them constitute the principal merit of the Brazilian table. "You see, senhor," said he, with a profound sigh, "the occupation to which a man of my condition is reduced! In the time of the King ORIGINAL CHARACTERS-THE PADRE. Don Joās VI. we had more masses than we The description of the fazenda would be in-wanted; but since the independence, all is complete, if we did not describe some of the changed. There are still some senhoras who original characters one meets with on all the have them performed occasionally, but their large plantations. First in order come the padre husbands prefer to employ their money in cattle and the doutor, then the mascate (the muleteer) or mules. That is why you see me as a and the formigueiro (the ant-killer), of which we tropeiro. Did you chance, anywhere upon the have heretofore merely mentioned the name. road, to meet any fazendeiro who wished to reThe padre is the almoner of the country. plerish his horned stock, or needed a priest?" Let not the reader picture to himself the dark figure of an inquisitor, enveloped in black gown and wearing a three-cornered hat. No; the South-American padre is a hale apostle. Clothed in linen like a worldly mortal, he wears his hair as short as a layman, dances, smokes, and plays and converses like the rest of the world. A mass glosses over the Sabbath, and that suffices for all the week. A muleteer generally serves him as sacristan, and his music consists of a choir of negroes. After mass he baptizes the little negroes who are brought to him from various parts of the neighbourhood. Of these he takes possession in the name of Heaven and the Catholic religion, and to this effect inscribes their names in a register, under a rubric taken from the Roman martyrology. This duty performed, the new Christian returns to the hut, goes into the field as soon as he is able to walk, works as long as his strength permits, till at length he one day falls exhaustel. A few hours later he takes his way to the grave upon the shoulders of four of his comrades, who form the entire funeral procession. The padre does not trouble himself to visit him in his dying moments, unless he is a free negro, and can pay the expense; for he thinks the sufferings of servitude are sufficient to redeem the faults of the poor slaves, and open to them the gates of heaven. Of what use, then, is the catechism, and instruction, and The cleansing of baptism is enough; slavery will do the rest. Lack of employment is not unknown to the padre; but he knows how to remedy this by the aid of some light employments with which his transatlantic brethren are unacquainted. If a fazendeiro thinks himself neither sufficiently rich nor devout to pay for a mass every week, he makes an arrangement with his neighbours. The padre then alternates week by week with one estate after another, till he comes around to the one with which he commenced. If his cure masses, and sacraments? is too ungrateful, he ekes out a supplement by raising cattle or keeping a venda. AN ITINERANT PADRE. I one day met, in the province of Minas, one of these reverends who was traversing the estates with a herd of cattle, performing mass as occasion demanded. Being overtaken by a shower, we had both sought shelter at the same rancho. Seated upon a bench, we soon engaged in conversation. I had heard of a lady in the neighbourhood, recently deceased, and who, wishing to set herself right with her conscience, or conform to custom, had placed in her will four hundred milreis (two hundred dollars) to be devoted to masses. I did not recollect the lady's name, but I informed the padre in what village she lived, which was only a few leagues distant. I added, to prevent any mistake, that the death had occurred several days before, and that this neighbouring frequezia or parish. sum was probably destined to the padre of the will take care of the affair. Moleque!" he cried "Never fear, senhor; if it is not too late I to his chief herdsman, "bring me my mule, quick!" brisk trot, in spite of the rain, which still fell in torrents. Leaving the herd in charge of the negro, he went straight to the testamentary executor, and frankly proposed to give him a receipt for four hundred milreis, on payment of half the sum. The proposition was too seductive to be refused, and the executor, making the mere necessary conditions, counted out the two hundred milreis. A few minutes later our reverend set off at a Being generally the head of a family, the padre acquires through his domestic sentiments a kindness of heart, which too frequently exists only upon the lips of his austere colleagues of the Old World. His parishioners seem to like his free way of living, and willingly excuse his peccadillos. A PRIEST OF EASY DOCTRINES. A few years ago the