Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/150



120 MONTEVIDEANS :

cuesta, a hill slope, becomes a ^^coast/^ and the orange " mount^^ of Mr. Mulhall is " monte/^ a grove, a bush, a low forest. Of course, many Spanish words are pulled in by the ears â€” thus to " sinch up^^ is to tighten the sincha or girth, and to " sinch out'"* is to tow out a beast stuck in the mud by throwing over it a lasso which is made fast to the surcingle.

" Camp'^ and City agree like Town and Gown, cat and dog. Camp is, or was, often, let me say generally, a man of family, education, and refinement, pastoral, landed, and aristocratic. City is commercial, monied, democratic, and in a society that ignores the gentleman by profession capital becomes a manner of rank, and la fortune claims to be la mesure de Vintelligence. This alto Comercio-Britanico â€” why cannot we expunge our double consonants as these neo-Spaniards do? â€” will gain empire as it courses westwards. At Valparaiso it will become an oligarchy, which, despite all Aristotle, claims nobility, and meditates a speedy and decided reform in the small matter of a national precedence- table.

City and Camp here mix, but not, unless connected, with a will. City is neat, prim, clean, respectable, his manners are staid, and his costume is the work of a London tailor, possibly Mr. Poole. Camp is readily recognised by hair preternaturally long or marvellously short ; by skin bronzed or freckled ; by " biled-rag^' shirt ; by nails still in a state of slight but apparently perpetual mourning ; by attire splendid but creased, crumpled, and camphory, and by French boots, where English cannot be procured. He is jolly, and perhaps at first somewhat loud, the effect of excitement at seeing once more his kind ; he is, however, a general favourite ; he flirts like a naval officer at Malta, he waltzes, he plays, and he runs up a bill like a man. Fearful is the growling when the quart d^heure de Rabelais brings