Curiosities of Costumes in Brazil.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 956, 27 June 1890, Page 4

Curiosities of Costumes in Brazil.

If each coast town has its characteristic colour, so also each has its own fashions of dress for the swarming black population. I have noticed a process of evolution in cos. tame as I have come down from the Equator. The negro children at Para and Maranhao were stark naked. At Pernambuco and Bahia they have calico dresses. The men began with a pair of trunks or short trousers, without hat, shoes, shirt or coat; at Maranhao they added a loose-fitting shirt, flapping over the trousers ; at Pernambnoo a ragged coat went over the shirt and a torn straw hat covered the head; and at Bahia shoes and stockings almost complete the cobtume of a negro labourer. Only the waistcoat remains to be provided, and perhaps I may find that at Rio. The costume of the women! has been developed in the same progressive way. At the start there was a tunic or chemise, with head and fept bare. Further down the coast a calico skirt and waist were thrown over the tunic and shoes were worn, At Bahia a light shawl or wrap is thrown over calico suits of the gayest colours and patterns, and there is a lavish display of cheap bracelets, brass ear-rings and amulets. At Rio I am prepared to see handkerchiefs and fans. These are the costumes of the lowest classes of blacks. With education, respectable employment and social equality, the dress of the negroes and mulattoeg

changes, until it is hardly distinguishable from that of the native Brazilians and Portuguese. A black who has risen above the level of his race is scrupulously careful to imitate in detail the costume of his equal, the Portuguese white. He wears ordinarily a silk or blaok felt hat, a broadcloth cutaway coat of black, and pantaloons and waistcoat of white duck. Even the lowest classes of blacks in Bahia are superior to any other negroes whom I have jet seen in Brazil. The women who hawk fish or pineapples in the streets a e marvels of physical development and grace, and they walk like Greek .goddesses. With purple, pink or blue waists, cut low in the neck, they display arms of the finest modelling, and a development of muscle and sinew and an erect and queenly carriage which must be the envy and despair of Brazilian ladies of the highest rank.— Bahia Uorr. N. Y. Tribune.