chap. xv. INTERIOR OE THE NATIVE HOUSES. 407 
walked with him to another part of the city, and he re¬ 
turned with me for some medicine for the patient. 
My visits to the sick have given me peculiar opportunities 
of becoming acquainted with the social condition of the 
people, and I have been much impressed with the comfort 
and convenience of their dwellings, the separation and se¬ 
clusion of their sleeping-rooms, and the appropriate and 
sometimes even elegant manner in which they are furnished. 
I believe most of the natives still sit on the ground at their 
meals, but there is generally a table and chairs in the open 
room of the house. Then in the sleeping-rooms, though 
some of the sleeping-places consist of a number of finely 
woven mats laid on the floor, there was generally a neat four- 
post bedstead, with a bed at the end of the room opposite 
the window, the bed and the window being both screened 
by white muslin curtains. A table, with sometimes white 
jugs, cups and saucers, and glasses upon it, and a looking- 
glass over it, generally occupies one side of the room, and 
chairs and perhaps trunks the other, besides many other 
little conveniences which I did not expect to see. But more 
pleasing still was the kind, social, and affectionate feel¬ 
ing which the several members of the family manifested 
towards each other, in those instances which came under my 
notice. The sons, even when young men, seemed to cherish 
great affection for their mothers, and to treat them with 
marked attention and respect. This is a very general feeling, 
to which expression is often given in a simple and gratifying 
manner. It is a custom for children occasionally to present 
to their mothers a piece of money, called “Fofon damosina,” 
literally fragrance of the back, as a sort of grateful acknow¬ 
ledgment for the mother’s kindness when the infant was carried 
on the back. Several families of respectability resided near 
my house, and I noticed that the mistress of the house and 
her daughters, arrayed in clean white dresses, usually walked 
D D 4 
