prominent, is here the most monotonous in the whole year. The social parties are not then more numerous or more gay than usual; you hear neither of entertainments nor of assemblies, neither of music nor of balls; the only pleasure in which they indulge consists in sprinkling the passengers, or being sprinkled by those who are at the windows.

they frequently hide themselves if a man hap- || picasures more or less diversified, more or less pens to come in. To make amends they shew themselves a good deal at their windows, where they spend three-fourths of the day in seeing and being seen. There they are fixed with their arms crossed, barcheaded, let the weather be ever so cold, and in winter with a cloak of coarse cloth thrown over their shoulders. They never take up a needle or a book, but divide the day between the window and a chair, in which they remain supinely seated, oppressed with the weight of indolence and lassitude.

Formerly they never made use of chairs, but squatted on the floor, on rush mats, with their legs crossed or bent back under their thighs. This custom is not entirely eradicated, it is still retained by servants and women of the lower order.

The Portuguese are very fond of processions. These solemnities are high days, in particular for the women; they afford them an opportunity to go abroad, to appear in public and exhibit themselves. This they never fail to embrace; they are anxious to present themselves in all their charms, and their toilette engages their whole attention several days beforehand. On the day of the procession every carriage is hired; the women, decked with all their finery, repair to the places where it is to pass; they fill the windows of the balconies, where they display their persons three or four hours before the time. The streets are crowded with men passing and repassing, going and coming; they look, they ogle, they salute, they make signs, which the women, delighted to be taken notice of, answer with eagerness.

These ceremonies give occasion to invitations on the part of the proprietors or tenants of the houses before which the procession is to pass, and produce brilliant and numerous assemblages. || When the procession has passed tea is served to the whole company, after which they frequently dance, and the ball is sometimes continued till late at night, even in Lent. Women never go to these assemblies unless they ar invited; only the fidalgas, that is, the wives of the grandees, invite themselves; they go without ceremony, and take possession of windows and places which were intended for others.

The pleasures of Lisbon are neither numerous nor frequent. The inhabitants seldom have social parties, and still more rarely mingle together in the public walks, in which the Portuguese women never appear, those of foreign nations seldom, and which are but little frequented by the men. Nor are balls more frequent among

them.

The Carnival at Lisbon is extremely dull; that season, distinguished in other countries by

In the last week of the Carnival the women of all ranks, especially the ladies, stand at their windows, and throw on the passengers pulve rized talc, which adheres to their faces and their clothes. They provide themselves with bladders of gum-elastic, squirts, bottles, pots, pitchers, and saucepans; they throw water, frequently in torrents, on those who are passing in the streets. The passenger is fortunate when he is only inundated; he often receives on his head not only the water but the vessels that contain it.

The Portuguese, accustomed to this kind of gallantry, are satisfied with going out on those days in old clothes or great coats, and screening themselves under large umbrellas. Strangers, less forbearing, sometimes return the compli ment with a volley of stones, and not a year passes without broken windows, disputes, and violent scuffles.

Rondas, or patroles, parade the streets, but not for the purpose of hindering this sport; on the contrary they are commissioned to protect these modern Naiads, and to prevent any insult from being offered them. They are even not spared themselves, and they seldom take a turn without being sprinkled.

If the inhabitants of Lisbon have no dancing during the Carnival, they make amends for it in Lent. That season, set apart by the church for abstinence and privations, is chosen by the Portuguese, a people desirous of appearing the most religious in Europe, for dancing. The processions which then take place every week, are the occasion of frequent balls. The Portuguese would not touch meat on any account, but he dances; he is fearful of being deficient in the outward ceremonies of religion, and he indulges in a tumultuous amusement in a season devoted to serious contemplation.

The Portuguese might be supposed to wish to distinguish themselves from other nations by their customs. One instance of this has just been mentioned, here follows another :-In winter the cold is sometimes so intense as to produce frost. It usually rains for three or four months, sometimes for a fortnight or three weeks toge ther. The streets are then filled with water and mud; the humidity penetrates into the house, where it concentrates, and every thing is quite damp. The inhabitants of Lisbon, however,

have no fires; you would not find thirty fire- || of the wives of artizans substitute instead of the places in the whole city. Both men and women cloak a large and ample mantle of black taffeta, remain in their apartments wrapped up in large which covers the whole body and reaches to the woollen cloaks; nothing is to he seen but cloaks | middle of the leg. They either go with the head in the streets, at the theatre, and in the churches. uncovered, or wear a hat ornamented with a black The following are the differences that may be feather. observed with respect to dress: the women of the lower classes, and the wives of artizans, wear on their heads a white handkerchief, which falls down in a point behind, and is tied before under the chin. They never go out without their cloaks of coarse cloth which reach down to their heels.

