12 m a d e i r ' a .
both old and young, cutting down broom and cytisus, and
other frutescent plants, as fuel to be used in the town, which
they afterwards bear in large bundles on the h e ad ; travelling
barefooted on sharp stoney roads, and down frightful precipices,
over a distance of at least ten or twelve miles every
day. The men, who are employed in the same business, go
out at two or three o’clock in the morning, in order that they
may return to Funchal before the heat of the day, when it is
usual to see them basking a t full length in the streets before
their doors, conveying to a stranger an idea of their extreme
indolence, which, however, is far from being the case with
this class of men, whose chief occupation is that of supplying
the town with firewood. Those who may prefer
a life of ease, with scanty meals, to the comfort of a decent
livelihood to be procured by moderate labour, are such as are
occasionally employed in fishing, in shipping wines, which are
usually slipped to the beach on sledges drawn by oxen, in smuggling,
or in furnishing seamen with wine and spirits. Such
employments occupy only a small portion of the day, and
not many days in the week. Some few are .engaged in the
preparation of a sort of white leather for boots, coarse woollens
for caps and jackets, and striped linens for browsers. A linen
or calico shirt, a pair of canvas or checked linen trowsers,
and a red or blue woollen cap, mostly of the latter colour
and not unlike the late sacred emblem of Gallic liberty, constitute
their usual dress, which, with their sallow and meagre
looks and long black hair, gives them a ferocious appearance,
that an unprotected stranger would not be desirous of encountering
in a lonely place; yet they are in fact a civil,
harmless, and well-disposed people.
The dress of the female mountain wood-cutters consists of
a shift, a petticoat, and a thick cap or coarse handkerchief
tied about the head. The middle class of people, who earn
a livelihood by keeping shops, by carrying on a petty traffic, or
by practising some of the handicraft trades, are distinguished
in their dress from the vulgar by the addition of a hat, shoes
and stockings, and a long black cloak, which frequently conceals
beneath its covering a multitude of rents and patches.
Their wives and daughters are almost invariably habited in
black cloth petticoats, and a jacket of the same material,
with a large hood drawn over the head. It would be unreasonable
to expect that the women of this place should exhibit
the most perfect models of purity and delicacy; but we were
not exactly prepared to observe these hooded matrons and
damsels stepping aside, with perfect composure, to the creeks
and corners of the streets and, like Madame Rambouillet,
“ plucking their roses,” in open day, and in full view of every
passenger.
Nor do the men, who affect to rank among the upper
classes of society, appear to feel those elevated notions of independence
which attach to their condition in other countries :
for instance, they are not ashamed of begging in the public
streets. The monks of St. Francis profess it por amor de
Deos; and the laity beg for the love of themselves. Contrary
to the custom of our beggars, who assume at least the outward
appearance of being objects of compassion, and frequently
of disgust, a Portugueze puts on his best coat when
he goes a begging. This may not be so much the case in Ma~
7