barracan

Bricks are always visible on Puppian walls', they weave sections that remind us of cloth the thick woolen barracan of northwest Argentina or the herringbone pattern of a noble English fabric, the kind they would try to sell us in the days when traveling salesmen went from house to house with their bags full of contraband and treasures.

And if he had passed into the adjoining room, he would have found a luxurious four-poster bed, a rustic etagere laden with Sevres porcelain, a Turkish hookah, a large alabaster cup and a crystal vase; on the far wall, panels painted with mythological scenes, two large canvases representing the Muses of History and Comedy and, hung variously upon the walls, Arab barracans, other oriental cashmere robes and an ancient pilgrim's flask; and a washstand with a shelf filled with toiletry articles of the finest qualityin short, a bizarre collection of costly and curious objects that perhaps indicated not so much a consistency and refinement of taste as a desire for ostentatious opulence.