Stack 
 Annex 
 PS 
 3537 

 
 r
 
 V 
 
 ./v 
 
 Ifn Emason Xanb 
 
 Hfcaptations from JSrasilian Writers, /^witb 
 : riginal Selections 
 
 JBg 
 
 /iDartba if. Sesselberg 
 
 "Come bcrc, come bere, a^^ owell in forest beep 
 
 Come bere, come bere, ano lie 
 
 J6s wbispering stream, . , . 
 
 fxre bealtb all seek, anb jov, 
 
 Hnb sbun perverse anno?, 
 
 Hnb lie neatb bells of flowers till close of o 
 Bnb laugb alwag ! " 
 
 36 am? Cornwall 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK LONDON 
 
 27 WEST TWKNTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 
 
 9|>e ^nitherbocktt ^rtss 
 1893
 
 V 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 COPYRIGHT, iSq-J 
 BY 
 
 MARTHA K. SESSELBERC; 
 
 Electrotyped, Printed and Bound by 
 
 finicherbocfcer prees, t*ew 
 G. P. PUTNAM S SONS
 
 rs 
 
 3537
 
 MY PARA FRIENDS 
 
 BOTH BRAZILIAN AND FOREIGN, IS THIS 
 
 LITTLE BROCHURE AFFECTIONATELY 
 
 AND GRATEFULLY DEDICATED
 

 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A TROPIC IDYL I 
 
 A LORELEI OF THE AMAZON 5 
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER 9 
 
 .AMAZONIAN LEGENDS ...... 43 
 
 A*MAZONIAN BELIEFS, TRADITIONS, AND SUPER 
 STITIONS. ....... 53 
 
 A FISHING PARTY 67 
 
 AMAZONIAN RUBBER IN "FIRST HANDS " . . -71 
 SINHAZINHA ! . . . . . . -74 
 
 AN AMAZONIAN FUNERAL . . . . 8 1 
 
 DOLCE FAR NIENTE ....... 85 
 
 A BALL IN AMAZON LAND 87 
 
 ORCHIDS FROM A TROPICAL GARDEN ... 91 
 [NEAR THE FOREST. A MORNING CALL. THE 
 FESTA OF OUR LADY OF NAZARETH. A 
 SUMMER ISLE.] 
 
 AT REST ... 94 
 
 v
 
 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 A TROPIC IDYL 
 
 MANUEL, a foppish young fellow, of whom it was 
 difficult to decide whether more of Indian or mulatto 
 blood ran in his veins (probably a not unequal mixture 
 of both), was on this memorable afternoon stretched 
 out at full length on the girao of his father s hut. 
 
 "The lingering sun tinged with gold the tall tops of 
 the miriti palms, standing in stately rows along the 
 river. 
 
 Strange birds, from branches high in air, trilled out 
 their farewell song to day. 
 
 Sdracuras, in noisy notes, burst out with their 
 eternal " Kirik6-kirik6-kirik6"-ko"-k6"-k6-k6 ! " 
 
 No other sound could be heard, save, perhaps, the 
 croaking of frogs, or the rumbling of the great water- 
 cart, drawn by one patient ox, and followed by the 
 gallego Jose, who shouted out at intervals: " Agua, 
 agua fresco, ! " (water, fresh water). 
 
 Manuel slowly rose, casting an indolent glance at 
 
 his gun hanging on the jupaty wall, turned again in 
 
 the direction of the saracuras, contemplated the 
 
 firmament, muttering: "It isn t worth awhile. I 
 
 1 Girao, a rough stage raised by poles above the floor.
 
 AMAZON LAND. 
 
 am*fcloyed with sajtacuras." As he uttered the last 
 word, a tremendous crash of rockets, followed by a 
 gunshot from the rouqueira (settler) roused the idle 
 young fellow to something like animation. Pointing 
 with his finger southward, he exclaimed : " It is there 
 in the house of Sr. Fabricio there, to-night, is the 
 fandango." 
 
 Donning his best cotton trousers, and shirt of 
 scarlet hue, he leaped into his canoe, which, like 
 some great reptile, swiftly glided over the smooth 
 expanse of water. And at each stroke of the oar, 
 his voice, flexible and resonant, resounded in far- 
 repeated echoes : . 
 
 " Nao tenho medo de onfa, 
 Nem das pintas que ella tem ; 
 Tenho medo da creoula 
 Quando chega a querer bem." 
 
 Now there was in the settlement one Joanna, a 
 handsome cabocla girl, with short, curly hair flying 
 to the wind. She cared much for Manuel but 
 very much to the point that she could not bear to 
 pass one day without seeing him. On this special 
 occasion she had waited until the hour of nine. 
 Then, too, fell on her ear the crash of fire-works, 
 and the sound of the great gun of the rouqueira. 
 Jumping up, an ominous light flashing in her eyes, 
 she exclaimed in the identical words of the graceless 
 Manuel : " It is there in the house of Sr. Fabricio 
 there, to-night, is the fandango" A little later, a 
 canoe, a gallant bark, freshly painted with green and
 
 A TROPIC IDYL. 
 
 yellow, followed in the wake 4K that other 
 canoe. 
 
 But it is to be noted that the bicha (literally " little 
 devil ") this time was not attired in her usual festive 
 dress of gay-colored skirt, and camisola, adorned with 
 " labyrinth " lace, so laboriously done over a cushion 
 by her own hands. No, she wore the well fitting 
 attire of her twin-brother, and in her curly head 
 floated a scheme of revenge. 
 
 When she reached the house of Sr. Fabricio, the 
 ball was in full tide. Instead of joining the country 
 dance, she went about, parrying thrusts and jokes 
 with the young men on the terrace. 
 
 Romping and laughter broke out on all sides. 
 
 Man}* thought the new arrival a gallant young fellow. 
 
 " How plump he is," exclaimed a meagre, wizard- 
 
 loo king Indian, in whose veins probably flowed a 
 
 drop of the anthropological blood of his ancestors. 
 
 Joanna, meanwhile, went on her way, treading 
 with no light weight on the toes of some, who, with 
 the instinct of nature, approached her too familiarly. 
 
 In her mouth she rakishly puffed at a great cigar 
 of tauarfy? 
 
 Just then she came face to face with Manuel, in 
 the act of cynically entwining his arm round the 
 waist of a coy little roceira (settler s daughter). 
 
 " Lend me a light, caboclo" she said. 
 
 He was about to do so, when a tingling blow on 
 the cheek caused him to see more stars than are in 
 the firmament. Snatching a knife from his belt, he 
 was about to attack his unknown aggressor, when a 
 
 1 A sort of tobacco made from the pith of a wild cane.
 
 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 blow, sharAr than the first, brought him to 
 the earthen floor. In his ear was whispered : "I 
 waited for you until nine canalha ! " 
 
 Moments after, floated over the silent waters a 
 canoe, and in it were two young matutos (rustics), 
 cooing and billing in all the intoxicating ecstasy of 
 happy lovers. Afar, breaking the silence of night, 
 the echo still repeated : 
 
 " Nao tenho medo de onga, 
 Nem das pintas que ella tem ; 
 Tenho medo da creoula 
 Quando chega a querer bem."
 
 A LORELEI OF THE AMAZON. 
 
 
 
 " THERE he goes ! " exclaimed old Dorothea, 
 glancing down the path by which had disppeared 
 Joao, her only son, and the only prop of her isolated 
 old age. There he goes, with a fond expression. 
 And continued : " Deos meo ! What can be done to 
 dissolve this enchantment that has turned the head 
 of my son ? " Retiring to her apartment, she opened 
 an old oratory in which were quartered several 
 wooden saints, lighted a consecrated candle, and 
 commenced to repeat the Deos Padre. Rising to 
 hw knees, she took from a calabash a few grains of 
 mahdioca meal, munching them meanwhile between 
 her teeth, and turned into the same path by which 
 had disappeared Joao. Mingling with the melan 
 choly notes of crickets, as they lay hidden under 
 the dry leaves of the cacoal, could be heard ever 
 more faintly the rude refrain hummed by poor Joao : 
 
 " Who gives his heart away 
 
 To one he doesn t know, 
 For all the pain he suffers 
 
 Should suffer threefold more." 
 
 The momentary tropical twilight had long since 
 merged into darkness when the desolate old woman 
 
 1 Quern da o seu cora9ao 
 
 A gente que nto conhece, 
 For mais penas que padeca 
 Dobrados penas merece. 
 
 5
 
 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 returned, her eyes swimming with tears, and in com 
 plete despair of ever being able to snatch her son 
 from the noose of that terrible seduction into which 
 he had fallen. 
 
 " Good-evening, Aunt Dorothea," said I, at; the 
 foot of a clump of assai palms. 
 
 " God give the same to you, Mr. Canuto ; is it 
 you ? And wiping away with her cotton skirt two 
 great tears, she continued. " You are still young 
 and bonito " (literally pretty). 
 
 " It is like your goodness to say so, Aunt Doro 
 thea." 
 
 " And bonito as my son." 
 
 " Much obliged, my good woman." 
 
 " It is nothing," said she, attempting between her 
 tears a smile. And resumed : " My son, take care 
 of yourself. When you go about in these latitudes, 
 above all by canoe, don t forget your rosary." 
 
 " What is that ? " 
 
 " That is what I say. Now, look at Joao." 
 
 " And what is the matter with Joao ? " 
 
 " He is with his head turned." 
 
 " That is very natural. He is exactly at that age, 
 which time brings but once, and in which the mothers 
 say 
 
 " No ; no, the case is other. Who said it was the 
 sight of a petticoat ? Then I would have gone to 
 the priest ; but it is that my son is lost." And 
 she concluded with groans and sobs. 
 
 Then, at my request, she narrated the following : 
 
 " Joao, when he was not yet eight years old, 
 became bewitched."
 
 A LOKELEI OF THE AMAZON. 
 
 " Bewitched ? " 
 
 "Yes ; but listen. One day, late in the afternoon, 
 he and I went to catch fish in the forest stream. 
 And when I was busy beating with reeds the grass- 
 fringes, where the fish love to hide, Joao disappeared. 
 I cried, Joao, oh! Joao! and nothing. After look 
 ing on all sides, I saw him not far away, bending over 
 a tree trunk that had fallen into the stream. He 
 laughed and talked of what I know not, nor with 
 whom. I called him three times, but he did not 
 answer. Then I made the sign of the cross, calling 
 out, in the name of Deos Padre, etc. Joao raised his 
 head, and told me that he did not hear me call him, 
 that he was far, very far away, conversing with a 
 being more beautiful than the sun. 
 
 " When Joao reached the age of fifteen, there 
 ne.ver ceased to haunt our house a bewitching 
 maiden. There," and she pointed with her finger 
 to the side of the stream, " to that great palm yon 
 der, that serves as a bridge every moonlight night, 
 she came. Her eyes were like the evening star, and 
 her hair was of gold, and waving like the lake when it 
 is in foam. Her face was white, and her lips and cheeks 
 were of the rose. At times she sang, and her voice 
 was more tender than the voice of the sabid [robin]. 
 
 " What she said was in a language that I do not 
 understand " ; but, sighing, " Joao understands." 
 
 And continuing : " When the moon was sinking 
 behind the forest trees, there came a cloud, white as 
 silver. 
 
 " She soared aloft with the cloud to sport with the 
 stars.
 
 8 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 " Now, that Joao is entering upon his eighteenth 
 year, she no longer comes ; but at every nightfall he 
 disappears by the path yonder, and returns with the 
 dawn. And it is with the lorelei that he goes ! " 
 
 " With the lorelei ? " 
 
 " Yes ; my son is lost ; he will descend to the 
 depths ; he is enchanted." 
 
 "Come, Aunt Dorothea," said I, trying to console 
 her, " we will Penchant the boy. I have a remedy 
 for this that the bishop gave me." 
 
 " Is it true ? " said she, contentedly, rising to her 
 feet. We set out by the same path in which Joao 
 had disappeared at every nightfall. 
 
 The cock crowed for the third time. The waning 
 moon balanced itself in space. 
 
 In the forest were strange phantoms immovable 
 shades. After we had gone on for half an hour, I 
 spied under the dense trees a tape ra, or abandoned 
 hut. It caused me a mixture of sensations to see 
 therein two figures. Just then the moon in full 
 glory emerged from a cloud. Oh ! 
 
