Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-05-03

4
rendered. They do not seem to have much
strength in their arms. but will carry enor-
nous loads on their backs. A broad strap
is passed around the forehead to help sus-
| tain the burden, and another across the
shoulders. One hundred pounds is con-
sidered moderate load, and with this on
| their backs, they will start off on slow
but even jog trot and keep it up for hours
| without firing.
The Indians, and in fact nearly all the
lower classes, seldom indulge in the luxury
of legal matrimony, simply because they
| cannot afford it, the fees charged by the
priests for performing that ceremony being
very exorbitant. Even among the aristoc-
racy ii is not uncommon for young people
to go about among their friends, soliciting
money to pay the marriage fee. You can
seldom 90 through the streets and markets
without meeting man with little basket,
who importunes you: sFor the love Of the
Virgin, most illustrious senior, give me a
medic toward the payment of my marriage
fee."
THE DEAD
Are generally buried in the middle of the
night-why, heaven only knows, except
rule with an iron hand, from century to
century, being more unalterable than the
celebrated laws OF the Modes and Persians,
for the latter did change after while.
Women-even the wives, mothers and
nearest relatiyes-are not permitted to at
tend their dear departed to the grave; and
unutterabiy solemn it looks to see pro-
cession Of chanting priests or monks, fol-
lowed by men carrying torches and can
dies, winding slowly through the darkness
10 the dismal Campo Santo, or Field of
Saints" as the cemetery is called.
Among those who can afford it the fash
ion prevails of holding kind OF funeral
reception during the week following the
burial. Formal invitations are issued as
if for ball or a wedding. The guests
gather at the appointed hour, eat, drink,
gossip and have good time generally:
discuss the virtues of the dead This fraii-
ties being forgotten, as happily, is the case
In all lands); speculate upon the property
he may have left; and ii the deceased were
married man, upon the probability of
his widow marrying again.
Meanwhile the dead mans family sit in
a room by themselves, arranged in the or
der of their nearness of relationship, and
all the guests come in, one by one to con-
dole with them. At the conclusion of the
entertainment every picture in the house
is turned with lis face to the wall, the
piano is locked, the harp and guitar swad-
died in black cloth, jewelry is laid aside,
not even natural flowers are permitted in
the rooms or on the person as decorations,
the house IS shut against all visitors for
SIX or eight weeks, and during that time
not one Of the family is expected to be
seen at all, at church or elsewhere.
At the end Of this prescribed period,
however, mourning is supposed to have
been carried quite far enough The FAM
lily emerge at once from their retirement
and generally make up lost time by an
extra amount of gaiety, their return to
society being celebrated by grand ball
given by themselves and a round of out
side entertainments.
If you were living in Ecuador and
wished to hire servant, you could hardly
get one by himself or herself, but would
be compelled to take up with drove of
them.
WITH COOK,
For example, you must receive her hus-
band and the rest of her family into your
house, to bed and board, and they will
bring along their numerous collection of
domestic pets, pigs, dogs, rabbits, chickens,
and other slive stock and portable prop,
erty. The husband may have some trade
which he follows during the day, but
when night comes and at meal times, he
returns to the bosom of his family and
yours. The children of the pair may be
utilized for light service, such as running
OF errands, wedding the garden and watch
ing the baby; but they are apt to be
"light-hngered," and are always lousy and
dirty beyond degree. There. is no help
for it, however, and for every servant YOU
hire you must expect at least dozen
extra mouths to feed.
Nor is this. the worst of it. Sometimes
the cooks relatives come to pay her a
visit of week or two-men, women and
children, more dogs, pigs, rabbits and
chickens, which must all be housed and
fed Fortunately they are not accus.
toned to 'high living" or downy beds, and
consider themselves in clover if provided
with plenty of beans, corn-cakes and
potato soup, while they sleep on the straw
of the stable or the stones of the patio.
The danger is that some of the stranger
hangers-on may not be as honest as the
cook herself is supposed to be; and cases
are known where thieves and even MUIR
derers thus gained admission to the inside
of the casa, with most disastrous results.
In Ecuador there are but two seasons
the inyierno, or wet, and the verano. or
dry. The invierno, or winter Though as
Economically it is summertime, begins in
December and ends in May. The heavy
rains come on about Christmas. March is
the wettest month of the year, July the
coolest, and in May fevers most abound.
During the dry season the climate of Quay
aquil is nearly perfect, its continuity be-
ing broken only by few days rain after
the autumnal equinox. This is called the
Cordonaao dc San FRANCISCO; and through
out all South America the periodical alter
nations of wet and dry are laid to the ac-
count of some saint, whose "day" happens
to coincide with the epoch of change Bnt
if the weather be rainy when it ought to
be fair, or if showers are heavier than or
binary, the fault Therefore is always
-AscRIBED TO THE MOON,
Which inconstant orb, oy the way, suffers
good deal OF undeserved blame in other
parts of the world for the souring of milk,
the slow teething of babies and the back
wardness of gardens. Even Byron, you
know, was guilty of saying, ''The devils
in the moon for mischief
1t is during the rainy season only that
Guayaquil has earned its reputation for
unhealthfulness. Then the air is as hot
and oppressive as that of a Turkish bath !;
rank vegetation lies fostering in the sun;
the country roads and even some of the
city streets are perfectly impossible; and
fever and dysenteries do the work of
death, while the living keep up perpetual
war on pestiferous mosquitoes, cockroaches,
large as the palm Of your hand (almost),
centipedes, scorpions and deadly serpents.
The very finest thing about Guavaou;l