To The Gold Coast for Gold: A Personal Narrative. Vol. IBurton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
To The Gold Coast for Gold: A Personal Narrative. Vol. I
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Ghana -- Description and travel; Gold mines and mining -- Ghana
I went to the Jesuit church to hear the _predica_, or sermon. The
preacher does not part his hair 'amidships,' or display cambric and
diamond-rings, yet his manner is none the less _maniérée_. For him
and his order, in Portugal as in Spain, the strictest minutiae of
demeanour and deportment are laid down. The body should be borne
upright, but not stuck up, and when the congregation is addressed the
chest is slightly advanced. The dorsal region must never face the
Sacrament; this would be turning one's back, as it were, upon the
Deity. The elbow may not rest upon the cushion. The head, held erect,
but not haughtily, should move upon the atlas gently and suavely,
avoiding 'lightness' and undue vivacity. The lips must not smile; but,
when occasion calls for it, they may display a saintly joy. The eyebrows
must not be raised too high towards the hair-roots; nor should one be
elevated while the other is depressed. The voice should be at times
_tremolando_, and the tone periodically 'sing-song.' Finally, the
eyes are ordered to wander indiscriminately, and with all pudicity, over
the whole flock, and never to be fixed upon a pretty lamb.
Our countrymen are not over-popular in Portugal or in Madeira; such
mortal insults as those offered by Byron, to name only the corypheus,
will rankle and can never be forgotten. In this island strangers,
especially Englishmen, have a bad practice of not calling upon the two
governors, civil and military. The former, Visconde de Villa Mendo, is
exceptional; he likes England and the English. As a rule the highest
classes mix well with strangers; not so the _medio ceto_ who, under
a constitutional _régime_, rule the roast. Men with small fixed
incomes have little to thank us for; we make things dear, and we benefit
only the working men. Bourgeois exactions have driven both French ships
and American whalers to Tenerife; and many of them would do the same
with the English and German residents and visitors of Funchal. Not a few
have noble and historic names, whose owners are fallen into extreme
poverty. Professor Azevedo's book is also a _nobiliaire de
Madère_. The last generation used to be remarkably prim and precise,
in dress as in language and manner. They never spoke of 'hogs' or
'horns,' and they wore the skimpy waistcoats and the regulation whiskers
of Wellington's day. The fair sex appeared only at 'functions,' at
church, and at the Sunday promenade in the Place. The moderns dress
better than their parents, who affected the most violent colours, an
exceedingly pink pink upon a remarkably green green; and the shape of
the garment was an obsolete caricature of London and Paris. They no
longer assume the peculiar waddle, looking as if the lower limbs were
unequal to the weight of the upper story; but the walk never equals that
of the Spanish woman. This applies to Portugal as well. The strong
points, here as in the Peninsula, are velvety black eyes and blue-black
hair dressed _à la Diane_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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