 I went away slowly, and slowly called Aunt 
 Dorothea. " Aunt Dorothea, how is it that you told 
 me the lorelei was white like the moon, and had hair 
 of gold, and her lips and cheeks were of the rose?" 
 
 " It is true ; what then ? " 
 
 "What then ! She is brown like the sapucaia, her 
 hair is of jet, and her eyes are black like the depths 
 of night." By the hand I took the old woman, and 
 showed her a seductive picture. The next day we 
 went to the parish church to look for the old priest. 
 And I was the/^rz w/^the best man at a wedding).
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THAT day Mr. Espirito Santo da Silva returned 
 home to dinner later than usual and in a very bad 
 humor. Seating himself at the head of the table, in 
 the cool attire of cotton shirt and trousers, his feet 
 encased in tamancos (wooden shoes), he called out 
 in a gruff voice for dinner. 
 
 .A. little negress, who had just emptied the last 
 calabash of yellow farinJta, by the last plate placed 
 on the coarse white table-cloth, went to the kitchen, 
 and, telling her mistress that the pae-sinho (little 
 father) was at the table and wished to eat, returned 
 with a bowl of broth and a plate of boiled meat. 
 These she placed in front of Espirito, close to whom, 
 seated on a bench the length of the table, was his 
 daughter, a pale, pretty brunette, with black lustrous 
 eyes and hair. Finally came his wife, Dona Feliciana, 
 or, as her friends called her, Dona Felica, a short 
 brown woman with snow-white hair, who was dressed 
 in a faded cotton skirt and camisola. 
 
 It was mid-day, sultry and oppressive, and the 
 dinner passed on in silence. Mr. Espirito attacked 
 successively the meat with its tambaqui sauce, sea 
 soned with fragrant red peppers ; roast game oipaca 
 
 9
 
 10 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 with vegetables of mandioca sprouts. This was 
 helped down by an enormous quantity of farinJia, 
 which he threw down his throat with the tips of his 
 fingers, and with no little skill and precision, acquired 
 not alone from custom since earliest childhood, but 
 inherited from generations of ancestors. 
 
 The girl, for the purpose, used a spoon, and with 
 her father s unerring skill and precision. 
 
 As they were beginning the dessert, gre.at yellow 
 fruits of iheflacova tree, also accompanied by much 
 fartn/ia, Espirito said to his wife : "Get everything 
 ready, we are going away." 
 
 "Where?" she inquired, without further com 
 ment. " To the Parus. I have already told Antonio 
 to provision the canoe. We must start as soon as 
 possible, for fish is matto [wood] this year, they say." 
 
 " When, then ? " 
 
 " To-day is Thursday. Then on Monday." 
 
 During this chill, brief conversation, Rosa, for such 
 was the name of Mr. Espirito s daughter, appeared 
 slightly perturbed. With her mouth full of banana, 
 her half-opened lips still sprinkled over withfarinAa, 
 a faint blush rose to her cheeks as she met her father s 
 eye. 
 
 This passed unobserved, however, and all left the 
 table. Rosa went to the parlor, seated herself by 
 her lace " cushion," whose bobbins in her little hands 
 jingled back and forth with a tinkling sound. Her 
 father stretched himself out in the hammock, hung 
 across a corner of the veranda, and, with his long 
 cacJiimbo (Indian pipe) fallen on the floor, slept, and 
 snored lustily. He was speedily accompanied by
 
 A TALE OF THE GREA T RIVER. 1 1 
 
 Dona Felica, who had swung her hammock in the 
 little alcove, between veranda and parlor. This 
 last room pompously called the saloon was fur 
 nished with a dozen chairs of stiff, solid Portuguese 
 manufacture, two great cedar trunks, painted dark 
 green, with red flowering branches on their respective 
 covers, and a great wooden oratory, painted blue 
 with yellow lines to represent gold. From the wall 
 hung tw^religious pictures, St. Sebastian and Sant 
 Anna, and a hammock swung in one corner. These 
 made up the furniture of the room, tiled, like the 
 rest of the house, with square red brick. Those two 
 unmusical sounds reached the ears of Rosa, who, 
 with an air not unlike the timid deer of her father s 
 forest, as on the outskirts he pauses to know whether 
 without fear or danger he may slake his thirst in the 
 neighboring stream, pauses to listen. Certain that 
 her parents slept, she hastened to the window and 
 looked nervously out. 
 
 The long, narrow street of Obidos was deserted. 
 It was the noon-day hour of slumber. Nature, as 
 well as man, seemed lost in repose. The sun, from 
 a blue, cloudless sky, poured down his fiery rays, 
 casting electric scintillations in the air, that stifled 
 the very senses. Doors and windows of the two 
 rows of low, uneven houses were shut fast. Now 
 and then the faintest of breezes stirred the fronds 
 of the tnucajd palms. 
 
 A great red ox grazed tranquilly on the village 
 green, his ruminating cud the only sound that broke 
 the intense silence, save the rustling of blue and 
 green lizards combating with one another for in-
 
 12 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 numerable tiny insects. Even shops and groceries 
 were half closed, the clerks, while their patrons slept 
 within, nodding lazily over the counters. Soon after 
 Rosa had gone to the window, a young mulatto girl 
 came down the street. Her blue and yellow-skirt 
 was tucked up on one side, between dress band and 
 the warm palpitating flesh, while her camisola, almost 
 sleeveless, hung far below one shoulder, revealing, 
 with unconscious immodesty, neck and Kfcst. She 
 was on her way to the igaraptf for water, the red jar 
 for which she carried uprightly on her head. In a 
 corner of her mouth was a short pipe. As she 
 passed she turned round, grinning maliciously as if 
 she knew Rosa awaited some one. And, indeed, 
 shortly the figure of a young man appeared at 
 the corner of the street, whom, with a swift motion 
 of the hand, the girl beckoned to her, while he 
 hastened his footsteps. Reaching the window, a 
 low, rapid conversation ensued ; she now and then 
 stealing away to watch within, he glancing about 
 in all directions, both with the vague unrest of 
 evil-doers. 
 
 Rosa told him of their departure, of her despair at 
 leaving him, him for whom she cared so dearly, and 
 implored him, for the love of God and the dear 
 Virgin, to fulfil the promise to which he had sworn. 
 With his eyes fixed on the ground he listened to her 
 agonized appeal in silence. Over his lips played a 
 fine, ironical smile. Finally he answered : " I cannot 
 marry now. If I did, the patron would show me 
 the door, and I cannot afford to brave his anger 
 Have patience I care for you well Patience
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER. 13 
 
 But now, adeos You know the bad tongues " (ma 
 linguas). He pressed her hand tenderly, yet still 
 over his lips played the same faint, ironical smile. 
 Rosa followed his footsteps with sad, dejected looks, 
 and as he turned the corner without once looking 
 round, she dropped, with a peevish gesture, the straw 
 curtain which swept the window-sill with a jarring 
 sound. It was time. The hour of siesta was pass 
 ing, already doors and windows were opening, and 
 people were appearing in the street. 
 
 Until Rosa was twelve years old, she had lived on 
 her father s farm at some distance from Obidos. 
 This was a fair property, consisting of some 5,000 
 cocoa trees, besides excellent grazing grounds, which 
 Espirito inherited from his father, who, in his turn, 
 had inherited it from the grandfather, one of the 
 first colonists of the place. The house in nothing 
 could be distinguished from other houses round. It 
 had the same long front, in whose thick clay walls 
 opened four rectangular doors, and was divided into 
 four compartments of equal size, communicating one 
 with the other by chinks, covered in lieu of doors 
 withjaflas. 
 
 At one side was a straw-covered hut, where was 
 the oven with all the appurtenances for making 
 farinha. On the other, was the great tendal for 
 drying cacao. 
 
 In front of the house were tropical shrubs, fruit 
 trees, orange, sapotilla, copuassti, passion-plant, and 
 there was one stately cocoa-palm, whose fruits were 
 especially dedicated to Saint Antonio. A calabash 
 tree threatened with its great round fruits the
 
 14 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 security of an old canoe, raised up by four sticks 
 from the ground and filled with earth, in which were 
 planted, as if in a hanging garden, all sorts of flowers 
 in a discordance of color and perfume. 
 
 On all sides stretched out the sombre shadows of 
 the great cocoal. This farm, as is a rule in the 
 Amazon, bore the name of a saint, which, by the 
 way, indicates no sign of any particular religious 
 sentiment on the part of its owners. It was called 
 Saint Isidoro, for what reason is not known. For a 
 long time Espirito seldom left its precincts unless to 
 go to town on election day, or for some festivity or 
 other. Here Rosa was born, and grew, and jomped 
 and played under the cocoa and orange trees. Her 
 father, an ignorant man, who could little more than 
 read or write, still had much common-sense marred 
 by great indolence, the vice of all Amazonian settlers. 
 He married early, without passion or even interest, 
 a neighbor s daughter, to whose house he had be 
 come accustomed as a bachelor. Dona Felica, a 
 superb, voluptuous specimen of mameluca girl, with 
 all the defects and good qualities of that race, pos 
 sessed not only greater physical strength than her 
 husband, but far more ambition and activity. When 
 she was young (inoca), meaning until her sixteenth 
 year, she was tender and caressing in all her words 
 towards her husband, but with a tenderness and 
 affection purely sensual. This, after a time, merged 
 into respect, even fear, and, finally, into the passive 
 submission of a slave. Still, she possessed over him 
 the superiority of the worker. She it was who 
 directed the labor of the house and the farm, plant-
 
 A TALE OF THE GREA T RIVER. 
 
 ing the mandioca, making farinha, helping to gather 
 cocoa, and on the fishing excursions taking even a 
 hand at the oar. Two years passed after their mar 
 riage before the birth of Rosa ; certainly her parents 
 were* fond of her, but would have deemed it no 
 poignant affliction had she never been born. At 
 nearly the same time an Indian woman in the house 
 gave birth to a boy, and to her was given the care 
 and nursing of Rosa, who grew up, if not a robust, 
 at least a healthy child. She lived a half amphibious 
 life between beach and water. She built tiny huts 
 in the sand in which to shelter and swing in bits of 
 hammocks her dolls, made either by mother or nurse 
 monstrosities still interesting as works of primitive 
 art. To her moral education little attention was 
 given. She was rarely punished, except in cases of 
 disobedience or insubordination. In the sala before 
 mentioned was an oratory, covered with coarse, 
 deformed images. Partly through teaching, partly 
 through observation, she learned that they were 
 called saints, who lived with the Father in Heaven 
 {papae doceo), also that when she cried they were 
 displeased. She noticed that they were seldom 
 approached except in case of thunder, or family 
 affliction, when a candle was lighted and placed 
 before them, or even a jewel, or a bright bunch of 
 flowers. So she sometirrres on similar occasions 
 placed her playthings on the oratory. Once she saw 
 her Indian nurse, who had lost and could not find a 
 golden ear-ring, beat, in a sudden access of fury, a 
 certain Saint Antonio, beat him vigorously with a 
 twig of the cipo, and then turn his face in disgrace
 
 1 6 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 towards the wall. As they told her, when she cried, 
 that the saints and our Lady did not like crying or 
 naughty children, she began to fear them, and to 
 eye them timorously from afar. For about the 
 same reason, she was frightened at the currupira 
 and the tiitii, wicked black witches who devoured 
 naughty children. The nurse, or Indian mother 
 (mae-tapuia), as Rosa called her, was accustomed to 
 sing her to sleep with Indian rhymes, not wholly 
 unmusical. Later, she told her stories of ghosts 
 and goblins, of wood-elfs and forest nymphs, so that 
 no wonder the poor child confounded savage super 
 stitions with the history of saints and the teachings 
 of Mother Church. These last were initiated by 
 Rosa s grandmother, who taught her to make the 
 sign of the cross and to repeat the Ave Maria and 
 Lord s Prayer. At night, tired out with play, she 
 generally lay down in the same clothes she had 
 worn during the day. Finally, in an evil hour, at 
 the urgent request of some political friends, the 
 father decided to move to Obidos, where he would 
 hold some slight position in the Common Council. 
 Rosa was rejoiced at the change, but experienced a 
 certain depression of spirits at the loss of her old 
 companions and wild liberty of action. This, as she 
 was placed at school, wore away, where, being quick, 
 she made rapid progress, and at the end of two years, 
 she had learned all that was in these parts deemed 
 necessary for a woman to know. She had her cate 
 chism by heart, she knew the elementary branches, 
 and could sew, embroider, and make the country lace 
 to perfection.
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER. I/ 
 
