TENERIFFE. 49 
honour of wearing a sword. The dress of tlic lower class of 
women is pretty nearly the same as that which is worn in 
Madeira. We saw little of those in the higher ranks, who in- 
deed rarely stir abroad ; and who at svich times are generally 
veiled or, more correctly speaking, half-veiled, as they always 
take care to shew one of their pretty black eyes and, accident- 
ally as it were, sometimes the whole of the countenance, espe- 
cially if they perceive that they are observed by strangers. 
Their complexions by confinement become pale and sickly, 
but they have almost invariably fine dark eyes and good 
teeth'. When full dressed for some particular occasion, they 
wear long flowing veils of thin white silk, and Spanish cloaks 
of scarlet cloth, richly embroidered and edged with gold lace. 
The undress consists of a short jacket and petticoat, when their 
long black hair bound with a fillet falls straight down behind. 
The hooded cloaks of the middle class are of fine English flan- 
nel dyed black, a very considerable manufacture of which is 
carried on in the city of Salisbury, and exported through Lisbon 
and Cadiz to the Portugueze and Spanish colonies. Num- 
bers of females are condemned to pass their days in nunneries, 
with which every town and village in the island abounds ; and 
the younger sons of the great land-holders are usually brought 
up for the church, in order that the family name and estate 
may be transmitted to posterity through the eldest son. 
The influence of the clergy in TenerifFe is paramount. It 
extends to all the concerns of domestic life, and its authority 
is backed and confirmed by the terrors of the Holy Inquisi- 
tion. The existence of this tribunal must, wlierever its bane- 
ful influence extends, be incompatible with a free and unre- 
H 
