p, and is cooked so
as to get the full value of it. More important than the fresh fish is
the salted cod (_bacalhao_). This, which Napier described as "the
ordinary food of the Portuguese," is the backbone of the worker's
_menu_. It is not fragrant, nor is it inviting in aspect in its raw
state, but it is said to be highly nutritive, and it can certainly be
cooked in ways which make it appetising. The midday meal, which the wife
brings to her husband at his work, and shares with him as they sit in
the shade, is often composed of a _caldo_ (soup) made of _bacalhao_, or
of all sorts of oddments, thickened with beans and flavoured with
garlic, accompanied by a bit of rye-bread or of _broa_, the bread made
from maize. These soups and breads, accompanied by salads, onions,
tomatoes, and other vegetables, washed down with draughts of a light red
table-wine of little alcoholic strength, form the not unwholesome
average diet of the worker with his hands. If he wants to get drunk, he
can do so, with some difficulty, by imbibing sufficient wine, but the
easiest method is to drink the fearful crude spirit _aguardente_. If he
survives, he gets horribly, brutally drunk, and possibly does some
mischief before he recovers. But it is only fair to say that he but
rarely gets drunk, and that when he is thirsty he quenches his thirst
with water, with a harmless decoction of herbs or lemonade, or with the
almost innocuous wine. This sobriety is not the result of any temperance
legislation or restrictions. No license is required for opening a shop
for the sale of liquor. Only revenue dues and _octroi_ duties have to be
paid, and, of course, there is a liability to police supervision, which
provides the police with a means of increasing their very inadequate pay
by bribes or blackmail.

The amusements of the workman in the town are few enough, and mostly of
a domestic character. He sits on his doorstep, or on a bench in the
nearest gardens. He smokes the eternal cigarette, gossips with his
neighbours, plays with his children, and pets the cat. His only real
playtimes are the _festas_, when for some hours he indulges in
revelry--if, indeed, it be worthy of such a title. He reads the
newspaper but little,--if he can read at all,--which is, perhaps, a
good thing for him, and he is generally a Republican. This Republicanism
is mostly academic, but the "red" type is not wanting, and a fiery
spirit might be roused at any time, with consequences th