Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-05-02
THE QUEER CUSTOMS OF Brazil.
PeculIaritIes or Funerals and Wedding
The Porterage Business.

Rio Janero Letter in the N. Y.
Times: There are many curious Gus
toms observed by the Brazilians.
Funerals are notable in that for n young
unmarried lady coffin, hearse, and the
livery of the driver must be bright
scarlet, the four white horses drawing
the hearse must be covered with scar
let nets, and scarlet plumes must deck
the horses heads. No women 60 to
the cemeteries. The mother, the
widow, must not exhibit her grief in
public.
For the swell funeral of young girl
the coffin. hearse, livery of the driver,
and nets ands,lumes for the horses must
be royal purple. For elderly persons
black and gold are the adornments OF
mortuary trappings.
At weddings the bride does not wear
orange blossoms, but orange flowers
are presented by the groom and his
bride to their unmarried friends, and
they are supposed to pass them on to
their unmarried acquaintance. This
custom has a hidden meaning dating
back to the twilight of mans history.
The flower is an emblem of fecundity,
and the passing ON of the gift signi-
ties go thou and do likewise"
The calling of porters-the business
of porterage-is n regular one, and is
divided into classes. There are porters
whose speciality is handling pianos
delivering, transferring them. You
never see piano on a truck or in n
furniture van. Four men bear upright
pianos on their heads, and square and
grand pianos are carried in sings sus-
pended from two poles, resting on the
shoulders of four men.
Iron safes are transported by porters,
delivered from the warehouses, moved
FROM one place to another and put in
position-all by sheer strength.
If you buy anything-furniture. a
piano, safe--the purchaser must bar
gain with the porters for the delivery.
And if you do not make your bargain
10 carry and put in position the porters
will leave the articles at your door, I'M
less you agree to pay additional for
placing them in your house or rooms.
In the business streets of the city
in the wholesale and warehouse dis
tricts-the carros urbanos-a street-car
line with narrow-gauge track-runs up
one and down another of the narrow
ways on almost every street. In the
coffee districts there are regular freight
cars run on these tracks for the trans
port of coffee in bags to the coffee
docks.
The porters who have their habitat
in these streets use hand trucks made
to track" on the street-car rails. As
IL o1nnfr Ia. aph H.-e ;1ne So
streets the porters, un-occupied, are
lounging in the doorways or sleeping
on their trucks, which partly obstruct
the sidewalks. You have to keep a
lookout all the time or you will soil
the bottoms of your trousers against
the grease-drifping wheels of these
trucks.
The streets in the residence portion
of the city are infested day and night
with peripatetic vendors, peddlers, and
retailers of fruits, vegetables, and, in
the summer. of ices. Their discordant
cries. clapping of sticks. rat-a-tat on tin
and iron pans, make both day and night
hideous.
The Brazilians are fond of looking
out upon the passers-by in the streets.
In the mornings and evenings the win
dows of the houses on the shady sides
OF the streets are filled with women
and children leaning half out. They
recognize their acquaintance walking
or riding by in the street-cars with
waves OF their hands. Fine places with
grounds in front of the houses have
raised platforms, where the members
of the family sit in the evening for the
double purpose of enjoying the breeze
and watching the passers-by.
This is the height of the summer sea-
son, and the thermometer in the shade
stands for several hours of the daytime
at from 50 degrees to 95 degrees. In the
business part of the city, with its mar
now streets, this heat is ut times very
oppressive, but,except in extraordinary
seasons. there is scarcely day without
breeze, either from the bay and sea
or from the mountains, which anchor.
ates the heat perceptibly. The morn
ings and evenings are almost invariably
fresh and delightful. The temperature
OF the houses at night depends greatly
upon their location. If they are sit
uated so as to catch the breeze from
the water or from the mountains there
u no trouble in sleeping.