Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-30
LIFE In THE AZORES.
A PrOfusiOn of DOnkeyS Seems to be
the Most Prominent Feature.
NO PERSON EVER WALKS THERE.
A Legend Which is the Counterpart of
Irving's Rip Van Winkle.
ENORMOUS EXTINCT Volcano CRATER
ENORMOUS EXTINCT ToLCANO CRATER
rcoRRnsPoNDrNcr OF THE D1srArcH..

|
voyagel good voyageD not only came from
the lips of Manuers wife and daughter, al
we mounted our donkeys for our trip to the
interior, but the same blessing came from Q
score or more of the populace who had gath.
cred about the door of my venerable hosts
house to witness what were to this humble
neighborhood most unusual proceedings.
Manuel had got three donkeys and lad,
Mateito. Mateito is diminutive for Matthew,
and this donkey-driving lad himself was di-
minutive of anything. But what he lacked
in size he furnished in expedients and mis-
chief, and while apparently dutifully en-
gagged in all good Offices of expedition, was
in reality vigorously applying sundry secret
lntimations we'll known to his animals, re-
sultant in such whirlings and swirlings, pi-
rouettings and cavortings with endwise and
sldewlse rushings, that both myself and
my aged guide were vigorously taxed to re-
tain either our dignity or our sittings.
Our own, or Mateito's popularity was so
increased thereby that the little street echoed
and re-echoed with cheers; and we at last
sailed forth at great speed, the entire con-
course massing at our sides, and continuing
their pleased attentions by still more stem
torian vivas and sundry resounding whacks
upon our donkeys' fanks and ribs; all
greatly to the ediication of grinning folk
at doors and windows, until we finally fairly
outran them all and came to halt for in
spection and repairs at the hill tops above
the quaint old city.
This little occurrence brought about an
instructive disquisition from Manuel on the
subject of donkeys in the Azores. Thou
sands can be found in the larger cities doing
all manner of labor and,service, while in the
country no peasant is SO poor as not to DOS
sess one. In front of the Matriz Church in
Ponta Delgada, hundreds may be seen at
any hour of the day, most of them con-
fronted by barefooted driver with an iron
pointed goad as large as a hoe handle, and
caparisoned with a rope around its shaggy
wooden saddle with upturned wooden yokes
at the front and back.
ALMOST A VEHICLE.
You do not sit astride the little beasts.
You ride them, something as you do the
wild and vaulting Irish jaunting car,
sitting sidewise, with your legs dangling
over the donkey's right side, and, in
moments of peril, with your two hands
violently cIutching the horns of the front
yoke. You will make sad business of it
if you undertake rigid and stately posture;
but observing the native Azorean doubled
upon his donkey into the form of printers
reversed mark of interrogation, and faith
fully copying his riding, which is chiefly
upon the backs of the knee-joints, you may
always do almost as well as to-walk
From padre to peasant everyone owns a
donkey, and they are brought into requisi-
tion for the most trifing journeys. The
padre will not walk rood if his own or
any other persons donkey be within call.
The goatherd on the mountains has him for
an inseparable companion, and if the feed
ing ground is shifted but half mile all the
preparations for long journey are made
and the goatherd rides in state to his new
station among the. rocks. So if a peasant
laborer is engaged for days service on an
adjoining farm, if he has occasion to 90
from one field to another, or if women in the
country wish bit of gossip at the next
cabin, or crossroads, each sets out with
boundless preparation, arrives as If from
ten days pilgrimage, and giving the
donkey kick or a whack as admonition to
selEsupport, never recalls SO strihing sub
lect-matter as the beast until it is wanted
for the return trip.
Then all any Azorean has to do to get his
donkey is to say that he wishes it. A horde
of lads, whooping and bowling, hunt him,
capture him, and rush him to his owner in
a perfect hurricane of laVa-dust, goads and |
dorid Portuguese oaths,, when his duties are |
demurely and faithfully resumed. The |
other extraordinary uses to which the |
AzOrean donkey is put were illustrated |
fully in our few hours journey between
POnta Delgada to Sette Cidades or the an |
cient crater called the ''Seven Cities.''
DoNKEYs EVERYWHERE.
The roads seem filed with them. Here is
D procession ridden by peasant women. each
cloaked and coWled in the monstrous capote
; capello. on their way to Ponta Delgada
with all manner of country produce sway
ing from the wooden saddle yokes. A lone
donkey laden with water casks plods along
companion or driver, sent from
to somewhere over his oft-tray
eled way, and with pitiful look of worried
in his gray OLD face. Here
come bevy completely hidden by piles of
,orn leaves piled so high that it seems the
Itacks are waltzing into the city on invisible
egs. Bells jangle in muffled way beneath
he fodder, and barefooted country lads prod
he bobbing mysteries viciousIy.
Again a score come tripping and mincing
long a slender path beneath a huge wall,
aden with wheat and corn in casks and
,anniers. Two are met sustaining a strong
,eam across their backs, and to this beam a
runk of a tree, being conveyed to the CITY
or pier timber in this outlandish wav. Is
wung, and, being nearly balanced, one end
'angs the donkey's head and shoulders
Thile the other lightly bounds along the
ray a source of peril to all passers upon the
Dad. But the oldest burden of all was met
ust ss-hsying wended our way past
ountalns where donkevs, peasants and
were all lettering to bray,
abble and gossip, over hills. down dark
nd ferny valleys, and through half dozen
traggling villages-we had reached the
igher uplands leading to the precipitous
dges of the Seven Cities.
This was a patient being transported to
da Misericordia, the splendid hospital of
'onta Delgada, for some surgical operation
, be performed. The sufferer was a woman
.ho had fallen over some cliff in the
fountain beyond. Two timbers were
lstened lengthwise along the donkeys' !
acks. From the ends of these, timbers ex-
ended across from back to back, securely
lstened with thongs, and from the latter,
,pes depended and sustained rude ham
lock of pine slaves, such as are used in ]
DKing oranges, covered with the stout linen |
oven by the peasantry. The sufferer was ,
los being very comfortably borne from her ,
ountain home, accompanied by large
elegation of relatives and neighbors, all 9
rOmpteu Dy tnelr Sympatnetlc natures 70
give expression to grievous
oanings and lamentations.
NOVEMBER WEATHER.
Even in this November weather, flowers
i'd bloom are in every hedge and copse, I
i'd lavishly cIambering upon every cottage
I'd wall. A subtle odor of mingled heather,
me and orange fills the air; and, mingled
ith the distant Ginning of village church
Ills, the nearer tinkling of countless bells a
nong the herds, and the notes Of shepherds L