If we follow the Limeña (the white Creole, be it understood) into the retirement of domestic life, we find that she is an affectionate mother, but not a very clever housekeeper. Every lady has at her command a great many more domestics than are necessary: some are servants, but most of them slaves. The establishment usually consists of a cook, a nurse-maid, one or two house-maids, a needle-woman, several men-servants, and a little negro or Indian, whose chief business is to carry a carpet behind his mistress when she goes to church. These servants all do as they please, and the lady of the house concerns herself very little about the indolence which her want of vigilance encourages. She rises at a late hour, and having dressed herself and decorated her hair with sprigs of jasmine and orange blossom, she takes her breakfast. That meal being ended, she goes out to make visits. During the sultry hours of mid-day she reposes, either by swinging in a hammock or reclining on a sofa, and meanwhile smokes a cigar. After dinner she again makes visits, and the evening is spent in the theatre, on the plaza, or on the bridge. Some few ladies employ themselves in needle-work, in which they are often most accomplished adepts; they especially excel in embroidery and fancy work; but they never pursue these employments before company.
The ladies of Lima are passionately fond of music. Most of them play the piano-forte or the guitar, and also sing; but for want of good instruction neither their playing nor their singing is above mediocrity. Smoking is pretty general among females, at least those of mature age; but they indulge in this practice only in their own apartments. Of late years the custom of smoking has been on the decline in Lima, in proportion as it has been increased on the continent of the old world. Though snuff-taking is prohibited in the convents, yet the nuns practise it to a great extent. They use an exceedingly fine kind of red snuff, which has the effect of closing the breathing passage through the nostrils, and of producing a peculiar nasal tone of voice.
With the ladies of Lima, vanity and the love of dress appear to have reached their climax. To this passion for personal adornment they sacrifice everything. Formerly, when none but real pearls and diamonds were worn, many a lady was known to have ruined her husband by the purchase of those costly articles; now, however, thanks to French mock jewelry, they are enabled to bedeck themselves in glittering ornaments at trivial expense. Another of their passions is a fondness for perfumes. They are continually besprinkling themselves with eau de Cologne, esprit de Lavande, agua rica, or mistura. The latter is a fragrant yellow-colored water, prepared from gillyflower, jasmine, and flor de mistela (Talinum umbellatum). They perfume their apartments daily with Sahumerios (pastiles). When the lady of the house wishes to show particular attention to her visitors, she offers them perfumed water, dropping it into the bosoms of the ladies, and on the pocket-handkerchiefs of the gentlemen. Considering their free use of perfumes, it is not surprising that the fair Limeñas should be constantly complaining of headache, vertigo, and other nervous ailments, or, to use their own phrase (los nervios).
Above all things the Limeñas pride themselves in the excessive smallness of their feet. Whether walking, standing, sitting, swinging in the hammock, or reclining on the sofa, the grand object invariably is to display to advantage the tiny foot. To praise her virtue, her intelligence, her wit, or even her beauty, would be less complimentary to a Limeña than to admire the elegance of her feet. All possible care is taken to preserve the small form of the foot, and the Lima ladies avoid everything that may tend to spread or enlarge it. Their shoes are usually made of embroidered velvet or satin, or of very fine kid, and are so exceedingly small, that they cannot be drawn on and off without difficulty. It is usual to have two new pairs every week, and the expense of a lady's shoes not unfrequently amounts to two hundred dollars per annum. A large foot is a thing held in horror by the Limeñas: they call it una pataza inglesa (an English paw). I once heard some Lima ladies extolling in high terms the beauty of a fair European; but all their praises ended with the words:—"Pero que pie, valgame Dios! parece una lancha." (But what a foot, good Heaven! It is like a great boat.) Yet the feet of the lady alluded to would not, in Europe, have been thought by any means large.
