Personal Memoirs of Goa Alfredo de Mello (avonollem@redfacil.com.uy)

... Thus began another stage of my life: twice a year, for a period of 8-10 days, in March and October, from 1934 to 1936, I went to the house of the Osorios, by taking a bus to Agassaim, crossing the river Zuary by ferry, to Cortalim, then the bus again, which dropped me in Nagoa, before continuing its route to Margao. The Osorios were landholders, and their house was typical of many stately homes, and old mansions in the villages, such as the grander nearby "Solar Machado", built in 1610, which had its own chapel. In it lived a boy, a couple of years younger, called Froilano Machado, one of the scores of godsons of my father Froilano.

First a high plinth, to climb up to which the stairway and "balcão" are made a showpiece of six soaring columns which carry a roof like a pyramidal gopuram. The "balcão" is really a fresh-air reception place, with cement benches on the two sides leading into the house, and easy chairs; it is here where the family spend their leisure hours, singing, chatting and enjoying the fresh breeze. It is a distinctive trait of the Goan style of village homes, not to be found anywhere else in India.

The "balcão" was also the place where one received visits of neighbours or passersby. This large balcony leads into one or two halls, two when ancestry is joined to affluence. To the left, there was a huge ballroom, with furniture covered by bedsheets, and a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. This hall with several doors, and elegantly-carpentered wooden window frames, was rarely used, except for weddings, or ceremonial visits. To the right there was a master bedroom, or sometimes a study room, with desk and bookshelves. Next, and similar in size to the ballroom, there was the living-dining room proper, likewise wide and comfortable, with windows facing the backyard. To the right, there followed some bedrooms, the kitchen, which ended in a big bathroom, which will need some explanation.

All around the house there was a roofed verandah, which kept the house cool. In this verandah there were vases with flowering plants, and creepers. As always, the whole tiled floor of the house, stood on a cement base about a. metre above the garden level, to keep the snakes out, as well as the dampness away during the monsoon months (June to September).

None of the Goan villages of the time had a sewage system, so the sanitary block was something unique. There was no running water and faucets either, so each house had its own well for drinking water as well as for bathing purposes. There was no need for hot water ever, the year round, so the "showers" were of cold water that one poured over oneself with the aid of metal jugs, usually tin or bronze, which one dipped into a big barrel containing water. This barrel was filled daily by buckets of water raised from the well. Soaping, and then throwing jugs of water was the daily bath, which was repeated twice a day, if the weather had been too sultry.

The sanitary block was something else. One climbed a few steps, and there was a long throne, covered by a wooden top, which had round holes, exactly the shape of a W.C. Maybe there were six holes, each of them above a three metre high stone-and-cement shaft which led to the pigsty below. So moving the

bowels could actually be a social event, just as one can see nowadays in Ephesus (Turkey), where the Romans sat on marble benches, with round holes. Eighteen centuries ago, the baths in Ephesus were the meeting place of the Romans, who sent their slaves ahead to sit and warm up the marble, in order that their masters could sit comfortably and chat while they "did what comes naturally".

... On my second outing to Nagoa, I participated in the hunt of a leopard, and after killing the beast, Tomás arranged for a taxi to take us back to Panjim, with the dead leopard. I enclose the first snapshot I took with a box camera, of Tomás and the leopard, with the cashew tree behind our house.