The admiration of these ladies for strangers naturally provokes the disgust and jealousy of the Peruvian gentlemen; while, strange to say, it doest not excite them to emulation of their attractions and virtues. So long as they can lounge in idleness and smoke their cigars, there seems to them nothing in the world really worth striving for …
The women of the higher classes during their brief reign as beauties, live idle, luxurious lives; dividing their days between lounging in their hammocks, smoking cigars, eating sweetmeats and confectionery, toying with their guitars, admiring their jewels or their beautiful feet, and turning over the leaves of handsomely illustrated books. After dinner, they receive visitors, sit on the latticed portico of the upper story of their dwellings, and watch and exchange glances with the passers-by, don the soya y manto and sally forth to walk, or pay visits, or to attend a theatre or a bull-fight. Then they attend church with great regularity and great frequency.
Excerpted from ‘The Women of South America—The Western Coast,’ by Mrs. E.B. Duffey. Appearing in Arthur’s Illustrated Home Magazine, volume XLII, edited by T.S. Arthur. Published by T.S. Arthur & Son, Philadelphia, 1874.