^OPERTY Of PRINCETON , htC, FE.B 1882 . THSOLOGIO&^ £sumtxe& Division Section, F25I3 E 94 ft Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/lifeinbrazilOOewba LIFE IK BRAZIL; / OR. S Snnrnnl of n Wislt TO THE LAND OF THE COCOA AND THE PALM WITH AN APPENDIX. CONTAINING ILLUSTRATIONS OF ANCIENT SOUTH AMERICAN ARTS IN RECENTLY DISCOVERED IMPLEMENTS AND PRODUCTS OF DOMESTIC INDUSTRY, AND WORKS IN STONE, POTTERY, GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE, &c BY THOMAS EWBANK. WITH OVER ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS. NEW YORK HARPER or Dios, ILer- mano. A similar mode of denial is equally effective in the East. An Egyptian beggar is silenced at once by Allah yeu- zoock , God will sustain, or Allah yoateek, God give thee. Lawyers. — Of the administration of law, complaints loud and deep from both natives and foreigners are heard continually. Criminals are tried before juries, but civil suits are determined by judges alone ; and from them, it is said openly, justice can scarcely ever be obtained, unless purchased for more than it is worth. It is, however, not to be doubted that there are men on the Brazilian bench as pure from the pollution of bribes as are to be found any where else. Judicial depravity is confined to no one country. Of numerous examples recently bruited, it is not necessary to quote any, nor would they have been alluded to but for the fact of their elucidating a marked feature in the ancestors of this people. “Approach the judge with feet in hand” — with a present of fowls and game — is a modem as well as ancient Peninsular aphorism. “Rather bribe than lose thy cause” is another. The rapacity of some judges is still likened to that of the Abbot of Corcuelo, who, having supped on a poor man’s porridge, wanted the pot ; and to another, who, after eat- LIFE IN BRAZIL. 197 ing a widow’s last egg, was not ashamed to ask for the hen. In all countries, the humorous Gallician’s invocation may still be offered up, “ God keep me from the strokes of a gander” — from a lawyer’s goose-quill. Lotteries. — Gambling in these is universal. Granted for all sorts of things, fresh ones are perpetually announced. Boys run about peddling tickets ; they enter stores, visit the markets, and even stop you in the street ; nay, women are sent out as agents by the dealers. This day two stopped at T ’s, and offered tickets to the clerks. The Diario of the 9th contain- ed the plan of the fifth one granted for the “ Beneficio do Obra da Nova Igreja do Senhor Bom Jesus de Iguape,” and advertised another for the “Beneficio da Igreja Matriz do Ceara.” The papers contain notices of tickets purchased for distant customers. Thus : “ No. 4395, of the Sixth Lottery in favor of the Theatre of Nictherohy, belongs to Senhor M. Pinheiro de Mendonca, of Pernambuco.” “ Senhor A. Airosa has purchased, by order of and for J. F. A., of Porto Alegre, the ticket 2318.” Rio is, with respect to lotteries, what some parts of Europe and the United States were a few years ago. As in olden times, they elicit the passions and superstitions of the poor, and strip them to the skin. The lavandeira of J ’s family, a poor white woman, who attends regularly at the palace for alms, was in deep distress the other day. She had lost her all, and was in despair. Her ticket had come up a blank ! She ran over a string of saints that she had invoked, vows made to them, amu- lets and talismans she had worn, divinations performed, in order to make the number a prize, and complained woefully that not one of them had done any thing for her ! She attended the late feast of St. Braz, has got one of his measures and medals, and has great faith in their curing her swelled throat. As she has lost the sight of an eye by gutta serena, it was suggested to her to exercise equal confidence in Luzia, who has been known to release immovable pupils. 198 SKETCHES OF CHAPTER XVII. Mate and Cups. — Sunday Scenes. — Gloria Church. — Images, Vestry, Ex Votos, and Paintings. — Miracles in behalf of Pedro I. and one of his Daughters. — Lad\ of Gloria and a Larangeiras Absalom. — Chapel of the Ajuda grated like a Jail — Its Shrines and Images — A Penitent licking the Dust. — Public Notice of a Procession. — Images, Angels, and Pomp described. Mate, or Paraguay tea, is not very mucli used in Rio. In the interior its consumption is great, as it is considered an in- dispensable preservative against climatic influences, besides brac- ing the stomach and invigorating the system. A staple article of commerce, vessels in the south- ern provinces are sometimes wholly laden with it. In the prices current of Montevideo and Buenos Ayres it is enumerated as regularly as coffee or flour.* It is shipped in tin chests cover- ed with colored paper, somewhat after the manner of China. The aboriginal mode of preparing and taking the decoction universally prevails. A little of the leaves is put into a small gourd, sugar is added, and the vessel filled with boiling water : the whole is stirred, and a sucking tube — commonly a reed, with a miniature basket-strainer — is intro- duced, and the hot liquid imbibed through it. The two lower figures in the cut are gourds : the one on the left has been or- namented after the Indian fashion, by drawing a heated point of metal over it ; the other is mounted in silver, with a tube or “ bombillo” of the same. The upper figure is an ancient mate cup in terra cotta. The first knowledge of tea-drinking in Europe was derived, * Yerba Mate. — En oetubre se introdujeron 3237 tercios de Parnagud, 786 do Rio Grande : cn Noviembrc, 3275 tambien de Pamagua, y 82 de Rio Grande , y en Diciembre, solo 89 de Parnagud. Total, 7387 tercios. LIFE IN BRAZIL. 199 not from China, but South America. More than half a century elapsed after mate had been imbibed before the Chinese infu- sion was introduced. 22 d, Sunday. By 7 A.M. the streets were alive with human ants, with carts, ox-teams, and pannier mules. Met five gangs of chanting slaves, fifteen to twenty in each, bearing to new habitations the furniture of as many families. Pavers, carpen- ters, coopers, and tinmen were busy, smiths at their forges, tailors and tailors’ boys seated as usual on stools, slabs of jerked beef hung out at some doors, and dry goods fluttered at others. By a stream which a cow might drink up as it oozes out of some rocks on the Gloria beach, a solitary lavandeira is scrubbing shirts and spreading them on a few handfuls of grass to dry. Men and mules are cooling their heated bodies just within the surf ; one animal lies down with its head only above the surface, nor can the driver induce it to rise, so grateful is the bath — to every shout it returns a snort. A little farther a negro is coming ashore with the end of a seine, while three as- sociates in a boat take a sweep outward and return ; a naked black wades out to meet them, and, with his nude brother at the other end, slowly draws the net to land ; lads watching in the street now run down, and passengers stop to look. That line of ripples is caused by the finny game, and now, like flash- es of light, their white sides appear, leaping and struggling on the shelving shore. On sultry mornings like this, the noisiest scenes are at the fountains. The gabbling crowds, pushing forward their “ bar- ils” to the spouts, remind one of litters of squealing porkers hustling each other in their eagerness for a breakfast. I turned up to the Gloria church, and rested on a low wall put up to prevent the unwary from tumbling down the steep. Here, on a point jutting into the Bay, and several hundred feet above it, the prospect is delightful. Far down are seen crowds of mangoes and stately palms, and every where the broad-leafed banana. Evanescent rays of green and gold flash from the breasts of humming-birds, while butterflies flap lazily their wings, and tempt one to follow them. Two linnet-looking strangers keep hopping on the wall, and anon dart down the precipice to a tamarind-tree, and again and again return. Above 200 SKETCHES OF are chaearas scattered here and there, recalling the Scripture idea of a city on a hill ; but not “ from the top of Hermon,” or any other mount of old, was the scenery more enchanting. The door of the temple stands open, and invites us to climb higher and look in. How different the plan of this venerable edifice from others ! It is an octagon, fourteen paces in diam- eter. The main entrance faces the Bay, and the farther side opens into a smaller octagonal structure, in the centre of which is the high altar. Behind it is the vestry, very much in the shape of a horse-shoe. As we enter, two scalloped marble ba- sins offer lustral water, and an alms-box of “ Our Lady” so- licits subscriptions. Continuing on to the middle of the floor, a pulpit projects from the 'wall on either hand ; wre advance, and two more esmola boxes present themselves ; the one at your left has a sickly friar’s portrait on it, and on the other is a still more moving appeal — a squalid monk holds up his gown to show you a ■wound in his right leg. Had I not learned that Ambrose was his name, I should have taken him for St. Roche, who is commonly painted with a boil on his thigh, and expos- ing it in like manner. Farther on we stop between the two converging walls to look at a couple of shrines, with images large as life. He at the right is Gon9alo, the great patron of maids and bachelors. This on the left, draped as a monk, is Emygdio— he is celebrated for protecting people from earthquakes. A little farther the chief altar rises, and over it the lady of the place, Nossa Senhora da Gloria. She looks short, but is, I am told, of full stature. She is fashionably draped in silks and frills, and wears several finger-rings. Now glancing around, the walls are observed to be lined for eight feet up with blue and white Dutch tiles, representing land- scapes and mythologic characters. Actreon and others, with hunting-poles and dogs, are starting and coursing game. Cu- pid is out sporting too — obese, as he generally is when born and bred in Holland, he flies his arrows in a manner altogether unfit for such a place. The general impression of this ancient temple is pleasing. Columns, niches, altars, candlesticks, and carved work are white and gold, contrasting prettily with the blue pagan scenery on the walls. LIFE IN BRAZIL. 201 The sacristan came in and led me into the vestry. Its walls are lined with tiles similar to those in the church. Portraits of some of the fathers hang on them, and two large and confused bundles of ex votos, enough to stock a chandler’s store. All are stained with age. A fresh one is not among them. Here is a large painting, representing a man in a blue coat and white pants, on his knees, and a stout angel assisting him to rise ; a lady is fast approaching him from below on horseback, and a female head is smiling through the clouds. I had heard of the picture and of its origin. The first wife of Pedro I. had much devotion to the Lady of Gloria, and named her daughter, the present Queen of Portugal, after her. Pedro came with her one morning to mass, both being mounted. On coming up the hill, his horse fell and threw him. Ilis wife, in the rear, at once called on Nossa Senhora to save him harmless and cause him instantly to rise. This she did, and, to commemorate “ the mir- acle,” the picture was painted and put up here.* The present emperor and his sisters were brought here soon after birth, that they might first open their eyes on the image of the family protectora. It is said the child was always placed in the arms of the image, but S , who was once present, in- formed me the emperor, on that occasion, placed it on the altar only. Every manifestation of the lady’s favor is acknowledged by such presents as are deemed the most acceptable. Several sets of diamond necklaces and ear-rings have been given her, the sleeves of her gown are united at the wrists with diamond but- tons. Doha Januaria (Joinville’s wife), when sick a few years ago, vowed her “richest jewel” if Senhora da Gloria would re- store her to health. Yon diamond brooch on her bosom is the gem earned and paid on that occasion. This wooden deosa has a splendid head of hair. It is the last of a series of rapes of locks committed on her account. When the brother of Senhor P. L a, a young gentleman of my acquaintance, was seven years old, his hair reached more * “ A igreja de Nossa Senhora da Gloria, muito visitado pila primeira impera- triz do Brazil, e muito da sua devocjao, que buscou a sagrada imagem da Senhora da Gloria para protectora da sua filha primogenita.” — Universo Pittoresco, tomo iii., 374. Lisboa, 1844. 202 SKETCHES OF than half way down his hack. Ilis mother, having great devo- tion to Nossa Senhora, sheared off the silken spoils, and offered them “ as an act of faith” to her, little thinking how literally she was copying the practice of heathen dames. The locks were sent to a French hair-dresser, who wrought them into a wig. It was brought here, laid in due form before the lady, when the priest reverently removed her old wig and covered her with the flowing tresses of the Larangeiras Absalom. On returning, I passed, as I do almost daily, the Ajuda Nun- nery. Through, one of the two heavy doors in the high dead wall we went on the 10th instant. The other opens into the chapel, and this is the first time I have seen the leaves thrown back. Let us step in. If we don’t get a sight of the nuns, we may perhaps hear their voices, or at least learn how it is that, when present at mass, they are invisible. Ascending a few steps above the pavement, we cross the sa- cred threshold. Few persons are within, and no priest in sight. The room is a long and high one ; its arched ceiling can not be less than thirty feet above the stone floor. One end is, as us- ual, taken up with the altar dedicated to the presiding genius — the Lady of Ajuda. The opposite end is startling — a vertical wall of iron work, three stories high ! The bars are inch-bolts passing through loops forged in cross ones, leaving spaces three inches square between them. The uppermost story seems of finer texture. Behind this lattice-work the vestals attend mass, yet no one can behold them, nor can they steal a peep at people here. Be- tween them and the grating hangs a black linen curtain that de- fies mortal vision. Here am I close to the bars, and can no more see through it than through a plate of metal, nor can it be pushed aside ; for, besides being secured to the walls and floor, it is four feet from the grating ; and I am told by one who knows that a similar screen of metal keeps the nuns at an equal dis- tance. Tons of iron bars to prevent egress and ingress ! Why, this is Newgate ; if not, ’tis Bedlam, for who but monomaniacs could introduce such things into the house and church of Jesus ! Turning our backs, as we ought, to the grating, the whole in- terior of the chapel is before us. Here are six shrines besides the chief one, three against each side wall. This one close to LIFE IN BRAZIL. 203 us on the left is Tereza’s, and there she stands, the stoutest lady saint I have yet met with. She is tall enough for wife to Saul. Her throat is covered, and her chin tied up, as nun’s chins commonly are ; but the rouge on her face, and her gown half covered with gold (leaf), are not in accordance with her vows. Several favorite male recluses attend her, among them Anthony and Francis de Paula — represented in statuettes. The next shrine to Tereza is St. Anne’s, who is giving her young daughter a lesson in reading. A little St. Michael stands on one side, and St. Barbara on the other. This last lady is, ac- cording to the Compendio de Orates, “ a great protectress against thunderbolts.” At the next shrine is a full-sized image of Christ, in a half stooping posture, crowned with thorns, the hands crossed and bound. Blood trickles over the pallid face, the knees are bruised, and the entire body more or less covered with gore. This image is carried in public processions. The opposite shrine (on the right) is dedicated to “ the sacred heart,” which, with its auricles, veins, etc., is carved in high relief, and colored most sanguifluously. Two male attendants guard it — -one who, of all the Church’s heroes, put on the sol- dier most — her Suwaroff- — Dominic. There he appears, with shaven crown, bare feet and neck, and armed with a rosary, from which a cross like a dagger hangs. He extirpated heresy and heretics together. The altar of Jose faces that of Anne. Besides “ the Baby God” in his arms, he grasps a stick deco- rated with flowers and ribbons, because he had one which bud- ed hke Aaron’s. “ Of good days for confession, his anniversary is one of the best.” The next shrine faces Tereza’s ; it is that of John of Nepomu- ceno. A professor of divinity and canon law in the University of Prague, he flourished in the 14th century, and wrought so many miracles, “ such as the Wonderful preservation of the city of Nepomuc from the plague, and the cure of diseased persons given up by physicians," that he was canonized, and added to the host ot heavenly solicitors which the Church retains to plead for her earthly clients. As usual, several small friends attend him. One is Apollonia, and another might be taken for “ St. John the Dwarf.” In the long catalogue of Johns, Butler 204 SKETCHES OF has such a saint, and another whom these little folks still more resemble, “St.John the Silent.” Of the seven altars, only one was approached professionally, viz., the last. A well-dressed man of thirty-live or forty came in, dropped on his knees before the Bohemian doctor, to whom he raised his eyes for a minute or more, broke into a low mur- mur, and suddenly fell flat on his face. He was within eight feet of me, and supposing he had fainted, I sprang toward him, when lo ! he was kissing the floor and whispering to it. I drew back, and he shortly crept on his hands and knees from one end of the altar to the other. Then addressing the saint, he brought his mouth to the ground a second time ; he next wriggled himself on his knees to the centre of the altar, and once more saluted the floor. He rose, wiped his dusty lips, rubbed down his pants, picked up his hat, and bending his right knee nearly to the floor in reverence to the saint, drew sidelong to the door, and departed. Mentioning what I had seen to a native lady, she observed that he had probably been required thus to humble himself by way of penance. But why kiss the dust at the feet of the Bo- hemian in preference to more ancient intercessors ? She could not say, except that St. John of Nepomuceno is a powerful ad- vocate, and has many devotees among the respectable classes. My surprise was great at the beginning of the man’s devo- tions, but it was heightened at their close. While they were progressing, I felt for him as for one whose heart was torn with anguish, and his face pale and suffused with tears. I was dreaming. He rose from his knees as if he had never been on them, wiped his mouth as if he had just taken a drink, and dusted his clothes as if shaking off crumbs of a lunch. 21th. This is the first of the Setanaria — seven days dedi- cated to the seven griefs of Our Lady. The papers announce processions. One comes off to-day from the Church of Bom Jesus in Soap Street. The official advertisement, after request- ing the occupants of dwellings in certain streets to remove ob- structions, concludes thus : “ It is recommended with much so- licitude to our beloved sisters, and other devout persons, to be punctual in preparing and sending their angels, in order to im- part greater splendor to the procession. “M. A. P1CAN9O, Secretary.” LIFE IN BRAZIL. 205 At 4 P.M. — the hour announced — I reached the church in the long and narrow lane, now covered with mango leaves. The doors were closed, hut a couple of soldiers, with bayonets, stood by the vestry door. I passed in. I found the place crowded with brothers, busy as artists in a theatre just before the curtain rises. In an inner passage were rows of votive tab- lets and waxen offerings. A troop of cavalry arrived, and pres- ently a long line of infantry, with music and banners. I secured a stand in a private entry facing the church door, which at length was thrown open, and showed the interior a blaze of waxen lights. Above the shoal of heads a swallow-tailed crim- son banner came forth, accompanied by tassel-liolders, and hav- ing on it the initials of the senate and people of pagan Rome — S. P. Q. R. A company in albs, with five-feet candles (unlit), issued, and formed in line ; a silver crucifix, between two su- perb mourning bouquets, followed, and then more candle-bear- ers. Now something fills the door, and for a moment hides the light. It is a platform on six men's shoulders, and upon it a man bending forward on one knee. Dressed in a russet gown, his pale face contrasts with his black locks. Bearing an enormous cross, he personates Christ on the way to Calvary, lie has reached the street, and stops within five feet of me. Why ! the figure is an image, which till this moment I had no idea of, so naturally it appears.* The military present arms, and receive it with a flourish of music. It passes on, and see ! how natural the sole of the right foot and portion of the leg uncovered by the skirts of the gown ! Now smaller figures appear, and certainly not automatons — a troop of fluttering, smiling, black-eyed angels , whose cupid- formed and papilio-painted wings open and close behind them. Some are enveloped in purple clouds ! No two are alike in dress and ornaments. Each is led by a brother, and carries a symbol of the crucifixion ; one a reed, another a spear, a third a cup, a fourth a scourge, a fifth dice, etc. They walk two abreast, and every couple is preceded by candle-bearers. Another image issues — a female, full seven feet in height. “ Nossa Senhora” is whispered about. They have got her safe- * In this and other processions living characters perform various parts in the drama. 206 SKETCHES OF ly into the street, and for a while she stands close to me, re- ceiving the salutations of the soldiers. Her handsome, face is bent down, her hands are folded on her bosom, from which pro- ject the handle and part of a sword-blade. A deep purple robe thrown over her shoulders reaches to her feet. The plat- form is richer than the other ; its panels are gilt, cypress plants rise at the corners, and the green mound she stands on is set off with flowers. Silver lanterns are borne aloft ; more tiny ce- lestials skip down ; two tall negroes, bare-legged, with band- boxes on their heads, now fall in, and become conspicuous members of the pageant. A flourish of trumpets and a swarm of alb’d men come forth, followed by a rectangular canopy, beneath which are newly- shaven monks and priests — one carrying before him a vase con- taining the Host. As it draws near, the people kneel; the troops to a man are down, and dare not rise till it gets past them. More angels, brothers, and candles appear, and finally the troops wheel in and close the rear. The whole is now in motion. The band strikes up, and to the tune the soldiers march, and rock their bodies to and fro as if they were in liquor. The mo- tion is one enforced upon them. An hour later I met the procession in Dereita Street. The images were coming out of the church of San Jose. I was not aware that they were to visit it, or I would have witnessed the part assigned to Joseph. As it drew near, it was headed by a character, who had escaped my notice in the throng in Soap Street, enveloped in a dull brown gown, secured round his waist with a common rope ; a hood, or cowl, concealed both head and face, openings being cut in it for the mouth and eyes. With folded arms and stooping gait he strode on, a very suspicious- looking fellow. He represents a Roman officer — a masked ex- ecutioner. The monk (I am told he is one) performed the part well. Twilight had now set in, and soon every wax torch would be kindled as by magic ; but I was tired, and turned homeward, gratified at having witnessed a specimen, though a meagre one, of those ecclesiastico-histrionic entertainments which in dark ages won over heathens to the faith. From the beginning to the close, the soldiers, officers, and men sling their caps by LIFE IN BRAZIL. 207 their sides, and the numerous brotherhoods leave their hats at home. I counted fifty angels. Some carried censer boxes and some purple flowers. They are girls from six to eight years old, and the prettiest that can be procured. Their parents vie with one another in furnishing the richest dresses. Their faces are painted, and supplemental tresses added where wanting. Some are prepared by professional costumers. On their heads were crowns, coronets, plumes, wreaths, etc. One resembled a young Minerva, wearing a glistening helmet, a red boddice with blue skirts, scarlet boots, and crimson stockings. Some few were draped in white, and wholly free from tawdry. Their frocks, exceedingly short, are expanded by fine wire, and have quite an airy motion, such as is imparted by the same means to their wings and clouds. The latter are of colored gauze stretch- ed over shapeless frames that spring from and return to the back part of the dress. In a word, these little misses are fitted for the parts they play in much the same way and with equal artistic skill as theatrical fairies. The bearers of the images carry staves in manner of walking- sticks, each having a metallic fork at the top resembling the letter U. Whenever the procession stops, these are slipped un- der the bearing-poles, and thus relieve the bearers. Not till I observed this did I fairly comprehend the bier-scene in Don Quixote. ANGELS. 