Here, all was
fair play; you knew what to expect and what was expected of you. Soup,
of course, came first,--then fish,--then meat stewed with potatoes and
onions,--then other meat with _ochra_ and tomatoes,--then boiled
chicken, which is eaten with a _pilaff_ of rice colored with
saffron,--then delicious sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, and
vegetables of every sort,--then a kind of pepper, brought, we think,
from the East Indies, and intensely tropical in its taste,--then a
splendid roast turkey, and ham strewed with small colored
sugar-plums,--then--well, is not that enough for one person to have
eaten at a stretch, and that person accustomed to a Boston diet? Then
came such a display of sweetmeats as would exercise the mind of a New
England housekeeper beyond all power of repose,--a pudding,--a huge
tart with very thick crust,--cakes of _yuca_,--a dish of cocoanut, made
into a sort of impalpable preserve, with eggs and sugar,--then a course
of fruits,--then coffee, of the finest quality, from the host's own
plantation,--and then we arose and went into the drawing-room, with a
thankful recollection of what we had had, and also a thankful assurance
that we should have no more.
A drive by moonlight was now proposed, to see the streets and the
masks, it being still Carnival.
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