y filled up the bag with all the filth they
could pick up, and left it where they had found it. The little girl was
sent back to her mother. When the old man woke next morning, and took
out the sack to earn his breakfast, the usual incantation had no effect,
and when he applied the threatened stick the bag burst, and all the
filth came out, which he was compelled to lick up by the enraged
populace." At the close of the story the cigarettes glow, the white
teeth gleam, the bushy whiskers wag, the old women chuckle, the girls
giggle, and the youths snigger, and as the short twilight is now over,
the group breaks up, and each vanishes into his or her own
vermin-pasture to sleep until _amanha_ has actually become to-day, and
the sun shines on another exact repetition of yesterday.

The Portuguese are superstitious, and are devout up to a certain point,
and the clerics are exceedingly intolerant. In the morning one sees, as
in all Roman Catholic countries, devout worshippers kneeling about in
the churches before their favourite shrines, but, unlike the practice of
most Roman Catholic countries, the churches are closed at or about noon
for the most part, and are only open for special masses after that time.
The procession of the Host is greeted with most extreme reverence, and
whether it be in the fashionable Chiado at Lisbon or along a country
lane, all uncover and make the sign of the cross, and many, even
fashionably dressed ladies and gentlemen, kneel down and bow themselves
humbly as the sacred wafer passes by, borne by the gorgeously vested
priest; at least, in the cities the vestments are gorgeous, and a long
train of acolytes and attendants makes the procession imposing, but in
the country the vestments are often mildewed and decayed, and the one or
two rustic attendants are not dignified in appearance. Still, the sacred
symbol is the same, and the reverence and the devotion are the same.

There is an excessive hierarchy for the size of the country, there being
in Portugal proper three ecclesiastical provinces, ruled respectively by
the Patriarch of Lisbon and by the Archbishops of Braga and Evora.
Besides these, there is the colonial province which is ruled by the
Archbishop of Goa, Archpriests and other dignitaries abound, so that a
priest has something to look forward to in the way of promotion; and
yet, as a rule, the priests perform their duties without zeal and in a
slovenly manner. One often hears it said that