208 SKETCHES OF CHAPTER XVIII. All Fools’ Day. — Streets flooded. — Breaking down Mountains. — Notices of Festi- vals.— Flying Visit to Francis Paula, St. Anne, Joaquim, St. Rita, Bom Jesus, and the Candelaria. — No Animal Oils burned in Churches. — Carmelite Proces- sion with full-grown Images. — The Nimbus and its curious Origin. April 1. “ All fools’ clay” is kept up with some of the spirit of past times, but not comparable to the frolics of the old “feast of fools” — the parent institution ; itself derived from a Roman, and more remotely from a Hindoo saturnalia. Rain pouring down last night has cooled the air to 78°. Aft- er breakfast, indications of line weather tempted me out, but ere noon three several showers flooded the streets. Men and boys, with umbrellas, rode upright on negroes’ shoulders, and in the rear of the Paula Church a horse was employed to transfer pas- sengers across the street : to keep their legs out of the stream, they rested them on him in a kneeling posture. It is worth a ducking to be abroad in such weather, if only to observe pedestrians run the gauntlet between balcony-spouts and roof-gutters ! Shot at right and left from single and double tiers of copper guns pointed from window-sills, and when, to get out of their range by springing into the middle of the street, to be instantly driven back by douches from the roofs which none but hydropathic men can stand. When Rio was built the Pluvian god must have been architect in disguise, and contrived these liquid muskets to exercise his troops in gunnery. They vary as in old armories : some flaring at their mouths, like blun- derbusses, scattering wide the shot ; others are contracted, and project the missiles more compact and rifle-fashion. A few years ago several houses at the base of Castle Hill were destroyed by the rain loosing an impending mass of the tenacious soil, which fell and buried them. I may as well men- lion here a simple and philosophical mode of breaking down mountains of similar material in some of the mining districts of Brazil. Wells are dug into them, and, during the rainy season, filled with water by means of gutters. By this device the hy- LIFE IN BRAZIL. 209 drostatic pressure of the liquid columns forces off masses from the faces of mountains which would require hundreds of men for months to accomplish with the mattock and shovel. 2d. The season for ecclesiastical performances has set in in earnest. The papers are charged with advertisements ; e. g. : The Paula committee inform the public that the anniversary of their saint will be celebrated this evening. Another notice runs thus : “ On Friday of Triumph, April 3, will be celebrated, with all pomp and decency, the festival of our Lady of Griefs before her miraculous image, which the holy father, Pope Pius VI., consecrated, and which is preserved and venerated in the Church of the Candelaria On the day of the feast, the brethren who serve the holy image and implore its aid [implorar o sen auxilio] will find the books at the entrance of the church.” The Bom Jesus committee offer the following rich bill at their establishment : “ The solemnity of our Lady of Pains on the 3d instant, procession of Palms on the 5th, a pro- cession on the 9th, the burial of God on the 10th, allelulia and blessing the great paschal candle on the 11th, and on the 12th the most religious and devout act of the coronation of Our Lady.” A gloomy, threatening day ; I did not care to repeat the splashing travels of yesterday, but the rain held off, and the Paula fete was celebrated with much eclat. Illumined with over a thousand waxen lights, and fitted up with new silk and damask tapestry, the saint’s residence was crowded. In his best robes he stood forth, and complacently received the com- pliments of his visitors. Like the reverence paid to the Pope, multitudes kissed his feet. A sermon was delivered detailing- the miracles he wrought and still works. After sunset the front of his house was made luminous with lamps, while serpents, crackers, rockets, and other pyrotechnics proclaimed to earth and heaven the rejoicings at the saint’s soiree. 3 d. There has been much talk and no little feeling manifest- ed about the A'icar of St. Anne’s parish having brought some sacred bones from Home, and waiting the emperor’s return to have their advent into the New World duly honored. We may as well make his church one of the objects of this day’s visit. In going down the Cattete, a gang of freshly-imported slaves O 210 SKETCHES OF came along: their tribal marks, cut in their cheeks, reminded one of scores of the knife in the crisped skin of roasted pork. They stared at a smart young fellow bearing a baril of water jauntily inclined on his head, and twanging the keys of his marimba to a waltzing tune. A little farther, and a meagre old man in an alb leans over a hatch, waiting to know whether any indweller wishes to secure the friendship of Antonio dos Pobres by add- ing a few vintems to his dish. But here is the Campo and the little village-looking temple of St. Anne. The floor is sanded, and the pulpit, like a swallow’s nest, projects from the wall. The place has a poor, worn-out appearance, according with an unusual number of begging saints painted on alms-boxes. One I can not make out — a stout fig- ure in a tunic and kilt, or short petticoat, and plaided stockings — apparently a Celtic chieftain. The five shrines are all con- cealed. The “ covering of the saints” began on the 29th ulti- mo, and ends on the 11th instant. In a side passage are very old-looking votive tablets, and only one cereous offering. The passage opens into a small cemetery. Into the few empty nich- es swallows are flying and twittering as if they were the souls of the departed occupants asking where their bodies are. A short distance from this house of “God’s grandmother” is that of her husband, Joaquim, who is not honored with the ti- tle of “grandfather,” but simply the “father of Our Lady.” Ilis church is surmounted with two chanticleers. Such favor- ites were these symbols of holy vigilance in the Middle Ages that the clergy called themselves “ the Cocks of the Almighty.” The doors being closed, I passed on to the small triangular largo of Santa Rita, with its octagonal fount and small church. As the bells kept ringing a general welcome, I pushed the crimson screen aside and was in another world — one where a mellow artificial light rivaled the sun, and where people were as busy as without. On a pinnacle formed of alternate rows of flowers and lights the lady stood and smiled on the mortals at her feet ; among them were slaves of both sexes, and all ap- parently striving to catch her eye. The place was crowded. A committee had not a moment’s breathing-time from taking dues and making change for her little paper portraits. Negro assist- ants were running to and fro among ladders, planks, and paint- LIFE IN BRAZIL. 211 pots, as if the doors had been thrown prematurely open. No priest was present, nor is any required when the festival is once opened. It was Santa Rita to whom was given the power “to make impossible things possible.” In the “Bom Jesus” the altar was the basis of one grand bouquet that reached the ceiling, and as the feast here was in honor of “ the Lady of Pains,” her image was unveiled. Ex- quisitely carved and draped, she captivated all eyes. Rows of old and young ladies were seated on the floor gazing at her. In an adjoining apartment, white and black workmen were seen pre- paring machinery for new attractions. I can see little difference between these and theatrical entertainments. The managers of both are applicants for public favor on the express ground of the “ brilliancy and splendor” of their spectacles. A contest in the papers is going on between those of the buskin and the scapu- lary. The latter insist that the former shall not interfere with them during Holy Week, and they ask the authorities to pro- hibit a masked ball just announced. We have time before dinner to visit the Candelaria, and see the famous image which Pope Pius blessed. Here is the church, facing a narrow lane in the mercantile part of the city. Slaves are generally found sleeping on the steps, as some are now, and noisy coffee-carriers waiting to be employed. A com- mittee sit at a table, with a silver dish piled up with money re- ceived for portraits of the Lady of Griefs, most grievously cut in wood or copper. This temple, for chasteness and richness of decoration, eclipses every other. No smutched-faced saint in shabby apparel resides here. The side altars are laden with flowers and flaming tapers, but the chief one surpasses all. A double row of seven-feet candlesticks, of classical beauty, form a passage to it, and terminate at a couple of porcelain vases four feet high, holding bouquets of equal altitude. The front of the altar is a plate of embossed silver, fourteen feet by five, wrought into five equal panels with gold borders and rosettes. There is no sham in this plate. It is used only on great occa- sions. Upon the altar candlesticks and vases of flowers alternate, and from it rises a tapered tower some thirty feet high, com- posed of series of vases, bouquets, and candles. Upon this ped- 212 SKETCHES OF estal the miraculous lacly stands. She is of the natural size, and superbly dressed. After gazing a while, I imagined she in- clined her head and answered my salutations with a smile, and thus I again perceived how such miracles have arisen, and how easy it is for certain souls to be favored with them. Not less than a thousand perfumed tapers were burning, amid vases hold- ing flowers sufficient for a state floral exhibition. The effect was really enchanting. There is something pleasing in the idea which excludes ani- mal substances from materials for illuminating churches — that suffering and death may not be elements in the worship of the Author of mercy and life. Hence neither whale, sperm, nor lard oils must be introduced into lamps, nor tallow into candles. Next to olive, cocoa oil is deemed the best : it gives out in burn- ing an agreeable odor. Palm oil is also used. None but bees’ and vegetable wax must be used for candles, the former be- cause it is not obtained by killing its producers. It is also deemed improper for crucifixes, amulets, ex votos, praying- beads, etc., to be of bone or ivory. As the procession of the Carmelites to-day will equal any thing of the kind during the rest of my stay in Rio, I was in Dereita Street by 4 P.M. The balconies were filled by ladies in full dress, and the side- walks occupied by waiting spectators. A finer evening could not have been selected for the spectacle. Soldiers fell into ranks, the crowd thickened, and soon the first image of the series was seen emerging from the Carmo Temple. The brotherhood extended from the church, some three hundred feet, to where I stood. In their uniform of cream-colored albs, and armed with waxen staffs, they presented a fine sample of the Church’s troops. Here and there one hurried to and fro, giving orders, and wielding his candle as a marshal’s baton. Others clutched winged cherubs by the hand, and dragged them onward, as if they had just captured or brought them down with their truncheons to ornament the fete. The particulars were briefly these : Infantry troops formed two walls between which the procession was to pass. It was headed by horse soldiers with drawn swords, three abreast ; then a banner, inscribed S. P. Q. R. ; next, brothers and candles ; a crimson bag on a silver pole, with a mourning candle on either LIFE IN BRAZIL. 213 hand, the wax being painted with black spiral stripes. Broth- ers and candles ; three angels abreast — the middle one, with a banner, personated St. Michael the Archangel. She wore a shining helmet, a silver breast-plate, nankeen pantalettes, and scarlet boots. Her wings were spotted prettily, and the cloud behind her was bordered with (paper) lace. Her arms were naked. I wished her mamma had kept her large ear-rings, bracelets, finger-rings, and necklace at home. 1. As the first image now was drawing near, the soldiers fix- ed bayonets and shouldered muskets to do it honor. It repre- sented The Passion. A large statue of Christ in a kneeling posture, with the hands clasped as in prayer. Drops of blood rolled down the pallid cheeks. An angel, between three and four feet high, stoops and presents the cup. Three silver lan- terns were borne on each side, and a file of soldiers, with drawn swords, attends. 2. A long line of brothers follow, who are followed by the second stage, on which stands Christ before Pilate , pale, emaci- ated, and submissive. Brothers and angels three abreast. 3. Christ scourged. This image is naked, except a fillet round the loins. It is tied by ropes to a pillar, and the face, breast, back, thighs, arms, and legs are painted streaming with gore — vividly horrible. Crowd of brothers and angels. 4. Christ mocked. Seated, a reed in his hand, and a short purple robe thrown over his lacerated shoulders. He is bruised and bleeding all over. Brothers and angels. 5. On this stage Christ appears standing, and holds a stalk of Indian-corn or sugar-cane in one hand. A similar spare robe to the last covers a small part of the naked body. (The incident represented I did not perceive ; perhaps the scene her fore Herod is intended.) Brothers and angels. 6. Bearing the Cross. The figure is similar to, or the same as the one noticed in the procession of 27th ult. Great num- bers of devout Brazilians, and the blacks generally, knelt as it passed them. The attending angels were quite numerous. Of 214 SKETCHES OF the symbols, one had the sponge of vinegar on a rod, another the spear that pierced him. 7. Christ on the Cross. The top of the latter is, I should think, nearly twenty feet from the ground. The shaft rises from a greeen hillock on the stage, and springs considerably. As it drew nigh, the cause of this was apparent. The cross is of plank, and the weight of the image causes it to bend to and fro, for it has no support except at the foot. I surmised that the large image might be of papier-mache, but I subsequently learned that it is of hard, heavy wood, and nearly 200 years old. A crimson stream flowing from the wound in the side contrasted strongly with the chalk-like hue of the face and body. Brothers and angels followed, and behind the latter two ne- groes with boxes of bon-bons, to refresh them during pauses in the procession. 8. The managers under a long canopy. Of the sea of heads in sight, theirs only are covered (by skull-caps, rochets, and mitres), besides being screened by the golden drapery over them. Every spectator in front falls at their feet, not excepting the soldiers. Among the young smirking monks is my confessor friend of the Lapa. They are passed, and now the drums, bu- gles, and French horns burst forth and do their best. The air is not Yankee Doodle, but it is quite as lively. The foot-sol- diers wheel in, a guard of honor to the fathers, and sway their bodies as in ecstasy. Finally, the national banner brings up the rear, and closes the Pomp. I afterward met it in Quitanda Street, through whose entire length people were waiting. As the image bearing the cross came up, many knelt and most stooped, but some young fel- lows got into a squabble and fight with three or four blacks for looking over their shoulders. The images rather exceeded the natural stature. As works of art they are pretty good, and some are very good. At the ordinary distance as seen by spectators, their expression is all that carving and colors can impart. But there is no avoiding a painful feeling induced by their stiff, unnatural gaits — now pitched forward, and anon inclined backward. It was here I first saw what is supposed to have been the LIFE IN BRAZIL. 215 original figure and position of the Nimbus, viz., a flat, circular plate, notched all round like a circular saw, and suspended hori- zontally a short distance above the head of each image. Of re- mote devices, none is more singular in its origin and change of purposes than this. Roman emperors assumed the nimbus as a mark of divinity, and under this respectable patronage it passed, like other pagan customs, into the Church. Among Pompeian paintings illus- trating scenes in Homer is one of Ulysses and Circe. The glory over the head of the sorceress represents a portion of a vertical disc or ring, but nothing like rays or pencils of light appear. Lucian refers to the latter in his Timon: “A golden statue of the hero was ordered to be put up in the Acropolis, with a thunderbolt in his right hand, and ‘rays on his head.’ ” But the origin of the nimbus is the most curious trait about it : and, strange to say, on this point enlightened Romanists coin- cide with archaeologists. In a late number of The Tablet, the organ of the English Catholics, is a paper on “ The Meaning of the Nimbus.” A century ago the author would hardly have escaped expiring in a halo of flame. “It appears to me,” he observes, “that in our zeal for sym- bolism and mystical meanings, we are peculiarly apt to over- look the origin of certain details and usages which never had any mystical or conventional sense attached to them until cen- turies after their adoption in the Christian Church, and not even then necessarily or invariably. This observation is illus- trated in a remarkable manner by the history of the ‘ nimbus’ or ‘glory’ which is universally seen in medieval paintings of saints ; for this is, in reality, one of the customs which was perpetuated from pagan antiquity, and consecrated by its appli- cations to the purposes of the Church. “ It is nothing new to state that the nimbus was in its origin a metallic disc of copper or silver, placed upon and around the heads of those statues which stood in the open air, in order to prevent birds from alighting on them and defiling their faces with dirt. This custom is first mentioned in a passage of Aris- tophanes, written more than four centuries before Christ. The chorus of birds, addressing the judges of the rival dramas, then present in the theatre, thus speaks : ‘ If you do not decide in 216 SKETCHES OF our favor, forthwith make yourselves plates of copper, like stat- ues ; for otherwise every one of you who has not a disc round [upon ?] his head shall he punished by us birds, being dirtied with our dung whenever he has a clean white garment on him.’ In process of time, the original use, as applied to statuary, was forgotten, and the nimbus was believed, and per- haps conventionally intended, to represent rays of light ema- nating from a divine or saintly countenance ; and lienee, by a farther development, a frequent and ecstatic contemplation of these pictures gave rise to a belief (recorded in many legends) that a lambent light was actually seen to play around the heads and visages of living and departed saints. I hope that I am not offending against orthodoxy in maintaining that even this supernatural light was of pagan invention, as Virgil’s lambere flamma caput will show. “The engrailed border which the nimbus so frequently exhib- its, especially in stained glass, is undoubtedly borrowed from the patterns engraved on the metal laminm, and is a curious in- stance of the detention of a conventional detail for many centu- ries after its real meaning had been lost. “The early school of Italian painters changed the position of the nimbus from vertical to oblique ; and sometimes the nim- bus is very awkwardly placed nearly flat, like a trencher, or even a straw hat, on the crown of the head. The latest de- basement was to paint a thin wiry line of light around the brows, by which all assimilation to the form of the original metallic disc was lost.” This writer justly remarks that the nimbus ought not to be regarded as an essential mark nor a certain indication of a saint- ly effigy. It has, in fact, been applied, in Christian as well as in heathen times, to characters of very doubtful morality. Even the Devil himself has been portrayed with it. The horizontal position of the plate here denounced was certainly the original and most effective one. How a vertical disc on the head of a statue could prevent birds from defiling the latter is impossible to imagine. It would foster the evil that was sought to be avoided. Placed flat on the crown, or supported a short dis- tance above, and projecting sufficiently, it would perfectly shield the head, face, shoulders, etc., from pollution. Cases doubtless LIFE IN BRAZIL. 217 often occurred where a position more or less oblique was admis- sible. Thus, when contemplated from certain points of view, the edges onl y of the plates would be visible ; hence probably arose the wiry line around the brows in paintings. There is reason to conclude that the under sides of these plates were highly polish- ed and otherwise ornamented, and frequently the names of the persons represented engraved upon them ; and farther, that the diversity of forms, triangular, polygonal, radiated, etc., arose from efforts to guard protruding portions of the figure and drap- ery without an unseemly and unnecessary enlargement of every part of the primitive circular disc. (For farther information on this curious subject, see Hope’s Historical Essay on Architec- ture, and the first volume of the Archaeological Journal.) CHAPTER XIX. Palm Sunday : Ceremonies and Customs. — Eunuch Singers. — Specimens of Ec- clesiastical Advertisements. — Benedictine Chapel. — Dark Wednesday. — A Mer- <;eeiro. — Juno Lucina of Rio. — Lady of Civilities. — Holy Thursday. — Matracas. — Silver Plate in the Carmo Church. — Kissing a dead Christ in the Candelaria. — Appearance of the Interior. — Kissing the Floor and Steps in the Bom Jesus. — Plate in the Paula. — Mine-finders. April 5. Palm Sunday was never ushered in by a more in- spiring morning. Not a patch of curtain hides an object on earth or heaven. Nature has thrown aside her shuttle, and re- fused to weave a single yard of floating gauze. Every mount- ain rears its sides and crests in brightness, and there is a brac- ing, balmy influence in the atmosphere that makes the soul tin- gle with pleasure. At breakfast, Dona B , Miss C , and old Senhora P came in from confession, and I could not but again admire the system by which impressible natures are relieved by empiric formulas from present anxieties and fu- ture fears. They laughed and chatted with such a juvenile lightness that St. Anthony himself might have joined them in a coranto. I walked out to observe the customs of the day. The streets were alive with peddlers, and tradesmen as busy in their shops as yesterday. Overtook a lady on her way to church, accompanied 218 SKETCHES OF by a slave in livery, with a tall, tufted stem of palm, adorned with ribbons, in either hand. Kindred offerings were going up Castle Hill to the Capuchins. A gorgeous bouquet, large as a bushel measure, was beautifully arranged around the upper end of a straight palm stem. At either side, on separate stems, and borne by separate slaves, were two diamond-shaped fields of velvet green, with nosegays in the centres, and flowers and rib- bons at the angles — the offerings of three young ladies who pre- ceded them. In Rua da Gloria strange sounds came from an alley, as if a host of innocents were being murdered. On nearing the Lapa Church, I first saw what produced them. Here were two ne- groes making, and a negra selling palm trumpets — pretty toys, that vary in length from eight to eighteen inches ; some plain and straight, others decorated and curved like the rams’ horns of the tabernacle. They are made by coiling palm-leaf ribbons upon themselves. Their music is surprisingly imitative of agi- tated geese and goslings, and of sucking-pigs in search of lost mothers. I peeped into the Lapa vestry, where four monks sat at a ta- ble amid piles of palm branches, which they aspersed with holy water. One gentleman counted down a dozen vintems and re- ceived six leaves in exchange. Both sexes crowded round the merchants and kept them busy. “Blessed’1 palms are reputed “good for keeping demons out of dwellings.” Soldiers at the door of the Imperial Chapel induced me to step in. Two rows of halberdiers formed a passage along the middle of the floor, and presently the vestry door (near the street) was opened, and out came the bishop and a dozen pa- dres, one bearing his train, and swept up to the altar, where they took their turns at courtesying and other strange posture- making. They finish, and a chant of females breaks forth ; so any stranger would have thought who was not in a position to see them, and so I thought till I got a view of them. They were Italian eunuchs — presents from Mother Church at Rome to her Brazilian daughter. The bishop sprinkled and prayed over bundles of plain and ornamental palms ; then he and a score of priests, each with a branch in hand, came, in slow procession, to the door, and j)ass- LIFE IN BRAZIL. 