 On her way to school, Rosa had to pass the shop 
 of a certain Manuel Bicudo, to whose clerk, Antonio, 
 had been given the same surname. This clerk was 
 an evil-minded fellow, feared by the peaceful Obi- 
 dense^, on account of his malevolent tongue and the 
 calumnies he so cunningly invented and set into cir 
 culation. Unhappily, Rosa did not know his real 
 character, and had she been told it is doubtful 
 whether any impression would have been made on 
 the volatile mind of the girl. Moreover, Antonio 
 was very good-looking, with the supple frame and 
 great languid eyes of the Peninsula. Whenever 
 Rosa passed, followed by the mae-tapuia, who carried 
 along her little tin box of books and sewing, he never 
 omitted to pay her some simple compliment, which, 
 she, proud of her conquest, smilingly received. Now 
 she, like others of her precocious schoolmates, had 
 some one to love and to love her. As to the mae- 
 tapuia, whose heart Antonio had won over by pres 
 ents of cotton cloth, pieces of tobacco, and cups of 
 aguadenteso agreeable to the Indian palate, she even 
 favored these attentions, and one day took from 
 her belt a letter filled with protestations of love 
 which Rosa speedily answered. And at this time 
 Antonio really seemed to have lost his head over 
 Rosa. At mass his eyes seldom left her, and it 
 seemed an ecstasy for both, that silent interchange of 
 glances. He still loved to assume airs of the sceptic, 
 and at the church fair, dedicated to Sant* Anna, he 
 offered, to the horror of the devout, a sagui (small 
 monkey) which he had bought for ten milreis, to this 
 favorite saint.
 
 1 8 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 With the facility which small places offer for mak 
 ing acquaintances, he began to frequent the windows 
 of Espirito s house, now conversing with him, now 
 with D. Felica, then with Rosa, who at first was 
 shy and silent. 
 
 He accepted, one day, a proffered cup of coffee, 
 and entered the dwelling. His fine airs and graces 
 finished the conquest of D. Felica, at whose " orders " 
 he had already placed the shop of his patron. Of 
 this acquaintance Espirito did not disapprove, as it 
 permitted him to open a credit therein. By these 
 means Antonio gained over him the superiority of 
 a creditor, which afforded him a still freer access 
 to the house, and he began to woo the daughter 
 openly. The mother to this paid little attention, 
 and she knew just as little of her daughter s natyre, 
 in which already could be detected possibilities of 
 that terrible abandon with which a woman, regard 
 less o/ risk or duty, can give herself up, body and 
 soul, to the man she loves. Things were at this 
 pass when Antonio was suddenly dismissed from 
 his place. In his pocket were the " economies" of 
 years, made, be it understood, at the cost of his em 
 ployer s money drawer. In a letter to Rosa he 
 accused her of being the cause of his disgrace. The 
 patron, he wrote, had forbidden him to visit her 
 father s house, and neither would he trust him for 
 a single vintein (cent) more. Of course, loving her 
 as he did, he, Antonio, refused to comply with this 
 arbitrary request, and had been turned out. This 
 story, which the nurse confirmed, Rosa believed. 
 The idea that she had made a victim not only caused
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER. 19 
 
 her vanity to overflow, but redoubled her love. She 
 had caused a human being to suffer here this 
 poor fellow was persecuted on her account. She 
 loved him more passionately than ever ; her increased 
 affection taking the form of maternal tenderness, 
 which is at the bottom of every woman s heart. 
 Poor fellow in a foreign land far from kindred 
 and friends and now unhappy all for her. Ought 
 she not then to protect him with her love, to console 
 him with her caresses? He had sacrificed himself 
 for her. . . . Alas ! from Antonio had not been 
 hidden this vehement access of passion. He be 
 came, in consequence, exacting, feigning jealousy, 
 which flattered the poor girl, seeing as she did in 
 this a new proof of love. Then he spoke of an 
 interview he was again employed, and very busy 
 he wished to speak to her alone of their 
 marriage and much that lay near his heart. She 
 refused, at which refusal he became angry, de 
 claring that she did not do as he wished, because 
 she no longer cared for him he knew she cared 
 for some one else one Joao de Gomes. She did 
 not love him, Antonio, and he had been silly in 
 sacrificing himself for her. He would go away to 
 the Madeira River, and it would be her fault if he 
 died of the fever. 
 
 Then, for days, he never passed the door. They 
 were sad only for Rosa, torn to pieces by the conflict 
 ing desire of seeing Antonio, and talking with him 
 at will, and the dr^ad of her parents wrath were she 
 discovered. And she thought of a plan by which 
 nobody should know of their meeting. She had
 
 2O Iff AMAZON LAND, 
 
 been accustomed to bathe in the little forest lake, 
 with the mac-tapuia, and here he should appear as 
 if by chance, and they could talk together. The 
 mae-tapuia, to be sure, would not leave them alone, 
 and she might suspect they wished to speak of things 
 not meant for a third person s ear, but then she was 
 silent and discreet. And this plan carried out 
 they sometimes met. Time passed, when one day 
 Rosa received a note, saying that to-morrow would 
 pass the steamer Tapajds, and that if she con 
 tinued so obdurate, well then he would take his 
 passage by her so* then an eternal farewell from 
 him who had loved her well the ungratqful one ! 
 This blotted letter, with its disguised handwriting, 
 bore no signature. Antonio s resolution, terrified 
 Rosa. The idea of losing him maddened her. She 
 would send him a message at once. Going to the 
 kitchen, she took from the coal basket a piece 
 of coal, which she wrapped round with a thread 
 of the tucum, into which she had fastened eleven 
 knots. Hiding this, wrapped up in paper, in her 
 bosom, she seated herself at the window, waiting 
 an auspicious moment for sending this singular mes 
 sage. Presently, a little tapuya passed, a sickly, 
 demented-looking girl. In her arm was a bottle, in 
 which, probably, to purchase rum, at the venda. 
 
 " Are you passing Sr. Antonio s store ? " asked 
 Rosa. 
 
 " Sim, Senhora." 
 
 " Here take these four vinteyis [four cents] for 
 doces, they are for you, and take this parcel to Sr. 
 Antonio, and say by the old garden-gate.
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER. 21 
 
 " Sim, Senhora." 
 
 Antonio received parcel and message. At first, he 
 could not understand the former, but finally it 
 dawned upon him that the coal meant night, and 
 the eleven knots in the tucum the corresponding 
 hour. And he laughed a laugh, worthy of the Evil 
 One himself. 
 
 All in Espirito s house slept all except Rosa. 
 Feverish with fear and waiting, she had counted 
 the hours until now the old kitchen clock sounded 
 out eleven. In the same white dress she had worn 
 during the day, pale, barefooted, her black hair 
 waving over her shoulders, she slipped out into 
 the garden. The night was clear and humid. The 
 moon, like a golden globe in the clear blue sky,, 
 bathed all nature in light. Silence reigned, broken 
 by the discordant howl of a dog which, from afar 
 reached Rosa s ears. At the rough garden gate, of 
 acapti sticks, she paused tremulous, nearly senseless. 
 
 She felt an arm encircle her waist, and on her 
 cheeks, already humid with the dews of night, were 
 pressed hot kisses. She instinctively shrunk and 
 withdrew. Still, every nerve of her body, quiver 
 ing in that opulence of cold light, called out for warm, 
 suffocating caresses. She felt prostrated, as if before 
 some mystic vision. Then he whispered in her ear, 
 low, tender, supplicating words. She scarcely had 
 strength to shrink farther away. 
 
 "Are you deceiving me?" she murmured in a 
 failling voice, and looking at him with a great 
 tenderness.
 
 22 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 " I am not deceiving you ; I swear by this moon 
 light that is bathing us in its heavenly radiance," 
 he replied, touched in spite of himself into momen 
 tary earnestness. 
 
 "In the name of God," she continued, f you 
 promise to marry me." 
 
 " In the name of God " imprinting on her lips 
 a long kiss. The dog from afar gave one last dis 
 cordant howl ; a bird from a neighboring tree sent 
 forth one wild, sharp note ; the moon under a passing 
 cloud hid her face of glory; and nature was hushed 
 into oppressive silence. 
 
 * 
 
 That night Dona Felica was disturbed by a noise in 
 her fowl yard. Hastily rising, without removing her 
 night clothes, she examined the place. All was quiet. 
 Withal, it seemed to her that near the garden gate 
 moved two figures one of a man, the other of a 
 woman. She was proceeding thither, when again 
 the moon hid her face under a cloud, and all was 
 wrapped in gloom. At the same time, the howl 
 of a dog resounded from afar, and the wailing note 
 of a bird in the tree overhead sounded out like a 
 groan. Dona Felica, always superstitious, crossed 
 herself, ran hastily to her room, sprinkling over her 
 face a little of the holy water yet remaining in the 
 calabash. Then the moon came out in renewed 
 glory, and it seemed as if all in the house of Espirito 
 slept.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON the identical Monday which has been men 
 tioned, Espirito set out with his family for the Parus, 
 where it was said this year the pirarucu abounded. 
 What obliged him to leave the charm of town life and 
 the honorable occupation of his calling was dire 
 necessity. 
 
 With .little foresight, he had left his farm, abandon 
 ing with it his only legitimate interests. He had 
 run into debt and was obliged, in order to rescue the 
 property from seizure, to make the annual fishery. 
 On this account he had returned home in such a 
 bad humor on the day he announced his determina 
 tion to DonaFelica. He had become accustomed to 
 the idle life, to the disputes and debates and bab 
 bling talk of the little town. Home he seldom came 
 except to meals or at bedtime. Outside of the 
 Council sessions, he was generally to be found at 
 shop doors, or at the apothecary s shop, the great 
 meeting-place for gossip and political intrigues. 
 
 As for the farm, it was going to rack and ruin. 
 Espirito had let it to an old Indian, an idle scamp 
 of a fellow. The crop produced little, and half that 
 little was robbed. 
 
 On the morning of their departure, Obidos pre 
 sented a gay appearance. The semi-monthly 
 steamer had arrived, a great event in the early days 
 
 23
 
 24 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 * 
 
 of the opening of the Amazon. Through curiosity, 
 or to receive or send unimportant cargoes, people 
 came for miles around to see it. The town s entire 
 population, men, women, and children, turned out, 
 and when the great anchor was cast, the steamer was 
 surrounded by canoes. Many came simply to com 
 pliment the captain, or commander, as he was called 
 in those times of the Amazon Co., an important 
 personage enough, with a superb disdain for these 
 simple country people. Still, were he in a good 
 humor, he would narrate the news of Para and the 
 south, generally affecting an intimacy with the " big 
 ones " {figurots). No end of presents were brought 
 him cakes, doccs, monkeys, parrots, fruits, rare 
 woods. After the distribution of the mail, groups 
 formed at the corners of the streets, or in front t>f 
 the town hall, where letters and papers were shown 
 and news discussed. Many of the passengers went 
 on shore; one of them, a highly tatooed Indian chief 
 from the Purus, showed all the native indifference 
 to the sights of the town. He was returning from 
 a visit to the President of Para, whom at a formal 
 session at the palace he had astonished beyond de 
 scription. According to some preconceived Indian 
 idea of etiquette, on his Excellency s head he had 
 placed his flaming head-dress of feathers, while on his 
 own rested the sober black hat of that dignitary. 
 A tall, thin English naturalist, with yellow beard, 
 and wearing enormous blue glasses, gesticulated in 
 impossible Portuguese around his luggage, on the 
 top of which perched a garrulous parrot. By frantic 
 signs and gesticulations an Indian porter was made
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER. 2$ 
 
 to understand that the senhor and his luggage were 
 to be taken ashore. 
 
 Under the awning of the great canoe, Rosa, with 
 palpitating heart, watched the scene. She looked 
 towards the town, half hidden from view by great 
 Brazil-nut trees, at the beach, at the water, where 
 men and women alike waded knee-deep to fill their 
 rude jars with water. For him, for whom her eyes 
 were searching, she looked in vain. No one came. 
 