officiating priest of Santa Ana, a village situated thirty or forty miles from Rio Janeiro, on the road to Novo Friburgo, declared from his pulpit, in a moment of goodhumour, that one might boldly refuse to believe there was a hell! Good souls with us would have hid their faces at hearing such frightful blasphemy. The Brazilian is more calm; he reserves his severity for the African bondsmen, and shows the most evangelical indulgence for his own race. The congregation smiled at each other at this singular declaration, and contented themselves with exchanging a look, as much as to say, Esta bebádo (he has been drinking). THE DOUTOR. The doutor is, in the eyes of the fazendeiro, a more important personage even than the padre, Since the slave-trade has been interdicted upon the coast of Africa, the price of negroes has advanced to ruinous proportions. An adult slave, at the present time, represents a capital of two contos de reis, or one thousand dollars, and sometimes more. The loss of the negro is therefore a serious one to the planter, and he neglects nothing to restore him when he falls sick. A spacious and well-ventilated hospital, with medical stores from Paris or London, an attendant who never leaves the patients, and who prepares their medicines, sufficiently attest his solicitude. Nevertheless, notwithstanding all these ample precautions, notwithstanding the real skill of the Brazilian physicians, my observation tells me that a negro seldom goes into the hospital except to die there. But this is easily accounted for. The negro never complains of sickness, and is never supposed to be sick till he is at the very end of his career and his strength is gone. Besides the plantation to which he is attached, the doctor, like the padre, has to attend upon the small proprietors of the neighbourhood, who are not rich enough to keep a private physician. Formerly medical men were scarce, for there was no faculty in the country, and young men were obliged to get their education in the schools of France or Portugal. Since the emancipation, things have completely changed. Schools of medicine have been established in the large towns, and professors are found there who would do credit to the first institutions of Europe. The greater part of their medical works are written in French. All are acquainted with the language, and many speak it. Some also are acquainted with the German, and have libraries partly French and partly German. With such elements one need not be astonished to find that most of the physicians upon the coast possess real merit. We cannot say as much of those in the interior. It is not unfrequent to find among them a mulatto, who, having learnt in a negro infirmary to prepare mercurial pomades, administer purgatives, and dress snake-bites, styles himself a doctor. Sometimes a Frenchman comes over as cook upon some vessel, goes ashore, and sets himself up as surgeon-dentist. But as a set-off to this, it must be confessed that one sometimes meets with excellent black physicians at Bahia and Rio. PLANTATION HOSPITALS. Upon the large fazendas the infirmary is open to all the sick of the neighbourhood. Alongside of plantation negroes treated for incipient elephantiasis or a wound, you find a tropeiro arrested on the road by imprudent exposure to the sun; or agregados from the neighbouring forests stricken with fever, or poor colonists of the district who have left their mud-cabins to seek a healthier asylum and more efficacious medicines. Separate apartments are provided for the two sexes. Sometimes a negress who has fled from slavery, having become a mother, and being unable, through fear and privation, to nurse her child, comes at night and lays it behind the door of the infirmary. The rest is evident. The padre baptizes the little black, and forthwith delivers it to the director of the hos pice, who is charged with bringing it up. In years of epidemic, when pestiferous breezes sweep over the country, and death carries his terrors into the plantation and the rancho, the infirmary of the fazenda is a godsend to the people. The creoles then suddenly throw aside their nonchalance, and rival each other in zeal and sacrifices. The force of physicians, attendants, and nurses is doubled. A physician from the cidade is brought at great expense, while a caravan goes to bring from a distance a supply of all the pharmaceutical ingredients that can counteract the plague. Poor people who do not wish to leave their families, come at all hours of the day or night to obtain consultations or advice. Sometimes a free man, kept back by fear or false pride, permits himself to waste away in fever upon his bunk rather than apply to the neighbouring fazenda. Whenever the planter hears of such a case, he instructs a doctor, who