto wench with hair frizzed and sprinkled with 

 jasmine flowers, the barefoot Indian, the sandalled negro, and 

 liveried black, all figure in the moving mass. 



Near the eastern end of the portal sit the " mistur6ras" or 

 flower venders, selling nosegays both to belles and beaux. A 

 *^mistura" consists of flower petals of various kinds, orange 

 blossoms, sweet cherimoya buds, and jasmine, tied in a piece of 

 plantain leaf. Here also are sold a small kind of apple, and an 

 orange, (naranja de Quito), which are wreathed over with 

 small fragments of cinnamon and cloves by the ladies, and sent 

 as complimentary presents to their friends. They are called 

 ^'manzanitas ambareadas." One of these apples, with two or 

 three capulies and as many cherries, placed in a piece of plan- 

 tain leaf about one-quarter of the size of a sheet of foolscap 

 paper, and sprinkled with chamomile flowers, violets, aromas, 

 (a yellow, sweet scented flower), margaritas, (a species of lily), 

 with a sprig of sweet basil, formed what was anciently called 

 a puchero de flores," which cost from two reales to three dol- 

 lars, according to the season. Young ladies frequently make 

 pucheros de floras," sometimes perfuming them with incense 



