CHAP. XV. INTERIOR OE THE NATIVE HOUSES. 407 walked with him to another part of the city, and he re turned with me for some medicine for the patient. My visits to the sick have given me pecidiar opportunities of becoming acquainted with the social condition of the people, and I have been much impressed with the comfort and convenience of their dwellings, the separation and se clusion of their sleeping-rooms, and the appropriate and sometimes even elegant manner in which they are furnished. I believe most of the natives still sit on the ground at their meals, but there is generally a table and chairs in the open room of the house. Then in the sleeping-rooms, though some of the sleeping-places consist of a number of finely woven mats laid on the floor, there was generally a neat four- post bedstead, with a bed at the end of the room opposite the window, the bed and the window being both screened by white muslin curtains. A table, with sometimes white jugs, cups and saucers, and glasses upon it, and a looking- glass over it, generally occupies one side of the room, and chairs and perhaps trunks the other, besides many other little conveniences which I did not expect to see. But more pleasing still was the kind, social, and affectionate feel ing which the several members of the family manifested towards each other, in those instances which came under my notice. The sons, even when young men, seemed to cherish great affection for their mothers, and to treat them with marked attention and respect. This is a very general feeling, to which expression is often given in a simple and gratifying manner. It is a custom for children occasionally to present to their mothers a piece of money, called “Fofon damosina,” literally fragrance of the back, as a sort of grateful acknow ledgment for the mother’s kindness when the infant was carried on the back. Several families of respectability resided near my house, and I noticed that the mistress of the house and her daughters, arrayed in clean white dresses, usually walked