lumps and fried black in its own fat. The only variety is in the size of the lumps.

The meal concluded, we set off in search of the camp of the third section, and after a ride of two hours and a half we saw through a gate the top of one of the tents we were in search of, and, crossing a level pasture, alighted, leaving our horses to a man at the tents while we went along the "picadas" (the path cut through the forest and brush) by the side of the river Para, until we came across our friends at work. Owing to information I received from them, I determined to return to Cajurú; and so, leaving the camp, just before sunset, we rode back in two hours in the dark, having had nothing to eat since we left in the morning. Right glad were we, therefore, even of a vegetable supper, which was all we could get, being long past cooking hours, and the natives consider that a plate of black beans with farinha, and perhaps rice, is enough for any one.

To-day-August 5-being Sunday, the country folk began early to arrive from all round the neighbourhood for Mass. Some come ten or twelve miles every Sunday, and the same distance back in the evening. The women and girls were very picturesque, with black hair, fine eyes, and brilliant shawls. One of the first I saw come in was a white woman in a bright green dress, on horseback, with a child in front of her; she was followed by a negress in a red gown, who rode a mule, and had one child in front and another behind. The men were in their Sunday best -black coats, clean white unstarched shirts, and cotton trousers, which look like bed-ticking; some with buffcoloured or black long boots, some without, but all with spurs, which have rowels an inch or an inch and a half in diameter. Fortunately for their animals, they are not sharp.

As we were going into church, the priest bowed to us. The service, which was at midday, was called a Missa Cantata; but the choral part consisted merely of a brass band, which struck up dance music, with much drum accompaniment, at the most solemn parts of the Liturgy. After the Gospel and Creed, the priest gave a very good little sermon on the Good Samaritan, with practical directions as to entertaining strangers-I suppose with special reference to us; and I must repeat that, without exception, this direction appears to be obeyed to the very fullest extent, which I am afraid I could hardly say of our own country.

After service, we dropped into a shop to have some wine. It turned out to be the house of the priest's father; and the "padre" immediately came from an inner room, asked us to join his humble dinner, and gave us some more of the wine, as we had praised it. Dinner ended, he led us off to his own house, and made me rest in a very comfortable palm-fibre (burity) hammock, which was stretched across his study. He has a nice, though small, library of religious books, and a few sacred pictures. In one corner stood a cask of some especially good wine, which I need hardly say he pressed upon us. We had heard that he was a very devoted and excellent man, a widower, who had kept a shop. On his wife's death he sold up his shop and went away to college, leaving a little daughter, his only child, with his mother, and in due course was sent back as priest to his old home. He told us what a great struggle he had had, and something of the work he had done among the people for some years; and we heard that when he had first arrived, the people were very wild, and went to church with their long knives and other weapons, brandishing them like savages. Now they are as quiet as English people, and

generally much more reverent in church than the great majority of English congregations. The priest said the people were suspicious of every one unless he took them up, and certainly, after walking through the town arm-in-arm with his reverence, we were treated with more respect. Our host, the captain, having desired our attendance at dinner, we went off to him at four, and feasted on "canjica " or boiled maize, and " mocata' or rice and cow-heels. After this repast we went to the priest's house to spend the evening.

Paraopeba.

August 14.—To conclude the account of my ride up country. I told you of the Sunday (August 5) we spent at Cajurú, mostly under the roof of the excellent priest, to whom I took a great liking. He is of an amiable and gentle disposition, with a very calm and pleasant face, though he can be stern when necessary; he is pretty well read, can talk very pleasantly, and is not a bigot.

August 6, Monday.-We left about eight to ride to São Gonçalo. When just leaving Cajurú, I remarked a woman with a full water-pot on her head, who had the biggest goitre I have ever seen; it hung down from her throat at least six inches on either side. The people about here appear greatly afflicted by these goitres, but, so far as I have seen, only the women, and not the men.

*

In a little under two hours and a half we reached the Fazenda Fructuoso, at the end of the third section, and not far from the camp we visited on Saturday. The family were just sitting down to breakfast, and, after the usual invitation to alight, we were requested to assist at the meal, and a capital one it was; I never had a better-chicken, sucking-pig, with the usual etceteras, and "aipim,” a kind of

* In other localities I have seen both sexes with goitres.

yam, which when boiled is not unlike mealy potatoes. There was a shoemaker at breakfast who was much exercised about my long boots and the extremely broad soles, and he was especially surprised when I told him they were porpoise hide, made from the skin of a fish (golfinho, in Portuguese); such a thing he had never heard of. The owner of the fazenda is of Indian descent, and is said to be rather grasping; but his wife is very nice; he also was very civil, and refused any payment for the breakfasts of our three selves and the horses.

Leaving this hospitable house at midday, we travelled for three hours, and then reached São Gonçalo do Para. This village is charmingly situated on a hill, which is the general rule, but, though rather large, it is a very poor place, composed almost entirely of mud huts, with the exception of two or three houses; and the children, both black and white, go about with scanty attire, either a little shirt or nature's garb. The churchyard there, as at Cajurú, is on a hill, and surrounded by sixteen crosses, which are supposed to keep off evil spirits. The sight it presents is curious, being a large square bare plot, encompassed by a wall, without any gravestones, but with these numerous crosses all round, each ten or twelve feet high.

The village possesses four wine-shops, which are also general dealers, one apothecary's shop, and one sort of haberdashery store. We stopped at the last wine-shop near the end of the village, and had some wine, mandioca biscuits, and coffee, after which we left for Pitanguy; but before we had ridden for half an hour, we met the pack-mules, camarades, and a spare horse belonging to the chief, and heard that he was intending to sleep at São Gonçalo, and put up at the above-named apothecary's. We, therefore, returned to the village to await his arrival. In a quarter of

F

an hour the bedroom allotted to us, which opened into the street, was full of about twenty men and boys, all come to examine us, as if we were wild beasts. Presently the priest came to pay his respects, and then we retired to a back place for dinner, after which we held another séance for the lads who wished to see the strangers. At 7 p.m. the chief arrived, and after his dinner and a little rest, and paying a short visit, we had a long talk about business till three next morning.

August 7.—After breakfast we started, a party of eleven, for a ride to examine a proposed alternative route for the line, leaving the bank of the river, which is some distance off, in order to pass near the town. When going over a rotten bridge soon after the ride began, the front left foot of the last horse went through the bridge. He rolled over into the stream, and a stick entered one of his eyes, nearly blinding him. Fortunately, we were all leading our horses, otherwise the rider would probably have been killed. As it happened, the horse emerged on the wrong side of the stream, and much time was lost getting him across again. After riding about four miles, at a good pace for a wonder, we came to a fazenda and sugar-mill on the bank of the Para, where we had coffee. I gathered a species of Datura, and we then rode across country to a valley where there is a fine "cachoeira" (waterfall); the stream falls about one hundred feet over a rounded face of rock, which stands at an angle of some forty-five degrees. On the rocks we saw a bull which had evidently fallen over a little cliff, and appeared to be much injured; so we went to the nearest hut we could find, and told the inmates of the accident. After a most enjoyable day and capital ride, we returned to São Gonçalo at 4.30.

On alighting I saw an armadillo-baiting in the street.