Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/267

Rh out Other small defe6ts, although not very common ones. I availed myself of the opportunity he afforded me, to demand of him the country to which this Eugenia, so beautiful and so lovely to the view, might belong. He replied with a mysterious smile: "The country of Eugenia is distant from Pekin about two thousand leagues, and more than ten thousand itinerary miles farther from Madrid."—"Alas!" I exclaimed with surprize, "you cannot be in earnest. You wish to say that the country of Eugenia is " The violence with which I made this exclamation awaked me, intercepting on my lips the word by which I was about to divulge the whole of the secret. I awoke, I say, and remained so utterly astonished with this dream, that I address myself to you, gentlemen, praying that you will either interpret it yourselves, or publish it, to the end that it may be explained by any one of your readers deeply versed in these subjects.

A lady of Lima, in her full dress, is represented in Plate X.

The original from which the engraving was made, is a highly finished portrait, bearing the stamp of great fidelity of delineation. The most conspicuous part of the costume is the faldellin, or short hoop petticoat, more particularly worn in the carriage, and at public entertainments. It is made of richly embroidered cloth, velvet, &c.; is rendered flexible by the means of whalebone; and provided with a wadding, to give it a greater protuberance, so as to display the