[7] See Appendix, Art. Ecclesiastical Jubilee.
[8] This dress, peculiarly characteristic of Lima, is little known in other parts of the country, if we except Truxillo. Captain Basil Hall in his Journal, vol. i. p. 106, describes it very correctly. “This dress,” says he, “consists of two parts, one called the saya, the other the manto. The first is a petticoat, made to fit so tightly, that, being at the same time quite elastic, the form of the limbs is rendered distinctly visible. The manto, or cloak, is also a petticoat; but, instead of hanging about the heels, as all honest petticoats ought to do, it is drawn over the head, breast, and face; and is kept so close by the hands, which it also conceals, that no part of the body, except one eye, and sometimes only a small portion of one eye, is perceptible.”
We may observe that, though strange pranks are sometimes indulged in under this disguise, yet it is considered, by those accustomed to it, a convenient dress in itself, in a country where it is usual to hear morning mass before there has been time to braid and adjust the hair, which is sometimes so long as almost to reach the pretty foot and ancle. It is therefore considered a convenience by women of every class, and even of every age, to slip over their ordinary house-dress a saya and manto when they desire to go to the street “tapada,” or with the head and face covered with the thin silken petticoat or manto as described, without being put to the trouble of appearing dressed in a more elegant and formal manner, or after European fashion, as they do at evening parties, or when they frequent places of public amusement,—as the theatre or bull-ring, and promenade in calashes or carriages in their different alamedas, or public walks. In allusion to the custom of going veiled in the street, the true Limeña lady is agreeably characterized by their common saying,
En la calle, calladita;
En la casa, señorita.
[9] The following lines, penned by an ancient Spanish poet, are so exactly descriptive of Lima, as the paradise of women, that one might imagine they had been written to describe it.
“Aqui gobierna y siempre goberno
Aquella reina que en la mar nacio.
Aqui su cetro y su corona tiene
Y desde aqui sus dadivas reparte,