Gourmanderie is one of the evil habits of the female inhabitants of Lima. Between meals they are continually eating sweetmeats and a variety of things. At one moment they order tamal,[19] next omitas,[20] then pan de chancay (a sweet sort of bread), and biscuits, then masamorita morada,[21] or frijoles coladas,[22] &c.; and yet dinner is partaken with as hearty an appetite as though none of these interludes had been introduced. Can it be matter of surprise that the good ladies are constantly complaining of indigestion and mal de estomago?
In the interior of the houses cleanliness does not extend beyond those apartments which are open to visitors, namely, the sala and the cuadro. The other rooms of the house frequently bear more resemblance to a stable than a human habitation, and their condition reflects little credit on the domestic habits of the female inmates. But even this is typical of the national character,—a great outward show and little inward worth.
At first a stranger is struck with the singularity of the names of many of the women of Lima. A child receives the name of the saint or of the festival whose celebration falls on the day of its birth. Those who happen to come into the world on the days on which the Romish Church celebrates the several manifestations of the Virgin receive the most extraordinary names. For example, a child born on the anniversary day of the manifestation to St. Francis on the Snow Mountain, is named Nièves (snow). Pilar (fountain-basin) is another strange name, conferred in honor of the manifestation of the Virgin at the Fountains in Saragossa. Then there are Conceptions, Natividads, and Asuncions, without number. A girl born on Candlemas-day is named Candelaria, and one born on the first day of the year receives the name of Jesus. The singular effect of these names is heightened by the Spanish custom of using diminutives, formed by adding to the name the particle ito or ita, the former being the masculine, the latter the feminine. It may be readily imagined that a foreigner is not a little startled on hearing a young lady called Doña Jesusita. In some names the diminutive takes a form totally different from the full name; as, for example, Panchita for Francisca, Pepita for Josefa, Conchita for Concepcion. A married woman does not take the family name of her husband, but retains her own, adding to it her husband's name preceded by the particle de, as, for example, Doña Maria Juana Rodriguez de Salazar.
On attaining a certain age, the Limeñas totally alter their habits of life. When their beauty fades, and they cease to be the objects of compliment and flattery; or when weary of an idle, luxurious, and, in too many instances, a no very virtuous life, they betake themselves to piety, and become Beatas.[23] The Limeña who thus renounces the vanities of the world attends church two or three times every day, confesses at least once every week, retires during Lent to a house of penitence; fasts, prays, and receives the visits of her confessor, to whom she sends presents of sweetmeats;—and should the holy man, as is usually the case, prefer riding to walking, she shows her piety by giving him the use of her Calesa to convey him from place to place.
The women of Lima are gifted by nature with extraordinary natural talent, though unfortunately it is rarely cultivated. They possess shrewd and penetrating intelligence, clear judgment, and in general very just views on the ordinary affairs of life. Like the women of the southern provinces of Spain, they are remarkable for quickness and smartness of repartee, and in a wordy contest a Limeña is sure to come off triumphant. They have a great deal of decision of character, and a degree of courage which does not usually fall to the lot of the female sex. In these respects they are infinitely superior to the timid, spiritless men. In the various political revolutions of the country, the women have often taken an active, and, in some instances, a more decided part than the men.
The Indians in Lima form but a small portion of the population, being about 5000 in number. Among them are as many emigrants as natives. Most of the former are from the mountainous districts, and but few are from places on the coast. Their character is, of course, much modified by continual intercourse with the whites; but I will endeavor to describe them as they show themselves in their original purity, marking the distinctions observable between the Indio Costeño (the Coast Indian), and the Indio Serrano (the mountain Indian). The Indians in Lima are active and industrious. Many of them are shopkeepers, and by the integrity of their dealings they stand on a footing of good credit with the great commercial houses. Those who are employed as servants are less remarkable for industry and honesty. They are reserved and suspicious; qualities especially observable when they have but recently emigrated into Lima. They combine personal vanity with an inconceivable degree of dirtiness. Their intellectual faculties are far beneath those of the white Creoles, of whom they stand in a degree of fear, which is not easily eradicated.