219 ed out. Taking a short turn on the platform in front, they re- turned to the door, which had in the mean time been closed, and, knocking, were readmitted, when they passed up to the al- tar chanting appropriate verses. Their re-entry symbolizes the triumphant entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. The ceremony is the same in all the churches. When the emperor is present, he goes out with the bishop and raps for readmission. The af- fair was rather flat, and the attendance meagre. A low bench was prepared for twelve poor men to sit on while the bishop washes their feet. The operation took place while I was next door in the Carmo temple, whose interior might have been taken for a London or Paris ball-room. Tall boards, with angels painted on them, were fitted up at the entrance, precisely like the side-scenes in theatres. It is an old custom to show up at this festival all the sacred plate, and hence the front of the long counter-looking altar was covered with panel-work of embossed silver; tripod candelabra alternated with silver-gilt vases, and eight massive lamps of the same metal were pend- ent from the ceiling. The Lady of Carmo shone in a blaze of silver. I had been advised to look into the Benedictine monastery, but the ceremonies were over and the congregation coming down the hill as I began to climb it — a crowd of handsome, smiling, black-eyed ladies and their children, and such a display of chains, frontlets, ear and finger rings as I have seldom seen. Having got so far, I went up. By closely observing the chapel walls, angels are perceived peeping out of the forest of old gilt scroll-work. This elaborate carving is dated “ 1694.” The cherubs are in legions, from ten to twelve inches in height, in every imaginable position, flesh-colored, and four fifths in relief — probably of Dutch origin, for every one has the anasarca in his body and the elephantiasis in his limbs. Passing into the interior area, noticed on my first visit, there was a singular sight, considering the day and place. Besides friars and other lookers on, some fifty carpenters, designers, carv- ers, painters, and machinists were busy among lumber, ladders, benches, canvas, and paint-pots. A negro, with chalk and com- passes, was making fancy ornaments, another sawing out simi- lar ones. Here were skeleton columns, and there men, with 220 SKETCHES OF brushes three feet long, coloring scrolls ancl flowers upon can- vas, stretched on the ground — stage-scenery in every stage of progress. Surely these monks might be mistaken for venerators of an English saint whose image is in Stratford Church. Gth. Rain from morn to night — no going out. None but ec- clesiastical spectacles are sanctioned this week. Marriages are not allowed ; balls and kindred entertainments are forbidden ; table delicacies suppressed, and macerated saints invoked : hence, if this and following chapters are heavy, the reader may suppose it would have been improper to make them alegre. Church advertisements abound. “The brotherhood, and all who venerate the Disaffronted Image, are informed that the Church of the Cross will be open on Holy Thursday from sun- set to midnight.” “ The brotherhood of our Lady of Lampa- doza will celebrate the Passion on Friday, and the coronation of Our Lady on Saturday.” “In the Church of St. Sebastian, Holy Week will be cele- brated with all the rites prescribed by Holy Mother Church. On Holy Friday will be a devout exercise at noon, celebrated in this city for the first time. . . This 'sublime exercise, so be- coming the Christian, has merited the attention of all, especial- ly that of the holy pontiff, Pius VII., who granted a plenary indulgence to the faithful that confess on Holy Thursday, take the communion, and practice this holy exercise according to the intentions of the holy father. The faithful must not neglect to profit by this treasure of heaven that is offered with such liber- ality,” etc. The last is a specimen of Capuchin announcements. Much feeling exists in the native clergy against the order, but they are, notwithstanding, operating successfully in town and coun- try, chiefly, it is said, by the novelties they have brought over. A couple of their images have, to my knowledge, got, within a few weeks, necklaces of votive heads, feet, necks, hearts, etc. — proofs of miraculous cures just wrought by them. It is a com- mon remark that “ three things are making the women mad — masked balls, polka, and the Capuchins.” 8 tit. Dark Wednesday, when lights are extinguished in the churches, and mischievous youngsters play tricks with female LIFE IN BRAZIL. 221 worshipers. In the evening I scaled the Benedictine Hill after tacking to and fro, without which none but agile goats or other natural climbers can get up. The ceremonies had just begun. For an hour the organ played and the monks behind it chanted. The chapel was gloomily lit up by a theologic candelabrum pe- culiar to the day. It consisted of a strip of bar iron bent into a large equilateral triangle, the interior filled with open scroll- work. The base was supported on a pedestal or stand, and on each of the two converging sides were seven sockets, and one at the apex. In these were fifteen candles, forming a pyramidal light. At length one of the lowest was put out, then, in a little while, the one opposite to it, and so on till the whole were ex- tinguished except the top one ; finally it shared the fate of those below it, and the place was in utter darkness. There was, of course, an increase of bustling and tittering ; but scarcely a minute elapsed before a few lights were kindled. The affair went off quieter than I expected, but on coming out a band struck up whose music was enough to awaken the seven sleepers and throw a dozen Mozarts into apoplexy. The rat- tling, deafening clatter of matracas, mingled with the squealing of palm bugles, might have defied any Sus concert in Kentucky. Thus ended Dark Wednesday. This putting out of lights in churches — an old medieval practice — is in imitation of the sun being darkened at the Cru- cifixion. The Ajuda chapel door being open as I passed this morning, I stepped in for a moment. No one present except a lad in a roundabout jacket, aqd a young man of very stunted growth, with large head, coarse, dark features, and splay feet, reminding one of Bertholde the Lombard. Dressed as a priest in a rus- set surplice, he was rehearsing at one of the side shrines. He said nothing — all was pantomimic. He bowed, courtesied, moved back, stepped forward, and mixed quite a number of other motions with these. Now he seemed to read, anon push- ed the book aside, turned to the lad behind him and received something out of a cloth — a cup. He raises it, sets it down, wipes it with a napkin, folds and places the latter on it, elevates it again, brings it down, steps back and courtesies to it, etc. Poor fellow ! He is, I am told, a merpeeiro (which the die- 222 SKETCHES OF tionaries tell us means “ a person hired to say prayers for the souls of the dead”), and was earning a couple of patacas by going through a mass for a soul lately departed, whose friends had no more to give. He had got permission to perform it here, had borrowed the requisite apparatus, and picked up the lad to render the necessary assistance. His tonsure and offi- cial drapery heightened rather than diminished the oddness of his appearance. The alb had surely been loaned him or bought at second-hand, being half worn out, and any thing but a fit, while the buckles on his shoes might have served Goliah, had they been in fashion in King David’s time. I had supposed such persons were excluded from serving at altars. To say the least, the prohibition would be politic where so much dumb show is executed, and by performers with their backs to spectators — an undesirable frontage to have every the minutest motion and posture scanned. Public worship ad- dressed to the sight must, like less reverent pantomime, be judged of by the eye. On reaching the end of the street (Ajuda), an old red cloth hanging in the doorway of the Lady do Parto induced me to step in. With little, except being perceptibly enceinte, to dis- tinguish her from other Pao Senhoras, she is the Juno Luci- na of Rio, to whom applications and acknowledgments are made, and precisely such as were addressed to her pagan prototype. Her apartments consist of this small and dark room, with no ornaments but its images ; the walls are bare, and the floor level with the narrow and dirty street. Here are but two oth- er images — both females. One, tall and stout, is attended by two full-grown monks (de pao) in white gowns. The other is Nossa Scnhora das Merces. “ Merce is a term of civility : it means courtesy, favor, kindness.” The lady personifies one or more of these. Brazilians are remarkably ceremonious, having great devotion, as the expression is, to “ Our Lady of Civili- ties.” Some twenty ladies were witliin, apparently waiting for a confessor. 9th, Holy Thursday. Matracas have been named ; they are instruments which probably date from as remote times as any thing employed in the Church, and, as such, are worth noticing. LIFE IN BRAZIL. 223 They are never used but during Passion Week. For several days I have met boys with them, and this morning a negro sent out by the Candelaria sexton came along announcing the parish festival with one. I took the opportunity to examine this ven- erable sacerdotal rattle. Here it is, and the genius playing on it — a piece of hard board, twelve inches long and six wide, with an oblong opening at the upper end for the fingers that grasp it, and a vertical clapper of bronze jointed in the mid- dle. It is carried suspended by the right hand, and by twisting and turning it to and fro, the knocker hits the board at every movement. Some have a knocker at each side, by which the number of blows and amount of clattering are doubled. Others are made wdiolly of wood. I met a couple of these to-day. A piece of rose-wood board, three inches square, with a handle, as at c. Two flapping pieces nearly the size of the blade are attached loosely by a cord, as at the cross section, d. They make a loud, snapping noise. In the Middle Ages bells were not rung during Passion Week, because the apostles deserted Christ. The Candelaria being within a stone’s throw, I found it thronged. The front of the altar, beneath the shrine of Our Lady, was removed, exposing a “ dead Christ” extended within. As I got up, a gentleman who had been adoring it arose and drew back ; a negro girl then falls on her hands and knees, creeps to the exposed hand and kisses it, showing the muddied soles of her bare feet to every eye. She rises, drops a vintem into a mammoth salver, courtesies, and retires. Two white lads, ragged and dirty as clam-boys, speak a few words to each other, cross themselves, fall on their knees, and creep forward together ; one waits till the other salutes the hand, and then wriggles himself forward and takes his turn: each drops in a vintem. Next comes a lady, with a female slave behind her ; drops on her knees, and for half a minute prays and crosses herself, rises, drops some vintems, and goes away. She won’t kiss the hand on which so many black mouths have been al- 224 SKETCHES OF ready nibbed, and she is right, for Fve seen enough diseases on black faces here to justify her. I 'was about to leave, when a feeble and purblind negra crept forward to the feet / putting in her head, she pressed her lips to them a dozen times. Then turning to the hand, she fondled it, kissed it, laid her left cheek on it, then her right one ; then drew both sides of her face over it, and again rested them on the open palm. She seemed unwillingly to give place to oth- ers waiting. I think some one gave her a hint, for she reluc- tantly rose, put a copper acknowledgment in the salver, courte- sied three times down to the floor, and went her way. She was succeeded while I remained by a score of devotees of both sexes, of whom half were whites. On mentioning her case to a devout lady, I was told she most likely had some troublesome disease in her face, which she, in common with thousands, be- lieved would be expelled by placing it in contact with the Holy Image. Formerly no white person performed this act of devotion without first taking off their shoes. This is not now required, though some practice it. The great majority, however, are bare- footed worshipers, viz., slaves. The train of serious thought which the performance might induce is dissipated by the chattering and bustling about of alb'd brethren, arranging candles and flowers at one place, giv- ing instructions to decorating artists at another. But, however annoying this might be to some people, worshipers a-re not troubled by it here. I stood for some time beside a man on his knees : every now and then he looked about — his eyes now on the sacristan, and now turned behind to watch some one that swept past him ; then taking a general gaze, and finding nothing particular to see, he hawked, spat on the floor, and be- gan again to finger his beads. A gray-headed slave, with a large basket on his head, came within the door, made a leg to the altar, scooped up almost a gill of holy water and discharged it on his head ; again making a cup of his hand, he poured an equal quantity on the contents of the basket, stood a moment, and gave his vegetables a second dash. But night is the best time to witness Church festivals. 1 called in here this evening, and after counting seven hundred LIFE IN BRAZIL. 225 waxen lights about the altar, gave up the task. There were ten or eleven hundred burning in the place, all in costly candle- sticks. Whites and blacks thronged about the prone image : three ladies knelt and kissed the wooden hand immediately after it had been touched by negro lips. The enterprising brethren of “ Bom Jesus” hold their reunion not far off. We may as well look in. Here’s the place. Those half dozen mustached, bare-headed soldiers parading before the door, handling and puffing cigars, might be taken for old match- lock heroes blowing their lints preparatory to firing off their pieces. But let’s push by the crimson screen and enter. Well! this would be a sight if one had not just seen greater. The tapestry is showy, but much worn ; the flowers, in vases, are pretty and in plenty, but the candlesticks are wood, and the best ones gone — no, not all ; for at the railing gate stand two that might be compared with the richest in the Candelaria or Carmo. They are alb’d brothers holding five-foot torches, re- minding one of similar candelabra in the halls of feudal barons. Here was more bowing, kneeling, courtesying, kissing, and leg-making going on than in the Candelaria, though no image is placed within reach of the worshipers. For want of one, they kissed the floor, steps, carpeting, and penny pictures on the walls. A gentleman (I was told he was a dry-goods’ merchant) rose from his knees near me, went directly to the right wall, and put his mouth to something on it ; next, crossed himself, went to the railing, then knelt and kissed the step (not the altar-step,' but one where the nave is separated from the choir or chancel) ; getting up, he made a leg and crossed over to the opposite wall, and kissed something there, four or five feet above the floor : and yonder he is, again standing on his toes, his neck stretched to the uttermost, trying to reach a higher object with his lips. It was not till after three trials that he succeeded and withdrew. The first object of his devotion was an engraving of the Virgin, the oldest and coarsest thing of the kind I have yet seen. A piece of glass was before it, so that he kissed it and not the picture. The frame, print, and glass could not have cost five cents. The second object was a saint on an alms-box, and the third a framed print similar to the first in style and finish. Next, two negroes drew up through the middle of the audience P 226 SKETCHES OF and kissed the floor, then the step. Three white men and one woman followed them. The filthy condition of the soles of the negroes contrasted strangely with a pair of new pumps a dandy of a man turned up a little way from them. At one time five men and two women were before me with their mouths on the floor. Not feeling much edified by these groveling scenes, I turned toward the Paula. The steps in front swarmed with negras, selling fruit and doces to exhausted worshipers. The altar was gorgeous as that of the Carmo ; but the greatest nov- elty was the contents of two silversmiths’-shops, piled on ta- bles at each side of the altar, and guarded by musketeers. Here were trays, ewers, basins, pitchers, and other things, be- sides some large caldron-looking vessels whose use was not apparent. Of trays alone I counted over forty, most of which were not less than, three feet long, and of proportional width. What this meant I could not imagine, not dreaming that the whole could belong to one church, but it was even so. The Paula brotherhood is very wealthy, and surpasses others in this branch of devotion. After visiting two or three smaller temples without observing any thing special, I turned home. Near the door of the Lapa the monks had got a piano, on which a lay professor was play- ing to the chanting of two young friars. According to the old philosophy, children born between noon to-day and twelve o’clock to-morrow will be natural mine-find- ers, endowed with the faculty of seeing seven yards through solid earth. All holy wafers and water are used up to-day; none must be left over till to-morrow. LIFE IN BRAZIL. 227 CHAPTER XX. Good Friday. — Capuchins preaching. — Burial of God. — Dresses and Jewels of the Angels. — Allelulia Saturday. — Blessing Fire and Water.— Paschal Candle. — Killing Judas. — Church Machinery. — Cinerary Urns and Commemoration of the Dead. — Symbols carried by Angels. — Boy Monk. — Little Prospect of Prot- estant Missions succeeding in Brazil. — Mary of Nazareth. April 10, Good Friday. The morning light at six o’clock is not sufficient to read by, and soon after that hour in the even- ing darkness sets in. Four great processions are announced for to-day, if the weather prove favorable. At 10 A.M. rain came down heavily ; at 1 P.M. it ceased. I strolled up Castle Hill to witness some new performances announced by the Capuchins. Seventy or eighty persons, most- ly women and children, were waiting for the service to begin. Suddenly the profound silence was broken by a loud hammering that knocked all meditation on the head — carpenters fitting up a scaffold for musicians, six of whom soon came in, with a bass- viol, two violins, a couple of flutes, and a clarionet. One of the preachers emerged from the vestry. Bless me ! I exclaimed to myself, how like the pictures of his class I have seen ! There is something unpleasant in his appearance, independent of a coarseness that of itself is any thing but agreeable. A shaven crown, a reddish peaked and matted beard, uncovered neck and exposed sternum, bare legs, and feet pushed into slip-shod wood- en slippers, large and hairy hands, and his only garment a brown serge gown, tied round his middle with a cord, from which hangs a string of beads. Then there is the ugly hood or cowl flap- ping behind, turned back like the hinged cover of a coffee-pot or tankard. The music struck up, and two monks began a chant, during which the people knelt, and the friar just described got into a box pulpit, which, like all pulpits here, is so placed that the speaker does not lose sight of the images, or turn his back to them or the altar. As the chanting ceased he rose to speak, 228 SKETCHES OF and every now and then broke into long wailing ejaculations of “Madonna!” ‘ ‘ JVossa Senhora !” “ Sangue /” “ Mizericor- dia!” “Ferulas /” etc.; turning occasionally and pointing to the images. As he warmed, his gesticulations became energetic. He leaned over the edge of the box till his wide-spread hands nearly touched the shoulders of devotees below him ; then step- ping back, he threw his head, his eyes, and, to the utmost, his arms, up to the ceiling — the very action of a nurse lifting an in- fant from the floor, and holding it at arms’ length above her. There was one novelty in his manner which struck me rather favorably. As he finished each telling passage, he sunk, and not ungracefully, into his seat, where he remained half, and some- times a whole minute, till fresh ideas rose in him. He rarely spoke five minutes without sitting down ; occasionally he gave out a sentence in that position, with one hand on the edge of the pulpit, and the other applying a handkerchief to his perspiring face ; but the instant a new view of the subject, or a touching- thought occurred, he started up, and put it into glowing lan- guage, i. e., if one might judge by his excitement. I suppose his hearers were affected, though they gave no visible sign of being so. Possibly the indifferent Portuguese in which these Italian apostles are said to deliver themselves diminishes the effect of their elocution. He had no book nor notes about him. I began to tire, and thought of leaving, but another friar step- ped into the speaking-box, older and stouter than his predeces- sor, with a darker beard and fairer skin. His action was confined chiefly to his head, combined with a singular power of drawing- down his neck into his body, and suddenly pushing it up again. Seated or standing, his head rose with his ideas and his voice- now buried beneath his cowl, now half a foot above it, and still rising. A slight rain was falling, which I preferred encountering to remaining longer. As I came in sight of Dereita Street, the sound of music came up, and shortly after appeared, some two hundred feet below, the Mizericordia Procession of the Burial. I reached the Hospital in time to witness its order and arrival. The unpleasant weather had reduced the number of spectators. The performers were drabbled, and seemed anxious to get in- doors. LIFE IN BRAZIL. 229 First came a man with a powerful matraca ; then a young monk in a white hood and tippet, both in one : the latter went all round him, and reached to his elbows ; the former was bound round his head with a new hempen rope. He carried before him a black wooden cross, over the transverse bar of which a white cloth was thrown in the form of the letter M, to signi- fy death — Movte. The cloth is supposed to be the one in which the body of Christ was enveloped by Joseph of Arimathea. A number of monks, draped like the cross-bearer, follow. Then came brothers in white gowns, bearing candles ; and after them angels , with wings and a colored gauze cloud attached by wire to the shoulders of each. Next three women (or men disguised as such), representing “ the three Marys.” They were concealed in gowns and hoods, with their faces bent toward the ground, and had a mournful appear- ance. A large ring of silver was attached to the head of each, to represent a halo. The bier, more like a French bedstead, came next. On a mattress lay a “ dead Christ” — one of those exposed in church- es. The whole was borne by four monks on two staves, whose ends rested on their shoulders. Each carried a pronged stick to support the load, at intervals, when all stand to hear an an- gel-chant. They wore hoods, and tippets, and hempen cords by way of ribbons. More angels, led by brothers, came next, followed by the tall- est of their number, a girl of fourteen, who mounted a pair of steps, and, chanting, opened a white cloth, the handkerchief of Veronica, whom she represented. She performed the part ex- ceedingly well, notwithstanding the thick drizzling rain. Step- ping down, the brother took up the steps, and all went forward again. Now came brothers, monks, and candles ; angels, monks, 230 SKETCHES OF and brothers; and then “Nossa Senhora,” erect, large as life in purple dress, silver rays on her forehead, and standing on : stage richly paneled, and set off with cypress, but no flowers. Borne, as the bier was, on men’s shoulders, she might be seer over the heads of the people a mile off. The band of music, more brothers in white albs, and bearing candles, came next, and last of all the soldiery. In the hurry to get out of the rain, Nossa Senhora was nearly knocked off her base. Her head came slap against the door-jamb, in con- sequence of the bearers on one side not lowering her from their shoulders in concert with then- comrades. After the doors were closed, the leader once more worked his matraca, whose sounds died gradually away in the extensive interior. The soldiers now put on their caps, and, with reversed arms, were marched to their barracks. The rain so increased that no one supposed any other pageant would take place. The Carrno one did not ; but the Paula brotherhood, who excel in these things, after waiting in vain til] six o'clock for clear weather, determined not wholly to disap- point the public, the angels, and themselves. Arranging mat- ters as well as they could, in large apartments connected witl the church, the Pomp emerged from the side passage, where tin waxen ex votos were, on the front stoop or platform, and pacin' slowly along it to the main entrance, turned in, proceeded to ward the high altar, and thence, through a side door, into th LIFE IN BRAZIL. 