Morning journal and courier., 1889-12-07

cozinha, and at last securing really delicious grilled fowl, meal bread, roasted sweet pota- toes, the sweetest of butter and milk, pun gent native cheese like the Erie of the French, and the blackest and vilest coffee one ever tasted outside an American sailing ships dirty cabin. He stood beside us while we ate, now helping us with ludicrous alert ness to different articles of food, now wiping the smoke and precipitation from his fiery red face with his great linen apron, again drinking our health and Ca heayen.defended journey" in 8 very lusciousneas of hospitali- ty with our own purchased wine. Then the penderous, poddy fellow, ran beside our donkeys for good mile through the streets of Riberia Grande, breathing prayers and petitions for our safety; never desisting until the suburbs were reached and he could call the attention of no more of his good towns folk to the importance of the guests he had that day entertained. As we turned up the mountain way our last glimpse of the odd Boniface was as he sat pufing upon, the edge of a pleasant fountain, prey to the atten- tions of jocose muleteers, while flaming his red and rubicund face with the majestic 1in- en apron in which he had served us.
 Our fortune as to Inequalities of the road were less unctuous that night. Failing to reach Furnas and it's lovely valley, our anxie- ty for housing was at last relieved by our wise donkeys suddenly pricking up their d great speed which was not slackened until we were alongside lonely roadside inn. We were gaily welcomed by 8 hulking, rough-looking fellow armed and equipped as if for war. The structure was a long, low, one-story stone building, painted curious yellow, with a porch of half it's own size, under which were troughs and open stalls for animals. The interior was simply one large room, darkened and begrimed with the filth of< bolf da1or oo wooden tables were scattered about, along- side of which were benches of mammoth size, and some hewn stones, as seats. A stout plank, behind which were bottles with the vilest Azorean liquors, constituted the bar, at one end of which stood an entire wild boar-skin filled with wine, its open mouth suggesting all sorts of ferocious pos- abilities. Along the low rafters were count less pegs, upon which were hung strings of unnamable and pungent vegetables, strings of onions, bits of salt pork and strips of tassalho, or jerked beef. After several hours waiting supper, prepared by the landlords wife over 8 coal urn fire, ground which she seemed in constant shrill-voiced encounter with sundry goats, dogs, game cocks and half naked children, was served. This con- sisted of an Azorean hodge podge or com- posto de varias viandas--meat, meal, greens and fish-which we were glad enough to get
 
 hint whatever was given us of where we were to sleep; and along towards midnight Manuel and Mateito foraged and wrangled until portion of mountain heath was be- slowed upon the huddled benches. With this and our saddles, pouches, serons and some rush-weven blankets, we bade defiance, in peaceful slumber, to goats, chickens and feas for the remainder of the night.
 We had no cause to loiter at the lonely old oiv inn nd ont ha populous hovel before daY-break. A brisk ride over pleasant road, with here and there clusters of peasants' cabins gleaming along the little valleys or pretty hillsides in highlands, with now and then moment of lettering at roadside fountains or upon stone arched bridges where foaming cascades swept through lovely glens to the invisible ocean below, brought us to the upper pla- teau of circling range of mountains nearly just sweeping the eastern rim of these noble elevations, when suddenly turning the sharp point of a crsggy hillock oyerhanging the road, the entire grand cyclorama of the fa- nous Valle das Furnas was spread before us. From the height where we stood the val ley appeared to bs oval shaped, from six to nine miles in length, and from two to four in width. The mountains surrounding it are from two to three thousand feet above the
 
 i broken here and there by lesser valleys of
 wondrous symmetry, by natural cuttings iu l the lava through which wind estradas rival ling the Roman roads of old, by preeipitous gorges and canons fecked by misty cascades, and by pockets and hollows, in which from our elevation we could catch glimpses of the cleaning surfaces of silent lakes and shad- owy tarns. Innumerable streams like sinu- ous lines of pearls blend, cross, separate and wind in fanciful ways within and through the lower levels. The heights are purple with heather, blending into masses of green where the frs stand thickly, merging into darker green over banks of bays, and chad ing into blue or gold, or puce, as the lights or shadows play upon the matted. lichens of the wilder and sleeper sides. Half huns dred peasants' cabins could be counted from where we stood. Twice that many goatherd paths like delicate ribbons of pink, and lanes, with blue or gray old walls half hid den in masses of vines, interlaced the whole valley and mountain sides, or were lost in the blue tints of upland valleys, until the whole surface of the scene seemed traced and interwoven like the lines of diminutive map of some populous continent. Away down, down below were the white walls, the red roofs, the single church dome and the long, struggling streets of the quaintest old village in all the Azores. Passing us in the roadway where we stood, streaming down the mountains to our right and left, and from the opposite valley ascents, were tiny droves of milk white goats. To each was tied a little bell of different tone. The focks were being driven to their daily milk ing in the village. The bare footed goat. herds sounded their shrill pipes as they fol- lowed behind. From cepse and hedge the blackbirds and wild canaries, as if fired with elated rivalry, gave forth surpassing bursts of song-hundreds upon hundreds of silvery bells, scores upon scores of joyous pipes, thousands upon thousands of voices of birds, blending, chiming, swelling into the strangest, the sweetest, and yet the most tremulously tender melody human ears ever heardl And yet thus is the morning ushered every day of the year in this wondrous val ley of Furnas. Until now the silent vale was asleep. But see the picturesque re- sponse to the marvellous matin song. Issu- ing from the shadowy ways of the serene hamlet below, from quinta or villa of the opulent demesnes of the gentle slopes at hand, or, far and near, from pretty camara- sinha or cabin embowered in vines or trees, appear as vestal maids to do office before the priestess of day, an hundred Furnas maidens. Each chirps or chants her own best loved cantiga, and upon her shapsly head is bright red ewer. Her skirts are blue. her bodice white or pink, or yellow. Her feet and arms and head are bare. Her
 
 languorous, but liquid with light. The sun, sweeping above hoary Plea ds Vara over there, never painted such vermillion as tinges her cheeks or such crimson as opens l from her flashing teeth. Thus singing back to the herds, the birds and the morning | these witching water carriers thread the | paths upward to the fountains, intervening l in the idyllic scene bits of sound, color and | life that win the heart entire. How long we feasted on the scene I know not, but il touched and thrilled even the turgid veins oi my gray old guide. He broke the silence | with sigh. Then placing his shriveled
 hands upon his heart and rolling his eyei heavenward, he lifted his cracked and nasa voice in such lugubrious song that the rest. less donkeys prayed response in sympathetic l miserere:
 | eEste vale nlinha terra,
 | E. minha terra natal,
 Mas em bellezas que encerra,
 | No mundo mao tenn rivalm
 This my valley and my home spot;
 | This my own, my native land;
 An, tho glories that begirt thee
 l In the world unrivaled stand!
 That is the song out of all the hearts O | the Furnas peasants to their witching, be loved valley. But it's fame springs iron l more than it's beauties. The now noble val
 was once vast volcano's crater. The hid