 The canoe was let loose at a good, safe " broad 
 side" from the steamer, and soon Obidos, its 
 white beach, flat houses, and outlying forest, faded 
 into the distance. Rosa s last hope was dis 
 pelled. Miserable and humiliated, down her cheeks 
 ran the swift-flowing tears. Her parents attributed 
 hr grief to the pain of leaving town, and left her to 
 herself. It would soon pass over. The girl s sen 
 sations are difficult to describe. She experienced 
 neither remorse nor sorrow, but a scorching fire of 
 fury, that she had given herself up to one who evi 
 dently cared no longer for her, whom, alas ! she loved 
 more dearly than ever. 
 
 The voyage to the fisheries passed uneventfully 
 enough. Once only the canoe stopped, and this was 
 at the mouth of a picturesque igarape, in order to cut 
 estejas (long sticks of even length) for the hut, as by 
 the lakes were to be found none of these materials. 
 
 The Partis to which Espirito went with his family 
 is, in the fishing time, not one lake alone, but a con 
 glomeration of lakes, some fifty in number, known 
 collectively by that name. Like all the Amazon 
 coast region, it presents yearly two widely distinct
 
 26 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 aspects. In the rainy season, or during the general 
 overflow of the Amazon, whose despotic influence 
 is felt by all waters connected with it directly or in 
 directly, the Partis is one vast lake, whose length has 
 not been accurately calculated. In summer or the 
 dry season, islands submerged for nearly five months 
 rise from the waters fresh and verdant, leaving in 
 their wake lakes of varying forms, depths, and sizes, 
 all connected together by igarapcs or channels. 
 And where months before had passed some steamer, 
 are (erected on the higher banks of these igarapes] 
 traders huts, and on the lesser lakes fishermen ply 
 their tiny canoes. 
 
 Still, in summer as in winter, water is the pre 
 dominating element ; the air is saturated with it, and 
 at night one is wrapped around by the overcharged 
 dew, as with a wet mantle. On these margins, less 
 swept by the furrows of canoes, rises a superb 
 aquatic vegetation. At certain distances this girdle 
 of green is spotted by beaches of black earth, fre 
 quented by legions of gorgeous butterflies ; at a 
 distance, and in repose, appearing like flowers 
 springing from the black soil. Millions of tiny 
 birds revel in this vegetation, among the leaves and 
 flowers from which the bdto loves to wreathe gar 
 lands for his victims. 
 
 Isolated in the tranquil lakes nearer terra firma, 
 the Victoria regia (Jacunda s oven of the natives) 
 
 1 Bdto, a fish which, according to the Amazonian legends, takes the 
 form of a beautiful youth. His voice is low and full of melody. 
 Alas for the Indian maiden who in the witching moonlight hears it 
 and flees not !
 
 A TALE OF THE GREA T RIVER. 2/ 
 
 unfolds, bordered round with a vivid carnation, its 
 enormous semi-spherical leaves. Rising a few inches 
 above the water, fragrant past all sweetness, are its 
 flowers : in the morning, white as a heron s wing ; at 
 evening, a tender rose-pink, which finally deepens 
 into red. Despite its seclusion, the Victoria regia, 
 through its wild, savage beauty, its extraordinary 
 size, will ever dominate over all the aquatic world s 
 flora. 
 
 Lazily floating on these same lakes may be seen 
 hundreds of alligators, as lazily waiting for worthless 
 pieces of fish thrown into the water by the fish 
 ermen. , When these pieces are not thrown with 
 sufficient force to reach the water, the alligators 
 quickly come ashore for them. Famished urubus, 
 which with men and dogs also emigrate hither at 
 this time, perched on trees, or walking along with 
 slow, rhythmic step, bide their time for the share 
 of the feast. It is droll to watch these birds, as now 
 they half fly, half hop along, cawing meanwhile 
 with their disgusting chein-chem, then soaring aloft 
 above the stone throws of some naked little caboclo. 
 
 If here vegetable life, confined to a few species 
 (which, however, flourish with rare luxuriance), lacks 
 the forest opulence of lands not subjected to river 
 inundation, animal life, however dependent upon 
 the individuality of terra firma, teems with mag 
 nificent prodigality. In the midst of canarana 1 
 are thousands of birds, which fly rapidly away at 
 the approach of footsteps. There are the pias- 
 sdcas of earthen color; the slender grass-birds, of 
 
 1 Wild grass as high as the sugar-cane.
 
 28 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 seven colors ; overhead soar aloft flocks of snow- 
 white egrets ; joining together at times in flocks 
 of hundreds to make their tinguijadas, or fishing 
 parties, to some far-distant stream. 
 
 There are ugly yellow arapapas, with their enor 
 mous concave beaks, larger than their heads ; deadly 
 serpents coiled together in immense masses ; green 
 clouds of parrots ; japins with their long nests hang 
 ing from the silk-cotton trees, not unlike rows of 
 brown Christmas stockings. There is the ugly cara- 
 chui, in ugliness and song unrivalled ; the saracuru, 
 whose strange notes startle the unaccustomed ear, 
 and the native canary, not unlike a golden humming 
 bird. 
 
 At dawn of day the fishermen set out in their 
 canoes, and the lakes present a lively appearancfc. 
 In the prows can be seen men attired only in trousers 
 dyed in moruchy, consequently the copper color of 
 their own skin. By the side, ready to plunge into 
 the flesh of the great pirarucii as it unwarily floats 
 by, rests his harpoon. At this time not only does 
 this fish abound in the lakes, but an infinite variety 
 of others, for which the Indian, with his quick eye, 
 awaits with half-stretched bow and arrow. Espe 
 cially animated was the fishing season this year. 
 Espirito quickly put together his hut, in whose 
 construction, be it noted, not a single nail figured, 
 strong cipos serving the purpose.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TRY as she might, Rosa could not forget Antonio. 
 He was always present to her imagination, yet she 
 was now convinced that he intended to deceive her. 
 And fear took a thousand dark-hued shapes. 
 
 One morning, as she sat on the trunk of a mon- 
 gubeira tree, ihejapins twittering overhead, a canoe 
 passed by which was presently moored near her 
 father s hut. In the prow was a young fellow dressed 
 in foreign-looking clothes, and wearing a straw hat 
 of a foreign manufacture. It caused Rosa an inex 
 plicable shock, the first sight of that figure. Yes, 
 there was Antonio. He jumped ashore, and stood 
 only a few steps from her, bowing and smiling. The 
 color rose to her pale cheeks, while her heart beat 
 fiercely within. She had not the strength to fly. 
 He pressed her hand tenderly as he whispered : " I 
 have come on your account ungrateful one ! " At 
 that moment the father, who had not gone that day 
 to the lakes, called out : " Ola, is that you, Antonio ? 
 Then you have come to the fisheries? Rather late, 
 though. What s the news in the town ? They say 
 that Pacheco has been condemned. How is my 
 compadre, the captain ? Nothing new from Para ? 
 Then we have won the election, eh ? " 
 
 The young man replied to these and other ques- 
 29
 
 3O IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 tions as best he could, finally accepting an invitation 
 to breakfast at Espirito s house. Antonio equivo 
 cated when he told Rosa that it was for her sake he 
 had come. In truth, he had no longer any affection 
 for the girl. Satiety had brought weariness the 
 death of love. When the family had left Obidos, 
 his strongest sensation had been one of relief. He 
 did n t wish to marry any one yet, certainly not 
 Rosa. 
 
 He had been surprised by an order from his 
 patron to prepare for the lakes. Besides the pur 
 chase of fish, he wished him to collect some out 
 standing debts. For this he was given a canoe, 
 money, and provisions. At first he had wished to 
 excuse himself, but according to the terms of his 
 contract could not well do so. And, then, what 
 had he to fear from Rosa, or her poor devil of a 
 father, against whom he had a strong weapon, the 
 recovery of a debt of 3OO$ooo. And so he had 
 greeted Rosa smilingly with a lie on his lips. De 
 spite her paleness she had changed into a more 
 voluptuous beauty, and he smiled to himself at the 
 thought of renewing their old relations. They would 
 last, he said to himself, well as long as the fishing 
 season, perhaps longer. But Rosa had strangely 
 changed of late in her feelings towards him, and his 
 declarations now fell on wearily indifferent ears. 
 This unexpected resistance, while it exasperated 
 Antonio, rekindled his old passion, and he resolved 
 to again engage in his favor the mae-tapuia. He 
 complained bitterly to her that she was an ungrate 
 ful girl ; that at much personal inconvenience he had
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER. 31 
 
 arranged this voyage to gain something, the sooner 
 to establish himself, and to marry her. 
 
 The tafiuia, whom a cup of native rum had con 
 siderably softened, assured him that he was mistaken, 
 that her foster-child cared for no other, and that he 
 could count on her. 
 
 " Does she never speak of me, Aunt Thomasia?" 
 asked Antonio. 
 
 " Never," she replied, "but what of that? And 
 she is ill ; one night I had a bad dream about her" 
 ; and with a sudden suspicion " I was even capa 
 ble of thinking you had done her some harm, Sr. 
 Antonio." 
 
 
 
 " I, Aunt Thomasia? Por Deos, no ! But listen. 
 You speak to her of me. See that she comes here 
 tQ-day, under this sumatimeira tree. I want to ar 
 range our marriage, you know. I have much to 
 talk over with her. After mid-day, then, when 
 Dona Felica is sleeping. Yes, here, take this price 
 of chita [calico]." 
 
 The mae-tapuia returned home with the price of 
 calico, and after putting it away in a balai (coarse 
 basket), which served as a trunk, went to look for 
 Rosa, who was idly swinging in her hammock. Sit 
 ting on the tupi mat beside her, she related what 
 Antonio had said. 
 
 " Heaven deliver me from him ! " exclaimed Rosa 
 irritably. 
 
 " Why, child ? He is a bom sujeito [good fellow], 
 and cares much for you." 
 
 " He does not. He is very wicked ! " 
 
 Was it from despair, was it from the old childish
 
 32 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 instinct that the mae-tapuia could help her, be it 
 as it be, Rosa, bursting into a flood of tears, told 
 her all. 
 
 The mae-tapuia did everything in her power to 
 soothe the agitated girl, and at once instinctively 
 formed her plans. Remorse found little place in her 
 bosom, and in reality, outside of her petty venality, 
 she had wished only to do the young people a 
 service. Rosa she had nursed at her breast and 
 loved as her own child. And if, as she affirmed, 
 Antonio really cared nothing more for her, and 
 would never marry her. Ai the only thing that re 
 mained was well one of those thousand pussan- 
 gos potions in vogue in the country. No one knew 
 more of these potions than did she, thank Heaven ! 
 But one difficulty remained. In the meadows about 
 grew none of these herbs, only in the terra firma. 
 This would not baffle her. No ! There was her son, 
 Rosa s foster-brother, he should go to the trombetas 
 for them. All settled, she comforted Rosa as best 
 she could, enjoining on her to not lose hope she 
 would arrange all. 
 
 Only two days after was Thomasia able to speak 
 with Antonio, and then she besought him, with more 
 feeling than one who knew her would suppose her 
 capable of showing, to repair the wrong he had done 
 Rosa by marrying. To his villainous words in reply 
 she listened as if turned to stone, but finally rising, 
 half strangled with fury, furious as a wounded tiger 
 of the outer forest, she hurled at him the curse of 
 her race.
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER. 33 
 
 That same day the mae-tapuia entered Rosa s 
 room, carrying; in her hand a black, glossy gourd, 
 from which the girl uncomplainingly drank. She did 
 not lament, nor complain, neither for her fault in it 
 self did she feel any compunction. Of late she had 
 been dully thinking of Obidos, of her schoolmates, 
 of the old gossips, they would point their fingers 
 at her, if they knew. And these things spread 
 about quickly in small places. She now feared every 
 thing ; if a visitor appeared, she was found seated 
 silently at her work at lace-cushion. he shuddered 
 when she remembered her father ; perhaps he would 
 beat her, and the idea caused her to turn faint and 
 giddy. Later she fell into an apathy, scarcely fear 
 ing even her father s wrath. 
 
