Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/323



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