Old Clothes & Appetizers (1824)

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JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN CHILE,
DURING THE YEAR 1822.
AND A VOYAGE FROM CHILE TO BRAZIL IN 1823
By Maria Dundas Graham (Lady Maria Calcott)
London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green,
   and John Murray
1824
New York: Frederick A. Praeger
1969

   OED cites this book once, for "ashore."  Its author (M. Graham) is cited 58 times.  Was her book on India so much better than her book on Chile?

Pg. 97:  *The _mechero_ is the aparatus for striking fire to light the segars, which every person in Chile carries with him.

Pg. 160:  The native bakers usually put suet or lard into it, so that it tastes like cake; a few French bakers, however, make excellent bread; but that we had to-day was of the country, and assimilated well with the melted marrow.  After this _apetizer_, as my countrymen would call it, a large dish of charqui-can was placed before us.  It consists of fresh beef very much boiled, with pieces of charqui or dried beef, slices of dried tongue, and pumkin, cabbage, potatoes, and other vegetables, in the same dish.  Our hostess immediately began eating from the dish with her fingers, and invited us to do the same; but one of her daughters brought us each a plate and fork, saying she knew that such was our custom.  However, the old lady persisted in putting delicate pieces on our plates with her thumb and finger.  The dish was good, and well cooked.  It was succeeded by a fowl which was torn to pieces with the hands; and then came another fowl cut up, and laid on sippets strewed with chopped herbs; and then giblets; and then soup; and, lastly, a bowl of milk, and a plate of _Harina de Yalli_, that is, flour made from a small and delicate kind of maize.
   (OED has 1862 for "appetizer"--ed.)

Pg. 168:  Little spirits or wine was called for; but several kinds of sherbet, the best of which is Luca, were in great request.  The Luca, is an infusion of Culen, Canela _wild cinnamon_, with a little syrup, and is said to be as wholesome as it is pleasant.

Pg. 189:  This sort of meeting is technically called a _rodeo_, and usually takes place in the summer, or rather autumn; when the young animals are sufficiently strong to be driven to the _corral_, or place of rendezvous, from the mountains and thickets where they were born.
   (I'd posted an 1831 "rodeo" recently--ed.)

Pg. 195:  Our repast was the usual stew, _charquican_, of the country, fresh and dried meat boiled together, with a variety of vegetables, and seasoned with aji or Chile pepper, the whole served up in a huge silver dish; and silver forks were distributed to each person, of whom, with ourselves, there were eight.

Pg. 196:  About half a mile from Bustamante we quitted O'Higgins's road, and entered what is here called a monte or thicket* of beautiful underwood, and occasionally very large trees.
*The application of the word Monte arose, it seems, in the plains of Buenos Ayres, which are so flat, that wherever there is a grove, the distant effect is in truth that of a hill.
   (The revised OED has 1851 for "monte"--ed.)

Pg. 203:  The cries in the streets are nearly as unintelligible as those in London, and, with the exception of _Sweep_ and _Old Clothes_, concern the same articles.
   (OED does not have an "old clothes"/"ropa vieja" entry--ed.)

Pg. 216:  At night the young ladies Cotapos, and their brother, Don Jose Antonio, danced for me the cuando, a national dance.

Pg. 242:  Breakfast in Chile is usually at a latish hour, and consists sometimes of soup, or meat and wine; but every body takes matee or chocolate at their bed side.

Pg. 248:  he introduced to us a man, dressed in the coarsest decent dress of the country, by the title of Juan de Bonaventura; a farmer on his own estate, and a good man, though unfortunately a _tonto_, _i. e._ a half-witted clown.
   (OED has 1973 for "tonto"--ed.)

Pg. 302:  As this is a cattle estate, it is not populous in proportion to its extent; but still every valley has its little homestead or two, around which, at the latter end of the rains, and while the cattle are in the mountains, the peasants form their little _chacra_, or cultivated spot, for pease, gourds, melons, onions, potatoes, French beans, (which, dried, as _frixole_,forms a main article of their food,) and other vegetables.

Pg. 314:  In the morning they pitched a tent; and by the time I arrived there they had a _ramada_, or hut of branches.
   (This is a few years earlier than the recent post in the archives has for "ramada"--ed.)

Pg. 341:  The shell-fish have already taken possession of her, within and without; and we are frequently indebted to that circumstance for one of our greatest dainties, the large eatable barnacle, peculiar in Chile to the bay of Quintero, and known by the name of _pico_.

Pg. 425:  ..._gualichi_ or evil spirits,...

(Appendix VI lists 119 trees and shrubs of Chile--ed.)