231 interior again. The last spectacle of the kind I ever expect to see, I shall preserve a few particulars, although, excepting the superior style in which it was got up, it differed little from that of the Mizericordia. The managers being wealthy and ambi- tious of outshining other establishments, their angels are allow- ed to be the handsomest, and, with their saints, to have the best fit-outs. While others can hardly draw an audience, they com- mand full houses. The church was darkened, the glimmering of a solitary can- dle barely preventing persons from running against each other. Only when a new-comer, or one whose patience in waiting was worn out, pushed the crimson screen in the door-way moment- arily aside, did sufficient light flash in to enable us to distin- guish the faces of those close by us. The place was three fourths full of people (no females), all moving and muttering like so many discontented phantoms. At last the sound of a distant rattle came from the interior ; it drew nearer, ceased, and soon after was heard as if in the street, when those with umbrellas rushed forth and met the bareheaded musicians and soldiers stepping out of the side pas- sage upon the platform or long stoop, along which the troops formed a passage to the church door. There came forth a swarm of candle-bearers, who, with undignified speed, hastened in again through the front door. They were followed by a monk in a white long gown and hood — the latter bound round his tem- ples with a half-inch rope — bearing a black cross, on which a towel formed the letter M. More candle-bearers, then brothers and a legion of angels ; over the heads of several their guardians held umbrellas. Next, a neat pedestal was brought forth and placed on the flagging. An angel came, and, being lifted up, chanted a strain on the sufferings of the Savior, unfolding from a roller, as she sung, a piece of white muslin full six feet long, on which was depicted a full-length figure of Christ. This she turned gracefully round that all might see. Her voice was sweet and plaintive, and the little performance quite affecting. Veronica’s handkerchief took a likeness only of the Savior’s face, but the cloth his body was laid in received an impression of the whole. It was a copy of the latter that the little song- stress unrolled before us. 232 SKETCHES OF She passed in and made way for the bier, or Golden Bed, upheld by monks in white hoods and cassocks. A “ dead Christ” lay on it, partially covered by a rich counterpane. “The three Marys” followed weeping, dressed in long russet gowns and close hoods, and handkerchiefs in their hands. Their halos seemed made of bobbin wire, and might any where else have been taken for the frames of caps or bonnets. Next came Saint John and Mary Magdalene : she is one of the preceding trio, being twice represented. In the Carmo procession the Prophets attend as mourners. Next three suspicious-looking, bare-armed chaps in steel caps drew up — Roman executioners. Behind them walked the cen- turion in gorgeous array — golden helmet, scarlet tunic, a staff surmounted by an eagle, and all the insignia of an ancient mil- itary officer. The character was well conceived, but spoiled by attempts to make it gigantic. The person of this actor was swelled by stuffing, and, from the vibration of the upper part, his head was clearly within the breast of the figure ; the face was a mask. The helmet and metal ornaments were too heavy to be controlled by the artificial neck and shoulders. He passed on quickly, but stumbled on ascending the only step at the front door, and would have fallen but for St. John, against whose back he staggered. Flocks of angels now flitted past us. Ere they had disap- peared, the image of “ Our Lady” was out on the stoop and ex- posed to the rain. Similar in size and outline with her sister of the Mizericordia, between the rays of her crown were sev- en stars. The most attractive person in the Pomp, the man- agers allowed her to remain full five minutes in the storm. Nothing common is put on her, her dress and jewels being of the most costly material. Parents commonly send a confidential person with their an- gels, who is careful not to lose sight of them, on account of the jewels on their persons and dresses. The breast-piece of one was almost covered with diamonds. A doctor last year decked out his daughter so gorgeously, and chiefly with borrowed gems, that he would not trust her even in the vestry without an at- tendant. If a father belongs to the brotherhood, he can accom- pany his child in the procession ; if not, no. It is a rule that none but a Church brother must lead an angel. LIFE IN BRAZIL. 233 11 th. Allelulia Saturday — the end of Lent: the day when the saints throw off their mourning, and the screens before the im- ages are withdrawn— when bells begin to ring again, and mat- racas, their substitutes during Passion Week, are put away for another year — when scores of Judases are torn to pieces, and when the annual consecration of fire and water takes place. At noon I went to the Paula Church to witness the perform- ances, but found it so dark within and crowded, that I was glad to get into the vestry, where people with bunches of rosemary were waiting to have them aspersed with the new holy water. 1 subsequently procured a seat in the music-gallery, where, be- sides the old organ, there were one bass and two kettle-drums, violins, clarionets, French-horns, trumpets, &c., waiting to strike up the moment the ceremonies ended. The process of conse- cration was as follows : The baptismal font being filled, the offi- ciating padre put his hand into or on it, making the sign of the cross in the action. Next he waved three crosses over the sur- face, in the name of each person in the Trinity, saying, “ By this [sign] I bless thee creature water- — By the living God [a cross] — By God [a cross] most true— By God [a cross] most holy — By God who in the beginning of the world divided thee from earth.” Then he breathed three times upon it, making the sign of the cross in the act of blowing, and exclaimed each time, “ The virtue of the Holy Ghost descend upon this water.” He dropped oil from a minute vial cross-wise on it, and dipped the vial itself in, saying, “ The infusion of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost is made in the name of the most Holy Trinity.” He then took a portion of the water up and threw it toward the four quarters of the earth. When he got through, the attending officials sprinkled themselves and the spectators near them. Water being thus made holy, it was employed in the conse- cration of fire. The Cirio , or “ Great Paschal Candle,” a very large and elaborately ornamented one, is the principal object in this ceremony. I wonder the Church on these occasions does not follow the universal practice of antiquity in both hemi- spheres, and introduce new fire — chaw it direct from the sun by lenses, from wood by the friction of two sticks, or produce it afresh from flint and steel. Instead of this, the custom is 234 SKETCHES OF to prepare three triune candles, each consisting of three tapers longitudinal- ly united, to represent the unity of the Godhead in a trinity of persons. One is placed near the entrance, another half way to, and the third at the al- tar. They are lit, and all others care- fully extinguished. The priest takes the Cirio, and with the usual ceremonies baptizes it at the font. He drops chrism and baptismal oil from vials on the water; breathes three times over it, not cross-wise now, but as if forming with his breath the letter Y. lie dips the lower end of the Cirio a little in, raises it, and plunges it farther down a third time, and it reaches the bottom of the font. Each movement is accompanied with similar expressions to those used in sanctifying the water. It now is lit at one of the triune tapers, placed on the high altar, and the other lights kin- dled at its flame. After baptism the Litany of the Saints was said, and then mass, as on Palm Sunday. When the officiating padre came to the words “Allelulia, allelulia, allelulia,” the bells struck up a merry peal, music in the gallery burst forth, screens before the images dropped, and the building, hitherto al- most dark, is distantly illuminated, and resounds with chants of “ God is risen from the dead.” Every face is radiant with smiles, and the day is spent in pleasure. How the agoa-ben- ta basins are replenished, and families send bottles and tum- blers to be filled to sprinkle their children and friends. Some LIFE IN BRAZIL. 235 preserve the fresh liquid as a preservative against many com- plaints. The padres of the various city churches wait for a signal from the Imperial Chapel where the hishop officiates. As soon as he arrives at the “ Allelulia,” rockets are sent up. Priests contrive to be near that part of the service, and ready, on hear- ing the guns, to utter the joyful words. On returning, I stepped into the Imperial Chapel. The cirio was standing in an antique-fashioned candlestick of silver, four feet or more high. The candle was about the same length, four inches in diameter, and beautifully painted over its entire sur- face. The figure given is from a sketch taken at the time.* Upon leaving, I fell in with half a dozen negroes carrying live turkeys with blue ribbons on then necks. They were “Alle- lulia presents,” gobbling innocents being as much in demand now as in New England on Thanksgiving Day. Next I over- took a band of youthful devotees — blacks and whites — hoarse * In olden times the Paschal taper at Westminster Abbey was three hundred pounds’ weight. Sometimes a wax-light called a serpent was used ; the name de- rived from its spiral form, being wound round a rod. To light it, fire was struck from a flint consecrated by the abbot. In the cathedrals every taper was extin- guished, in order that new fire might kindle a parent torch at which the rest were ignited. 236 SKETCHES OF with uttering comminutions on the fallen apostle, perspiring and exhausted with punishing him. These young zealots were “killing Judas.” The preceding illustration conveys a correct idea of this “act of devotion.” One, after being dragged through mud and mire, and thrash- ed and stoned till little like a human form remained, was stuck up in Hospicio Street. Another I saw hanging from a lamp- post, and before reaching home I passed the limbs of several more. Some practical joking is occasionally played oft' by dress- ing the figure after an obnoxious character. A few years ago, a British minister, on account of his opposition to the slave- trade, was stoned, and thrashed, and hanged in effigy. In the upper floors and passages of the Paula temple were various kinds of ecclesiastical machinery. Painted boards like side scenes of a theatre ; images and angels — two of the latter damaged in their wings ; ladders, tressels, brackets, benches, tablets, and a pile of waxen ex votos in a corner. Here were some cart-loads of cinerary urns — I counted over a hundred — mostly of rosewood, highly polished, locked, and labeled. Some are fixed on short pedestals, with inverted torches, winged hour- glasses, or other emblems of mortality. These receptacles of the bones and ashes of the dead called up one of the most hon- orable and affecting customs of the Roman Church. On the 2d of November, these little chests are taken down and ranged before the high altar, when mass is celebrated over them. That day is the annual “Commemoration of the Dead.” Friends come and sprinkle flowers on the vases, and weep over the ash- es of their kindred. A kindred custom was common with every classical and cul- tivated people of old. With the Chinese it is known as the “Worship of Ancestors,” at which offerings are made to the manes of the dead, and masses performed for their repose. The tombs arc repaired and ornamented ; candles and incense are burned on them. The practice accords with the best impulses of our nature — is congenial to the tenderest and purest feelings. Like other primeval rites, traces of it are found among all people. The In- dians of both Americas indulged it. The burial-grounds of their ancestors were the last spots they would yield. LIFE IN BRAZIL. 237 An officer led Id and me into a spacious apartment, occu- pied from floor to ceiling with drawers and cases. Here were locked up the most select of the pageant apparatus. Banners, tapestries, plate, jewels, and dresses of the images, etc. Among other matters, he showed us the symbols earned by angels in processions. I sketched each as he held it up, and noted his descriptions verbatim, thus : 1. The cup God drank out of. 2. The cold stone he sat on. 3. The torch they sought him with. 4. The lantern by which they found him. 5. The mailed hand that smote him. • 6. The club that felled him. 238 SKETCHES OF 7. The pillar he was tied to. 8. The cords that bound him. 9. The rod that beat him. 10. The cross he was nailed to. 11. The nails that fastened him on it. 12. The hammer that drove them in, and, 13. The pincers that drew them out. 14. The dice they threw lots with for his garments. 15. The bag containing the thirty pieces of silver. 16 and 17. Inscriptions. 18. The ladder by which he was taken down. 19. St. Veronica’s handkerchief. 20. Santo Sudario — the holy towel he was folded in. I met with another novelty. Three or four boys were play- ing about, and one, not over six years old, dressed as a monk — a black gown, white scapulary, buckles on his shoes, and an enor- mous white beaver, with the wide rim pressed close to his ears. He raised it, and showed me the shaven spot on his crown. On naming the circumstance, I was told such sights were formerly very common, but that now there are not over a dozen lads in Rio thus costumed. They are such as have been devoted by one or both parents (often before they were born) to certain saints, in acknowledgment of special favors received in answer to anxious longings. St. Anthony had befriended this lad’s mother, and to him the youngster has been made over and put into his livery. The more I see of this people, the more distant appears the success of any Protestant missions among them. Festivals are obstacles that can not easily be got rid of. The masses are too fond of them, and the national pulse beats in unison with them ; moreover, there are powerful classes interested in maintaining them. Sundays, too, are universal seasons of rec- reation. Ladies laugh outright at the seriousness and alleged long faces of English families passing to church as to a funeral. To see them is enough to make one pity them ! Protestants, it is said, degenerate here. The British chapel never received a native convert, while monks have drawn members from it. The Episcopal Methodists have had a mission here for some years, and have abandoned it. There is no ground on which a LIFE IN BRAZIL. 239 missionary can meet tlie people. They avoid him as one with whom association is disreputable, and they entertain a feeling toward him bordering on contempt, arising from a rooted belief in his ignorance and presumption. In their estimation, he and his employers are no wiser in Church matters than the people of Zago, who manured the foot of then- steeple to make it grow. Then the climate is against the severities ot northern sects. Neither stringent Methodism nor Puritanism can ever flourish in the tropics. The commerce of the country and its internal trade are opposed to the overthrow of Romanism. Civil and social relationships would be broken up, and thousands upon thousands lose the means by which they live. No sudden con- version of a city ever occurred. To preach against Romanism is as much treason against the state as attempting to introduce the republican form of govern- ment, but the greatest of obstacles would probably be found in. the reverence paid to the Virgin. Maiy of Nazareth is the great goddess of Romanists. Her deification was no chance matter, but the deliberate adoption of a principle, which was too closely interwoven with the habits, thoughts, and feelings of ancient nations to be at once torn away. The most refined and the most illiterate of the heathen were steeped in Polytheism. Every system of worship had its god- desses as well as gods, the one being held as essential as the other. It was deemed the dictate of reason and of nature that females should have deosas, to whom they could prefer petitions peculiar to themselves, and such as they could not be induced to make known to male deities, and here was found a prime hinderance to the reception of Clnistianity. We can imagine how the high-minded Lucretias and Virginias of Athens and Rome would be shocked at the proposition to transfer then- petitions in the most delicate matters from the mother of the gods to one whom they could at first only view as a Jewish bachelor. A Madonna was therefore held necessary by the early fathers of the Church, in order to overcome the scruples of the sex, and she was realized in the exaltation of Mary. Moreover, in making her “ Queen of Heaven,” the way was open- ed to associate with her other lady celestials, and to rival in that feature also the court of Jove. 240 SKETCHES OF As “ Our Lady” — her generic title — she is invoked by all, because, as “ the mother of God,” she has unlimited influence over her son, and, as “the mother of men,” sympathizes with mortals with feminine tenderness. Hence she is honored at festivals by having her statues carried in triumph, precisely as were those of her prototype, the Magna deorum mater. To make the most of her, she is represented in an indefinite number of characters, and named after the prominent attributes of each ; e. g., as N. S. da Saude, she occupies the place of Salus in Rome and of Hygeia in Greece ; as N. S. do Bom Successo, she is pestered by the same class of worshipers that thronged the old shrines of Fortune; as N. S. de Cabefa, she has succeeded Minerva ; as the goddess dos Remedios and do Succoro, she is consulted by the sick and those in distress ; as N. S. da Conceicao and do Parto, by those of her own sex only, and on special occasions. Even as the Lady of Navigators she was anticipated by early marine people. The Chinese still have their ancient protectoress of seamen, and have prudently asso- ciated with her two able assistants — the demigods of long sight and large ears — “the thousand-mile-eyer” and “the favorable- wind-hearer.” This remarkable multiplication of one person seems to be pe- culiar to Mary. I suppose it is but imperfectly understood by Protestants ; for one, I had no clear perception of it till I arrived in Rio, and then it became interesting from furnishing addition- al evidence of the fact that, when heathenism was overthrown politically throughout the Roman empire, the old deities were retained under new appellations, and with them the cardinal principle of adding to then- numbers. In Rio, Mary is held in the same enthusiastic reverence as was the great Madonna of the Ephesians, nor could the city be sooner thrown into an uproar than by a Protestant mission- ary publicly attempting to diminish her reputation. Silver shrine-makers would, with one accord, rush out of Ourives Street and address their fellow-workmen in the very words and spirit of Demetrius, for the craft by which they live would veri- ly be in danger if the great goddess should be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship- ed. Then the armadors, costumers, carvers, painters, gilders, LIFE IN BRAZIL. 241 image-makers, and wax-chandlers, equally inflamed with wrath, would add to the commotion, and render it next to impossible for any town clerk to wrest the blaspheming babbler alive out of their hands. CHAPTER XXI. Amulets : the Church a Mart for them. — Measures of Saints. — Royal Touches and metallic Tractors. — Bentinhos. — Pictures of Saints. — Indulgences. — Hindoo Pictures. — Portable Images. — Medals of Saints. — Bedini. — Symbols of the Cross. — Crossing Manual. — Pieces of holy Rock. — Hippocanthus. — Figa. — Ashes of Palm. — Rue. — Love Powder. — Sieve and Shears. — Curing the Be- witched.— Negro Witches. — Cures for Whitlows apd Toothache — The Evil Eye. — Rio Poulterers troubled with it. — Homs quench it. April 13. Worn by both sexes and all ages, charms and Church amulets keep off the evil eye, hold demons at bay, and arrest the natural course of events when unfavorable to the wearers, just as they did when ignorance and credulity had the world to themselves. The variety in vogue includes several that did not fall in my way. I shall confine myself to such as did. They might be divided into lay and religious, but both are in a manner held sacred, those of heathen origin being “blessed.” The Church, with the best intentions, but from a mistaken policy, early sanctioned these things, and has added a long list to the number. Pier temples are marts for, and her ministers the great dealers in them. A powerful and not un- profitable means of maintaining her hold over the unthinking and simple, she has continued them till grown obsolete around her, exposing herself to the charge of fostering delusions she was ordained to eradicate. At every festival they constitute a prom- inent item of sacerdotal merchandise. Measures of Saints. — These are ribbons, cut by priests to the exact length or height of their images, with the names wrought or printed on them. Worn round the waist next to the body, they remove pains, diseases, and otherwise promote the wishes of their wearers. Females commonly wear those of saints of their own sex, though those of Anthony, Braz, and Gongalo are sometimes relied on. They are provided of all qualities, to meet the wordly circumstances of all. Some are Q 242 SKETCHES OF of velvet, with portraits of the saints wrought on them, and some are strips of common tape. I received one — a present from a priest — a blue and white ribbon, four feet long, with the following inscription stamped on it: “M. de N. S. da Ga” — that is, Medida de Nossa Senhora da Gloria — not the lady on Gloria Hill ; she is a foot taller. The color varies with the saint. I had an opportunity of examining a smaller one, of narrow red ribbon, blessed and sent by a priest to its fair owner the day after the saint’s festival. It was used to remove headache, toothache, and other pains, by being wound round the parts af- fected, and, as was said, really did remove them. Of this there is little room to doubt. Charms act on a principle recognized from the earliest times — one which, by exciting the hopes, fears, and faith of the impressible, has wrought wonders in all ages, and will continue to work them. I was not a little surprised a few evenings ago in hearing la- dies speak of “ measures of the Holy Ghost.” In reply to the inquiry by what standards the lengths were determined, it was said, “ They are cut to no particular lengths, but are stamped with the triangle and dove, and are found good for many com- plaints.” When E a was about to sail to Rio Grande, Doha C gave her one, and told her to use it if attacked with sea-sickness. Having taken cold, accompanied with hoarseness, S of- fered to procure for me one of St. Braz’s specifics; “but then you must have full faith in it, or it may do you harm.” This medical saint is celebrated for the successful treatment of bron- chial affections. A few days before the 3d of February, a priest takes his measure with fine wire. A number of these medidas are provided, also pictures of him, and little green tapers. At his festival these are distributed to those who contribute to the fete — a print to one, a candle to another, a measure to a third, and, it may be, one of each to a liberal donor. The directions are, Fold the wire round the neck as often as it will go, and make the ends fast ; place an image or picture of the physician on a table, light a bougie, place it before him, and — you will get well. I think faith in these fooleries is propped up in many minds LIFE IN BRAZIL. 