 Some two weeks after Thomasia s interview with 
 Antonio, the latter knocked at the door of the hut. 
 It was Sunday, and all were within. " Entre com 
 Deos" (Enter with God), called out Espirito in 
 answer to the knock. Antonio came in, giving all as 
 usual the time of day. He quickly saw that nothing 
 unusual had occurred within. He had come, he 
 told Espirito, on a business advantageous to them 
 both. He knew that he had some thirty arrobas of 
 fish to sell, and he would like to buy it. Others 
 paid in goods, he would pay in cash. He would 
 give something over four milreis.for each arroba. 
 The money was ready in his canoe. 
 
 " Too little," replied Espirito, " I have been offered 
 five milreis an arroba." 
 
 " Who offered it ? " 
 
 " Joao Periquito."
 
 34 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 " That I doubt. In goods perhaps, but not in 
 money." 
 
 " Well, decide at once, prcgai ou largai [let or 
 leave it]. Sr. Antonio, you must give me five 
 milreis." 
 
 " Safa, but you are mean." 
 
 " Fish in Para is dear, ten milreis an arro&a, they 
 say." 
 
 " Lies, my friend, all lies, it is not so dear." 
 
 " And you know, with freight duties, and what 
 not, scarcely a percentage can be made," replied the 
 clerk, in that droning, complaining voice he had 
 learned from the traders. Silence succeeded. 
 
 During this dialogue Rosa had not once glanced 
 towards the young man. It was mid-day, the hour 
 of dinner. The little negress, Camilla, with wham 
 we are acquainted, entered the room, and over the 
 straw mat, extended between the hammocks of 
 Espirito and his wife, spread a small, coarse cotton 
 cloth. 
 
 This was a Sunday luxury ; on working days the 
 family ate from the mat, on the floor itself. The 
 cloth, with its blue earthenware, horn-handled knives 
 and forks, and its leaden spoons, was laid. Two 
 calabashes for each plate served, the one for water, 
 the other for parched farinha. 
 
 Antonio, watching these preparations, was about 
 to leave, saying : " Well, will you let me have the fish ? 
 If so, I will send the man for it. Adeos" 
 
 " Don t go yet. Afterwards we will talk of busi 
 ness. Stay and eat." 
 
 Antonio consented, with the condition that
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER. 35 
 
 Espirito would not refuse a flask of wine which he 
 had in his canoe, and for which he asked leave to 
 send the little negress. Duly arriving, they seated 
 themselves at dinner, which was composed wholly of 
 fish. Antonio sat at Rosa s side, and moved by a 
 sudden impulse to hear her speak, offered her some 
 wine, which she brusquely refused and shortly after 
 left the room. Espirito, however, did not refuse the 
 wine, and at the close of dinner his eyes had grown 
 alarmingly small, and his speech heavy and slow. 
 Now this was a propitious moment for Antonio to 
 speak of the purchase of fish. He would n t let it 
 pass, and talked as before, perhaps with more 
 warmth. Espirito, half tipsy, finally consented to 
 the other s bargains. Under the influence of the 
 wine he had become tender, even obsequious. He 
 would not hear of Antonio s going away. It was 
 Sunday. Nothing was doing. There was a ham 
 mock stretched out by his own. He must have a 
 siesta, and overcome by heat and a good dinner, 
 both speedily fell into a heavy sleep, as did the good 
 D. Felica. 
 
 And without, nature slept, the silent sleep of a 
 midday under the equator.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 QUITE an animated crowd that afternoon had 
 assembled in front of Espirito s hut, near which he 
 stood with his family and Antonio. Some were 
 standing, others were seated on rough wooden 
 benches, or the outspreading roots of the great 
 sumaiimeira by the bank. The stream was nearly 
 deserted. Perhaps it was owing to this fact 
 that, for the last quarter of an hour, an enormous 
 pirarucii had been sporting in the waters, sending 
 them up in clouds of crested foam. 
 
 " Ah ! my fine fellow," said a half-Indian, squat 
 ting on the ground not far from Antonio, " you see 
 that nobody is about, and that is why you are so 
 sportive. Just wait a bit, till I set out with my 
 harpoon." 
 
 " In truth," said another fisherman, " he seems 
 disposed to have a tussle with somebody." 
 
 " He is large, the bicho " (animal), observed a third. 
 
 "Yes, he would weigh at least three arrobas" 
 (arroba, 32 Ibs.), said another, practised in the art 
 of calculating weight at sight. 
 
 " How he beats about, just to taunt the alligators," 
 remarked another, of which some half-dozen were 
 in sight. 
 
 " I have a great mind," said Antonio, " to harpoon 
 that fish." 
 
 36
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER, 37 
 
 "You, Sr. Antonio," challenged the tapuio who 
 had spoken first. " That bicho is not for you, meo 
 branco " (my white man). 
 
 " Why not ? " asked Antonio, somewhat nettled 
 in his self-love. " It would n t be the first I Ve 
 caught. Three days ago, ask Joao Domingos, I 
 harpooned one in Bouic.ro." 
 
 " That may be, meo branco, in the day of the 
 uaiva, when fish are tonto [giddy], but not in this 
 time of the moon." 
 
 " Go to the devil," was the angry response. 
 
 " I will wager two pirarucus against a demijohn 
 of cacha^a [rum], that you can t get that pirarucu" 
 insisted the tapuio, and he laughed again that 
 peculiar, indigenous laugh, showing in full the red 
 gums and the white pointed teeth. He was joined in 
 this by his companions, which irritated Antonio still 
 more, and he was about to retaliate, when turning 
 round he caught Rosa s glance of quiet scorn. White 
 with rage, " Pedro," he called out to a native, " lend 
 me your canoe. I will see whether or not I can 
 bring that bicho to shore." The tapuio consenting, 
 he proceeded forthwith to unfasten the canoe. 
 
 " Don t be foolish, Antonio ; you will lose that 
 flask of cachaca" observed Espirito, seriously. 
 
 " That s none of your business," replied Antonio, 
 jumping into the canoe. This was in length little 
 more than twelve feet. Squatting in the prow he 
 rowed quickly away. 
 
 The pirarucu was now only a few yards from his 
 right, and with two vigorous strokes he had gained 
 on it sufficiently to be out of the reach of its first
 
 38 Iff AMAZON LAND. 
 
 leap. With one foot firmly placed before the other, 
 eyes fixed, harpoon in right hand (in all trying to imi 
 tate the native), he stood ready. On shore the group 
 watched silently. Occasionally a rapid observation, 
 favorable or otherwise, was hazarded, as to the young 
 man s manoeuvres. Some, among others was Rosa, 
 had risen to their feet. Suddenly, from each breast 
 burst forth a loud cry. Two or three men sprang 
 into one of the lightest boats and set out rapidly. 
 That had been an anxious moment, in which Antonio 
 awaited the piraruaL Concentrating all his strength, 
 he had thrown the harpoon, but in the narrow prow 
 lost his balance and fell overboard. In, his first 
 plunge he had failed to grasp the canoe, which had 
 indeed been driven outward by the force of the fall. 
 He was a poor swimmer, and besides, the weight of 
 clothes, which never hampered the native, pulled him 
 under. Half strangled with the water in his throat, 
 he called for help. A monstrous alligator, its black 
 back and extended jaws plainly visible, glided in his 
 wake. ... A blood-curdling cry rent the air. Canoes, 
 rowed by Indian arms, shot forward with the velocity 
 of arrows. Too late ! The enormous amphiboid 
 eighteen feet in length had already seized Antonio 
 by the arm, and was swinging him round with the 
 velocity of a wind-mill. Blood dyed the water in 
 great circles round. And at sight of this the terrible 
 piranhas, with their razor-edged teeth, famished, 
 blood-thirsty little creatures, by thousands yes, 
 millions swarmed over, under, about that mutilated 
 body in frightful warfare with the alligators and one 
 another.
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER. 39 
 
 Canoes that came to the rescue slowly returned. 
 When told the particulars, Espirito with the instinc 
 tive hatred of the conquered for the conqueror, as 
 instinctively exclaimed : " Why did this devil of a 
 Portuguese, then, meddle in what he did n t under 
 stand ? " And this was Antonio s funeral oration. 
 At the moment the alligator had snatched off 
 Antonio s arm, Rosa, who had stood as if petrified 
 with one cry, fell down in a dead faint. Her mother 
 and Thomasia carried her to the hut and laid her in 
 her hammock. The faint lasted long in spite of 
 much vinegar, burnt cloths, and other remedies in 
 vogue., Then a fever set in, and a prostration that 
 lasted the night long. 

 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ROSA lay white, immovable, like one dead. D. 
 Felica s face wore a startled, idiotic expression, as if 
 in the presence of some great mystery. She was 
 sitting on the straw mat by her daughter s hammock, 
 and every now and then repeated in agitated tones : 
 " Commadre, commadre, what then is this ? " Aunt 
 Thomasia, whom she addressed, did not at once 
 reply. She was busily arranging this, putting that 
 in order. Finally she replied : " Quiet, Sra, Com- 
 madre, quiet. I don t know what I think. I 
 believe it is the work of the boto* Don t you re 
 member what happened that night in the quintal at 
 Obidos? What you told me? That form which 
 rose to the clouds when the matin-tapereira cried ? 
 And after that night Nha Rosa went about as dis 
 consolate as a tortoise without a mate. Don t you 
 remember ? And her appetite, too, fell away. She 
 was always near the river, under the sumafimeira. 
 I went there, and, to be sure, saw nothing, but I think 
 the boto called her thither. That fish has the cun 
 ning of the Evil One. It was he who brought evil 
 on Lopes wife, when her husband went to Para. 
 And poor Lol6, whom he carried away, as she slept 
 by the river, and who has never been heard of to this 
 
 1 The fish before referred to, which at times takes the form of a 
 seductive young man. 
 
 40
 
 A TALE OF THE GREAT RIVER. 41 
 
 day. And in that spot one can hear the mournful 
 song. He is always on that river the other day I 
 saw two botos, sporting one with the other, the evil 
 creatures. For me it is the boto, commadrc" con 
 cluded Thomasia, who, during this discourse, had also 
 seated herself on the mat, and spoke low in order not 
 to awaken Rosa, or that she might not hear. 
 
 D. Felica listened without interrupting the tapuia 
 listened incredulously, resignedly. She believed 
 the boto quite capable of doing this evil deed. Many 
 times she had listened to similar tales. She remem 
 bered that night in the quintal. Then that bird was 
 watching and had given the signal, and the boto had 
 ascended. In her daughter s life which she passed 
 in review, nothing occurred to arouse suspicions. 
 Yet, as her faith was not a living one, rather a linger 
 ing belief, she could not root out a certain fear or 
 distrust. Rosa awoke, turned in her hammock, 
 looking confusedly about as if in search of some 
 thing, and again fell into a deep lethargy. D. Felica 
 resolved to have her daughter blessed. Thomasia 
 knew of an old sorceress, or dispeller of evil spirits, 
 who enjoyed great fame in this respect, and went in 
 search of her. The sorceress was of the same opin 
 ion as the mae-tapuia. She blessed the girl, making 
 the sign of the cross over different parts of her body, 
 and murmuring low, incoherent phrases, finally ex 
 pelling the boto in the name of the Father, etc. The 
 next day Rosa was better, and D. Felica, placing a 
 candle in her hand, made her repeat a prayer on her 
 rosary before the image of N. S. das Dores (Lady of 
 Pain), which image she always carried with her in
 
 42 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 her trunk, the cover of which served as an altar for 
 the devotion. From this time Rosa commenced to 
 grow thin and pale, in fact, became almost ugly. She 
 went about with the air of one in disgrace. Her 
 father noticed the change and questioned the mother 
 as to the cause. " It was the boto" replied D. Felica 
 without entering upon a description of the habits of 
 this extraordinary creature. Espirito, just then very 
 busy with the municipal elections in which he finally 
 gained a more important position, paid little atten 
 tion to the subject. In Obidos, where soon after 
 the catastrophe the family returned, not all were 
 ready to credit the miraculous version which, not 
 withstanding the watchfulness of the mae-tapuia, 
 somehow had crept out. Especially, Sundays at 
 Mass, the young men who watched Rosa curiously 
 as she entered the church interchanged malicious 
 glances and smiles.
 
 AMAZONIAN LEGENDS. 
 
 COMPILED BY PROF. HART. 
 HOW THE TORTOISE OUTRAN THE DEER. 
 
