The selling cries of Lisbon's
STREET VENDORS
by MARINA TAVARES DIAS:
For many centuries, generation upon generation of Lisbon dwellers lived almost exclusively on products sold in the streets. Innumerable peddlers populated the streets all over the city, hawking all the wares needed in daily life: water, milk, fish, fruit, vegetables, cured sausages, olive oil, paraffin, coal, shirts, caps and scarves, shoes, knives, vases, chairs or lampshades. Broad beans were sold in a stew with gravy (called «fava-rica»); apart from being knife-grinders, tinkers also mended umbrellas; boys whittled toothpicks while girls made flowers to decorate hats. Each product had a different cry or call announcing it and many of them were sung. Some of them became famous, like the cry of the fishwives singing out «Viva da Costa!» – «Alive from the Coast!», or the call of the newpaper kids: «Século-Nooootícias!».
For many centuries, generation upon generation of Lisbon dwellers lived almost exclusively on products sold in the streets. Innumerable peddlers populated the streets all over the city, hawking all the wares needed in daily life: water, milk, fish, fruit, vegetables, cured sausages, olive oil, paraffin, coal, shirts, caps and scarves, shoes, knives, vases, chairs or lampshades. Broad beans were sold in a stew with gravy (called «fava-rica»); apart from being knife-grinders, tinkers also mended umbrellas; boys whittled toothpicks while girls made flowers to decorate hats. Each product had a different cry or call announcing it and many of them were sung. Some of them became famous, like the cry of the fishwives singing out «Viva da Costa!» – «Alive from the Coast!», or the call of the newpaper kids: «Século-Nooootícias!».
