The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1886-11-04
THE BRAZILIAN GIRL.

Girls are sometimes married so
young in Brazil that they become
mothers at twelve or thirteen years
of age. A certain count was mar
ried to his cousin when neither had
vet reached their teens, the little
bride being only seven years of age
when the ceremony was performed.
This was done by the parents to in
sure their fortunes remaining in the
family.
A girl is never permitted to go
out, not even to church, unless
chaperoned by one of the family, or
some other lady, generally of mature
age. Nothing could be more color
less than the life of young Brazil
ian woman. She has no taste what
ever for reading; her education is
of the most meager description, it
not being considered worth while to
educate girls. The necessity for
educating boys is understood by
parents, and those who are able to
do so, but a girl, what need has she
for an education? They would
laugh at such high-hown ideas
should any one suggest that their
daughters be given the benefits of
an education rs a resource at hand
for their own amusement, or that
they might be intelligent compan-
ions, capable of stimulating the in
tellects of their children, and hu>-
bands, too, for that matter.
A very large majority of the
Brazilian girls could not tell who is
the Emperor of Germany, or that
President Garfield and the Car of
Russia were assassinated ; the Soudan
or Gen. Gordon are riddles to their
minds. They are even ignorant of
some of the most important histori-
cal facts relating to their own land,
and of the thousand and one other
topics that the women of America
and other countries are generally
conversant with. They embroider,
crochet and study music, but usually
lack the patience and application
necessary TO excel in the latter. If
they want a drink of water, or tn cir
shoes changed, they call slave to
do it. Many can sew, and do their
own dressmaking, being very skill
full with their needle, their natural
antipathy to work being overcome
by their love of dress. Their con-
versaton is utterly frivolous, and
when with famlliars they talk very
loud, and in the most animated
manner, gesticulating and beating
the air with their hands and arms,
all talking at once, with seldom any
hing worth saying. If the Brazilian
girl does not marry ut the age when
she ought to be playing with hel
dolls, she frequently continues tc
play with her dolls until she does
marry. The writer remembers see
ing a young lady about eighteeI
years of age in street-car, in th'
city of Bahia, with q doll in her lap
which she cared for and handled th'
same as little girl would do, and i
is no unusual thing for young mar
ried women to own and play will
these and similar fixtures of th'
nursery. One young woman, namet
Marie, had five or six dolls, upol
whose garments she spent much O
her time. When she married sh
insisted upon taking them to he
new home, but when this home be
r came invaded by less tractabl
: babies, she was finally obliged t
bury berinanimate, ,quondam friends
< with all their finery, in trunk, pre-
e badly to be resurrected by othe
S little Maries, when they will agai
, be nursed and made confidants off,
n Farmers Home.