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CHARACTERISTICS OF FAIRS.
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the streets and by the increased prevalence of the malaria fever consequent upon the whole. In the mining districts there are fewer fruits, flowers, and vegetable products to be seen, and an infinitely greater display of strong clothing for labourers—coarse blankets, thick leathern pantaloons, and occasionally immense leathern boots, and other mining accoutrements. In the cold parts of the country (tierras frias), a feria is, in a far greater degree, an affair for in-doors; exhibitions in the market-places are rather scanty, and there is a higher relish, if possible, for aguardiente, chilé pepper, and other warm and spicy preparations. While in the tierras calientes, or hot regions, whole floating gardens of resplendent flowers and luscious fruits—fine grapes, rich bananas, and delicious tunas (a superior kind of pear); oranges, pineapples, peaches, and watermelons; granaditas (large sweet gooseberries), apricots, plums, and cherimoyas (a splendid fruit resembling a custard in flavour), together with cooling drinks and sweet mixtures, are abundantly supplied and highly appreciated, as the majority of them well deserve to be.

However different the proceedings at these festive seasons may be in the abstract, their