243 simply by habit ; in others by the idea that, if erroneous, it is complimentary to God and the saints, and, on that account, not altogether unacceptable. Had Plutarch written yesterday, he could not have hit off this people better than he has done in his life of Nicias : “ The people had a dislike to natural philoso- phers, supposing that they detracted from the divine power and providence by ascribing things to insensible causes, unin- telligible powers, and inevitable necessity.” That persons with nervous ailments, and constitutionally im- pressible, have been benefited by royal touches, metallic tractors, and mesmerizers’ fingers, is unquestionable. They establish the fact that strong faith in fictions, united with certain tem- peraments, can cure all that is curable by means of the imagin- ation. The virtue of touch in King Pyrrhus lay in the great toe of his right foot. Pliny and Plutarch have recorded its cures. Its nature was so divine that the funeral pyre had no power over it ; hence it was, after the death of its owner, preserved in the temple, and the sick had recourse to it there. Bentinhos. — I suppose there is hardly a Roman Catholic fe- male in Brazil, from the empress to a negress, who does not guard against invisible foes by wearing, in contact with her person, a couple of these diminutive shields. A friend procured for me a pair from the most esteemed fabrica, the convent of Tereza. Two embroidered pads, an inch and a half square, are connected by a double silk cord. On one is the Lady of Car- mo and child, on the other a fanciful figure or flower. Pass- ing the cords over the shoulders, one pad rests on the bosom and the other at the back, thus protecting the wearer before and behind. Large numbers are imported from Rome. Pictures of Saints. — At the anniversary of a popular saint, vast numbers of his portrait are, as has already been perceived, exchanged in the Church for money or wax at an average profit of one or two thousand per cent. I never saw one handed out until the applicant dropped one or more vintems into the dish, or laid down a candle. As specimens of the fine arts, there is nothing remarkable about them. Commonly earned about the person, they are worn out before the feast comes round again. Besides some procured at festivals, I purchased an assortment at a print-seller’s, in which were John of Malta, Ursala, Luiz, 244 SKETCHES OF Crispin, also “ N. S. da Immaculada Conce^ao, copied from two pictures revealed from heaven, and conformable to the mi- raculous medal of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” Besides preserving them in books, pinning them to bed-cur- tains and chamber-walls, slipping them under pillows, etc., etc., they constitute a large class of amulets called “ breves .” Each is folded into a small compass, commonly an inch square, sewed up in minute bags, and worn next the body, like Bentinhos. I understand Old Senliora P has one of the Lady Conceive on her heart, and another of Anthony at her back. To several the following is appended : “ His Excellency the most Reverend Bishop, Grand Chaplain to the Emperor, Don Manoel do Monte Rodriques Araujo, on visiting the church whose patron saint this image represents, conceded to all who pray before this image one Paternoster and one Ave Maria forty days of indulgence.” In answer to inquiries, it was said the indulged might eat meat on fast days, would be pardoned for little sins they might commit, and if they died within the time, would go direct to heaven, escaping Purgatory altogether. Even for pictures of their deities Romanists are indebted to the pagans. Thus the Poojarees, a sect of Hindoo priests, wor- shipers of the goddess Marietta, celebrate her praises with chanting, and accompany their songs with a hand-bell, while their wives keep time with castanets. “They also carry with them pictures representing the goddess in various characters.” Portable Images. — These are occasionally of wood, but many, if not most, are of plaster of Paris. H and I met, a few days ago, a girl in a black iron mask, and shortly after stopped at a smith’s open window, where slave-collars and chains were hanging up for sale. Close by, our attention was called to a fabricator of things typical of other fetters — a sacred image- maker. Seated on the floor, with paint-pots beside him, the lit- tle man was surrounded with a regiment of six and seven inch genii, to whose faces, cloaks, and cowls he was giving the last finish. The Antonios were the most numerous. The street in pagan Rome where such things were made was named Sigiliaria. Medals of Saints and of the Pope. — Little elliptical plates of silver, brass, and tin. One of silver before me is so thin that, though an inch and a half by an inch, the value does not LIFE IN BRAZIL. 245 exceed ten cents. On the approach of feasts, dealers advertise them. As long as they have not been consecrated they can be offered at public sale, but when they have undergone aspersion they can only be “exchanged.” By a judicious disposal of these trifles the clergy strengthen no little their hold on the affections of the people. Bedini, the new nuncio, has brought over a package. One of six, placed by him at the disposal of a certain padre, is now before me. It is of the size and value of a five-cent piece, and has on it the effigies of Gregory XYI. Having been blessed by the Pope, they are invaluable. The nuncio is unpopular, but he is adroit. At Praya Grande, the other day, he met a child which he was told belonged to Senlior B , an influential lawyer, to whom he had not been introduced. He put into its hands one of these precious medals. The delighted parents are all his own. Symbols of the Cross. — Nothing is more potent than these: neither witches nor wizards can bear the sight of them. Besides the ordinary figures, a very popular form of this class of amulets is represented in the margin. By it we learn that every person, in the absence of an ar- tificial cross, has a potent one at his finger ends. It shows the last movement in the crossing manual, or self-blessing exercise, which consists of five distinct acts when properly performed, thus : With the tip of the right thumb — on no account must the left be used — you touch the forehead, point of the nose, then the left, and next the right temple. (This is the first act or cross.) Touch again the nose, next the chin, and finish with the left and right sides of the mouth. (The second.) Return your thumb to the chin, remove it to the breast, and pass to each shoulder. (The third.) With the open palm retouch the forehead, heart, and both shoulders. (The fourth.) Lastly, turn the forefinger behind the thumb, and press the latter to your lips. Pieces of Holy Rock . — Soldiers, and particularly those of the interior, protect themselves with amulets. I heard an officer recount, with edifying fervor, how one saved his life, in direct violation of a natural law. He was ascending the River d’Al- dea Velha, in Espirito Santo, with government dispatches, in a canoe paddled by Indians. The current was strong against 246 SKETCHES OF them, and the water rough. They were upset, one or both In- dians were drowned, but the relator, who could not swim, after floating half an hour with the tide, reached the shore, he knew not how. On drying his garments, he found a paper parcel in his coat pocket — slipped in unknown to him by his wife — con- taining a small fragment of the “ Penha,” a mountain rock con- secrated to the Virgin under the name of “ Our Lady of the Rock.” “That stone,” said he, “kept me from sinking.” The Cavallo Marinho — hippocampus — is a favorite with many. This curious-looking little flsh, when dried, is worn next the skin, and is powerful in driving off the headache as well as devils. Some have it in gold and silver. The Fig a. — One day I hinted that Chica, our lit- tle old African cook, had no amulet about her, as, from her spare dress, I could not imagine where it could be. It was said she certainly must wear one. To settle the matter, she was called in, and, to my surprise, drew from her bosom a bone figa. She said she wore a tooth in the same way in her own country. The first money a slave gets is expended on a figa, which is sometimes carved out of rosemary root. Ashes of Palms , consecrated on Palm Sunday, carried about the person, protect the wearers from thunder and lightning. The smoke arising from the combustion of the leaves expels evil spirits from dwellings. Rue retains its ancient property of keeping houses clear of witches. Whites and blacks have great faith in it as a bane to sorcery and enchantments. Occasionally persons may be no- ticed kneeling before altars on which they have placed sprigs, with the view of rendering them doubly efficacious. It is often seen peeping out between the hair and head-gear of colored women. A slip of rowan-tree or mountain ash was an old Eu- ropean charm. Love Powders. — Some harmless dust, chiefly furnished by blacks to slaves, who secretly drop it into their owners’ or em- ployers’ food to procure better treatment. Indians in the north- ern provinces employ the milky juice of herbs with the same in- tent. LIFE IN BRAZIL. 247 Sieve and Shears. — Recovering lost goods by these is in vogue, and with an addition that makes apostles abettors ot wizards. When the cutting instruments are laid on the invert- ed sieve, and the conjurer has finished his imprecations, he calls aloud, in a rhyming couplet, on San Pedro and Paulo, Phillippe and Diego, to detect the thief and show where the stolen things are. Process of curing the Bewitched. — It is a mercy that old women in compact with the wicked one are not so numerous in Rio as they once were. In the interior they are reported as mischievous as ever. When a person imagines him or herself possessed, he commonly gets a priest to make the sign of the cross over him with a sprig of rosemary dipped in holy water. Friars are preferred for this business ; those of St. Anthony are reputed the most successful. If possible, the afflicted must go to the monastery, and enter the chapel with two or more monks. After certain rites they converse with him, and judge from his replies respecting the character of the demon and the place of its expulsion. They are careful not to drive it out at the mouth, lest the victim become dumb ; nor at the ears or eyes, lest he lose his sight or hearing ; nor at an arm, hand, or leg, lest they become disabled ; but, if possible, at the soles of the feet. Negro W itches cure Patients given up by Friars. — My friend the vicar had a lad long troubled with a bruised leg. The sore resisted all his attempts to heal it. As a last resource, a color- ed “ wise woman” was consulted. She raised a smoke of dried herbs, muttered over the wound, made motions as if stitching its lips up, put on a cataplasm of herbs, sent him home, and in a week he was well. Another young slave had a diseased foot ; nothing seemed to do it good ; and at length his owner gave him leave to visit a dark sorceress, who talked to it, made signs over it, rubbed it with oil, covered it with a plaster, and in a few days he was sound too. Ancient cures — worthy of Pliny — are still in vogue. Earth- worms fried alive in olive oil, and applied warm as a poultice, remove whitlows , which are common among blacks and whites. Senhora Peres tells me she thus cured one of her slaves. The same thing has been done in J ’s family. 248 SKETCHES OF A popular remedy for the toothache is thus prepared : A liv- ing chameleon is put into an earthen pot with a close-luted cover, and baked to a cinder. A portion of this is crushed be- tween the finger and thumb, rubbed over the gums, and put into the carious cavity. Senhor H L , a senator from St. Catharine’s, found this efficient. His lady preserves the re- maining cinder for future use. The blacks have very similar recipes brought by them from Africa. The Evil Eye. — People in Brazil still suffer from it. Hand- some children have fits and other complaints, induced by earthly and unearthly beings envying their innocence and beauty ; and not hags and ogres only, but spruce ladies possess the unamiable organ. When the hair of a female becomes prematurely gray or drops off by disease, in nine cases out of ten the look of some envious fair one has done it. A young lady in our neighbor- hood had recently tresses equaling Eve’s in length and softness. She has lost them, and says she knows too well which of her acquaintances it was whose malicious glances have compelled her to wear a cap. When a stranger pats a child on the head, calls it pretty and fair, etc., both nurse and parents would be troubled if he did not conclude by asking God or the saints to bless it, that being the proof that he meant it no harm — that he had not been ob- serving it with the evil eye. The withering power is said to be allied to that by which serpents draw fluttering birds into their mouths ; and that human victims, when once struck, sicken, lan- guish, and, if not relieved, must sink into death’s jaws. Besides the numerous preservatives figured and described in preceding chap- ters, there are others, and among them llorns are not uncommon. I first no- ticed them in Barbonnos Street, at a place where fruit, vegetables, and other edibles were exposed for sale. A loose pair of sheep’s horns, painted with al- ternate bands of blue, red, white, and yellow, hung against the side of the door- post. Inquiring for what purpose they LIFE IN BRAZIL. 249 were there exposed, the colored proprietress laughingly exclaim- ed, “ To keep away the evil eye.” H aske'd if she would sell them, to which she gave a decided negative. There is a cluster of dirty shanties and apologies for tents near the Moura Fountain, in the vicinity of the landing-place at Palace Square, at which fowls are always on sale, and common- ly a monkey or two. One of them is kept by Antoine, an ac- tive Portuguese in middle life. As I commissioned him to pro- cure a sloth, I was in the habit of looking into his den. He had two pair of horns suspended over his coops. For my sat- isfaction, H one day pointed to them, and asked what good they did. With animation and immoderate gesticulation, he told us how his neighbors of adjoining shanties used to envy him for doing a greater business than they could get — how they looked on him and his fowls with an evil eye, and caused many to pine and die. “ How do they protect me ! Why, when any one now looks in to injure me, he sees them , and his envy is quenched . He recollects himself, and walks off fearful of chastisement — that is, he is afraid of having a fit, of tripping himself up while walk- ing and breaking a leg, of being choked when eating, or of some other misfortune.” It need hardly be said that Antoine’s neigh- bors guard themselves and the health of their capons against his glances by similar means. Horns are also to be seen in Yendas. Faith in them seems pretty general, except with those who have become disenchant- ed by contact with foreigners. Antoine could recognize the wicked organ in a stranger or any one else. Had he read Byron, he would oft exclaim, “ I know him by his pallid brow ; I know him by the evil eye That aids his envious treachery.” CHAPTER XXII. Begging for the Holy Ghost. — The Symbols. — Mr. Barboza. — An afflicted Moth- er.— The City agitated through Mistake. — San Jorge. — Market. — Church of Peddlers. — Burying-ground of Heretics. — Small Water-craft. — Beeves of the Sun.— Lady of Navigators. — Mozambique tribal Marks. — Church of Boa Via- gem. — Ex Yotos and Miracles. — Curious Lavatory. — View of the Harbor and Mountains. — Alms-box. — Ships’ Sails vowed to Our Lady, and sold on her Ac- count.— Indian Boy. — Wax offered to Marine Deities by old Pagans. — Other Heathen Types of Romish Customs. April 17. Forty days after Lent the most popular of Bra- zilian festivals takes place — that of the Holy Ghost. It is cele- brated for several days in the Lapa, Rita, and Santa Anna church- es, three competing establishments. Each has sent out a band of collectors, who for five weeks will canvass and recanvass the city, suburbs, and surrounding country. They have al- ready visited the shipping in the Bay with their cry, “Esmolas para Espirito Santo /” Musicians always attend them, com- monly negroes. The Lapa troop is composed of white barbers, who to a man are reputed as expert handlers of violins and bu- SKETCHES OF LIFE IN BRAZIL. 251 gles as of lancets and razors. They are hired at a higher rate than their sable brethren. While engaged this morning in writing, Dona Id came running up stairs to urge me to de- scend. “ Quick ! Here’s the Holy Ghost coming up the Cat- tete. Don’t you want to see him ?” I am sure no one could be more startled at such an announcement than I was, nor at the unaffected simplicity with which it was made. I went down, and, looking out of the open window, asked “Where?” “ Gone into that venda” (a grocery half a block off), “ but will be out directly,” replied half a dozen voices. In a little while a negro band, consisting of two French horns, three drums, a clarionet, and a fife, emerged, and recommenced a waltzing aii in the middle of the street. Next appeared four white men, in albs over their ordinary dress. Two had small crimson ban- ners, on each of which was a figure of a dove in a triangle. Another bore a little silver bird on a stand resembling a cham- ber candlestick. Like the banner-men, he also carried an alms- dish. The fourth bore a capacious bag. The minstrels, except when they leave it — as just now — to take a drink, keep the middle of the street, and regulate their steps to the progress of the alb-men on the side-walks ; now creeping, anon standing, and then dashing onward, the music rising with their motions. The collectors call at every house, but have occasion to knock at few, as the music draws the in- mates out. Yonder a lady is throwing back a pair of latticed blinds ; a banner-man flies over, and burying for a moment her face in the flag, she adds a contribution to his dish. Next door a cluster of girls have got the little bird among them, and re- turn it with vintems. A neighbor now takes a flag in, that every member of his family may perform an act of devotion by kissing it ; and there, a Mozambique fruit-woman bathes her face in its folds ; her offering, two oranges, is dropped into the bag, the receptacle of donations other than money — no, not for all such, for the musicians have now come up, and, as I live, the clarionet-player carries a live rooster under his arm, the gift, probably, of some dealer in poultry. Of course it would not do to put it among eggs, bread, fruit, and kindred quiet things. Nothing is refused, from bank bills to a banana, or half a yard of ribbon as a streamer for a banner-staff. 252 SKETCHES OF It is our turn now : one of the embroidered treasures comes in at the window ; all the ladies save one shrink from it. Sen- hora P gives it the kiss of reverence. In her zeal, poor soul, and under the popular belief that it is a powerful charm, she used it far too much like a pocket-handkerchief, rubbing her eyes, face, neck, and bosom with it. I now perceived that every Romanist does not care to become too intimate with such things. Some decline even to touch them. I think I saw and felt the cause, but shall not mention it at present. Opportuni- ties will occur for verifying or dissipating my convictions. Pom- pey took the holy ensign to the kitchen to comfort Cliica, the old black cook ; and, ere she got through with it, the polite bearer cast anxious glances after it, as he had received pressing signals from across the way. The troop now passed on. The minstrels struck up a fresh ah- that set young feet a tripping. The rooster actually crowed an accompaniment. Independent of the exhilarating fife and drum, and rousing trumpets, the scene is a stirring one. The collectors, with their banners fluttering over their heads, and their albs streaming behind them, are running hither and thith- er, crossing and recrossing the street as devotees appear at win- dows and door-hatches, while their brethren with the little bird and bag are as busy answering calls made on them. I have heard much about the doings at the strange festa, but it is useless to speculate on what we shall soon have opportuni- ties to see for ourselves. 18 th. Walked with II to Rua Marecas, and turned into a private entry near the Duck Fountain. My companion clap- ped his hands — an Oriental summons common in the Levant — an Ethiopian appeared at the stairhead. Being told who we were, he returned with an invitation to step up and take seats in Senhor Barboza’s parlor. After resting a while, the Senliora came in, saying she ex- pected her husband every minute. Her sprightly conversation made me regret the inability to commune directly with her. A native of Montevideo, she ought to be half Republican, and per- haps is so. She laughingly remarked, “ Ah ! you North Amer- icans don’t love monarchs nor the splendors of royalty.” To this pretty fillip it was replied that, though we had no very LIFE IN BRAZIL 253 marked regard for kings of diamonds, we admired queens of hearts, and that every lady with us was one. It was conceded at once that if our taste was defective as respects one class of governors, it was unexceptionable as regards another. The con- versation was here interrupted by the arrival of Senhor B , who led us into his sanctum, a room actually crammed with curiosities. Besides collections of Brazilian relics, here was a rare one of Peruvian antiquities, in earthenware, stone, and metals. These I begged permission to sketch. For his prompt acquiescence I made my best acknowledgments, and when the reader comes to the Appendix in which they are described, he will feel equally obliged to this enlightened Brazilian gentleman. 19 th. J ’s birth-day, and kept in Brazilian fashion. His brother-in-law, H — — , vice-president of a neighboring province, and member of the National Legislature, arrived with his fam- ily. The lady of this gentleman has endured an amount of af- fliction which falls to the lot of few of her sex, and, though now resigned to the severe dispensation of Providence, its effects are visible in her calm but plaintive face. Like Niobe and Rachel, she weeps for her children because they are not. A few years ago, returning by sea from Rio to Rio Grande to join her husband, a storm arose — the vessel became unmanageable — broke in two — all on board perished except herself and a sea- man. After being in the water twelve hours, she was washed ashore insensible. With returning consciousness, the shrieks of her offspring ere the billows dashed them from her were re- called. She asked for them, called them by name as though they still were clinging to her, and the youngest in her arms. Alas ! the whole seven were ingulfed in the watery abyss. 20 tli. The emperor has been expected every horn' for the last three or four days. Preparations have been going on for months to compliment him with a triumphal pomp. A stately and mass- ive arch has been erected in Dcrcita Street, surmounted by an equestrian statue of him of colossal dimensions. The entrance by the public garden is prettily set off with an elevated pedi- ment and emblematic paintings, while within, colored lanterns, ready for lighting, are pendent from the trees. These joyful proceedings were met to-day by a contretemps. At 1 P.M. the fort signaled the imperial frigates in the offing. The National 254 SKETCHES OF Guards assembled, guns were fired, church bells rung, a little steamer started down the Bay with officers of the palace, the schools were dismissed, and at length the vessels hove in sight — the United States frigate Columbia and the Saratoga cor- vette ! The unlucky signal-man at the outer fort is to be dis- missed for thus bringing the whole city together. Had the American commodore appeared an hour later, the city had cer- tainly been illuminated. 23c/. Anniversary of “ San Jorge, Defensor do Imperio.” This mighty warrior appears in public only once a year, on which occasions, armed cap-a-pie, a baton in his hand and a fal- chion by his side, he leads the emperor and court, the national troops, the Church’s staff, and an army of lay people through the streets in triumph. I supposed this was the pageant-day, but it occurs in June, so that not till then can we pay our re- spects to the hero. J and I took a boat early at the Flamingo Praya to go up the Bay, but the mist over the water became so thick that we were liable to lose ourselves. No object, not even a ship, was visible at a distance of a hundred feet. Veiled in the gloom, and without a compass, we sought the shore, till the great Cloud Creator and Disperser should gather up the dark one that in- volved us, and through which, with much uncertainty, we were driving. Landing at Palace Square, some four miles from where we started, we found the market crowded with buyers and sellers of fish, fruits, earthen and wooden wares, live turkeys, sucking pigs, Guinea and common fowls. No dressed poultry or pigs are seen. In one cage were pigs differing from any I had seen — longer legged, of a dullish gray color, and long, pendent tails, with a tuft of hair at the end of each. Of fish, besides five-feet sharks waiting for purchasers, here were streaked bass and mackerel three feet long, if bass and mackerel they were. To pass the time till the fog cleared up, I strolled to the low- er end of Ouvidor, where stands an ancient temple of the ped- dlers— clos Mascas. The body of the little place is circular, and fitted up with two shrines of Ann and Joaquim. The fig- ures are of natural size, and accompanied with minikin attend- ants, fresh painted, that looked quite comfortable. One is a LIFE IN BRAZIL. 