RIO DE JANEIRO. ' 95 
- rude and ill-bred man. I rememlDer once, iu passing the 
streets of Liverpool, in the middle of the day, to have met 
half a dozen very smart looking girls, who stopped me, and 
from their manner seemed to be inclined to handle me rather 
roughly. I soon discovered that an ancient custom was still 
observed in this town, which granted a privilege to the ladies 
of seizing any gentleman they might chuse to encounter in the 
streets on Easter Tuesday, to lift him into the air and, if he 
should refuse to make such concessions as Avere demanded, 
to drop him into the kennel ; and this day is significantly 
called, the lifting day. Now if the commander of a Portu- 
gueze ship should happen to be walking the streets of Liver- 
pool, for the first time on Easter Tuesday, and be treated in 
the manner here described, and be sent on board his ship 
immediately after, as the Eortugueze of Rio send all stran- 
gers on board their respective ships at sunset, it may readily 
be conceived what kind of character he would be apt to oive 
of the women of Liverpool, which nevertheless might, and 
certainly would, be no less erroneous than unjust. 
That the ladies of Rio have a great deal of vivacity and 
little reserve I am free to admit, which indeed is not greatly 
to be wondered at. The whole day is spent at home in 
gloomy confinement ; and they rarely see a hu;Tian creature 
beside their ov/n family, except in the evenings, when they 
appear in their balconies or go to vespers. At these moments 
they may be compared to birds that have escaped from the 
confinement of the cage. At the same time, I have not the 
smallest doubt that this city has its full proportion of ladies, 
