Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-09-23

goes to her never.ending embroidery or
mends her OWL, her husbands or child
ren's clothing. The homework all falls
upon the servants aud, as a rule, she
knows no more about it than the stranger
guest. The children return to school, if
there is any in the vicinage. | say re.
turn, because in Brazil school sessions
are a perpetual penance, beginning at
six a. IN. An hours intermission is al
lowed for breakfast, but no other recess
until the school day is over at three or
four o'clock.
Dinner is usually served at four o'clock,
like the breakfast, to the guests and
male members of the family only, the
wife and daughters as before, waitin G
respectfully outside or eating at
separate table. Everybody has two
plates set before him, both piled to the
outside rim, one with the inevitable
stew of dried meat, the other With pairo.
The latter is an uuctuous sort Of pud--
ding made by mixing mandivea with the
highly CREASED and garliced broth in
which the meat was boiled. These con.
stitute the main part Of the meal. Be-
sides, the centre of the table is perhaps
eraced with a dish of bacalao (cod6sh),
which has been baked on embers or
boiled in oil, fanked on one side by
bowl OF sauce for itself of oil or vinegar,
mixed with Chile peppers and sliced
garlic, and on the other side by sauce
for the meat made of broth, lime juice
and bruised Chile peppers.
Everybody helps himself TO the cod
fish (which is served in long, shaving
like strips and to the sauce with his
own knife and fork, if he has any; OF If,
as is often the case, those unnecessary
implements are supplied only to the for
eign guests, who are known to have sin
gulsr habits, the rest assist themselves
with the apparatus supplied by nature.
1t is done with neatness and dispatch IN
this way: Each selects with his fingers
strip of Goldfish, subdiv;des it by hand
into smaller shavlDgs, then takes it bit
by bit and rolls it in the central dish of
sauce. For the stewed meat, he scoops
out a lump of pirao the size of a hens
EGG with the ends OF his fingers,
puts it IN the palm of his hand with
chunk of meat fshed out of its
broth, and with the fingers of the same
hand, working with a motion known
only to Brazilians, incorporates both
into an elongated bolus, which he con-
veys to his mouth and swallows in way
which, to say the least of it, is astOnish-
inc to those who witness it for the first
time.
Dessert, If there is any, consists Of
bananas boiled or fried in lard or II curd
cheese, with guava jelly, preserved pO-
tato or some other "dulce." After which
black coffee and cigarettes are handed
around and small glasses of rum anil
water. Before rising from the table each
fills his mouth with water and after going
through various suggestive contortions OF
cheeks and lips, squirt it broadcast over
the floor.
Then comes z siesta, or period of re-
pose. Between six and seven o'clock
the ladies' 90 out to pay visits, if the
neighoors are near enough, and the hus-
band goes for another promenade or
game Of cards Or gentle gossip, and later
everybody walks in the plaza, il there is
one, till late at night. In some families
third meal is served, between eight
and nine o'clock, but in rural districts
that is the exception rather than the
rule.