SCENES OF PERUVIAN LIFE.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 125, 24 October 1885, Page 6

SCENES OF PERUVIAN LIFE.

A Country in wbien Stables Hay be Found on the Roof—Umbrellas a Drug In tbo Markets of Lima— People Crowding to Sunday Bull Fignts.

All the houses in Lima are built, on tht earthquake plan, either of great thick walls of adobe or mere shacks of bamboo reeds lashed together by thongs of 'rawhide, and plastered within and without, with thick layers of mud. This style of architecture will answer in a country where it never rainß, and where cyclones never come; but if a good pour should fall in Lima,' the whole town would be washed into the river Riniac and carried out to sea. There is never more than one entrance to the houses, and that is protected first by a great iron grating and then by aolid doors. The windows are covered with bars. This was dona as a precaution against bandits in early times, and against revolutionists in later days, and a very essential precaution it has been ; for, during the time of the Viceroys, bands of robbers used to come down from the mountains and pirates from the sea. Through the single entrance passes every one who comes and goes— the butcher, tht baker, the priest who comes to shrive the dying,and the young man to whom Mercedes is engaged. The other evening a party were making a call, and the iron gate was closed and locked by the porters, as usual. When they wanted to go away he broke the key in the lock, and it looked as if the hosts would have to find lodgings, or let their guests down from the roof by ropes, for all the windows were protected by iron bars ; but a screwdriver was finally discovered, by means of which the rusty hinges were displaced and the prison opened. The roofs of the dwellings are always perfectly flat, and among the common people are used as barnyards and henneries. Very often a cow spends all her days on the roof of her owner's residence, being taken up when a calf and taken down at the end of life as fresh beef. In the meantime she is fed on slops from the kitchen, and bundles of alfalfa, the South American clover, which the Indians bring in from the country on their own shoulders or the backs of mules . Chicken coops are more common on the roofs of dwellings, and in the thickly populated portions of town your neighbour's cocks waken you at daylight with reminders of St. Peter. Lima is a poor place to send umbrellas, for along the coast from the northern boundary of Peru, far south west to the end of the Chilean Desert, rain never falls. There is a disagreeable, dismal, sticky, rheumatic dew, however, which is worse than a shower, for during the winter season, beginning in April and ending in October, it penetrates the thickest clothing and gives one a sensation described by Mantilini as demnition moist. The thermometer is pretty regular, however, and ranges from 60 deg. to 80 deg. Fahrenheit during the year, January being the hottest month and July the coolest. Pulmonary complaints are unknown, but fevers are very common, and the mortality among infants is pitiable. At Callao,yellow fever is usually endemic, and there are three or four deaths among the marine population every week, as the sanitary regulations are not well enforced, and the city is dirty. There is no Sunday in Peru. The shops are open on that day as usual, and in the afternoon bull fights, cock fights, and similar public entertainments are always held. The women always go to mass in the morning, and do up the religion for the entire family, as very few men are ever seen in the churches. Under President Prado, from 1869 to 1876, the Catholic Church was subjected to the same sort of treatment it has received in the other Republics, but his successors were more hospitable towards the priests, and the church is regaining much of its ancient influence. Some of the confiscated monasteries have been restored, and a Bishop presides over the lower branch of the National Legislature, having been elected by a popular vote in one of the interior cities. He is a jolly-looking old padre, rosy and rotund, and does not have the appearance of suffering much mortification of the flesh. In Lima, for a . population of about one hundred thousand, there are 126 Catholic churches and twelve monasteries and con* vents ; and the same religious privileges extend all over Peru. There are two Protestant churches in the Republic. One of them is in Lima, and is usually without a pastor, being of the Church of England school, and supported by the Englishspeaking residents. The other is at Callao, and an active young Presbyterian from Philadelphia, the Rev. Mr Thompson, is its pastor. The church is unsectarian, and is largely sustained by the Pacific Steam Navigition Company, a British corporation which has a monopoly of commerce on the west coast, and keeps its headquarters at Callao. No attempt at Protestant missionary work has every been made in Peru, although Mr Thompson says the field is very inviting. His time is most spent among the sailors who haunt Callao by the hundred, and in looking after the English-speaking congregation under his charge. Some of the largest and finest stores are owned and managed by Chinese merchants, who have the monopoly of the trade in man; tas— the garment which every Lima woman wears—and in other silk dress goods. There are a very large number of Italians, who usu ally keep the bodagas, or saloons, and eating houses. There are half a dozen large American mercantile establishments, and the house of Grace Brothers, of which the Mayor of New York is the head, practically monopolises the foreign trade of Peru. Much of the business in the interior is done by itinerant pedlars, who carry their wares on their backs, and tramp over the whole continent from the isthmus to Patagonia. There is also a class of itinerant doctors, of Indian blood, called Collahuayas, who travel on foot from Bogota in Colomb'a to Buenos Ayres, carrying the news from' place to place and practising a sort of voodoo system over the sick. They are wellknown throughout the country, and exercise a remarkable influence among the na tives, who entertain them as guests of distinction wherever they go. There is no .respectable theatre in Lima, the opera house, of which the city was proud) and in which many a favourite cantatrice had warbled, having been turned down during the war. Two or three low variety theatres are in operation, and are nightly crowded by men of the lower olass to witness the obscene dances and listen to the vulgar jokes. The reputable Spaniard is an elegant gentleman, refined and Eolished> but the other extreme is as low as i uman kind can be. Their vices are beyond degradation, and prove the proverb that a Spaniard is either a gentleman or a beast.— Lima correspondent "New York Sun," July 8. : -

Lord Carrington, the new Governor pi New South Wales, leaves London on the 26thin8t» • ( , ' There are now six teams at .work carrying goods- from Bluff to Invercargillin opposition to the railway. , ■ . v • A . \