ght, or you may lose your heart!

On these occasions, also, the stone benches on either side the promenade
are thronged with _sayas y mantas_--the most bewitching satin envelope
that ever woman, be she youthful or aged, was ever wrapped in. There is
no resisting the large, brilliant, languishing eye--laughing with all
its might--nor the round, white arm, that so pertinaciously keeps the
jealous folds of the _manta_ over the face. Exhaust the whole Castilian
vocabulary of compliments--and it is copious--beseeching and imploring
to be vouchsafed one little word! _Ah Senorita! haceme el favor de una
palabrita!_--do speak one little word. But no! never a syllable from the
silent veil, while the roguish eye twinkles and laughs like a planet!
They may know you--but the sharpest duena that ever cheated or was
bribed by a lover could not detect her charge within these
closely-fitting dominoes--nor husband the wife, nor mother her
daughter--they are alike enshrouded in the same graceful but
impenetrable black masque. They are so cunning and coquettish, too!
Fancy you discover one. Strive to awaken her jealousy, or pique her
vanity by encomiums or scandal upon a sister or cousin--ten to one it
comes back to you in protean shapes from the one you least dreamed of.
Yet I cannot but think the institution was originally invented by ugly
women; and it appears, many of the fairest portions are of the same
opinion, being generally quite willing to exhibit their charms of face
as nature intended. Except on feast days, or in carnival, the dress is
now rarely worn; but in former years no woman appeared in street or mass
without the _saya y manta_. In those days, intrigue was so rife that a
prudent young bachelor was forced to keep a strict watch upon his
morals, or have his heart forcibly abducted by these warm-blooded
Limeneans--those were the times to hold wicked husbands in
consternation, and set watchful duenas at defiance! For a wonder, French
taste and dress are rapidly reforming all.

Some distance up the Rimac, near the Alemeda, is to be found the
pleasantest place for bathing. Water is turned by narrow canals, and
pours through a long range of enclosed and covered tanks, nicely
cemented and tiled, sufficiently large for swimming. They are not very
private places at all hours of the day, but one's delicacy is seldom
shocked, for the swimmers are the politest people possible: as an
instance, whilst bathing one morning, two youths a