255 friar. Little angels also, hovering about the niches, are genu- ine soaring ones, not like obese things modeled after penguins, and no more able to rise above the ground. No one was pres- ent but myself. At length a negro came in, dropped on his knees, and, instead of addressing the saint, kept watching my eveiy movement. A boy, not over six or seven years old, en- tered from a side door with a cruet, small bell, and a napkin, which he placed on Joaquim’s table. In a friar’s gown, the hood hanging down his back, a white tasseled cord round his waist, slip-shod and bare-legged, he was the youngest acting monk I met with. “After rain comes sunshine.” By nine the haze had van- ished, when a boat, propelled by four African oarsmen, took me two miles up the Bay to the British burying-ground — an irreg- ular plot, part of a mountain slope, opposite the little Bay of Gamboa, and the last resting-place of heretics that die here. The broad path leading through it is necessarily steep and crook- ed. Half way up, a spot has been leveled for a little structure in which the burial-service is read. The graves are generally level with the surface, and marked by narrow plates of cast iron thrust into the ground and numbered. The prevailing monu- ments are horizontal slabs. Foreign officers lie here, who might at this moment have been the pride of their parents and orna- ments of their country — victims of a false sentiment of honor, that has consigned them to corruption and oblivion in their bloom. One monumental souvenir above all others engaged my at- tention. A low stucco fence incloses it, leaving room for lilies, rose bushes, saudades, and purple flowering vines, while at the corners young cypresses shoot up. It is the grave of Alfred , an affectionate and precocious child, whose departure has torn his parents’ heart-strings. A more auspicious resting-place for the dead can hardly be found on earth. Located on the declivity of a tropical mount, clothed in perpetual verdure, its walks and tombs bordered with flowers, and its area dotted with Indian walnut-trees, mangoes, cinnamon, African corn, and the sweet mandioca ; with ara9as, cajus, and the cardamoma, with its rose-colored clusters ; pin- heiros, pitangas, and calabash-trees with both rounded and elon- 256 SKETCHES OF gated fruit — what Christian could desire a fitter sepulchre, or where find one more abounding with emblems of innocence and immortality ! The blights of winter invade it not ; ranges of everlasting hills surround it, and earth’s brightest skies smile over it. On returning, I could not but observe the variety of water- craft in motion — handsome-shaped canoes, with elevated bows and sterns, and their rapid propulsion in right lines by a single paddle. The faluas appear to me identical in form and rig with Egyptian Nile-boats. But the day was favorable for observing bodies floating in another medium. In few parts of the earth are the phenomena of clouds — their formation, attraction by mountains, and ab- sorption— more visible than here. If Homer derived not his “Beeves of the sun” from cumuli, he might have done so if Sicilian skies resemble those of Rio. The feeblest imagination can not fail of being struck with the analogy and of realizing the imagery. Regularly almost as evening comes do these celestial flocks collect about the highest peaks, and descend among the lowest, to empty their charged udders. See ! at this moment, while some are stationary half way down the Corcovado range, others are moving along the Tejucan valleys as if to meet water- nymphs waiting, like mortal dairy-maids, with empty pails. Thus are they seen at eventide approaching, and in the morn- ing hieing away to distant pastures. Such are the kine that diurnally furnish the Flumenensians with life’s richest, sweetest fluid. Yonder, far as the eye can reach, a herd is coming in a right line. IIow steadily they approach, and how beautifully their snow-white sides are relieved by the azure of their ethe- real meadows ! I think these sights are equal to any in Bra- zil. The evening dews are dense as if showers fell. A few mornings ago, after sketching a fountain, I scrambled up a mount, and my dress was as thoroughly soaked as if it had been dragged through a stream. 2 4th. A friend and I agreed to devote a day to a mount- ain isle on the opposite side of the Bay, and close in with the shore, between San Domingo and the fort of Santa Cruz. From the city it looks no larger than a good-sized haystack, which it LIFE IN BRAZIL. 257 resembles. It is sacred to the protectress of seamen, having been dedicated, with the church that crowns it — yon small white patch on its summit — some two hundred years ago, to “Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem,” a lady to whose providence Brazilian and Portuguese sailors committed and commit themselves, make vows to and call upon her when in peril, just as ancient navi- gators dealt with Neptune and Oceanus. Having had a pros- perous voyage from the States, a pious relative says I ought to go. We crossed the Bay in a small steamer, whose pilot was a Mozambique slave, and landed at San Domingo, where the gate- keeper or ferry-master was, or had been, another. Both were tall, middle-aged, and as finely-formed men as I ever saw, the latter particularly. He had no more of the negro lineaments than had Mark Antony or Cato, but both had indelible marks of their barbaric origin — one a double, the other a single row of pimples, the size of peas, down the middle of the forehead, and along the ridge of the nose to its very tip — the signs of then- na- tive tribes. The Mozambiques are among the best of slaves. Equally intelligent and more pacific than the Minas (from the Gold Coast), faithful and trustworthy, they bring a high price. A gentleman who crossed the Bay with us had witnessed, while on a visit to the eastern coast of South Africa, the process of producing the fleshy beads. At one time he saw forty or fifty lads and young men lying on the ground suffering from the op- eration. A minute incision is made through the skin for each pimple ; the lips of the wound then are pulled up and tied by a thread, and in time the protuberances become permanently glo- bose, smooth, and shining. After skirting round a mountain, and following a narrow path- way darkened with dense foliage towering over us, with coffee, orange, and banana trees, and chacaras concealed among the exuberant vegetation, we came plump on the beach in the rear of the Sacred Isle, which was now between us and the city, as represented in the cut on p. 62. A strip of sand connects it at low tides with the opposite shore, and on it a stone causeway has been built ; but the whole is broken down and dispersed by the surf, save part of an arch projecting from the precipitous face of the isle. The tide was coming in, and we had to retreat. It 258 SKETCHES OF My companion hallooed, and presently a naked yellow boy came over in a leaky canoe, which could only take one of us across at a time. The only craft belonging to the place, it was hardly creditable to the patroness of watermen. While my companion was being paddled over, I had an op- portunity of observing a very interesting fact in physics. The ridge of sand just mentioned is formed by waves rolling in from opposite directions and meeting there. While reclining on a stone at a spot where their force was reduced almost to nothing, the tiny surges crossed each other, and continued on their way without having their forms or movements apparently the least affected. One swept over the other, while each preserved its outline and progress as if no such contact had taken place. The shallow, transparent fluid, and the almost snow-white sand be- low, rendered their movements distinctly visible. Young Charon returned, and I joined H on a rock, in which notches were cut for the feet and hands to mount it. By careful climbing, we got into a zigzag path, at places too steep for any biped to ascend, had not the soil been cut into steps, with stakes driven in for risers. The only passage up, it pre- sents one of those cases where a few determined spirits could keep an army at bay, or children put bold men to flight. As we rose, we found preparations made to test the latter. We came to a stone door-way. To pass by it without wings was impossible, and within it stood a sentinel with musket and fixed bayonet. He was supported by a comrade in a military cap, blue roundabout, a cartridge-box at his side, and a brass-han- dled sword in his hand. Neither of these warriors exceeded four feet in height nor ten years of age ! One I perceived was an Indian. What all this meant I could not divine, nor find breath to ask. They made way for us, and we passed through — two sweating, panting, broken-winded pilgrims, pressing on- ward to the shrine above. Tacking this way and that, we at length stopped to rest, when H told me that the place had been little visited by devotees of late years, and that the government had established a school on it for a hundred boys, to be educated for marines. The governor was his old army acquaintance. Starting again, we approached the top of this immense rock, came to a low LIFE IN BRAZIL. 259 dwelling, and observed the church a little farther up. The gov- ernor and his amiable family received us both as old acquaint- ances. Being a widower, his mother takes charge of his chil- dren. The old lady, with spectacles on nose, but no cap on her gray head, was busy with her needle. The house, of one story, is cool, comfortable, and wholly void of ornament. After taking a draught of sugar and water, H entered into con- versation with our venerable hostess in native style. As his tongue rattled on, his arms were here, there, and every where : he frowned, smiled, and grinned successively; his voice, now a whisper, next a shout ; his eyeballs rolling, and his whole sys- tem in commotion. He wound up with placidly drawing forth his caixa de rape, and begging his smiling auditress to take a pinch. He had merely been relating some commonplace city news. We found the little church open. A contemporary of that on Gloria Hill, every thing about it reminds one of former times. Almost the entire structure, as well as its images and orna- ments, came from Portugal. For want of repairs, both stone and wood work are going to decay. The lady patroness is neg- lected too. No priest lives here to wait on her, and only at long intervals does one appear. Her glory is waning with her walls. The “noble brotherhood” once devoted to her service has been long extinct. Even the records of her former great- ness are no more. The low walls support a rather high roof, whose converging sides are truncated, leaving the interior like the lower half of the letter A. Entering the old-fashioned door, the hat of a tall man would touch the ceiling of a little gallery stretching over- head. Here were marine subjects — ships tossing on the ocean, and Our Lady in the clouds watching them. Advancing, we found the side walls set off with Dutch tiles, and the ceiling covered with paintings of shipwrecks and the miraculous rescue of drowning sailors ; of Portuguese in conflict with Mohammed- ans ; the marriage of the Virgin ; the mother of the mother of God and her husband teaching the mother of God to read ; an emblematic fountain, in which the Virgin holds the infant Christ, from whose toes and fingers issue streams of water into an over- flowing vase, while men gaze and crowd to catch the falling 260 SKETCHES OF drops. Here are three altars, with their appurtenances. Over the chief one “Our Lady of the Good Voyage” presides. She is only thirty inches high, yet far too large for the ship she stands on. Though inclosed in glass, her garments and the Baby’s are faded and colorless. Of the candles before her none arc lit ; all look yellow, as if they had been years on duty, that tall one in front excepted. It is white, clean, and distinguished farther by a red ribbon tied round the middle. “ That,” said the governor, “ was sent here yesterday from a woman whose hus- band is at sea — an offering on his behalf.” A few days since, another female sent over eight pounds of wax to secure the safe return of her son from Pernambuco. One of the lesser shrines is dedicated to Santa Rita, the other to Santa Clara. Neither of these ladies are over twenty inches in stature, and not being inclosed, are left to take their chance with less sacred wood-work. They are destitute and perishing. Every thing is on a small scale as well as the images. A preacher in the box-pulpit could, with an ordinary coach-whip, administer discipline to every sinner in the congregation. Now let us, in passing out, take a glance at the collection of old ex votos at the right and left of the entrance. Here hang bunches of waxen legs, arms, feet, hands, paps, breasts, heads, eyes, entire abdomens, etc., all of natural dimensions. A vo- tive tablet records that Justina de Araujo Silva had a cancer no one eye, and was miraculously cured by N. S. da Boa Via- gem. A monstrous tumor is represented in lively colors bleed- ing on a waxen neck — another great cure wrought by her. A tablet has a foundering ship portrayed on it, and tells us she was overtaken by a hurricane, when the crew called on the lady of this church, and she saved all. The vessel was trebly guard- ed from evil in her name: “ Santa Anna, San Antonio, and E Almas!” This small board declares that the female who offer- ed it was long afflicted with a pain in her side, and she was in danger of making a voyage to the other world. She came here to consult Our Lady, and was healed. One more, dated 1756, lias a painting on it of a man sick in bed, and Our Lady in a corner of the room, telling him to rub the diseased parts with oil taken from the lamp then burning before her, in this very place. He followed the advice, rose a sound man, and hung LIFE IN BRAZIL. 261 up this tablet as a testimony of his gratitude and of the mir- acle.* We passed into the sacristy. Two lads came in and opened drawers of the old bureau to look for something. In one lay loose leaves of an early volume in manuscript on the “Nobre Irmanda de N. S. da Boa Viagem.” Some entries were dated in 1719. The only existing volume begins with 1769, and closes, without being filled, in 1818. In other drawers were the lady’s linen and holiday dresses, two purple silk gowns, em- broidered stomachers, and frocks and frills for the infant ; a pill- box held their crowns and three or four splendor es- — i. e., silver or tin rays attached to wires to stick them on the head. Quite a number of old pictures hang on the walls. One, three feet by two, represents the birth of the Virgin. St. Anna is in bed, her husband in an arm-chair near her, and half a dozen women washing the new-born child, making posset, etc. Every can- vas is ready to drop from its frame, nearly eaten out by ants. Strange, that one who can rescue sinking ships and seamen, cure colics, cancers, and other ills, should not, by a small mira- cle, keep her own place here in better order — save it, as well as souls, from perishing. As characteristic a thing as any is the Lavatory. In city vestries this is generally of sculptured marble ; here it is of Chinaware, and exhibits in a striking light the piety of ancient manners voyaging from the Indies. Every piece was a gift to the lady of the place. The ewer has been a soup tureen ; the wash-basin an octagonal salad-bowl. Auxiliary ornaments are from tea-sets. The manner of arranging and combining them is curious, and the whole affair is unique : against the wall arises from a step a conical fancy slab, its scalloped sides term- inating with a trefoil at the apex some six feet high. It is not of stone, but stucco. Four feet up is the tureen, of which one third nearly has been buried in tire mortar to sustain the two thirds projecting from it. The plaster has been scooped out to * A strictly parallel case may as well be given from Gruter : One Lucius was sick of a pleurisy, and applied to Esculapius, to whom he had great devotion. The god appeared to him in a dream, and told him to take ashes from his altar, mingle them with wine, and apply them to his side. He obeyed, got well, and hung up in the temple an acknowledgment of the miraculous cure. 262 SKETCHES OF allow the cover to be removed. In front of the vessel a hole is drilled to receive a faucet — at present tilled with a cork. Be- low is the basin, fixed in the same way. Then all over the remaining parts of the slab are imbedded tea and coffee-cups, saucers, tea-pot lids, plates, preserve-dishes, etc., of porcelain, with the painted sides outward. Parts of vessels are stuck in where whole ones could not be. I counted a dozen cups, four plates, between thirty and forty saucers, all whole, besides full as many broken pieces. Placed outside of a building, it would be taken as the sign of crockery on sale within. The little cinerary vase at the foot is modern, of polished rosewood ; it contains the ashes of a child, with the touching in- scription, “ T. d’Amor P.” — “ Testimonial of a Father’s Love.” By a flag-staff near the church a couple of Liliputian sentries LIFE IN BRAZIL. 263. paraded. Others were sweeping paths with bunches of leaves. Several Indians are among them, chiefly tamed ones from Jes- uit settlements. The authorities pick them up wherever they can, and send them down to the marine and naval schools here. They are said to make good seamen. It was asserted that the aborigines, wild and tame, have little regard for their children, often selling them for cachaca rum ; and that their offspring care nothing for their parents. To illustrate this, the governor call- ed, at my suggestion, a little fellow from the vicinity of the Am- azon. In reply to interrogatories, he told us his father was dead, and he wanted to go to his mother. We ascended the roof to get an uninterrupted view of the bay and ocean — of the city and surrounding scenery — and such a prospect ! The sea, a sheet of silver ; not a ruffle on the glistening bay to divert attention from its emerald isles and ver- dant shores, nor a cloud on the smiling face of heaven. It was like a scene in Eden. I shall not attempt to describe it, nor to portray the buoyancy of mind and feeling it inspired. Not till now did I perceive the relative positions of the famous peaks in the vicinity of Rio : the Sugar-loaf, Two Brothers, Gavia, Corcovado, and Tejuco. But here they rose before us in such bold outlines that I could not resist the impulse to sketch them ; and the rather, as no such view, I understand, has been taken, notwithstanding its conveying so clear an idea of the physical features of the country, including even a large portion 264 SKETCHES OF of Brazil. Instead of hills and dales, plains and valleys, it pre- sents an endless succession of mountains, rocks, and ravines. The point on the extreme left is the site of the Fort of Santa Cruz. Outside of the harbor’s mouth are Razee and Rond Isl- ands. In the range are seen the Sugar-loaf, Two Brothers, Gavia, Corcovado, Tejuco, the Isle of Villegagnon, and part of the city, about five miles off. In a garret over the vestry, used as a school-room, wrere, among obsolete apparatus, two wooden friars, two feet high, fixed on a base, and pointing to a perpendicular slit in a board between them. A short tin tube proceeds from the breast of each. The governor thought it was an ancient weather-indi- cator, and that, when fair, the shaven crowns were exposed ; when wet, the cowls, which moved on joints, were raised to shield them from the rain. Probably a modification of the old popular toy of a man and woman in a box : when the sun is out she appears, but when a storm is brewing she goes in and sends her partner forth. Here was also an alms-box, worn out in service. It is of an oval form, made of tin plate, pro- vided with a lock, ornamented with a picture of the Lady of the Good Voyage, and with a strap to pass over the neck of the collect- or when he started forth to receive contributions from her friends among the shipping, and from oth- ers on the city shore. It is rust- ed through and through. After dining with our excellent host we took our leave. On our way down, we found the In- dian child who longed for his mother on guard. At one spot the granite seemed stratified, the seams inclining at an angle of 40°. At the water’s edge it resembled an artificial pavement, the white quartz projecting half an inch to an inch and a half from the dark matrix like so many pebbles. Having to wait for the steamer, we noticed theatrical and other bills posted on the ferry-house walls, esmola boxes to receive contributions for LIFE IN BRAZIL. 265 the saints, etc. It was near dark ere we reached the city, and concluded this delightful pilgrimage of a day. The church of Boa Viagem is, in some respects, well located. No vessel can enter or leave the harbor without passing it. No votary comes in without being reminded of his promised offer- ings, or goes out without a hint of the value of the lady’s pro- tection. Still, it is too distant from the city and anchorage- ground, and too difficult of approach. To accommodate all who do not like to cross the Bay, or from other causes find it incon- venient to go so far, an office is opened in the city, in Saint Lu- zia’s Church, where, as we have seen, the Lady of Navigators has an altar and a cash-box. In other churches, also, she is in- voked by those who wish to secure safe passages over seas for themselves or friends, and receives the acknowledgments of such as she has saved from hurricanes and lee shores. Many a ton of wax and the sails of hundreds of vessels have been of- fered to her on the island, but the business is now almost en- tirely done in the city. Doha S told me that she came from Rio Grande in 181G in one of her father’s vessels. The passage was pleasant till within a day’s sail of the Sugar-loaf. A small cloud then rose rapidly from the horizon, darkness gathered over them, the sea began to swell, and other indications of a storm so alarmed the captain, that he called the men aft and asked them to join him in offering: the mainsail to Francis de Paula on condition of his carrying them safe in. They agreed. Dona S remem- bers them standing round the commander, and with loud voices calling on the saint, reminding him of what they had promised, each man confirming the gift so far as his proportion of the cost went. On arriving safe, they paid for a mass, and a few days afterward went to the saint’s quarters in procession, bare- foot, bearing the sail through the streets, with the captain at their head. The offering was deposited in front of the church. A fair value was put upon it in presence of the priest ; the cap- tain laid down the money, and was handed a receipt stating the amount which the pious commander, Antonio Martines Bezerra, had paid into the treasury of the saint, the value of his mainsail, in fulfillment of a vow made at the approach of a storm on such a day, as an acknowledgment of the saint’s 2G6 SKETCHES OF miraculous interposition in behalf of himself, his ship, and crew. Auctions of ships’ sails vowed to saints in stormy weather were, till recently, quite common, and are not yet obsolete. The captains always bought them in, and not unfrequently the priests had some one to run them up, to prevent their being knocked down too low. A regular receipt was always given. Similar scenes occasion- ally take place at St. Anthony’s Convent, in front of the churches of Sts. Jose, Sebastian, Luzia, and others; but the priests of St. Francis have the greatest run, though this holy man probably never knew the difference between a barnacle and a binnacle. In coming down from Pernambuco in 1831, my informant says they had Unusually bad weather near the Abrolhos. Three water-spouts were in sight, and one so near that the noise of the ascending fluid was quite audible. Instead of depending on his own energies, and stimulating those of the crew, the cap- tain had recourse to the Lady of the Good Voyage, promising her a large amount of wax if she would run them in alongside her island by the following day, the 4th of April. They did not get in till the 5th, and the lady lost her reward, the cap- tain having no idea of paying her, pro rata , for what she had done — illustrating the ancient saying, “ When the danger is over the saint is neglected.” It is an old custom of popish mariners (and pagan ones too) to scourge their patron saints when praying to them fails. Whether the practice is enforced upon the Lady of Boa Viagem 1 know not. It is probably confined to the other sex. Anthony comes in for many a thrashing at sea as well as on shore, i. e., in ordinarily rough weather, for, when storms rage, recourse is had to entreaty and to vows, according to the proverb, “ When the pilot promiseth wax and mass, it is going ill with the ship." As a tempest increases, the inducements held out increase also ; officers and men, by a natural as well as devotional impulse, bidding higher and higher. Thus one or two of the smaller sails are first offered the saint ; if they do not soften him, more are promised, till the main sheet is added, and, as a last resource, its weight in wax, has been given.* * The custom of offering wax — that is, candles, or the material to make them — LIFE IN BRAZIL. 