forthwith mounts on horseback, and goes to persuade the sufferer to allow himself to be treated. These outbursts of spontaneous philanthropy, which gave birth to such noble devotion, are not rare in creole life. KINDNESS TO STRANGERS. The hospitality so generously practised toward the sick extends to every thing and to every body. It may be said that the fazenda is the caravanserai of foreigners who are travelling in Brazil. If it were not for them travel would be impossible. It is true that one finds near the coast a few vendas smelling of putridity, cachaça, and decaying fish; but they become more and more rare upon advancing into the interior. The plantation, on the contrary, rarely disappoints one. Whenever a stranger arrives at the door, a negro shows him a rancho for his horse, and then conducts him into the house, where are the rooms allotted to travellers. At the dinner hour he sets himself at the senhor's table, takes part in the conversation if it interests him, and retires when he likes. The next day he sets out immediately after breakfast. in order to reach the next fazenda before nightfall. If he needs rest he can remain several days in succession. No one would even think of asking his name. This is ancient hospitality in all its grandeur and simplicity, Many fazendas are famous for the heartiness of their reception. Among them may be mentioned that of the Baron d'Üba, known throughout Europe ever since the sojourn made there by the French traveller, Auguste St. Hilaire, half a century ago, and which has never ceased to be the privileged halting-place of the savans and artists who visit the provinces of Minas or Rio Janeiro. CHAP. VII. PEDDLERS, MULETEERS, AND ANT-KILLERS. As there is no good thing in this world which does not, by its very excess, engender an abuse, the hospitality of the fazenda has given birth to the mascate. The mascate is nothing else than a peddler, and he generally comes to Brazil from France. But he has nothing in common with those poor wretches who are still encountered on the inaccessible summits of the Alps and Pyrenees, with a pack upon their shoulders, and selling red handkerchiefs to the peasant-girls in exchange for a few pounds of rags. He understands things better; he gives himself less trouble, and takes bank-notes in exchange for his wares. He leaves Havre with an hundred pieces of gold in his pocket, disembarks with a compatriot, who gives him his lesson, buys a mule for himself and another for his pack, hires a guide to whom he pays a milreis (fifty cents) per day, and traverses the fazendas, offering jewelry, calicoes, perfumery, etc., according to his specialty. This employment, which a few years ago insured a rapid fortune, has fallen off in consequence of the monstrous abuses which were practised. I have known mascates to realize one hundred contas de reis (fifty thousand dollars) in a single campaign, and return to France the same year with an income of twelve thousand francs (upwards of two thousand dollars). It was the golden age of peddlers; but abuses were carried too far, and the Brazilians have at length opened their eyes. A PEDDLER'S ESTIMATE. One of these adept peddlers one day made me the following estimate: a ring mounted with brilliants costs one hundred francs at the manufactory; the exporter who sends it places it at two hundred; the expense of commission, box and transport, brings it up to one hundred milreis (two hundred and fifty francs, or fifty dollars); the duty, estimated at eighty per cent, makes it cost nearly two hundred milreis; the store from which we obtain the ring makes one hundred per cent, and it therefore costs us four hundred milreis. Certainly we, who have all the trouble, cannot make less than an hundred per cent, and we are obliged to sell the jewel to the senhoras of the interior for eight hundred milreis. As they generally buy on credit, their husbands give us a bill of exchange for a conto of reis (five hundred dollars), in order that we may not lose the interest. The Brazilians long since knew that they were paying many times the true value of their wives jewelry, and they have at last stopped patronizing the mascates. The Jews of Alsace and the Rhine provinces, are those who most excel in this species of trade. The Parisian prefers to sell perfumery and other small merchandise. The Italians bring small plaster saints to ornament the chapels, or hand organs. Sometimes the mascate becomes bankrupt by having his pack-mule carried away by the current in crossing a river, or by losing it among the precipices on the road. Some of them make journeys of eight hundred leagues, or to the extreme limits of civilized settlements. Few of these escape the fatigues of the route, the arrows of the Botocudos, the teeth of the