 A JABUTI met a deer and asked : " O deer, what 
 are you seeking? " 
 
 The deer answered : " I am out for a walk, to see 
 if I cannot find something to eat. And, pray, where 
 are you going, tortoise ? " 
 
 "I am also out walking; I am looking for water 
 to drink." 
 
 " And when do you expect to reach the water ? " 
 demanded the deer. 
 
 "Why do you ask that question?" returned the 
 tortoise ; " I can run faster than you can. If you 
 are long-legged you cannot run as fast as I." 
 
 " Then let us run a race," said the deef. 
 
 "Well," answered the tortoise, "when shall we 
 run ? " 
 
 " To-morrow." 
 
 "At what time?" 
 
 " Very early in the morning." 
 
 " Eng-eng" (yes), assented the tortoise, who then 
 went into the forest and called together his relations, 
 the other tortoises, saying : " Come, let us kill the 
 deer." 
 
 " But how are you going to kill him ? " inquired 
 they. 
 
 43
 
 44 /-^ AMAZON LAND. 
 
 " I said to the deer," answered the tortoise, " let us 
 run a race. I want to see who can run the fastest." 
 Now, I am going to cheat that deer. Do you scat 
 ter yourselves along the edge of the campo in the 
 forest, keeping not very far from one another, and 
 see that you keep perfectly still, each in his place ! 
 To-morrow, when we begin the race, the deer will 
 run in the campo, but I will remain quietly in my 
 place. When he calls out to me, if you are ahead 
 of him, answer, but take care not to respond if he 
 has passed you." So, early the next morning, the 
 deer went out to meet the tortoise. 
 
 " Come," said the former, " let us run." 
 
 " Wait a bit," said the tortoise, " I am going to 
 run in the woods." 
 
 " And how are you, a little, short-legged fellow, 
 going to run in the forest? " asked the deer, sur 
 prised. 
 
 Ihejabuti (tortoise) insisted that he could not run 
 in the campo, but that he was accustomed to run in 
 the forest. So the deer assented, and the tortoise 
 entered the wood, saying : " When I take my posi 
 tion I will make a noise with a little stick, so that 
 you may know I am ready." 
 
 When the tortoise, having reached his place, gave 
 the signal, the deer started off leisurely, laughing to 
 himself, and not thinking it worth his while to run. 
 
 The tortoise remained quietly behind. After the 
 deer had walked a little distance, he turned round 
 and called out: " Wi yanti" (Hullo, tortoise!). 
 " Well," said the deer to himself, " that jabuti does 
 run fast ! " Whereupon he walked briskly for a little
 
 AMAZONIAN LEGENDS. 45 
 
 distance, then cried out again, but the voice of a tor 
 toise still responded far in advance. 
 
 " How s this ? " exclaimed the deer, and he ran a 
 little way, until, thinking that he surely must have 
 passed the tortoise, he turned about, and called 
 again, but " U i suasa ! "" came from the edge of the 
 forest just ahead. 
 
 Then the deer began to be alarmed, and ran 
 swiftly, until he was sure that he had passed the 
 tortoise, when he stopped, and called ; but a jabuti 
 still answered in advance. On this, the deer set off 
 at full speed, and after a little without stopping, 
 called to the tortoise, who still, from ahead, cried, 
 " U i suasa ! " He then redoubled his forces, but 
 with no better success, and at last, tired, bewildered, 
 he ran against a tree, and fell dead. The noise made 
 by the feet of the deer having ceased, the first tor 
 toise listened. Not a sound was heard. Then he 
 called to the deer, but received no response. So he 
 went out of the forest, and found the deer lying 
 dead. Then he gathered together all his friends, 
 and rejoiced over the victory. 
 
 THE CURUPIRA. 
 
 (Curupira, a being who lives in the forest, and leads people astray, 
 that he may destroy them.) 
 
 A MAN was hunting in the forest ; led astray by 
 one of these beings, he lost his way, and at night 
 went to sleep at the foot of a tree. The curupira 
 came up to him, and beat on the sapopema of the 
 tree ; the man awoke.
 
 4.6 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 " What are you doing here, brother?" asked the 
 curupira. 
 
 " I was lost, and I remained here," answered the 
 man. 
 
 "Then," said the curupira, "give me a piece of 
 your heart to eat ! " 
 
 Fortunately the man had killed a monkey ; with 
 his knife he opened its body, and cutting out a piece 
 of the heart, he gave it to the curupira who ate it, 
 supposing it to be the man s heart. " It is very 
 sweet," said the curupira; "give me the whole!" 
 And the man gave him the rest of the monkey s 
 heart. Then he said : " Now, you must give me a 
 piece of your heart." The curupira thought that if 
 the man could cut out his heart, he also could do 
 the same. So he asked the hunter to give him his 
 knife, cut open his own body, and fell dead. The 
 man, free from his enemy, fled. After a year the 
 hunter remembered that the curupiras have green 
 teeth, so he went to get the teeth of the one he had 
 killed, to make a string of beads. He found the 
 skeleton at the foot of the tree ; taking the skull in 
 his hand, he struck one of the teeth with his hatchet, 
 when, to his amazement and fear, the curupira stood 
 alive and smiling before him. 
 
 Thank you, brother, for having awakened me ! " 
 said the apparition. " I had lain down a moment to 
 sleep." Then he gave the man an enchanted arrow, 
 saying that with this he could kill any game ; but he 
 charged him not to tell any one from whom he had 
 received it. Heretofore this man had been a bad 
 hunter ; but now he killed much game every day.
 
 AMAZONIAN LEGENDS. 47 
 
 His wife, noticing this, asked him how he had be 
 come so expert. 
 
 The husband at length told his wife all, and im 
 mediately fell dead. 
 
 STORY OF THE JAGUAR WHO WANTED TO MARRY 
 
 THE DEER S DAUGHTER, BUT WAS CUT 
 
 OUT BY THE COTIA. 
 
 A JAGUAR had a mind to marry ; he fell in love 
 with the daughter of the deer, and one day he asked 
 and obtained the deer s consent to the match. Now 
 the jaguar had a friend, the cotia. So to the cotia s 
 house he ran, in great joy, to tell the news and boast 
 of his good luck. " See how fortunate I am ! " he 
 cried. " I am going to marry the deer s daughter, the 
 prettiest girl of the forest, and you, my friend, shall 
 attend the wedding ! " 
 
 " You are indeed happy," responded the cotia. 
 " I congratulate you ! " But in his heart he was re 
 solved to cut the jaguar out. So when the jaguar 
 was gone, he ran to the deer s house, and asked for 
 his daughter in marriage. 
 
 " I would be very happy to give her to you," said 
 the deer, " but she is already engaged to the jaguar, 
 who asked her of me but now." 
 
 " Poh, poh ! " exclaimed the cotia, " the jaguar 
 is n t good enough for her ; he is only a miserable 
 old dotard, the worst beast in the woods, and the 
 weakest ; why, I could make him carry me, for all 
 he is so big! "
 
 48 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 " Say you so ? " exclaimed the deer. " Well, 
 cotia, if you can make the jaguar carry you, you 
 shall have my daughter." So the cotia went away 
 and awaited his opportunity. When he knew that 
 the jaguar was going to the deer s house, he went 
 and lay down in the path where the jaguar must 
 pass ; and had a bandage round his head, and he 
 pretended to be very ill. Presently the jaguar came 
 by, and saw him. 
 
 " Hullo, cotia," said he, " what are you doing 
 there ? " 
 
 " I am lying in the woods," said the cotia, " be 
 cause I am very ill." 
 
 " I am going to see my betrothed," said the 
 jaguar ; " get up and come along with me." 
 
 " Indeed, I would like to," sighed the cotia, " but, 
 as you see, I am quite unable to walk." 
 
 " Well," said the jaguar, " if you will come with 
 me I will carry you." 
 
 " Very good," responded the cotia, " if you will 
 carry me I will go." So the jaguar took the cotia 
 on his back and walked off with him. 
 
 Presently the cotia slipped off on the ground. 
 " Oh, cotia," said the jaguar, " why did you fall off ? " 
 
 " I fell off," answered the cotia, " because I am so 
 * weak that I can t hold on." 
 
 " Well," said the jaguar, " I will tie you on with 
 cipd" So the jaguar got a cipd and tied the cotia 
 fast to his back, and so went on. Presently the 
 cotia began to strike the jaguar with his fore-feet." 
 
 " Hullo!" exclaimed the jaguar, "what are you 
 striking me for ? "
 
 AMAZONIAN LEGENDS. 49 
 
 " I am striking you," said the cotia, " because you 
 have n t given me a switch ; every one who rides 
 should have a whip." 
 
 The jaguar, willing to humor his friend, gave 
 him a switch ; he used this very gently until they 
 neared the house of the deer, when he began to whip 
 with all his might. The jaguar, mightily enraged, 
 tried to shake him off, but the cipo held him fast, 
 and together they ran through the forest. The 
 cotia waited until he saw a hole ; then he gnawed 
 the cipo, and slipped off, and so got into the hole 
 before the jaguar could seize him. 
 
 The jaguar watched at the mouth of the hole for 
 a long time, but at length he became very tired and 
 thirsty, so he said to an owl : " O owl, will you watch 
 this hole for me while I go and get some water ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the owl, " I will watch it for you and 
 nothing shall escape." 
 
 The jaguar went off to drink, and the owl sat 
 watching the hole. Presently the cotia peeped out 
 and saw the two great eyes staring at him ; he threw 
 a handful of sand into the owl s face and blinded 
 him, and while the latter was rubbing his eyes, the 
 cotia got out of the hole and ran away. 
 
 Just then the jaguar came back. . " O owl ! " said 
 he, " where is the cotia ? " 
 
 " Alas ! " answered the owl, " he threw sand into 
 my eyes and blinded me, and then ran away ! " 
 
 After that the jaguar could never catch the cotia, 
 and the mischief-maker married the deer s daughter, 
 because he had made the jaguar carry him, as he 
 promised.
 
 50 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 THE BIRD OF THE EVIL EYE. 
 
 FAR away in the thickest forest lives the tu- 
 cano-yua, Bird of the Evil Eye. It has a nest in 
 the hollow tree ; from a crevice under the branches 
 it surveys the ground beneath ; if any animal passes 
 near, the bird has but to look at it, and the evil eye 
 does its work. All around the ground is white with 
 bones. The bird feeds on its victims, and not even 
 the strongest can escape it. 
 
 Long ago a hunter, straying farther than was his 
 wont, found this tree with the bones lying white 
 about it. As he looked, he saw the tucano-yiia 
 peering out, but the bird did not see him, and ere it 
 could turn its head, the hunter shot it, and it fell to 
 the ground. The man approached the body care 
 fully, walking so that he did not pass before the 
 eyes; then with his knife he cut off the bird s head, 
 wrapped it in a cloth, and put it into his hunting 
 pouch. Ever after that, when this man saw a deer 
 or paca or tapir, he held the tucano-yuas head so 
 that the bill was pointed towards the game, which 
 instantly fell dead. But he took care never to turn 
 the bill towards himself. 
 
 The man s wife wondered much at her husband s 
 ^success in hunting; she questioned him often to 
 discover the reason for this good luck, but he 
 answered always : " This is no business of yours ; a 
 woman cannot know of these things." Still she was 
 not satisfied ; day after day she watched her husband 
 stealthily. And once, when the man and his wife 
 went with a party to the woods, she watched more
 
 AMAZONIAN LEGENDS. 51 
 
 closely ; when a deer or cotia passed by, she saw that 
 her husband took something from his hunting-pouch 
 and held it toward the game, which instantly fell 
 dead. The woman s curiosity tempted her to find 
 what this strange weapon could be. It chanced 
 after dinner that the man went to sleep on the 
 ground. The woman approached him softly, opened 
 his hunting-pouch, and took out the head of the 
 tucano-yiia. Turning it about, she tried to recall her 
 husband s actions. 
 
 " He held.it so," she said to herself, " with the bill 
 turned toward the game." But as she^ spoke, she 
 had carelessly turned the head against her husband s 
 body, and in an instant she saw that he was dead. 
 Overcome with fear she started back ; but in so doing 
 she turned the deadly beak toward herself, and she 
 also fell dead. 
 
 BE CAREFUL TO WHOM YOU DO GOOD DEEDS. 
 
 ONE day the fox was taking a walk, when he 
 heard a growl ugh! ugh! ugh! "What is that?" 
 he said to himself ; " I will go and see." 
 
