This forgiving system runs through every class and rank, from the highest to the lowest; but it is in the lofty circles that its influence is most worthy of particular notice. No one ventures to throw the first stone at the unfortunate; and there insensibly arises a gradation of vices and virtues, dove-tailing into each other so as to constitute a social whole, wherein the different degrees of moral deviation are all shaded by an overflowing charity. Pleasure and vice are nearly allied, and unhappily he who assumes the clerical habit and tonsure is not, in his own person, always a stranger to the voluptuous enjoyments of those around him; and the example of the man who rules the conscience of the people—who grants them absolution, and allows them indulgences,[7]—will naturally be imitated: hence the indulgence of public opinion as regards individual and private character in Peru.
The slow and partial administration of justice is loudly complained of by those whose affairs require them to frequent courts of law in the Peruvian capital. The turbulent independence of the bad and disorderly, uncontrolled by any active and faithful police, is every day increasing, and already puts justice at defiance. The impudence, ill-acquired pecuniary influence, and intrigue of the false-hearted and boasting patriot, are daily seen to assume the embroidered insignia of “un benemerito de la patria!”—an honour which only in equity belongs to that rare character—the genuine patriot, who knows how to sacrifice his private convenience to the public good. The judges are often left without pecuniary means consistent with their honourable calling, because their salaries are not duly paid by the government; and if, under these circumstances, the balance of justice be disturbed in its equilibrium, the blame must not be all laid to the charge of those public functionaries who are the appointed ministers of the laws. The truth is, that, for a considerable time back, the sums that entered the national treasury were too scanty to support the pageantry of military array, together with the accumulated expences of a destructive and demoralizing warfare; and the pecuniary embarrassments arising from these circumstances, involved in their consequences some drawbacks in the civil administration of justice. But another popular cause, and that to which we would desire to draw the attention of the reader, for the unequal distribution of justice, is by common consent allowed to be, that in the best, as even now in the worst of times, the fair sex in Lima have enjoyed, from date immemorial, a more than regal prerogative, which the convulsions that effected what is called their political freedom, have in no essential particular obliterated or changed. It is called Empeño.
This tacitly constitutional instrument of clemency, although in the hands of women naturally inclined to mercy, may, when misguided, operate against the vital interests of the community; and by it the true ends of legislative enactments may, from time to time, be frustrated. This prerogative is put in practice especially by certain genteel-looking young women, who are neither married nor single, but who, in the language of the indulgent matrons of the country, are allowed to be, though not married, highly honourable and gifted—“No es casada, pero muy honrada, muy prendada:” and a lady of this quality seldom loses favour, or a good place in society, so long as she has a calesa or carriage in Lima, and a rancho or bathing-lodge in Chorrillos. Let us now suppose that this lady, attired in her national, or rather Limenian, dress of saya and manto,[8] desires either to plead some advantage or indulgence for another, or a favour more particularly for herself—and that for this purpose she employs the blandishments and flow of persuasive language at her command. The gentleman, thus softly assailed by so eloquent and attractive a being, unwisely listens until he is entirely at his magician’s bidding. This spell is what is vulgarly meant by the gigantic and overgrown prerogative termed in Peru empeño. But we must not forget to mention, that this ascendant power is very commonly promoted by a certain spiritual influence, in which both married and single partake—namely, the sacred relation between god-fathers and god-mothers, the well-known “compadres y comadres” of that sunny land; and it will be at once perceived that an influence so remarkable in the ladies as this, which enables them, during their good pleasure, to deprive men of free-will, must have wide practical application, and be productive of great good or evil in that country, where it confessedly extends its sway to bench and altar, senate, palace, and camp. No old stager in Lima hears of a political or domestic altercation, or of any serious movement that causes a stir and sensation in the city, but he immediately inquires what woman can be at the bottom of this bullanga or hubbub; and if the affair should happen to concern himself, his friends, or political party, he does not long sit at ease until he finds out who that woman is, or discovers where the spiritual alliance rests, where dwells the comadre that rules the order of the day.[9]
The Peruvian highland girls have an ingenious way of contriving for themselves compadres, without the necessary interference of the priest, merely by sending the gentleman, whom any one of them in particular may desire to honour, a sweet cake made into the form of a doll, which they call “guawa,” the Indian name for baby. This offspring of a good-humoured regard which they desire should become mutual, they nicely dress, and accommodate on a couch made from a selection of the fresh flowers of the season, and forward it with their kindest wishes (con muchisimas expresiones), under their now adopted name of comadre, to the person on whom by this gracious act of partiality they confer the confidential title, expecting by his acceptance a return of the attentions and courtesy of the real compadre. On the coast, again, (in the capital,) on the anniversary of a lady’s birth-day, or saint’s day, celebrated in merry parties encouraged to assemble by the joint allurements of music, dancing, cooling repasts, and all that can render such meetings attractive, the drawing-room may be said to be converted into a flower-garden by the attention of compadres, comadres, and friends, who vie with each other in sending presents of fine flowers, sweet preserves, and other gifts; and, at the annual return of these joyful meetings, the friends of the family, and of the individual who is the object of the compliments of the day, have the best opportunity of expressing their friendship, by adding to the ornaments of a young lady’s toilet, or presenting her with any delicate mark of personal regard.
These meetings, not overlooked in the humblest dwellings, are seen to best advantage in the handsome “quadra,” or tertulia-room of the wealthy, where the large chandeliers are well reflected by spacious mirrors, in which are seen multiplied the groups of happy faces, to the delight of the party, all pleased with one another. Here and there are Guamanga baskets of filigree texture laden with spiced and perfumed fruits, sometimes ornamented with delicate threads of gold and silver, fancifully twined from peg to peg of the spice fixed in the fruit. Among them, too, are usually golden apples—viz. apples coated with gold leaf—many sweet fruits imbedded in aroma, and the sweetly-scented cheremolla or cheremoya, and orange blossoms, which are peculiarly welcome to the guests when distributed from the hands of the hostess, or her engaging daughters.
We may here observe, in passing, that handing a flower to a forenoon visitor, who, if a polished gentleman, accompanies his verbal salutation by raising his hand softly to his heart, is only a customary mark of polite attention, quite in character with the complacent manners and natural taste of the Limenian ladies, in this respect favoured by their balmy climate, in which odoriferous fruits and flowers are always within reach: and on leaving their house they almost invariably besprinkle their visitors with perfumes, and thus send them away redolent of hospitality. And while their corridors, in which they frequently swing in their hammocks, or enjoy the siesta, are scented with flower-gardens, and their “patios,” or courts, with roses and jessamine, sweet perfumes, and fragrant herbs are frequently used in their principal bed-chamber, when it is found convenient, for the sake of cheering the sick, to receive friends into this apartment, which is usually very gorgeously furnished, and communicates with the drawing-room or quadra. Our professional avocations have afforded us an intimate opportunity to know, and we feel a peculiar pleasure in proclaiming it, that it is by the bedside of sickness (where men are exceedingly helpless without the aid of the softer sex, at once more patient and serene, more dexterous and endearing in their assistance,) that the Limeña, be her rank, birth, or pretensions what they may, is seen to greatest advantage.