At the end of the chapel is a large quadrangle, entered by a massive
gateway, surrounded by three stories of grated windows. Here female
negro pedlars come with their goods, and expose them in the court-yard
below. The nuns, from their grated windows above, see what they like,
and, letting down a cord, the article is fastened to it; it is then
drawn up and examined, and, if approved of, the price is let down. Some
that I saw in the act of buying and selling in this way, were very
merry, joking and laughing with the blacks below, and did not seem at
all indisposed to do the same with my companion. In three of the lower
windows, on a level with the court-yard, are revolving cupboards, like
half-barrels, and at the back of each is a plate of tin, perforated like
the top of a nutmeg-grater. The nuns of this convent are celebrated for
making sweet confectionary, which people purchase. There is a bell which
the purchaser applies to, and a nun peeps through the perforated tin;
she then lays the dish on a shelf of the revolving cupboard, and turns
it inside out; the dish is taken, the price laid in its place, and it is
turned in. While we stood there, the invisible lady-warder asked for a
pinch of snuff; the box was laid down in the same way, and turned in and
out.