tiger, or the tortures of hunger. I have frequently, during my travels, met them without mules, shoes, or clothing, and consoling themselves in their poverty by contemplating a box of small grains of quartz, which the natives of pretended diamond-bearing districts had given them as diamonds, in exchange for their merchandise. Those who return to life and civilization, having no longer any capital, seek a less rude employment, becoming comedians, gardeners, professors, dentists, photographers, &c. One day, on the way to Rio, I was stopped by a person whom I did not recognise; it was one of those poor wretches whom I had found, half dead with hunger, fatigue, and destitution, on the Upper Parahyba. I had given him a shirt, thinking it would be his winding-sheet. He survived by a miracle, dragged himself from tavern to tavern, and had established himself as a dentist at Rio Janeiro. THE MULETEER. A very original native character, sometimes met with upon the large fazendaz of Central and Northern Brazil, is the muleteer. He is large in person, with a sunburnt complexion. Long, glossy locks and a certain shade of the skin indicate that he has a large preponderance of Indian blood in his veins. His origin is unknown. The plantation people saw him arrive one day at the head of two or three hundred mules. He came from the most distant portion of the empire, made five or six hundred leagues through unexplored forests, sleeping in the open air, and having scarcely anything for his daily nourishment beyond a handful of manioc. He stopped to ask the master of the fazenda for a lodging, and to refresh himself after his three months' journey; but being charmed with that liberality which is only found among the rich planters of the New World, and by the immense unoccupied pasture-grounds that surround the fazenda, he asked the planter to let his animals profit by this neglected wealth. From that time he established his head quarters on the plantation, where he raises his mules. From time to time he makes a trip through the neighbourhood, and sells those that are trained. In his spare moments he makes himself useful about the fazenda by giving instructions how to throw the lasso, and to subdue stubborn animals; he also serves as squire upon journeys and as sacristan to the padre. When all his mules are sold he goes away by the road upon which he came, makes new purchases, and reappears the next year with another herd. This traffic is very lucrative. Having no expenses to pay with the planters who entertain him, as well as his negroes and animals, buying young mules in a country where money is scarce, and re-selling them ready trained in the wealthy provinces, he realizes enormous profits. And hence, sometimes, he becomes carried away by pride, and makes his son a physician.* THE FORMIGUEIRO. After the mascate and the muleteer, the formigueiro has also, as we have said, his allotted place among the useful guests of a fazenda. The formiga is a pest to many of these habitations. The ants of the tropics do not resemble the timid insects of our cool climate, which avoid mankind, and content themselves with making their nests in the trunk of a tree or under a stone, and at most cheating the domestic fowls of a few particles of grain. They are a hardy set, confident in their strength and intelligence, and make themselves inaccessible retreats. Before the arrival of the white man, the formiga was the true queen of the forest. The savage beings, who then represented humanity in this region, had rather a vague instinct of congregation than the true spirit of association. The idea of labour and solidarity, for example, was entirely wanting with them. A prisoner was to them only a victim condemned to serve as a feast. The ant early learned to cultivate higher notions. At the present day it remains in Brazil one of the most perfect illustrations of those strange laws which introduce into the world of nature, under the form of instinct, certain forces of the moral world. The habitation of the formiga of Brazil is a citadel closed in on every side, communicating with the outer world only by secret passages. If there are any wood-lice in the vicinity, the formiga pursues them, takes them to its habitation, and thus forms itself a sort of farm-yard. A regular distribution of fresh leaves suffices to render captivity supportable to the prisoners, and no attempt at escape is henceforth to be feared. Some species of ants, given to idleness, commit raids upon the more feeble races, and seize their eggs. The larvae which are hatched from these, become so many slaves. These slaves with mandibles accept their fate, and perform service to the aristocratic race. It is a veritable subterranean fazenda, equally based on servitude, but without