267 The identity between institutions, doctrines, and ceremonies of Romanists and pagans was a sore puzzle to the Jesuits on then- first reaching China, Thibet, and India. There they found monks and nuns, and hierarchies from begging friars up to ab- bots, cardinals, and popes, with the usual appurtenances to al- tars and images, but confession, extreme unction, and, what was still more perplexing, a virgin represented with a child, and adored as the Queen of Heaven, Holy Mother, and the Madon- na. So, also, on board of Oriental craft, they found little genii set up in cabins, with lights and other offerings before them, as in their own country shipping. CHAPTER XXIII. People of Color. — Twilight and Climate. — Barbonos Monks. — The Ex-Nuncio. — Henry A. Wise recalled. — Arrival of the Emperor and Anxieties of Courtiers — A new Saint. — Mask. — Market Incident. — St. Peter's Church. — N. S. Con- cei<;ao. — Plaster Images proposed. — Collecting-days and Collectors. — Church of the Mother of Men. — Fat Ladies and Gentlemen. — Unctuous Worship of N. S’s. Shoe-sole. — Bedini, the new Nuncio. April 25. Here are many wealthy people of color. I have passed black ladies in silks and jewelry, with male slaves in livery behind them. To-day one rode past in her carriage, ac- companied by a liveried footman and a coachman. Several have white husbands. The first doctor in the city is a colored man, so is the President of the province. The Viscountess C a, and scores of the first families, are tinged. This morning the brief duration of twilight was very observ- able. Within half an hour the heavens changed from black to gray, and from gray to blue. Dark at half past five — at six, sun- rise. Thus abruptly the business of life is ushered in and closed. by seamen is of unknown antiquity. It is mentioned by Pitts, in the 17th cen- tury, as practiced by the Moors, in storms to allay, and in calms to secure a wind When one of their vessels was about to pass the Straits, the sailors were accus- tomed “ to make a gathering of small wax candles, which they usually carry with them, and bind them in a bundle, and then, together with a pot of oil, throw them overboard, as a present to the marabout or saint who lies entombed there on the Barbary shore, not in the least doubting but the present will come safe to the marabout’s hands.” — A Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mo- hammedans. London, 1731. 268 SKETCHES OF The heat, so uniform, and the lassitude it induces, make peo- ple seek repose at early hours. Here is nothing like our social gossipings over winter’s tires. Verily, the pleasures of perpet- ual summer, of flowers ever blooming, and of weather ever warm, are not all that poets make them. They become monot- onous, and cease to charm. The body languishes, and the mind itself begins to lose its vigor. At any rate, a feeling of the kind makes me long for the elasticity that attends a north- ern spring, which makes the blood, like that of plants, leap through the veins. Not insensible to the glories of the tropics, L prefer the alternations of the temperate zones — snow, and ice, and summer’s sun. In going to town, I overtook three of the monks recently re- turned in a Genoese vessel from a mission to the Holy Land. They have brought home select articles of vertu : scraps of the Virgin’s veil and of Peter’s scapulary, chaplets in great variety, pieces of the true cross, etc. To my fancy, they are, as they shuffle on before me, with fresh-shaven crowns and newly-wash- ed legs, enormous white beaver hats, pinched up like canoes, and carried in their hands, flapping cowls and knotted belts, from which large beads, like strings of onions, hang, as great curiosities as any imported from the Old World into the new one. They belong to the “ Barbonos” or Bearded Friars. Their house or monastery is in Barbonos Street, and the great- er part of it sacrilegiously occupied as a blacksmithing establish- ment ; and, worse than all, by one of the monks who threw aside his cassock at the epoch of independence, and who, maugre the denunciations of his brethren and their efforts to eject him, keeps four forges going. There is not a fountain in Bio but presents, with the land- scape of which it makes the foreground, the elements of a picture, and some are eminently picturesque. For several days I have been endeavoring to secure their outlines. After visiting one this morning in Engenho Velha, I continued along the avenue to the residence of the Hon. Henry A. Wise, and spent the day with him and his amiable lady. The ex-nuncio, an old gentleman in a three-cornered hat and red stockings, called to take leave of Mr. Wise, having been su- perseded, and, as report goes, by a deep-designing Jesuit. He LIFE IN BRAZIL. 269 is reputed to have been too liberal to suit the views of the Vat- ican, and too enlightened to sanction the popular superstitions. He says the people here have no religion ; they worship images, and delight only in the grossest of Church usages, while the clergy are notorious for the worst of vices. He was once asked why the Pope did not send a legate to preside over the Roman- ists in the United States. His reply was, “ There is no need of one. The clergy there are more spiritual than any where else. Their conflicts with Protestant sects keep them pure.” [Mr. Wise was subsequently recalled. If the published ac- counts of the first interview of one of his successors with the court are to be relied on, there is a passage in Plutarch respect- ing two Theban embassadors to the Persian monarch worth transcribing: “Pelopidas submitted to nothing unworthy of his country or his character, but Ismenias, when commanded to adore the king, dropped his ring, that, stooping to pick it up, he might make the required prostration.” There are Republicans without even the virtue of Ismenias — who pander to royalty to an extent that, in an Athenian or Spartan embassador, would have been punished with death.] 2 Q>th. The morning papers announced the probable arrival of the emperor from his southern tour, and by noon the expected frigate entered the Bay. Guns at the fort and flags on Castle Hill proclaimed the news. Hackney-carriages and liveries are in fierce demand — flowers too, to shower on the monarch and his queen. Ladies for some time back have been preparing their dresses, and gentlemen also — men of fifty, ex-councilors and senators, consulting about costumes in which to join the procession ; whether to dress like the courtiers of Francis I., Henry IV., or to imitate those of Louis XIV. ! studying, more- over, in what drapery their youngest sons should, by waiting- on their imperial majesties to-day, “ take the first step in nobil- ity,” for such is the expression. It is amusing to hear, as we have heard for the last two hours, of gentlemen at their wits’ end in consequence of the dil- atoriness of the artists on whose skill their hopes have been placed ; but the delay, in one or more instances, is known to be due to alterations ordered after the last cut and finish had been repeatedly given. On this account, and because some pub- 270 SKETCHES OF lie decorations are not quite complete, a deputation has been off to ask the emperor to remain on board till to-morrow, when every thing will be ready to receive him. He is said to have given an emphatic refusal. He landed at 4 P.M. A light rain fell, but a procession was formed from the Bay to the palace, consisting of officers of the army, navy, and the Church, ministers of state, gentlemen of the bed-chamber, and a fair bevy of maids of honor. Pedro walked under a canopy. Six feet three inches tall, his wife with difficulty reached his arm. Some of the officers of the household had their sons with them— lads of eight, ten, and twelve, dressed in court costume. Several had the right to at- tend, from having rendered personal service to the emperor, and becoming thereby ex officio members of the household. Inquir- ing what the nature of the service was, I was told such as pick- ing up his handkerchief, presenting him a towel after dinner, a tooth-pick, or a snuff-box, for which their fathers or friends contrive to give them an opportunity. They are named “ the emperor’s young and noble servants,” a title, with the privileges, much sought after. At the christening of the little prince, four of them climbed the first rung of glory’s ladder by carrying a cloth to wipe the child after being anointed. As a fact indicative of republican feeling, a young Brazilian of my acquaintance refused to succeed his father as “ a gentle- man of the bed-chamber,” saying he would perform no such services for any man. The bishop informs the public through the “ Jornal” that he has designated the 10th proximo for the inauguration of the new saint brought from the catacombs at Rome, to which day we will postpone our notice of her. 11th. Met a negro with an iron mask in his hand, probably to put on one of his fellow-slaves, or possibly himself ; he look- ed sorrowful enough for either contingency. An exciting scene to a stranger was the unloading of several faluas. Laughing and yelling slaves came wading through the muddy surf with crockery-ware, coffee, and other inland produce on their heads. A cargo of the former they spread out on clean spots of Palace Square. Stepping into the market, an old man at the doorway offered SKETCHES OF 271 me a little framed picture. “My friend,” quoth I, “I don’t want it but he so persisted in holding it up before me by a loop, that, to satisfy him, I took it in hand, and lo ! it was a thin rectangular alms-box, having a dirty engraving of some saint pasted on one side. A negro, crippled and awfully disfig- ured by elephantiasis, seated on the steps, watched us closely, and when I handed back the box, burst into such a shriek of laughter as I suppose is seldom heard out of Africa. On re- ceiving it, the man seemed all but transfixed. He wore a with- ered alb, and was taking up collections for the saint figured on the box. I am told his amazement probably arose as much from my neglecting to kiss the portrait as from not contribu- ting, no one taking in hand such holy things without carrying them to the lips. Were the Savior to revisit the earth and walk through this market, would he drop alms into the recepta- cle of sacerdotal mendicants, or into the hands of poor black La- zaruses at their feet ? In Rua San Pedro I found the dark and little church dedica- ted to him open, and went in. It is slightly elliptical, with a domed roof, divided into panels, in which mitres, crooks, and kindred symbols figure. Here are two side shrines, at one of which a priest and lad were performing mass. Not a worshiper present except an old negress and myself. In a few minutes the priest finished, folded something up in a cloth, and, with his assistant, retired. Among a groxip of little statues at one shrine was Backet , with a knife sticking in his skull. While trying to make out the others, a dark shadow swept over the floor, ac- companied with a slam. I turned ; the old black woman had vanished, and a half naked negro was staring at me with the church keys in his hand. Here are some good old carvings, but the names of the images, large and small, I could not ex- tract from the grinning sacristan. The only intelligent replies as I pointed to each were “ San Pedro” and “ San Gonsalves." I next toiled up Mount Concei^o to the bishop’s palace — a plain two-story structure, with nothing observable about it but its location and pompous name. I have already remarked that here the constituted servants of the Lord are lords of the hills, and own no small part of the city valleys too, while in the interior some ecclesiastical orders can exclaim with God 272 SKETCHES OF himself, “Every beast of the forest is ours, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” Turning into Violas Street, I came to a very mean-looking church. The door was closed, but a side passage led into the vestry, where were huge collections of ex votos, and among I hem quite a number of babies— and properly so, since this is l he temple of the Lady da Conce^ao. Masons were replaster- ing the niches in the cemetery, of which there are ninety. An open door showed a negro taking up an old carpet near the altar. Stepping in, I found myself close to the goddess of the place, and was greatly disappointed in finding the most popular of Brazil- ian patronesses — the lady par excellence — she to whom the em- peror’s mother cried for a boy, and had him sent her — in so wretched a home, and so sooty and shabbily dressed! And who could have expected that this lady, of all others, should be represented in a four-foot doll, with garments stained and tar- nished as if from standing years in a toy-shop window? V rere I familiar with ecclesiastical managers, I would suggest I he replacing of the legions of their wooden ladies and gentle- men with saints cast in Paris plaster. Such, from their snowy whiteness, their freedom from spots and stains, would harmon- ize with, and even suggest ideas of moral purity, and conse- quently be contemplated with more advantage than images which irresistibly lead one to associate those they represent with sluttery or with rakes, who, having spent their fortunes, have nothing left but shabby finery. To keep these fading char- acters in fit condition to edify the devout, the services of a host of artists are constantly required, and are secured when funds are provided, but when these are wanting, a coat of paint and varnish, to improve the complexion of their faces and cleanse their hands, is about all that is done for them, and that only once, or, it may be, twice in a generation. Now saints in plas- ter can have new suits for nothing. They would always be “at home,” and dressed in character — never denied to visit- ins; friends for being; in an undress, and unfit to receive com- pany. In the murkiest churches, the most they could require would be a dipping in lime and water once or twice a year. Images are peculiar to and essential to Polytheism. Orig- inating in low stages of mental development, it is difficult to LIFE IN BRAZIL. 2 1 fi imagine how, without them, any thing like uniformity of views respecting the persons, attributes, and functions of legions of invisible beings invoked could have been established in the minds of the ignorant masses. What confusion if every imag- ination had been left to conjure up figures of the gods for itself! Standard patterns removed the difficulty ; being greatly multi- plied and met with every where, in public grounds, gardens, temples, and private dwellings, they circulated like modern tracts, and kept alive a knowledge of the chief characteristics of each divinity. They were books that were never closed, and such as all could peruse and comprehend. What they were to the heathen they are to the untutored Romanists — indis- pensable. Independent of the part they have played in human history, they are not without interest when viewed simply as an invention by which sensible media were made to convey definite ideas on spiritual things. Every church has services somewhat peculiar to itself, in con- sequence of the special divinity to whom it is dedicated. But there are weekly masses, exclusive of those on Sundays, com- mon to all parish churches, and on the days they are celebrated collectors go forth to ask alms to meet the expense. Thus, in the Cattete, every Monday a man knocks at our door for a do- nation to release imprisoned souls ; on Thursdays, “ for the sacrament;” on Saturdays the cry is, “Wax for Our Lady." For some purposes these men do not go beyond then- parish boundaries, while for others they canvass the city at large. Ev- ery day more or less are out. On Thursdays they are so nu- merous as to be met with every where. They call at every door, and enter every store, no matter what number of custom- ers are within, nor how much proprietors are engaged. Tuesdays are appropriated to replenish the purse of the treas- urers of Nossa Senhora da Conce^ao. Friday is the day for the friends of the Lady of Pains to do what they can for her. Every few weeks an old gentleman appeals to us for the Lady of Lam- padozaj and another gives us frequent opportunities of securing the good will of Luzia. Every saint that holds a feast has a collector. Once a month an agent of Antonio’s Convent comes round ; . hence these fathers canvass the city twelve times a year. Wearing a primitive Quaker’s hat, a coarse black gown, be- S 274 LIFE IN BRAZIL. neatli the skirts of which his bare legs are seen, with a dark, long bag in his hand or slung over his shoulder, he draws up at the door or window. His cry is, “ For the friars of St. Anthony.” Under a vow of poverty, these mendicants originally asked onlv for bread ; hence the bag is still carried, and occasionally charged with victuals, but the collections generally are in coin. When money is given him, the rule now is to pull out a loaf from the bag, to intimate that for bread it will be expended. Impressions derived from accounts of the old barefooted friars are hardly sustained by a personal acquaintance with their modern representatives. The romance of the character is very much dissipated. Formerly the duty of asking alms wTas per- formed by respectable members of the brotherhoods from relig- ious motives, but of late years they have begun to decline it. The collectors, being poor men, are often charged with defraud- ing the saints whose agents they are. Doha B says the old chap in her district pockets considerable ! It is, however, an old popish sentiment that he who begs for God collects for two. The amount yearly taken up must be a large one ; and were it expended for educational purposes, illuminating the minds of the living instead of attempting to alter the condition of the dead, and stocking churches with toys and bawbles, it would prove a public blessing. It is a poor compliment to pa- tron saints to suppose they can be gratified with the puerile honors paid them. If they are tickled with such things, they are not worth tickling. The little church of Mai dos Homens — mother of men— in Alfandega Street, being open, I stepped in. Black and white upholsterers had sole possession, preparing it for a festival. Some, on bamboo ladders, were tacking up hangings and bor- ders ; others covering skeleton columns with red cloth and gimp edging. There are only two auxiliary shrines. The glass be- fore the images was so much in want of washing that I could not make out who they were. 29 tk. The public walk or garden was illuminated this even- ing in compliment to the emperor. For the first time since I have been here there was in it quite a throng. Some of the handsomest and some of the fattest ladies and gentlemen I ever saw were among the promenaders. LIFE IN BRAZIL. 275 I was on my way to H ’s, who agreed to accompany me to the house of Senhor Barboza. He had gone to visit the Cap- uchins, so we strolled up and found him in the vestry. While we stood facing the framed pattern of Mary’s shoe-sole, a colored man came between it and us, and, put- ting his hands against the whitewashed wall, pressed his mouth and rubbed his nose against it. Shortly after, a re- spectable white man came in, and sa- luting it three separate times, passed into the chapel, where I found him with his colored predecessor, half an hour after, both on their knees. Two cloud-like patches were on the wall right and left of the frame — stains left by the hands of the worshipers. These unctuous proofs of devotion had accu- mulated since my previous visit. The central parts were dark as umber. A long bench beneath the picture rendered it neces- sary to use the hands in this act of piety. Coming down, we met the new nuncio — or nounce, as the word is pronounced — with a white youth in flaming livery be- hind him. M. Bedini is said to be the confidential adviser of his countrymen, the unpopular Capuchins, whom he was climb- ing and panting to visit. CHAPTER XXIV. Pluvial Deity — Aqueduct Records. — Pope John. — Ecclesiastical “Cries.” — Slaves. — Army Recruits. — The Emperor opens the Legislature. — Fires and Fire- engines. — Slaves. — Suicide. — Begging for the Holy Ghost — Auction of Slaves May 1. This morning every black peak pulled down its cloud. A milk-white one hung like an apron on the hunchback’s breast, leaving his rough head alone exposed, as if the freak was to im- itate a negro in the barber’s hands. Surely the Pluvial deity and the nymphs his daughters have few locations more congen- ial than this. The glens and glades, the leaping streams and 276 SKETCHES OF gurgling eddies, seem expressly made for wood and water god- desses to sport and splash in. There are seasons, however, when the gushing rivulets are reduced to broken threads, trick- ling feebly on, and scarcely able to prevent evaporation taking all : then the Corcovado driads mourn, and the Tejucan naiads lean pensive over theh empty pitchers, then the city fountains begin to fail, and anxious mortals entreat the showery deity to incline his vase and let the rain come down in earnest. As elsewhere, when they have got enough, they beg him to turn the tallia up. Spent part of the day in the Office of Public Works, and was greatly surprised at learning that no document is extant relat- ing to the origin and history of the great Carioco aqueduct. II and I passed through the new buildings erecting for the Mizericordia. On a pile of stones lay a marble slab be- longing to the old burying-ground. An inscription signified that Pope John XXII. had granted to all the faithful who re- peated a subjoined prayer “ as many days’ indulgence as bod- ies are buried here” It begins with “ God bless you, Christian souls.” Such prayers have, it is said, virtue in them yet, and that, too, in a land not heard of till more than a century after John himself had been buried. We met an alms collector quite cast down at his poor suc- cess. He told II the priest had detained him so long that other esmoleiros had been round and left him nothing to glean. His dish was an old article of silver, six inches over, and three deep. On the flaring rim was engraved, “ Frequezia do Santis- simo Sacramento do Se.” Here are a few ecclesiastical cries with which I have become somewhat familiar : Para a cera de Nossa Senliora da Gloria. Esmola para 0 Divino. Para Santa Luzia Milagraza. Para a Propagatjao da Fe (Capuchin’s cry). Para a Santissimo Cora^ao do Jesus. Para a Frades de San Antonio. Para a cera do Santissimo Sacramento. Para a Missa das Almas. And so on for Joseph, Joaquim, Anne, the ladies Piedade, Con- ceiijao, do Parto, Dores, Terco, and many more. SKETCHES OF 277 The friars of Anthony are candid — their cry is openly for themselves ; at the same time, they are prohibited from touch- ing money ; but no quiero mas echadmelo en la cajpilla is not a proverb of yesterday. 2 d. While waiting for Colonel F , whose office is not far from the Matadoura, a dozen at least of butchers’ slaves went past in the course of an hour with crushing loads of fresh-killed beef. The flesh was warm ; it smoked, and all but quivered. One poor fellow had a col- lar, and a chain extending from it to an ankle ; he belonged to a meat-shop in the Cattete. Two hind- quarters are a common load. Other slaves went by, awfully crippled in their feet and legs ; among them two women, lame with elephantiasis, with light loads. The right leg of one was really almost as large as her waist. A purblind man, with a talha of water on his head, crept along, feeling his way with a stick. Some Minas girls, dealers in fowls, smartly dressed, and with tribal scars on their faces, passed on laughing. Each had a wide basket and a supplemental chicken in her hand, holding it, as the custom is here, by the wings. Of about one hundred and fifty blacks who thus passed by, all were slaves save one. TIis feet were thrust into a pair of old shoes or slippers — the badge of freedom. Proud of wearing the same covering to their feet as white people wear, some pay dear for the gratification. When men are wanted for the army, a keen look-out is kept up for them. Those aware of their danger go barefoot, and some- times throw the recruiting officers off their guard, as slaves can not be impressed. I met, a few days ago, a hundred recruits just coming in from a northern province. They were nearly all colored ; one third were Indians. “ How long do they enlist for ?” I asked. “They 278 SKETCHES OF don’t enlist at all,” was the answer. They are caught and made to serve. Governors have orders to send down all disorderly fellows, and such Indians as they can catch. 3c7. As the emperor opens the legislative session to-day, H and I walked over to the senate-chamber — a plain room, forty feet square, with an internal arrangement similar to that of most of our state chambers. The throne is a high-backed chair, placed against the wall behind the presiding officer’s seat, and set off with drapery. The hour had arrived, and not over fifty spectators in the gallery, although admittance was free. With the exception of four priests, both senators and deputies were in official costume — white pants with laced seams, green coats buttoned up to the chin and half covered with lace, swords, and chapeaux. Most were of middle stature and cor- pulent—not a Cassius among them. Brazilians do not lack the elements of greatness, but a pa- triot in homespun — a Franklin, Phocion, or Dentatus — would hardly be appreciated. An aerial looking personage, powdered and uniquely draped, tripped in and out. I took him for master of ceremonies, but he was Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. The President of the Senate now rang his bell. The secretary read the roll, and about twenty answered to their names. A committee was detailed to wait on the emperor, and presently he entered, with long but very deliberate steps, resting the forward foot till the rear one got up and halted, precisely as players tread the stage. He carried a long gilt staff in manner of a walking-stick, grasp- ing it two feet below the top, as hermits are sometimes painted. From where I sat, I might have touched the finial that crowned it. He had nearly reached the throne, when a gentleman came in, holding up with both hands the continuation of his train or mantle. He had necessarily to remain with his back to us till this long piece of drapery was gathered up, as he could not turn till this was done without being tripped up. At last the troublesome appendage is coiled up and laid on the floor by his chair, he leans the staff against the wall, turns, inclines his head right and left, and, dropping into the chair, • begs the senators to be seated. An officer hands him “the speech.” He reads it well — I should say very well. His LIFE IN BRAZIL. 