1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

In the Port Wine Country.

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and whenever the liveliness flagged or the treading grew at all slack, a cigarette or a di'op of aguardente was served out as a reviver. In another lagar, on an occasion of great emergency, we saw the grapes trodden by young women wearing theii* own garments, which they skilfully gathered up around them until they assumed the appearance of the biggest and most abbre viated of Dutchmen's breeches. When all was duly adjusted they sprangintothe lagar,and,delighted with the novelty oftheir task,danced for a time among the grapes 'With the frenzy if not the grace of a troop of'wild Bacchanals. The sight was certainly amusing,although the proceeding was, perhaps, not exactly a decorous one.

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