chicote or feitor. RAVAGES OF THE BRAZILIAN ANT. When the workers go to forage in the fields, and the task is hard or pressing, the column is divided into two sections. The most active climb the trunk of the tree which is to be plundered, run out upon the branches to the base of the leaves, and cut off the stems with their serrated teeth. In an hour the folliage has disappeared. The tree seems as if blasted by lightning. In the meantime, those that remained upon the ground seize the leaves as they fall, and carry them away. If the burden is too heavy, this column separates into two groups, one of which separates the leaf into segments, while the other takes it away and stores it. Gardeners especially dread their ravages. If they neglect to surround their fields with a ditch filled with water, or if the latter dries up, good-by to flowers, fruits, and legumes-all disappear in a night. A wellfilled ditch does not always suffice to kerp such watchful and enterprising marauders at a distance. It is necessary to see that the current does not occasionally bring down a dead branch, which lodges and forms a communication between the two sides. A gardener told me that one morning he found one of his beds completely devastated by a nocturnal visit of ants, though his ditch, which was a very broad and deep one, full of water. Curious to know how the enemy had gained access to a place he supposed so well protected, he set himself to watch their manœuvres and observe the route they took on their return. The workers having finished their night's task the column One of these rich muleteers, whom I had fresoon formed, and proceeded to a tree that stood quently seen at a planter's in the province of Rio on the edge of the ditch. Climbing the trunk Janeiro, came one day to show me a letter from his of this they advanced to the outer branches, and son, who was a student at the Brazilian University of St. Paul, and who asked him to send a few books. passed over to an orange-tree that was situated I kept the list of works which the muleteer's son on the other side of the ditch. The victimized named, as an index of the literary taste of the young gardener had not observed that the branches of Brazilians. It comprised Brantôme, Alexandre the two trees touched each other, and formed a Dumas, La Fontaine, Paul de Kock, Parny, Eugène bridge in mid-air. A few weeks before, he had Sue, Piron, Boccaccio, Parent Duchâtelet, &c. been obliged to re-dig his ditch to twice its former Among these names, so strangely associated together depth, in order to intercept the under-ground I vainly looked for the name of some writer on law.galleries which his indefatigable enemies had The student was doubtless postponing more serious tunnelled under the water. reading to the second year. However that may be, in order to procure the books he selected, the father had to pay for commission, exportation, customs, &c., two contos de reis (one thousand dollars). He had to sell twenty five mules to cover this sum, and the honest muleteer thought his son might educate himself without going to so much expense. He would rather have arranged the matter with two or three mules, he said, and I perfectly agreed with him. *A BRAZILIAN STUDENT. CLEARING OUT THE ANTS. In the houses, things are very different. Ordinarily no attention is paid to these inconvenient neighbours, which run through the rooms, over the tables, and even into the dishes. If too numerous a tribe happen to penetrate the wainscoting and get into a room, they are treated to a sprinkling of boiling water. The chance to be attempted? What if the old, squad thereupon make a rapid retreat, in order abandoned galleries were cleared, or new ones to hold council over such an unexpected event, were made? The ants at once drop their burto appoint more skilful leaders, and select a less dens and set bravely to work. New outlets are dangerous route; but if the rain out-doors pre-made, and they again seize their eggs. Already vents the ants from getting out through their they imagine themselves safe; but the smoke subterranean galleries, or if their constructions has again betrayed them, and at the moment completely occupy the ground, they are obliged when they are about to emerge, a stroke of the to escape through the holes and fissures of the spade tells them they are pursued by a pitiless doors and floors, however abundant the hot enemy. In the meantime, the negroes posted shower. When these swarms repeatedly make at the bellows constantly send fresh quantities their appearance, the inhabitants comprehend of hot vapor, that scorch and carbonize the that there is something more than a single frail bodies of these brave insects. At the same family; in fact, that there is a long series of time the air becomes