enjoyable.
There is no affectation in its pages--no airs of conscious superiority;
and we feel that we are in the company of a woman with a woman's
heart--of a woman with broad sympathies and a happy nature.

Our first visit, with Lady Brassey as our guide, shall be to the market
at Rio de Janeiro.[28]

The greatest bustle and animation prevailed, and there were people and
things to see and observe in endless variety. The fish market was full
of finny monsters of the deep, all new and strange to us, whose odd
Brazilian names would convey to a stranger but little idea of the fish
themselves. There was an enormous rock fish, weighing about three
hundred pounds, with hideous face and shiny back, and fins; large ray,
and skate, and cuttle fish--the octopus, or pieuvre, described with so
much exaggeration in Victor Hugo's "Travailleurs de la Mer," to say
nothing of the large prawns for which the coast is famous--prawns eight
or ten inches long, with antennae of twelve or fourteen inches in length.
Such prawns suit those only who care for quantity rather than for
quality; they are of indifferent flavour; whereas the oysters, which are
particularly small, are remarkable for their delicious taste. Mackerel
are here in abundance, also a good many turtle and porpoises, and a few
hammer-headed sharks.

In the fruit market were many familiar bright-coloured fruits. Fat,
jet-black negresses, wearing turbans on their heads, strings of coloured
beads on their necks and arms, and single long white garments, which
appeared to be continually slipping off their shoulders, presided over
glittering piles of oranges, bananas, pine-apples, passion-fruit,
tomatoes, apples, pears, capsicum and peppers, sugar-canes,
cabbage-palms, cherimoyas, and bread-fruit.

In another part of the market all sorts of live birds were for sale,
with a few live beasts, such as deer, monkeys, pigs, guinea-pigs in
profusion, rats, cats, dogs, marmosets, and a dear little lion-monkey,
very small and rather red, with a beautiful head and mane, who roared
exactly like a real lion in miniature. There were cages full of small
flamingoes, snipe of various kinds, and a great many birds of smaller
size, with feathers of all shades of blue, red, and green, and metallic
hues of brilliant lustre, besides parrots, macaws, cockatoos
innumerable, and torchas on stands. The torcha is a bright-coloured
black and yellow bird, about as big as a starling, which puts its little
h