One unfortunate peculiarity that cannot help being noticed is the number of persons whose eyes are not on the same level.  When this does not amount to an actual disfigurement, it is still a blemish which prevents many a young girl from being classed as a beauty.  This and the peculiar notched or cleft teeth seem to point to an hereditary taint.  Also unmistakable signs of a greater or lesser admixture of black blood are numerous.  As a rule, the Portuguese are dark-complexioned, with large dark eyes and black hair; but, of course, one meets many exceptions.  The men of the working class are fond of wearing enormous bushy whiskers, and women of all classes are accustomed to wear moustachios.  The thin line of softest down which accentuates the ripe lips of the senhorina of some seventeen summers becomes an unattractive incident in the broad countenance of the stout lady of advancing years; and when, as sometimes happens, the hirsute appendages take the form of a thin, straggling beard, with a tooth-brush moustache, it can only be described as an unmitigated horror.

Society in Portugal is very mixed.  There are the old fidalgos, haughty and unapproachable, and often very poor, the descendants of the nobles whose duplicity, ability in intrigue, and want of patriotism are so often alluded to in the pages of Napier.  Then there are the new nobility, the “titled Brasileros,” as Galenga calls them, who have come back from Brazil to their native land with large fortunes acquired somehow, and who practically buy titles, as well as lands and houses.  Wealthy tradesmen, also, hold a special position in the mixed middle class.  There is, too, a curious blending of old-fashioned courtesy with democratic sentiments.  The tradesman welcomes his customers with effusive politeness—­shakes hands as he invites them to sit down, and chats with these perhaps titled ladies without any affectation or assumption.  After a while the parties turn to business.  A sort of Oriental bargaining takes place, the seller asking twice as much as the object is worth and he intends to take.  The purchaser meets this with an offer of about half what she intends to give.  With the utmost politeness and civility the negotiations are conducted on either side.  Each gives way little by little, and in the end a bargain is struck.  The amounts involved appear to be enormous, as the reis are computed by thousands and hundreds; but, then, the real is only worth about the thousandth part of three shillings and twopence at the present rate of exchange, and the long and exciting transaction, in all its various phases, has resulted in one or other of the parties having scored or missed a small victory.  Verily, even to the loser, the pleasure is cheap at the price.