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DON FELIPE IN THE DANCE.

My friend Don Felipe Parkin, whom I introduced to the Barquins, became a frequent guest at their Tertulias; and an amusing subject he was. His dancing was not of the best; in his Spanish he not only had no copia verborum, but he set both grammar and pronunciation at defiance. His wit was the very reverse of bright. But then his good nature was unbounded; and, having a very good opinion of himself, he took it as a matter of course that every one saw him in the same mirror which vanity (sad deceiver!) held up to him. Don Felipe's, however, was anything but an extraordinary case, for I believe we are all very much inclined to pride ourselves most, not on our strongest but on our weakest points.

Through the family of the Barquins I became acquainted with many of the best families of Buenos Ayres. They were in the highest society there; for, though old Spaniards by connexion, education, and feeling, they had too much good sense to dissolve their acquaintance with those who went with the new order of things.

There has always been something very striking to Englishmen in the elegance of the dancing of Porteña women. They adopt a quiet style, but

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full of elaborate and beautiful figuring, and this gives very great scope to their showing off in perfection the general symmetry of their forms, as well as the graceful and easy way in which they carry them.

Their small feet and beautifully-turned ankles, dressed at all times in satin shoes and silk stockings, came peering from under their dresses, and were a conspicuous part of the tout ensemble of their appearance. There is nothing about which the Porteña ladies are more scrupulous and careful than the dress of their feet and ankles. Even the female slaves do not consider themselves properly attired unless they can vie, in this respect, though at a little distance, with their “ ámas" or mistresses; and not the least conspicuous part of a Porteña's retinue is the one or more domestics, gaudily dressed, with their fans in hand, ready for flirtation with their negro beaux, the gaily-coloured mantle, the large comb in their bushy hair, and the rich carpet, on which their ladies, and often themselves, are to be seated at church. The Porteñas walk better than they ride; nor have they yet consented to lay aside, when on horseback, the straw bonnet. The appearance of it thus worn

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(and the Porteñas only wear it when mounted on a prancing palfrey) jars upon an Englishman's associations, accustomed as he is to the nice ridinghabit, the small hat, and the green veil of his own countrywomen.

Yours, &c.,

J. P. R.

LETTER XLIII.

THE AUTHORS TO GENERAL MILLER.

Climate of Buenos Ayres-More Modified by Winds than by the Sun-North Wind-Pampero, or South Wind-Summer and Winter Seasons-Slavery-Carts and Carters-Landing in a Cart -Water Carts-Tanks-Mode of Fishing-Beggars on Horseback-Bull Fights-Minutely described-Their Abolition.

London, 1842.

A FEW more last words before we close this our second volume on Buenos Ayres; and first as to the climate, that important source to man of comfort or the reverse. Changeable as the climate of Buenos Ayres is, now by the heat raising the thermometer to 90° in the shade, and now by the cold lowering it to 35° and 40°;* yet on the whole, as the very name of the city, "Buenos Ayres," "Fine Air," indicates the climate is most salubrious. As in many other parts of South America, the atmosphere is more influenced by local causes than by the proximity of the sun. These local causes in

* In summer the thermometer, for a day or two, has stood at 93° and 94°, and in winter it has fallen to 32°, the freezing point. But the mean temperature may be 76° in summer and 50o in winter.

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PAMPERO, OR SOUTH WIND.

Buenos Ayres are the winds. If the southwester blow strong in the heat of summer, it changes in a moment the heat of summer to the cold of winter; and neither absence of the sun, nor of shade, no not of the shades of night, can render the heat tolerable during the pestilential sway, with moisture on his wings, of the north.

The south wind dries everything, the north wind covers everything with mould, moisture, and rust. In summer it ushers in lassitude, disease, difficulty of respiration; it brings myriads of mosquitos and other insects in its train; it turns meat and vegetables to putridity; fish cannot be kept in the market-place for more than two or three hours; fruit grows stale and flowers fade before it.

But ever as the north begins thus to abuse his power, and to fancy himself omnipotent, down like a thunderbolt comes upon him the pampero or south.

Ushering himself in with portentous clouds and rolling thunder, he commences his struggle by spitting forth large globules of rain, sometimes pellets of hail: presently he comes roaring through the streets himself, involving the atmosphere and the inhabitants in darkness by the dense whirlwinds of dust which he raises as he rushes along.

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