On
these were fixed several pieces of meat, some of which were being
roasted by the fire and some cured by the smoke. The kitchen was
full of people: whites, Puris, and negroes, children whose parents
were whites and Puris, or Puris and negroes--in a word, the place
was like a book of specimens containing the most varied
ramifications of the three principal races of the country.
In the court-yard was an immense number of fowls, beautifully marked
ducks and geese; I also saw some extraordinarily fat pigs, and some
horribly ugly dogs. Under some cocoa-palms and tamarind-trees, were
seated white and coloured people, separate and in groups, mostly
occupied in satisfying their hunger. Some had got broken basins or
pumpkin-gourds before them, in which they kneaded up with their
hands boiled beans and manioc flour; this thick and disgusting-
looking mess they devoured with avidity. Others were eating pieces
of meat, which they likewise tore with their hands, and threw into
their mouths alternately with handfuls of manioc flour. The
children, who also had their gourds before them, were obliged to
defend the contents valiantly; for at one moment a hen would peck
something out, and, at the next, a dog would run off with a bit, or
sometimes even a little pig would waggle up, and invariably give a
most contented grunt when it had not performed the journey for
nothing.
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