Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/84

Rh difference are, that the ladies shout out their observations in the highest note of the gamut, becloud each other's beauties with the fumes of tobacco, and part with an embrace as cordial as the majority of modern English kisses. These parties generally meet in the lady's bedroom, the gentlemen dressed “a la Inglesa” with coats cut any thing but anatomically, and the ladies in black silk, with lace mantilla for the head, splendidly worked silk stockings, and shoes almost diminutive enough for the Empress of China. Modesty and prudery are here understood to be synonymous, and subjects are freely discussed in mixed parties to which common delicacy would seem to forbid the slightest allusion.

At one they dine on soup, rice, vegetables and meat of various kinds cooked in as many different ways, with dulces or sweetmeats for a dessert, of which about 200 different sorts are prepared. Fish frequently appears towards the close of the meal, and fruit is introduced before the cloth is drawn. Scarcely any wine is drank. In many of the most respectable families it does not even make its appearance on the table. The whole concludes with a recitation, miscalled a thanksgiving. Well-bred people in Guatimala, like well-bred people in England, naturally feel that any thing like serious thanks to their Maker would subject them to the charge of fanaticism, and