1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

So7ne PinJiao Quinias—An Upper JDouro Villacje. 65

witliin. The roads are often filthy in the extreme, smells unde- finahle assail one's nostrils as much fi-om the open doorways as from the refuse-littered street. Occasionallythe neat whitewashed abode of some well-to-do farmer may be seen, standing back in itsj)leasant garden,in striking contrast to the pair of dingy hovels, with linen of a dirty grey drying on lines before their paneless windows,which flank it on either side. Stables or sheds for beasts of burden there are certain to be, but the pigs, who are legion,live either in the street or in the common room of the family to whom they belong—a dimly-lighted foetid apart ment where vermin abound, where the atmosphere is always close and smoky and the walls charred and blackened from the absence of chimneys to the houses. Now and then these miserable dwellings are built up in layers of schistous stone without either mortar or cement. When the former has been employed,a single coat of whitewash,set off perhaps with some tawdry streaks of red and yellow, suffices in the owner's eyes to keep his casa clean for a decade. Turning from the houses the eye lights on du'ty children, yelping cui's, emaciated poultry, and,above all, long-legged pigs, basking at full length in the middle of the road,disdaining to move out of your horse's way, and who, after indulging in a refreshing mud bath, will con siderately retire, dripping with slush, to the single room where their owners live, eat, and sleej). The prevalence of swine in the villages of the Port wine country arises from the longing with which everyone appears to be beset to possess his own pig. To fatten this is the care and delight of his existence until the time for slaughtering it arrives,which in the Alto Douro is invariably between Christmas and Lent. Just such a village as the one we have been describing is Celleiros; still it is only fair to say that it is perhaps the dirtiest village throughout the Alto Douro. Portunately the main street is provided with raised paved footways, so that it is possible to escape walking ankle-deep tbrougb the mire stag natingin theroad. The bare-legged vintage-girls,however,trudge through it, with their baskets of grapes on their heads, quite as