 The jaguar saw him, and said : " I came into this 
 hole a long time ago; I grew large, and now I can lf 
 get out. Will you help me to roll away this stone ? " 
 
 The fox helped him ; the jaguar got out, and the 
 fox asked : " What will you pay me now ? " The 
 jaguar was very hungry. " I am going to eat you ! 
 And he caught the fox, and asked : " How is a good 
 deed paid for?" The fox answered :" Good is re-
 
 52 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 paid with good. Near by there is a man who knows 
 all things ; let us go and ask him." They crossed to 
 an island ; the fox told the man how he had got the 
 jaguar out of the hole, and how the jaguar in 
 payment wanted to eat him. 
 
 The jaguar said : " I wanted to eat him because 
 good is repaid with evil." " It is well ! " said the 
 man ; " let us go and see the hole." So they went, 
 all three. Arrived there, the man said to the jaguar : 
 " Go in ; I want to see how you lay." 
 
 The jaguar went in : the man and tlje fox rolled 
 back the stone, and the jaguar was a prisoner again. 
 "Now," said the man, "you will learn that good 
 deeds should be repaid with good ! " So the jaguar 
 was left, and the others went away.
 
 AMAZONIAN BELIEFS, TRADITIONS, AND 
 SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 THE Brazilian savage, be he of the great family 
 tupi-guarani, be he of the Tapuio race, was, in mat 
 ters of religion, at the time of the discovery of Brazil, 
 in the fetish period. He scarcely even possessed 
 superstitions. Myths, following the careless ex 
 planation of natural phenomena, gave rise to no 
 other belief than the one of fear, and this a transitory 
 sensation, ceasing when the cause thereof had ceased. 
 
 Similar characteristics may be observed in the 
 Tapido, the Mameluco, and other Amazonian races 
 of the present day. Their religion is a mixture of 
 fetichism and polytheism : this, received from the 
 Portuguese ; that, brought down from the savage. 
 Catholics they are, merely in name, and because 
 such they have been baptized. It is difficult to find 
 among them one individual who is a perfect mono- 
 theist. The savage mind cannot grasp the elevated 
 conception of Christian monotheism. If it has been 
 able to digest anything in the Catholic faith, it is 
 because the Jesuit missionaries, of all catechists the 
 shrewdest and most able, have, in a manner, adapted 
 the religion to the savage taste. They have intro 
 duced into their worship certain indigenous prac 
 tices, which have rendered it more agreeable to the 
 senses, consequently more accessible to the under- 
 
 53
 
 54 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 standing ; as, for instance, the creation of the saire, 
 later on to be noticed. 
 
 These clever priests, not perhaps so well-inten 
 tioned as many other less successful missionaries, 
 have comprehended the truth first established by 
 sociology, that no single man, unprepared by natural 
 evolution, can pass from fetichism to polytheism 
 without taking along with him something of the 
 remnants of the former ; that on this account one 
 should undoubtedly make before the savage the 
 same momices (grimaces) as did the heathen pages, 1 
 as well as to conform, to a certain degree, 
 to their understanding, the rules and discipline of 
 the Church. This, then, may be the cause of their 
 success, which, however, is somewhat more apparent 
 than real, as will presently be shown. 
 
 Of the pretended tupis gods, none except the 
 jurupari, the curupira, and the matin-tap$re, sur 
 vive in the imagination of these people, and these 
 are mixed up with Catholic beliefs. They are con 
 sidered an ill-favored, malignant genii. The first 
 takes the form of the Catholic devil ; the second is 
 variously defined, but is still a demon ; the third is 
 a species of hobgoblin, who has only one leg, and is 
 subjected to the influence of a horrible old woman, 
 who, at night, accompanies him from door to door, 
 begging tobacco. 
 
 1 In order that the sermons preached to the Indians should produce 
 more effect, and not appear less inspired or persuasive than the de 
 moniacal doctrines preached by the sorcerers (pages), they endeavor to 
 imitate their uses, making occlusions and visions, giving now and 
 then loud cries, stamping the foot," etc., etc. History of Brazil, 
 by the Viscount of Porto Seguro.
 
 BELIEFS, TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS. 55 
 
 Outside influence or superstition, principally 
 Portuguese, has placed on the head of this being a 
 bonnet, or cap, confounding him with the trouble 
 some pesadelos of the current Indo-German my 
 thology in which he is so represented. In the 
 nightly strife, who manages to snatch off this cap, 
 will attain happiness. 
 
 The old woman, who leads him, sings to the rhythm 
 of a bird, and this song, incomprehensible in itself, 
 is probably the remnant of some myth. It is as 
 follows : 
 
 Matinta Pereira, 
 
 Papa-terra ja morreu ; 
 
 Quern te governa, sou eu. 
 
 (Father Earth has died, 
 Who governs you, is I.) 
 
 The Tupan, Uaraci, Jaci, Cddpora, have died out. 
 
 The famous page or sorcerer, the medicine-man 
 (both, for the savage, are the same), and the sooth 
 sayer of the Tupi-guaranis, survive the gods of whom 
 they desired to make priests. The actual pages are 
 generally born and reared far in the interior, sur 
 rounded by forests rich in medical substances, whose 
 virtues, partly through teaching, partly through ex 
 perience, they learned to know. Aided by the pro 
 found faith of their sick- people, the results prove 
 generally favorable ; perhaps faith assists the cure. 
 These cures are generally accompanied by Catholic 
 rites ; this further to strengthen belief in the power 
 of these pages. 
 
 And the looker-on in the exercise of these medical- 
 religious functions can witness dancing such dan-
 
 56 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 cing round the patient to the sound of a cymbal, 
 while mysterious words, that are to save, are 
 murmured. 
 
 In more civilized centres, like Manaos and Para, 
 the sorcerers dispense with these ceremonials, but 
 surround themselves with much mystery. In Manaos, 
 not many years ago, a page was called upon to treat 
 a patient, but refused to do so, except at night, and 
 with closed doors. Besides, ^Q page is the benzidera 
 orblesser, to whom reference shortly will be made. 
 
 Knowing little or nothing of the solar system, 
 these people still have a sort of astrological belief, 
 based probably on the direct and all-powerful influ 
 ence of the moon on terrestrial objects. During the 
 eclipse of the moon, August 23, 1877, the people of 
 the capital of Pard made an enormous uproar with 
 old tins, fireworks, cries, fire-engines, and even gun 
 shots, to put to flight, as they expressed it, that devil 
 (bicho) who wished to eat the moon. 
 
 The boto (Delphinus pallidus), the Indian uydra, 
 occupies a large space in the imagination, and the 
 Amazonian region is filled with marvellous histories 
 of this animal. The bdto, like the mermaid of old, 
 sings, and its song is full of enchanting melody. 
 
 Woe to the maiden who lingers in its spell ! The 
 Indians believe that at times this fish assumes the 
 form of a youth, who carries away the maiden in his 
 arms, and to this fluvial Don Juan is attributed cer 
 tain consequences that such imprudence would entail. 
 This last belief must have sprung from a woman s 
 imagination, a woman who wished to conceal a fault 
 that, in some tribes, is still terribly punished. Withal
 
 BELIEFS, TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS. 57 
 
 one should not thoughtlessly accuse that generation 
 in which sprung up certain beliefs of insincerity, nor 
 yet the present one. Be it as it be, the belief in the 
 boto firmly exists. Not long ago, a person, in the 
 sincerest good faith, told of a boto who, assuming 
 human form, carried away an Indian girl from her 
 hammock, who from that time had never been seen. 
 
 Other versions of the b6to or uydra have obtained 
 credence. He, at times, jests with people, bringing 
 up objects from the depths of the water to show 
 them. One was seen with a knife in his mouth, 
 from whence brought is not defined. He causes 
 canoes, in which are young girls, to be wrecked in 
 order to possess himself of them. And, at times, he 
 assumes a woman s form and casts over some gallant 
 youth a fatal spell. The eyes of this animal are con 
 sidered as precious amulets to soften lovers hearts. 
 The teeth are excellent preventives against infantile 
 diseases. 
 
 A member of the same family, the tucuxy, is said 
 to be a great friend of man, whom he often succours 
 from the grasp of the boto, thrusting him along by 
 his snout, until he reaches the bank of the stream in 
 safety. 
 
 The Amazonians believe in cured persons (pessoas 
 curadas), i. e., that they may be rendered invulner 
 able to the bites of poisonous snakes and fish. The 
 secret of this cure is known only to the pages, and 
 by them has never been disclosed. 
 
 However, a popular superstition has it that if the 
 head or tail extremity of either when half alive, 
 be eaten, the bite from its species is rendered harm-
 
 58 IN AMAZON LAND. . 
 
 less. Quite recently, in Santarem, a tapuio killed a 
 small snake, eating its head and tail nearly raw. 
 
 The Amazonian Indians believe that a snake can 
 seldom miss a gun-shot, and also in the metamor 
 phosis of the surucuai ( Trigonocephalus lanceolatus) 
 into the paca (Ccelogenus fulvas). The surucucti, 
 they say, is a heavy sleeper, and of this fact the 
 pages take advantage in surrounding him with a sort 
 of hedge, and covering him with ants of a certain 
 species, thus transforming him into a sleek paca. 
 The fact is, that the surucucii takes shelter in these 
 ants holes, on whom, perhaps, they subsist, and in 
 which also come the paca, with whom it is known 
 they enter into a sort of comradeship. 1 
 
 The sucuriju (Eunectes murinies), or the great 
 snake, is also the object of a superstitious belief. It 
 is said he appears at night on retired lakes or streams, 
 frightening away with his eyes of fire (one the dis 
 tance of a foot from the other) the boldest fisherman. 
 
 The gun with which an urubu( cathartics) is killed 
 becomes useless. 
 
 The possession of the bird called uirapiini is con 
 sidered an efficacious talisman against ill-luck. Until 
 a few years ago it was rare to find in the interior 
 a vcnda (drinking-placc and grocery) that had not 
 
 1 In 1/49 Fonseca writes : "A fellow passing through the woods, 
 wishing to secure an animal somewhat larger than the rabbit, called 
 the/ara, in order to do so was obliged to thrust nearly the length of 
 his arm down the hole, where it was hidden. lie secured it at the 
 cost of having his first finger cracked asunder with the teeth of a 
 venomous snake, called the siinifticii, which species is so intimate 
 with the/aoz, that from this alliance is derived the Tapuian fable 
 that these pacas are offspring of the surucuciis."
 
 BELIEFS, TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS. 59 
 
 the skeleton interred under the floor nor hanging 
 from the wall. It is difficult to take this bird alive, 
 consequently its value is very great ; a dead one 
 costs over thirty milreis. 
 
 The skin of the nocturnal bird, jurutani, preserves 
 maidens from harm. 1 
 
 Formerly these birds were killed, the skins re 
 moved and dried in the sun, over which, during- the 
 
 O 
 
 first three days of womanhood, the girls were obliged 
 to sit, and were meanwhile visited by the matrons of 
 the tribe, who enjoined upon them virtue and 
 sobriety. At the end of this time the damsels were 
 supposed to be curada, i. e., invulnerable to tempta 
 tion. To-day, according to different accounts, it is 
 more customary to sweep the floor under the bride s 
 hammock with the feathers of the jurutaiu, which 
 will accomplish the same end, i. t\, tranquillity of 
 spirit, and will guarantee the virtue of the future 
 wife. 
 
 1 Herewith is a description, given by an old Brazilian author, of 
 this bird. "Of all light-shunning birds this is the least timorous. 
 He is long and slender, and of a brownish color . . . his cry 
 is shrill, like a burst of mocking laughter. He stretches himself out 
 on a tree as if part of it, and there he lies motionless, allowing him 
 self to be taken by the hand at will. 
 
 " Is it not interesting to observe the correlation existing between 
 the complete quiet of the bird and the peace the savage mother wishes 
 to invoke for her daughter? She, too, must sit motionless over its 
 skin. . . . The fact of correlation of beliefs with habits or 
 modes of the object which gives rise to such beliefs is one of the most 
 fascinating theories of mythology. In addition to what has been 
 related of ihejurutam, there are in Amazon-land many other birds 
 which are invoked for tranquillizing purposes, among others, the 
 quatipuni, of all the greatest sleeper, and whom nurses call to their 
 aid when children refuse to fall asleep."
 
