LETTEE XIII.
FROM CORRIENTES TO HUMAITl.
Humaita, August 22, 1868.
My dear Z ,
We now enter upon the proper scenes of
the Paraguayan war. I will tantalize your impatience for
a while by recounting our life on board the good ship Yi.
The Yi, I have told you_, is a bran new " floating hotel/^
with her plated silver dazzling, her napkins stiff-starched, and her gilt mouldings upon the untarnished white panels clean as a new sovereign. A common English passenger steamer would have been far plainer, but proportionally much more comfortable. The splendid saloon all along the second deck will presently wax dingy, and there is no pos- sible walking in the open air. The tables draw out and collapse cleverly, but with trouble. The three stewards are expected to do the work of one man ; they are exceedingly civil, and they do nothing. Of course, this is the fault of the comisario, or purser, a small Spanish bantam, or rather "hen-harrier,"'^ who spends all his time in trifling with the feminine heart. The captain, Don Pedro Lorenzo riores — do not forget the Don, and if you want anything say Sefior Don — was an ex-item of that infinitesimal body, the national navy of the Banda Oriental. He brought out Yi for its Company from the United States, and he avenges himself upon Northern and Anglo-American coarse- ness by calling all Yankees " rascals." His chief duty is to bale out the soup, to pass cigars, and to send round sherry after dinner. This must be done to everybody at table.
FROM CORRIENTES TO HUMATTA. 293
or the excluded will take offence and sulk like small
boys.
Pleasantly enougli passes the sc'nnight — perhaps I should
call it a fortnight. Every twenty-four hours contains two
distinct days and two several nights. First day begins at
dawn with coffee and biscuits, by way of breakfast, and a
bath, patronized chiefly by the yaller Brazilian pas-
sengers. A mighty rush follows the dinner-bell, which
sounds with peculiar unpunctuality, between 9 and 10 a.m. (mind). Upon the table are scattered hors d'oeuvres, olives, ham and sausage, together with the gratis wines, sour French " piquette^' called claret, and the rough, ready Cata- lonian Carlo, here corrupted to Carlon. Port, and similar superior articles, are ridiculously dear; for instance, $8 (325.) per bottle, and of course for a bad bottle. Like the Chilian, the Argentine often calls not for the best, but for the most expensive drink, and makes the call last out the week. We have no soup, but, en revanche, we have that eternal puchero, bouilli, ragmeat, which, combined with vegetables — potatoes, cabbages, and courges (zavallos) — composes the antiquated oUa podrida. It is the national dish, the feijoada of the Brazils, here held to be heavy and indigestible. The rest is hotel fare. The coffee must be made " coffee royal if you would drink it ; and the tea is the pot-house ( pulperia ") style, facetiously termed by foreigners cowslip '^ and " orange Pekoe :" those who want the real Chinese must bring it for themselves.
Tobacco and a small bout of gambling bring in the first
night, which lasts from noon to 3 p.m. During this period
all the world of men dressed in faded black is dead and
gone. Here the siesta is the universal custom, to the
severe injury of picnics. At the mystic hour you see every
eye waxing smaller and smaller, till closed by a doze with
a suspicion of nasal music. At home, people regularly
294 FROM CORRIENTES TO HUMAITA.
" turn in ;'^ and if you have a visit to pay or a favour to
ask, do not interrupt the day-night. Strangers soon fall into
the habit, and it is evidently required by those climates in
which men sit up late and rise early. I have found it an
excellent plan in hot countries when hard mental labour
was required, and, as every policeman knows, it is a mere
matter of habit. In the Brazil the siesta is not the rule, but the Brazilians rarely begin the day at Bengal hours. On this parallel, the further we go westward, and the more backward becomes the land, the longer will last the siesta; the cause being simply that the population, having nothing to do, very wisely allows its arteries to contract.