MANNERS OF THE INDIANS.
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if he has a job of some importance he is often surrounded by all the inhabitants in the neighbourhood; the hour of dinner alone can induce them to quit this attracting spectacle.

Their meals afford nothing to excite the appetite or gratify the palate of an European. Their principal food is rice steeped and boiled in water; sometimes to make up for the insipidity of that article the Indian family adds a few dishes highly seasoned with spices. Rice-water, into which they put great quantities of long pepper and salt is their ordinary beverage. After the repast they drink a kind of sherbet. Wine and strong liquors are banished from Indian entertainments. The service of the table consists of a mat spread upon the ground; large banana leaves serve them for napkins, and as we have mentioned above they have nothing but their hands to eat with. Having no other view then to appease hunger, they never press one another to eat, and their simple repasts never degenerate into debauchery. The hour that follows their frugal dinner is entirely devoted to digestion; it is spent in listless inactivity, and an Indian would not break in upon this state of repose to preserve his house from the ravages of a conflagration.

The furniture of the house agrees exactly with the service of the table, and even amongst great families, there is nothing to be seen but a few carpets and cushions, some copper or silver vessels to hold water to drink, a small box for the wife's trinkets, another for the apparatus of the toilette, a large chest to hold the clothes of the whole family, and an oricka, or great pipe for the master of the house. The house is correspondent to the furniture It is very low and has no other embellishment than the whiteness of its walls. The family commonly assembles in a kind of gallery two or three feet from the ground, running round the inside of the house, which is built in form of a square, and surrounds a court-yard; the apartments are very small, lighted only by diminutive windows, looking into the court, and which are sometimes fastened up through jealousy, as they are strangers to glass. The luxury of Indian houses, a luxury commanded by the Gods, is their excessive cleanliness; an Indian always goes out of doors to spit, and pulls off his slippers before he enters the house.

The family never goes abroad except early in the morning, or in the evening, when the heat of the day is over, either to bathe, to pay visits, or to spend a few hours in a neighbour's garden; but upon all these occasions you always see them passive, without any other enjoyment than that of a perfect and invariable tranquillity.

M. Henrichs, from whom we have taken great part of these particulars, became acquainted, at Madras, with a farmer-general of tobacco, one

of the wealthiest Indians in that place. In consequence of his commercial connections with the first English bankers, he had opportunities of beholding their luxury, and attempted to imitate them, yet without changing his habits or mode of life in any respect. Amongst other objects of luxury, he erected, in a beautiful garden he had in the neighbourhood of the town, a pavilion in the Italian style; this pavilion was finished in the European manner. To display his wealth, and at the same time to eclipse the Europeans, he was not contented with mahogany furniture; his chairs, stools, tables, and bureaus, were of covered with the richest Japan carpets; the most ivory inlaid with ebony and gold; the floors were saloon, struck the beholder with admiration; the valuable paintings and busts, placed around the tables were loaded with time pieces and other productions of art, from England or China; great numbers of looking glasses were suspended from the cieling; in short, the whole was such a medley that, although disposed with a kind of symmetry, you would rather suppose it à furniture warehouse than a drawing-room. The bedchamber contained a bed corresponding with the furniture of the saloon, and perhaps the most costly that ever was seen; whatever could be wished for was to be found there; an adjoining apartment was richly furnished in the Turkish style, with red velvet cushions, embroidered with gold, and covered with muslin cases. Perhaps the possessor of this beautiful place may be supposed to have enjoyed this romp; in the midst of his riches he was like a Ryot, brought by chance into a palace; he was the guardian, not the proprietor, of the house; he sometimes visited the magnificent apartments, but he spent most of his time with his friends, seated upon which stood open to give strangers an opportumats, in the gallery of his pavilion, the doors of which appeared as if exposed for sale, and was nity of admiring the luxury of the furniture, enjoyed by nobody. It has been observed that the Indian is always merely a spectator, and an indifferent spectator.

It will always appear incomprehensible, that amidst the eternal inactivity of these people, an Indian is a stranger to ennui, that bane of European societies, but he seems formed purposely for indolence. Europeans has charms for him: he appears to None of the objects that please exist less by means of his senses than of his soul. An Indian would infallibly fall asleep at our most interesting operas; and the happiness of chewing betel would make him think all our entertainments insipid.

In our noisy circles, we go in quest of that pleasure, happiness, or comfort, that we cannot find within ourselves: fortunately for the Indian

POETRY,

ORIGINAL AND SELECT.