The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-14

market, too, is full of lovely girls, the
daughters of native peasants, whose bare
feet have probably tramped many miles be-
fore sunrise. Their short skirts and low
cut bodices and bare brown arms AFFORD
wonderful studies for an artist, and their
great dark eyes have haunted many a
travellers dreams when far from Portugal
Even the broad-hipped peasant matrons.
who bring butter, milk, cheese, eggs. fruit
and vegetables from their distant farms to
sell in the city markets. and the fisher
women who every day tread down the
Belem road and wake the echoes with their
peculiar cries. present some extraordinary
types OF perfect figures ard often beautiful
faces.
THEY WORK IN THE FIELDS.
The women of the Portuguese peasantry
seem to hold very independent position.
Though working hard from dawn till dark,
they are always cheerful genial, helpful
to one another in time of trouble. and
full of ready wit. They know well their
value in the economy of life. and without
any clamor for impossible rights and
equality, take their full share of all the
happiness attainable. They work habitually
children. Girls of ten or twelve years ac-
company the OK carts, walking in front of
the oxen to punch them with iron-pointed
goads. while the men follow to load and
unload the carts. Little girls drive the cat
tie afield and mind them while they Craze.
Young women cut and carry home the
grass, weed the corn and wheat, and per-
form their full share of all the farm work
with the men of the family. except. per-
haps, the heavier blowing. While this gen.
cral employment of women nearly doubles
the agricultural working power of the ma
ton, the women themselves do not seem
10 be either physically or morally the
worse for their labors
Early marriages are the rule among the
peasantry, partly because most of the Por-
tuguese conscriptions spare married men.
and therefore bachelors have temptations
toward matrimony which otherwise might
not occur to them. A growing family is a
good investment for a young fellow who
does not desire the dogs life Of soldier
and cannot pay several hundred dollars for
a substitute in the amy; so he takes wife
to insure himself against what he considers
a worse fate. and maybe his everlasting
fore marriage the Portuguese sutton in love
is absurdly humble and slavish. and his
sweetheart leads him a merry dance. in
deed, but soon as ever the village priest
has tied the knot the positions are
versed. He becomes her master absolutely
and may beat her as often as he likes with
out violating any law. AS In every country.
the songs of the people set forth their SEN
timents. In a popular serenade the Portu-
guese swain tells his dulcinea that he
writes to her on the palm OF his hand; his
tears are his only ink and the pen is
fiber from his inmost heart. Perhaps her
reply, sung behind a closed shutter, is like
this:
"Quando o sovreiso des baga
Z o lOureiero der cortica
Entao tie amrei meu benz,
Sc mao me der pregufca.
which means, ''when the cork tree yields
perhaps 1 may fall in love with you, If
condescend to notice YOU"
Or else she sings: II have already five
lovers-three for the morning. two for the
afternoon; what time is there left for
you?"
THEY PLAY THE GUITAR.
In Portugal men play upon the guitar
as naturally Yankees whistle. The peas
ants are universally given to the instru-
ment. chiefly accompaniment to the
voice. In towns and villages, the artisans
are often expert guitar players and walk
in groups to and from their work, enliven-
ing the journey with music and song. The
carpenter who comes to your house to
execute a small job, brings his guitar with
his tools, and the blacksmith is a far bet
ter performer on the guitar than the anvil.
When the Portuguese day-laborer or work.
man has finished his long days toll, he
does not HE himself to a wine shop to
squander the few cents he has earned;
he does not even lean against post and
smoke, nor whittle stick while swapping
yarns with his fellows. If he did not
bring his guitar with him, he goes straight
home and gets it, rests and comforts him
self with the music while supper is being
prepared. Afterwards he spends the even
ing singing doggerel songs to a STUNNING
accompaniment, tilted back in a chair
against his own house wall. or on the door
step of a neighbor. If in the rural dis
tricts and 1t be Sunday, or
holiday, he puts on a clean shirt, with a
big gold or silver stud as a neck fastening,
his "other pair OF well-brushed trousers.
and his newest black felt hat, of the pat
tern you often see in pictures of Spanish
life. Then he throws over his shoulders
a black cloth cape with a real gold or
silver clasp. He takes his favorite OK goad
In his hand. which is to him what a natty
cane is to the Broadway dude. 1t is tall
as himself, straight as an arrow, WE'LL
rounded and polished and bound with
brass. Last of all, he sings his guitar
around his neck. and thus fully equipped
for social conquest, goes to the nearest
fashionable threshirg foor-the peasants
drawing room. There all his neighbors,
young and old, of both sexes, are sure to
be gathered to while away the day in
gossip, song and dance. The Portuguese
dance. brought originally by gypsies from
the far East, is not particularly graceful.
1t is slow and firm in movement. accen-
tuated in time and depending almost entirely
upon the motions of the arms and body,
rather than the feet. With the dance goes
the song-a melancholy, long-drawn. often
unrhymed chanting. which takes the form
OF a rude hexameter. Each district has
songs peculiar TO itself and every good
sinoar q rural festival has HE oup ron