more and more rare, and generations confined in too narrow limits, and their efforts relax. Soon no further attempts trying to spread outside. It is necessary, then, are made to escape. The operation is drawing to apply the grand remedy, and a messenger is to a close. Their strength fails them in atsent for the formigueiro, or ant-man. tempting the last oulet, and they sink exThe formigueiro is a man of great importance hausted. The next day, when everything is in a country where the ant has such destructive sufficiently cool, they are found in their galleteeth, or rather mandibles. As the South-ries, lying side by side with their calcined eggs, American is not given to over-exertion, and but still recognizeable. The earth taken from moreover as an invasion of ants is too common their nests, and their bodies, form one of the an event to excite much attention, the ant-man most powerful manures. does not ordinarily arrive till a day or two after The flooding rains which for six months inhe is sent for. An enormous forge-bellows undate the soil, fortunately place a limit to the which he carries with him constitutes his entire prolific increase of these marauding insects. apparatus. After a rapid inspection of the place, The formigueiro is likewise often needed in the he stops up all the openings leading under the fields, especially when the land is being cleared. house, except a central one, which he enlarges, In these cases the negroes blow the smoke in order to extemporize a furnace, and allow free forcibly into the ground, while puffs of blue passage to the combustible, and to admit the smoke, which sometimes rise at a distance of pipe of the bellows. During this operation more than a hundred feet from the fire, suffithe negroes go into the neighbouring forest, to ciently indicate the extent of the underground cut a certain species of wood which he describes fazenda to be destroyed, and give an idea of the to them. The wood being cut and the furnace ravages that it might have committed. prepared, a fire is lighted, and by the aid of his justice, however, we must add that the ant is enormous bellows he forces the smoke under-not without some utility. The large winged ground through the ant-cells. The smoke, after traversing these porous constructions, escapes everywhere from the fissures in the masonry and through the floor. Then, leaving the care of the fire and the bellows to the negroes, with express orders to keep up the action, he goes through the house to stop with clay all the fissures which permit any escape. Let us now descend underground, and see what is going on with the ants. At the unusual noise which followed the arrival of the masons charged with stopping up the openings, the industrious insects quickly retreat to their nests, to protect their eggs and watch over their stores. Upon seeing the first suffocating puffs of smoke, they comprehend that they are threatened with an extreme danger, and that their only safety is in fight. At the same moment, upon a given signal, each seizes an egg, and plunges into the subterranean galleries that lead into the gardens or fields, leaving behind only those stores which an industrious insect can easily replace in a country that has no winter. But here a cruel reception awaits the poor ants: the blue smoke wreaths are before them, and there is no hope. Like a consummate tactician, the formigueiero, having closed all the fisures of the interior, goes round the house to watch any signs, and hastens to close any new issue. But is there not a last In species serve as food for the blacks, especially those who feel a predilection for their African customs. It is especially in summer, in the amatory season, when the exhausted males sink by thousands upon the soil, that these ant-eaters regale themselves at their ease. It is needless to say that they are not the only ones to hunt this small game, and that the macacos, or monkeys, keep up an active competition against them. BRAZILIAN LADIES. Our readers must have remarked that, in this description of the fazenda, the senhora, or lady of the house, has scarcely been mentioned. I have the custom of speaking only of what I have seen; and I should trace a fancy picture were I to attempt to portray the creole lady of the interior. Of all the customs left by the old conquistadors to their descendants, that of secluding the females is most tenacious. The apartments of the Brazilians are as impenetrable to a stranger as a Mussulman harem. This custom, inspired by the most ridiculous jealousy, is found in all the alluvial Portuguese provinces. The consequences are easily deduced. demned to remain from infancy in isolation, ignorance, and idleness, the young lady undergoes a check in development, as it were, which Con |