279 enunciation is rapid, but distinct, and agreeably diversified with emphasis. His voice is rather feminine. It is musical, but slightly nasal, as if he indulged in snuff. Running down three pages of the foolscap sheet, he handed it back to the officer, arose, slightly nodded to the empress in the gallery, took the staff, gave a glance behind, where the train-bearer — a marquis — was shaking it out, bows to the senators, and goes out as lie en- tered. The performance lasted about twelve minutes. His dress was in imitation of some ancient monarch’s. (He was married in the costume of Francis I.) His throat was na- ked, and surrounded like a school-boy’s by his shirt-frill, whose triple row of edging rested on an ermine tippet that reached to his elbows. His arms were in close white satin sleeves, that met gloves of the same material, with ribbons and ruffles at the wrists. From the tippet to his toes he was in white satin ; his very shoes and roses on them were of it, and the whole so close- ly fitted to the upper and nether limbs that, divested of the train and tippet, he might have been taken any where else for a pan- taloon, or, judging from the long pole he leaned on, for a rope- dancer about to turn a somerset. So excessively punctilious in trifles as Brazilians are, there was one part of the performance not quite the thing. The chair was either too low or the legs of Pedro too long. It seemed as if, on sitting down, he became aware that he could not keep them upright without some part of his dress giving way ; and as it would have been undignified to throw them out in front, he was compelled to coil them under the seat, where, judging from their restlessness, they were very unhappy. (Like other histri- onic gentlemen, royal actors must submit to theatrical criticism.) The crown worn by this modern cacique is a large spheroidal, ungraceful mass, which at a distance might be taken for a head preternaturally enlarged with hydrocephalus. It seems to have been made after the pattern of an orange or melon. The orbic- ular sections meet at the top, support a globe — the earth — and over it — the church’s emblem — a cross shoots up conspicuously. Nothing of interest occurring, we left, and found the emperor waiting for the empress in a low, old-fashioned, and open car- riage, said to have belonged to Sebastian, who lost his life war- ring with the Moors. Here he remained five or six minutes 280 SKETCHES OF longer. Besides the guards, not over twenty persons were about, and hardly a moiety of them paid more attention to him than to his coachman. Not a hat was raised, nor a viva utter- ed ; nor did he court any thing of the kind. Pertinaciously looking up, none could catch his eye. He was evidently act- ing— putting in practice the royal aphorism, “Avoid familiar- ity with the masses.” He finally was whirled off with no more eclat than attends the departure of a common stage. The gilt staff, I am told, is the sceptre — an ensign that I supposed never exceeded one third of its length. 5th. The bell of the Antonio Convent rang an alarm of fire. It was in a store near by. Desirous of witnessing the manage- ment in such cases, I arrived before the engine. Dense smoke was issuing from the doorway and windows. Two negroes came along, screaming and dragging an engine, accompanied by an officer in a blue roundabout and a brass-handled sword in hand. The machine consisted of an open copper cistern on wheels, containing two pump cylinders, the pistons of which were connected to a lever, and worked fore and aft by a man at each end. The apparatus was identical with those of Europe in the seventeenth century. To feed it, a water-cart was brought up, and the contents drawn into buckets and poured into the cistern. A small hose conveyed the water to the flames. In a couple of hours all was over, and but little damage done. In New York, an entire block had been consumed under the circumstances, for the little garden pump — it was no larger — would have been all but useless. It might be suspected that conflagrations in tropical cities like Bio would be frequent and extensive. The reverse is the fact. They seldom occur, and rarely is a house destroyed — not one, I am told, in many years. The cause is partly to be ascribed to the little use made of fire except for cooking, but chiefly to the comparative incombusti- bility of woods employed in building. It is not easy to kindle the beams of a dwelling. Pine joists are prohibited. On returning, I passed in the same street a short, spare, and feeble old woman, creeping along the pavement with a baril of water on her head. An iron collar grasped her shriveled throat, and from its prong a chain ran up and was secured to LIFE IN BRAZIL. 281 the handle of the vessel by a padlock — about, as cruel a sight as I have seen yet. “ Is it a cause of wonder that so many of your slaves eman- cipate themselves by death rather than endure life on such con- ditions ?” “ To treat them in that way,” replied my friend, “ or to put masks on them, is forbidden, but laws respecting them are disregarded.” Every day or two suicides are announced in the police reports, yet it is affirmed that not half are officially noticed. Those who plunge into the Bay and float ashore come under the cognizance of the authorities. Of such as sink and never rise, and all that pass out to sea, or are devoured by sharks before they reach it, no account is or can be kept, nor yet of those who destroy themselves in the secret places of the city or dark recesses of the neighboring forests. Many are ad- vertised as runaways who have reached the spirit land. Sui- cides, it is said, have greatly increased during the last three years. Yesterday I met in Ajuda Street the Santa Rita collectors for the Holy Ghost, flying to and fro, and screaming “Esmolas para O Divino.” Instead of a silver bird, they had its picture in a little tin frame for contributors to kiss. The two banners, a yard square, were of faded crimson, with a white dove in the centre, or rather it had once been white, for, saluted by hundreds of perspiring faces, it could not long retain the color of snow. Both musicians and collectors were meanly and not over-clean- ly dressed. They had a shabby, and, in truth, a rakish ap- pearance. To-day the music of the Campo troop returning from the country drew us to the windows. One of the drum- mers and the player on a triangle had each a live fowl — dona- tions, probably, of rural devotees. While E dropped some coppers into a dish, I relieved the bearer of the holy emblem, and bore it to an inner room, he imagining, of course, for the family to salute. It consisted of a small piece of thin metal struck up in a die, and resembled the spread eagle on some of our soldiers’ caps. It was fastened in a tin case, little larger than a blacking-box, with a piece of glass in front, and a han- dle at the back for holding it to the lips of worshipers. One of the banners I also took in. The central part was of the col- or of snuff, and thickened and stiffened with grease, apparently 282 SKETCHES OF the accumulation of years from sweating faces, black and white, and which time had hardened to the consistence of wax. H was employed this forenoon in releasing from the press-gang a slave who slipped out last night in tamancos. Another, belonging to the same family, was taken sick, when one of his associates cupped him — a favorite African remedy ; many negroes are not less expert in applying than in removing disease by it. The process and apparatus are of extreme an- tiquity. The operator scratches the skin with a flint, places the wide end of a sheep’s horn over it, and sucks out the air. Negro chirurgeons uniformly prefer bleeding their patients in sunshine, insisting that the effect is then most beneficial. 8 th. I have repeatedly passed an auction store at the corner of Ourives and Ouvidor. To-day printed bills were hanging by the door. I took one and stepped in. A long table ex- tended from near the entrance to the low box pulpit of the salesman. Behind it, a light iron railing cut off a portion of the store. The place was filled with new and second-hand fur- niture, old pictures, Dutch cheeses, Yankee clocks, kitchen uten- sils, crockery-ware, old books, shoes, pickles, etc. — the very kind of shop which a young Athenian once stopped a plain-looking citizen in an alley to inquire after — that is, when .Xenophon and Socrates first met. Yendues of these things are held here daily, and once or twice a week another variety of merchandise is offered. This was the case to-day — an assorted invoice of colored goods, ar- ranged on benches behind the railing. The catalogue contain- ed eighty-nine lots, and each lot had a corresponding number pinned to it, that purchasers, on running over the list, might compare the articles with their description. These goods were living beings. Every lot was a man or woman, a boy or girl. There were fifty-three males, most of whom ranged between eighteen and thirty years of age — carpenters, masons, smiths, and country hands. One was a sailor, another a caulker and boatman. There were two tailors, a coachman, a saddler, a sawyer, a squarer of timber (one expert with the adze), a shoemaker, cooks, a coffee-carrier, and a barber surgeon, who. like most of his profession, was a musician — “ No. 19, 1 Rapaz, Barbeiro, bom sangrador e musico.” LIFE IN BRAZIL. 283 Of females, the oldest was twenty-six, and the youngest be- tween seven and eight — washers, sewers, cooks, two dress-mak- ers “ muito prendada” — verjf accomplished. Others made shirts, dressed ladies’ hair, etc. A couple were wet-nurses, with much good milk, and each with a colt or filly, thus: “No. 61, 1 Rapariga, com muito bom leite, com cria.” Cria signifies the young of horses, and is applied to negro offspring. They were of every shade, from deep Angola jet to white or nearly white, as one young woman facing me appeared. She was certainly superior in mental organization to some of the buyers. The anguish with which she watched the proceedings, and waited her turn to be brought out, exposed, examined, and disposed of, was distressing. A little girl, I suppose her own, stood by her weeping, with one hand in her lap, obviously dreading to be torn away. This child did not cry out — that is not allowed — but tears chased each other down her cheeks, her little bosom panted violently, and such a look of alarm marked her face as she turned her large eyes on the proceedings, that I thought at one time she would have dropped. “Purchasers of pots and pot-lids,” said Diogenes, “ ring them lest they should carry cracked ones home, but men they buy on sight.” If such was the practice of old, it is not so now: the head, eyes, mouth, teeth, arms, hands, trunks, legs, feet — every limb and ligament without are scrutinized, while, to ascertain if aught within be ruptured, the breast and other parts are sounded. The auctioneer, a tall, black-whiskered man of thirty-five, was a master of his profession, if one might judge from his fluency and fervor. A hammer in his right hand, the forefinger of his left pointing to a plantation hand standing confused at his side, he pours out a flood of words. The poor fellow had on a can- vas shirt, with sleeves ending at the elbows and trowsers of the same, the legs of which he is told to roll above his knees. A bidder steps up, examines his lower limbs, then his mouth, breast, and other parts. He is now told to walk toward the door and back, to show his gait. As he was returning, the ham- mer fell, and he was pushed back within the railing. Another, who had but four toes on one foot, was quickly disposed of. The clerk next went behind the rails and brought forward a 284 SKETCHES OF woman — a field-hand. She was stout, and seemed older than reported in the catalogue. Dressed as sparely and plainly as the men, she too was examined, and told to walk to and fro. When near the door, a bidder interrogated her, but on what 1 could not comprehend. His last remark was translated plainly by her raising her skirt to expose her legs. They were much swollen. Two hundred and fifty milreis was the sum she brought. The sale, half over when I entered, was adjourned for an hour. What became of the white woman and child I did not learn. One fact was most palpable — no more regard was paid to the feelings of the victims than if they had been so many horses. Thus have I seen, for the first time in my life, the bones and muscles of a man, with every thing appertaining to him, put up for sale, and his body, soul, and spirit struck off to the highest bidder — God’s automata knocked down for less than Maelzell’s wooden puppets. They brought higher rates than bodies at surgeons’ halls ; but, if negroes were worth more dead than liv- ing, the supply, it is said, would equal the demand. That, however, I do not believe ; yet, from what I have seen, I should say it were better — yes, unspeakably better — for many to be knocked on the head in their youth, have their skins converted into glue and their bones into ivory black, than endure through life what some endure. CHAPTER XXY. Winter. — New Saint. — Lady do Parto. — An English Monk. — Black and white In- fants in Purgatory. — Auction at a private Dwelling : its Furniture, Garden, La- res, Oratorio, and Slaves. — Barber’s Basin and Shaving-cloth. — Mass and Capu- chins.— Church of the Rosary, its Images and Ex Votos. — A sick Man. — Old Slave. — Uncertain Origin of the Negro Saint. — Ramble through Nictherohy May 10. Winter is coming on apace. Ladies are occasion- ally seen chilled and shivering as in an ague-fit, from the hu- midity of the air and absence of fires. Rain has depressed the thermometer to 72°. The little Cattete stream has again swol- len, till barils, pans, and tallias are borne away, and dashed to- LIFE IN BRAZIL. 285 gether in its whirling eddies- — a scene like that from which the ancient fabulist derived the story of the iron and the earthen pot. The new saint was to make her debut to-day, but the wet condition of the streets has induced the managers to postpone it for a week. When it does take place, the Sugar-loaf, Corcova- do, Tejuca, and Organ peaks will witness a piece of folly un- equaled on the hemisphere since they raised their everlasting- heads. “ Leilao extraordinario, hoje Domingo, 10 de Maio, na rua Novo do Conde, No. 167, Catumby.” This was a favorable op- portunity to look over the interior of a wealthy native estab- lishment. Passing, on my way, the Lady do Parto’s church, a red cloth hanging in the doorway intimated that she was “at home.” A fine-looking Mozambique, with a row of artificial pimples down his nose and forehead, and perpendicular lines cut in each cheek, was making a leg and otherwise complimenting her. The only worshiper present, he turned his head, glanced at me, and resumed his address. What on earth he could want with her I could not imagine, nor what she could possibly do for him. I overtook the short and plump English monk, Father T y. Holding up the skirts of his cassock with his left hand, his right swung to and fro quick as an eight-inch pendulum. His skull- cap, like an inverted saucer made of sticking-plaster, covered the shaven circle of his crown, and stuck so close that, had he been a Preto de Na^ao, it might have been taken for the natu- ral cuticle. I was about crossing the pavement to address him, but a lady was approaching. As she drew near, she quickened her steps, snatched his hand, and in a twinkling her lips had met it and left it with a chirp. It would not do for priests and friars to wear gloves here. Near the door of a low venda (in Novo Conde) was a wood- en cross, four feet high, secured in the pavement, and to it was attached an alms-box, which presented the best piece of picture- writing I have met with. As the box was for soliciting contri- butions for souls, what form of words could so vividly portray the torments of the sufferers, and show that all races and ages are exposed to them, as an official representation of two infants in perdition, and one of them a negro ! There is not 286 SKETCHES OF m: " u ik a colored mother in the neighborhood mourn- ing a lost child but here beholds it crying to her for relief. What can she withhold to mitigate its pains or snatch it from them ? Nothing thai she has or can procure. The box is a sermon written in characters possessing perpetual Pen- tecostal properties. To the men and women assembled in this city from almost every nation under heaven, it speaks in their own tongues — dark strangers from Congo, Angola, Cabinda, the Gold Coast, and remoter regions of Ethio- pia, red aborigines, fair children of Japhet, and dusky descendants of Shem, and to all is equal- ly explicit, if not equally effective. Passing travelers can hardly refuse a trifle to innocents thus beseeching them, with screeches, tears, and uplifted hands, to drop some vintems in, and the rather when so small a sum as a pa- taca has been known to get one out. Children whom death has deprived of a brother, sister, or a playmate, often thus dedicate to affection pres- ents they receive. Indeed, who of the faith can withstand in- vitations to shorten the purgation of departed friends, or fail in this way to show the sincerity of their regard ; and then, where the finer feelings are not, self-interest steps in and induces manv to give, from a consciousness that when their turn comes their sufferings will be thereby lightened. The auction was at the adjoining premises. The front half of the ground floor was paved, and served for entrance and coach-house. Dark stairs led to the principal floor. The ar- rangement of the rooms and their finish reminded one of old & • Dutch dwellings ; two only were papered, the rest stenciled three feet from the floor, and all above whitewashed. No car- pet concealed the dark flooring-plank in room, passage, or stairs. The paraphernalia of our luxurious parlors would be out of place. The furniture of the Cozinha was simple, and evidently allied to the appurtenances of Greek and Roman kitchens. The usual cooking plate, with openings for pans, and a 'place beneath for charcoal or a few sticks, a dresser and shelves over LIFE IN BRAZIL. 287 it, and a marble slab for pastry, constituted the whole. Not a stool or seat of any kind. The walls, for three feet up, were lined with tiles, the floor paved ; the window-frame, occupied by iron scroll-work in place of glass, opened into a line and large garden. Half of it was divided off for kitchen vegetables, the other cut up into fancy plots and fountain basins. Vases filled with flowers stood on pedestals amid statues of the seasons and of floral deities ; and if gods or mortals got tired, sofas of stone and shell work were every where at hand. The flowers were richer than Chloris ever wove in a wreath, but the trees, laden with golden fruit, took my fancy most. The plate, exceeding two thousand ounces, was the richest part of the catalogue. The auctioneer, an elderly man, with white and shaggy eyebrows, beard, and whiskers, surpassed in volubility — “hum milreis, dous milreis, tres milreis,” and slap his ivory hammer came down, giving for a moment rest to his tongue and hirsute chin. The whole affair was managed pre- cisely as with us, differing only in language and the absence of females, who never attend. The oratorio had an antique table for an altar, and on it the lares that presided over the house and family — Our Lady, An- tonio, and Jeronimo — three coarse wTooden figures whose stat- ure was a span. Minds accustomed to worship through im- ages require something before the bodily eye to exercise the mental. Even those who, from intellectual culture, might be supposed Tee from the infirmity, have their traveling apparatus. Here was one which I took for a clothes-press, but, on opening the door, an altar and images were carved in half relief against the back. The article is catalogued a “ rico oratorio portable. ” But for its adjoining the kitchen, an angel might seek to wor- ship in this room, opening, as it does, on scenes of unusual natural grandeur, as well as on the loveliest of the Creator’s works that a tropical flower-garden and its winged visitants can display. Here are incitements to devotion which, if contem- plated at all, must purify the coarsest souls, and throw torpid ones into paroxysms of adoration. While admiring the grounds, a man came rushing down stairs bawling Joao— Jose — Jose — Joao. Presently two half-naked negroes threw down their hoes. He addressed three or four 288 SKETCHES OF words to them as they approached, and pushed both into the passage, up which he hurried them. “ What did he say ?” I inquired. '•'■Come in to be sold,” was the reply. There was something in the order and manner of it, its suddenness, and the silent acquiescence of the poor fellows as they were driven in, that at the moment thrilled through me. In form and spirit it resembled an old sheriff’s address on the morning of an exe- cution to a prisoner, “ Come out to be hanged.” We returned up stairs. The salesman was expatiating on a dinner-set. Another bid, and down it went. While applying his glass to a catalogue for the next article, it was forced into the crowded room close to him : “1 preto de roca de nome Jose, de na^o Congo.” Eyeing the lot a moment, he ordered it to mount on a stool, and there, utterly abashed, the poor kid- napped negro stands. Apparently of dullish intellect, short, stout, and about thirty years of age, a canvas shirt and pan- taloons complete his dress. No scars are visible on him, but he is shockingly disfigured with hydrocele. He is told to pull up the longer leg of his trousers, then the other, next to turn round, and, within a minute, to get down and follow his new owner — a thin, meagre, wedge-faced old man, who bought him for 420 milreis. Jose, from his age and build, was deemed a prime plantation hand. The watery hernia did not reduce his value ten dollars. As a horse, when sold, is transferred to the purchaser in the cheapest kind of halter, so Jose could hardly have been turned over to a new owner with a poorer fit-out. Lot 124, “ 1 dito de nome Joao,” was, with as little cere- mony and loss of time, put on the stand, told to bare his legs, breasts, etc., turn this way and that. He appeared more intel- ligent than Jose, and was described as possessing various qual- ities— he could “ cook with stove and furnace” — brought 520 milreis. A Mozambique next stepped up — a melancholy man of middle life. Little was said of his acquirements. I under- stood he had not been long imported. He was struck off at 400 milreis to the buyer of Joao — a speculator. The salesman next offered “ Uma Cuya para mate com pe c guarnicao de prata.” The next article drove us off — a paliteiro. The conflicting deeds and creeds of men who can reconcile ? Here, in one house, were Christians selling, and on the Lord’s LIFE IN BRAZIL. 289 day, into mortal thraldom, the bodies of living men, and next door taking in subscriptions to redeem the souls of dead ones ! 11th. A smart young barber passes the window daily, with a fac-simile of Mambrino’s helmet under his arm — the bright brass, wide-rimmed and scalloped basin being as common here as in Spain when Cervantes wrote. While speaking of this, singular enough, a present came in from my afflicted friend, Doha F— — a ; a piece of delicate cambric, not larger than this page. It had a rpargin of flowers in needle-work, and, outside of that, a border of lace. Ignorant of the use of this tiny mou- choir, I turned to E a for information. “Ladies,” she ob- served, “ in the United States and England, present male rela- tives and friends with wrought slippers ; here and in Portugal it is an ancient custom to send them embroidered shaving -cloths. The present is to wipe your razor on.” 12th. The bishop, assisted by the Capuchins, celebrated mass, on account of the empress being again in an interesting way. More packages of worshiping machinery have come in from It- aly. Two of the uncomely fakirs attended yesterday at the custom-house to receive them. H having, according to appointment, joined me in De- reita Street, we turned up an old and narrow lane named, after the Praying Abacus, Rua do Rozario. At the head of it stands the ancient metropolitan temple, now a negro church, and the only one conceded to the colored population. Here are genii not met with in other temples, and to them our visit was in- tended. At the door were three alms-boxes ; on one the African’s own patron, curly-headed Benedicto, was painted ; on the second, Luzia, with a pah- of eye-balls in her hand, appealed to us; and on the third, pointing to the slit in the cover, stood the Lady da Cabe special lesson. TUE END. I Date Due *46 . j-Adifijjj, ,1 ,TLr i f 3,«