Theodore Winthrop

“ There is a most graceful ease and abandon in the attire. As the climate is warm, the ladies are décolletées enough to suit the most “emancipated” taste, and the row of bright shoulders, as they all kneel in church, is worthy of a full-dress occasion. ”

“ In the heats of the dry season, when all verdure is destroyed, and all the houses that can be spared are eaten up, the cattle are driven, as in cold Switzerland, high up on the sides of the mountains. ”

“ In the parching heats of the dry season, when everything green is gone, the cattle straying about find these rushes very convenient, and pulling away at them bring the houses down about the ears of the careless tenants, while often the rains of the rainy season do the same. ”

“ He builds a fire, puts on one enormous kettle of rice to boil and another of chicha, and calls in his neighbors to a raising-bee. They wattle the walls, and thatch the roof, and plaster the sides, all very speedily, and then sit down to a debauch on boiled rice, plantains, and chicha, Their revelry terminates, as in civilized countries, by a ball prolonged far into the night. ”

“ Around these corrals the prickly pimula, or wild pine-apple, springs up, and, when they are neglected, this and larger plants form an impenetrable thicket. Within is the softest and most verdant grass; the cattle keep a narrow entrance open. ”

“ The church was filled with the fresh toilettes of the ladies in the peculiarly graceful attire of the country. It consists of a skirt of some light-figured or embroidered muslin, often made with two or more flounces. There is no waist nor sleeves ”

“ A good-natured man is always the scapegoat. It was determined that I should mount with him, and be deposited, and he return with two animals for the others. I essayed to mount, and, seizing the saddle, sprung up ”