Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-14
Description of FoynI-Its Peculiar Char-7

..asst aii 10 aoter. loo gii fodf Q .I
Fayal is one Of those places, familiar /
enough to most Oflps BY namegpot very far
distant, and yet very foreign and almost
unknown as to the appearance and habits Of |
its people. II has been well selected as the
subject of paper in the Atlantic Magazine,
from which we extract the following pass
agei Wor 10 GU ot 5.',l % ascso7g MS
Z One general truth came oyer us instantly, |
and il was strange to think that no one had |
happened TO speak Of It before. The essence
Of the surprise was this; We had always !
been left 10 suppose that in 8 foreign country
one would Immediately begin 70 look about
and observe the foreign things-these novel
details having, of course, that groundwork
of ordinary human life, the same all the
world over. To our amazement we found /,
that it was the groundwork itself that was
foreign; we were shifted off our feet not
the details, but the basis itself was wholly
new and bewildering; and, instead of noting
down, like intelligent travellers, the objects
which were new, we found ourselves stupidity
staring about to find something which was
| old-a square inch of surface any where
whichlooked like any thing everseen before
| that we might take our departure from
that, and then begin 70 improve our minds.
| Perhaps this is difficult for the first hours in
any foreign country; certainly the untrav-
1 eled American finds it utterly impossible in
| Fayal, Consider the incongruities. The
beach beneath your feet instead of being
white or yellow, is black; the cliffs beside
you are white or red, instead of black or
gray. The. houses are of white plaster on
the outside, with wood-work, often painted
in CAV stripes, within. There are no chim-
news to the buildings, but sometimes there
is a building to the chimney, the latter being
| a picturesdtie tower with smoke coming from
the top and a house appended to the base.
One-half the women go about bareheaded,
save handkerchief, and with good deal Of
baroness at the other extremity; while the
other half wear hoops on their heads IN the
| form of vast conical hoods attached to volu-
minous cloth cloaks which sweep the ground
The men cover their heads with all sorts -o
J burdens and their feet with nothing, or else
, | with aw-hide slippers, hair outside. There
| is no roar or rumble In the streets, for therS
, are no vehicles and no horses, but an endless
stream of little donkeYs, clicking the rough
, pavement beneath their sharp. hoofs, anc
. thumped sOlidly by screaming drivers, WhC
| | wears the new shoes on the Island does no
: appear; but the hens limp about the houses
( tethered to, the old ones q 5:1uaG'
Q Further inspection reveals new marvel;
Q The houses are rooted with red and blac
y tiles, semi cylindrical in shape and rusty
II surface and making the whole town look Q
" II lncTuSleu Nu pttlhASiOo- A uViS - tiY y
10 a pane of glass on the lower story, even fc
of the shops, but Only barred windows and soil
Ie doors. Every house has paved eourt-yar
for the ground floor, into which donkey
maybe driven, and where beggars or pea
~ ants may wait, and where one natural
expects to find Gil Bias in one corner, an
n Sancho Panza in another. AN English lad
f. On arriving, declared that our hotel W
only donkey stable and refused to enter
In the intervals between the houses q
nee streets are lined with solid stone walls, fro
~ ten to twenty feet high, protecting the ga
y. dens behind; and there is another stone VIZ
~ inrlosing the town on the water side, as
is to keep The people from being spilled OF
~ ~ Il One must go some miles into the count
2; Iabefore getting beyond these walls, or seeil
~ an inch on either side. This would be
ns tolerable, of course, were the country lev
"a bat, as every rod Of ground slopes up
~ ~ down, it simply seems like walking throu
~ a series of roofless rope-walks or bowlir
,aas alleys, each being tilted up, at an angle,
nv nv that one sees the landscape through the t
~ ~ but never over the sides. Thus, walking
; ,Is riding, one seldom sees the Immediate TO
u ground, but changing background Of $
.i Valleys, an endless patchwork Of var
IA green rising to the mountains in the inter
hiu in Of the Island, or sinking to the blue sea-
t1n rtnr yond which the mountain Pice rears
.bo graceful outlines across the bay.