 60 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 Among the Amazonians is current a vague belief 
 that the monkey was once a man, which, without 
 doubt, is a lost echo of a tapuian generical belief. 
 It is said that certain individuals, as a punishment 
 for treachery, were transformed into monkeys, of 
 whom it is recorded to this day that they don t talk 
 because they can t row. 1 
 
 Of the Indian tribe, Ugina, it is said the men have 
 tails of two or three feet in length . . . covered 
 with a leather-colored skin without hair. 
 
 The beliefs which have for their objects vegetables, 
 are. generally those whose properties are medicinal. 
 And for the people who entertain these beliefs, the 
 great Amazonian forest is an enormous drug store, 
 in which can be found remedies for all " ills flesh is 
 heir to." Superstition, of course follows in the wake 
 of these beliefs. The tajapurd (aroidea), placed in 
 the prow of a fishing canoe, will, according to tradi 
 tion, ensure its owner good-luck. Another aroidea, 
 juruti-pepina, serves as a body (corpo], in which is 
 sheltered a mythical bird, who sings near one with 
 out being seen, and is near one without being felt. 
 
 One can see the plant, with its beautiful green 
 leaves, striped red and white, and can hear the bird- 
 song, but can never discover the bird. To the In 
 dians this plant is an object of great terror, so much 
 so that they will not allow it to be spoken of with 
 contempt. And he whom this fabulous plant chooses 
 as the object of its malignity, will become paralyzed. 
 In fact the word pepina signifies in tupi-guarani (pe) 
 
 1 To not row, is in this fluvial region a seeming impossibility.
 
 BELIEFS, TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS. 6l 
 
 which breaks, (piu) that which paralyzes, that breaks 
 or inutilizes arms, legs in short, that paralyzes. 
 
 The beliefs referring to minerals, are nearly extinct, 
 with the exception of the celebrated clear green 
 stone, the mueraquitan Still one finds now and 
 then, an old woman who will sell this stone, which, 
 in the guise of an amulet, is hung from the throat, 
 together with the rosary, and with teeth of animals. 
 Of similar dangling objects, mothers, even those who 
 are civilized, will suspend from the necks of their 
 children, from cord or chain, serpents teeth, birds 
 beaks, shells, eyes of Saint Luiza in metal, figures of 
 Saint Braz in bone, all to preserve from mortal dis 
 ease, from falls, the evil eye, convulsions, blindness, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 If children fall ill, they are blessed by pages or 
 old women, to whom is attributed the occult and 
 mysterious science of a cure by means of blessing. 
 
 One of the formulas of this process is the follow 
 ing : 
 
 " In the name of the Virgin, 
 Bewitching evil eye, 
 Go forth from here, 
 This child is not for thee." 
 
 1 This stone was fabricated by the Amazons (female warriors) . . . 
 In olden times, at Santarem, an Indian rite was practised, principally 
 on the mandioca settlements. In the centre of the mandioca field, a 
 stone was placed, called the mother of the mandioca, which served as 
 an altar for various sacrifices and ceremonials, and which was 
 guarded with the greatest care. 
 
 Was an old Brazilian author justified, then, in declaring that 
 stone-worship formerly existed on the Amazon ?
 
 62 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 It is said the mucraquitan loses its virtue, if set in 
 gold or metal. 
 
 The tupi-guaranis believe that everything has a 
 mother (ci in their language). The river, the woods, 
 the mountains, all have their mother or ci. 
 
 A traveller, hearing a strange noise, asked an old 
 woman what it meant. " It s the mother of the 
 mamorana (carica)," she replied. The mamoranas 
 are plants, that grow in fields along the banks of the 
 streams. The wind, passing through them, bends 
 their heads like rushes, and their heavy leaves, beat 
 ing one against the other, produce the noise heard, 
 which, according to the opinion of the old woman, 
 was the " manifestation " of the mother of the plants. 
 
 Some kinds of flies are mothers of certain plants, 
 and when those insects die, the plants fade and 
 wither away. 
 
 Such are some of the beliefs which the Amazo 
 nian people inherit from their savage ancestors. 
 
 As has been remarked, their religion is rather a 
 mixture of fetichism and polytheism, than mono 
 theism. The beliefs arising from the tupi-guarani 
 faith are fetish ; those from the Conqueror, poly 
 theistic. Withal, fetichism always predominates. 
 
 It is not uncommon to see these people dedicate 
 a bird, an animal, or the fruits of a tree to some 
 favorite saint. 
 
 In Monte Alegre a traveller was unable to procure 
 one single bunch of cocoas, as they had ^11 been dedi 
 cated to the patron saint of the village. 
 
 Near the town of Obidos, at a small agricultural 
 establishment, was one tree, whose fruits were exclu-
 
 BELIEFS, TRADIl^IONS, SUPERSTITIONS. 63 
 
 sively dedicated to St. Antonio. Often on the sitios 
 (farms) it is impossible to buy, for example, a fowl. 
 One receives the simple answer, given without excuse 
 or explanation " It is for the saints " E do santo ! 
 
 Withal a saint, among them, is often the victim of 
 reproach and insult. When rain is wished he is 
 plunged into the water ; when anything is lost he js 
 tied up, beaten, and exiled from the oratory. 
 
 The belief of one God, " Three in one," is almost 
 unknown. Indeed the name of God is seldom heard 
 except in phrases like the following : " God preserve 
 you " (Dcos o queira), or "If God wishes " (Si 
 Deos quizer). And in their minds is the Holy Spirit 
 no other than a saint, certainly the object of much 
 festive devotion, owing, it may be, to his favorite and 
 beautiful symbol, the dove. 
 
 Neither has Jesus Christ for them the importance 
 assigned in Catholic theology. He, like the God- 
 Child (Menino-Deos), is simply an object of fetichism. 
 It is a shocking fact, but nevertheless a true one, 
 that the Supreme Being, Triune of Christianity, holds 
 little place in the minds of the Amazonian races. For 
 them the saint is all the object of all their religious 
 sentiment, poor and fanatic as it may be. And even 
 this saint is partly transformed into a tapuian god 
 similar to the one their forefathers worshipped. 
 
 Among those beliefs which are ranked as tupis 
 Catholic, belongs the saire. This is botTi a profane 
 and a religiqus ceremony, comprising the mass, the 
 song, and the dance. The song is a melopoeia, sad 
 and monotonous in the extreme. Herewith two 
 verses: (i) ( Tupi) " Itdcamuti pupi neiassucd pitani
 
 64 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 1 ___ _ 
 
 puraga ite" Translation : " In a stone font was bap 
 tized the Child Jesus. (2)(Tupi) " Cun ha puraga 
 imcmbira raue catti iputira ipdpe" Translation : 
 "Santa Maria is beautiful among women, and her 
 son is like unto her." Each verse is droned by three 
 old women, and all join in the simple refrain, "Jesus 
 and Santa Maria." After -the song is concluded 
 refreshments are passed around. 
 
 The word saire signifies crown, and the ceremony 
 is very old. The dance consists of short paces, like 
 the soldier s quick march, performed to the sound of 
 a tambour which is generally played by an old Indian. 
 
 This feast, or ceremony, if not created by the early 
 Jesuits, met at least with their approval. One of 
 the earliest Jesuit missionaries composed hymns for 
 the Indians in their language, in which God, the 
 angels, and the saints are praised, and better to 
 attract through the melody of the hymn, he himself 
 taught those of the young who possessed the best 
 voices. 
 
 The acuteness and perspicuity of the Jesuit fathers 
 thus stand revealed. They well understood the 
 necessity of this mixture of rites against which the 
 Indians would not rebel as against the teachings 
 of pure Catholicism, for which their minds were 
 totally unprepared. Yet, on one hand, if the Fathers 
 succeeded in subjugating these wild people, and far 
 better thafl the metropolitan government with all 
 its power ; on the other hand must be attributed to 
 them, at least to a certain point, the amalgamation 
 of savage fetichism with Catholic rites. 
 
 One of the most popular feats in this respect is that
 
 BELIEFS, TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS. 65 
 
 _ ! 
 
 of the Holy Spirit (Espirito SMitd). A month or two ( 
 before its advent the Imperador (Emperor), for such 
 is the name given to the Director, the Judge, Major- 
 domo, and devotees embark in several canoes, all 
 gaily decorated with red and white banners. In the 
 centre of each canoe is painted a symbolic dove, 
 another is carved on the mast-head of the respective 
 masts. The Emperor bears the corda do Divino, 
 (crown of the Divine), and the devotees, bedecked 
 with ribbons and carrying tambours, go forth to col 
 lect alms for the feast. 
 
 This region is a perfect labyrinth of channels, 
 creeks, and lakes, on whose banks are retired ham 
 lets, and scattered houses. To these sitios (a sitio 
 is a name given to any habitation outside the settle 
 ments) the flotilla of canoes is directed. 
 
 The traveller passing along one of these channels 
 (igarapts) is often startled by an odd-like bum-bum 
 sound. He is told that it is the " crown of the 
 Divine," which is near. And turning some point in 
 the stream he sees several canoes filled with men, 
 women, and children; flags are flying, and tambours 
 beating. It forms a picturesque sight in the midst 
 of the savage landscape ! 
 
 In each sitio there is a feast. The " crown," after 
 it has been kissed and held momentarily over the 
 head of each person present, is placed upon a table, 
 over which is spread the best cover. Around this 
 crown are placed rows of lighted candles. At night 
 fall is given the litany, an enforced, uninteresting 
 function. Mass is read by the best-informed man 
 present, generally in horribly mutilated Latin.
 
 66 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 Then begins the profane part of the feast ; there 
 is always a small, and badly attuned orchestra, and 
 dancing follows, sometimes for successive days and 
 nights. The principal feast of the year is always 
 given at the emperor s house and with all the differ 
 ence in the world, one is involuntarily reminded of 
 an old-fashioned donation party at the parson s. 
 Heifers, calves, sheep, fowls, pigs, baskets of farinha, 
 tapioca cakes, fruits, are taken, indeed a little of 
 everything goes along. A little of everything, 
 except money, which is a rare commodity on the 
 Amazon, where traffic is almost wholly carried on 
 by the primitive system of barter. 
 
 Occasionally the final feast takes place at the 
 nearest village, in which is held a fair of the objects 
 collected in order to pay the expenses, Mass sung 
 and a sermon preached by the parish priest. 
 
 At Obidos was held this feast, which is thus 
 described by a traveller. " It was not a moonlight 
 night, but the sky was illumined by millions of stars 
 among which softly shone down the sweet south 
 ern cross. River breeze and forest odor agreeably 
 blended. The population of the town, in festive 
 dress, stood ready to receive the crown, and to 
 accompany it in procession to the church. In the 
 middle of the river, many canoes, adorned with 
 arches of foliage and showily illuminated, ap 
 proached the shore. Weird was the effect on that 
 calm, starlight night ; the canoes, whose lights were 
 fantastically reflected in the water, and which were 
 filled with devotees, whose song the hour and the 
 distance softened into melody ! "
 
 A FISHING PARTY. 
 
 TINGUIJADA. 1 
 
 Half -past four in the morning ! 
 
 SR. MANGEL JOAO, colonel of the settlement 
 "Una," could be heard in his room, alternately cough 
 ing, wheezing, and beating the head of his pipe on the 
 hard floor. The tide was approaching low water. 
 Sr. Manoel proceeded to the veranda, his head 
 wrapped up,, like a Mussulman s turban, in a red 
 handkerchief. Four lean dogs, wagging their tails, 
 fawned and jumped about his legs in frantic delight. 
 
 From a sacco do isqiieiro (tinder-bag) he took a flint, 
 a piece of steel, and some native tobacco. Striking 
 fire, he lighted his pipe, from which rose the odorous 
 fume of the tic-terra. It is to be remarked that 
 
 1 Tinguijada is a preparation of limbd-assti, mud, and poisonous 
 herbs, which is applied to an igarapd (forest-stream) for the purpose 
 of inebriating the fish, which then come to the surface of the water 
 floating on their sides, gills open, where they are caught \\\panheiros 
 (coarse baskets) without any difficulty. Generally, the giver of one 
 of these parties invites all his neighbors, who wait about in canoe^ 
 until the tinguijada has produced the desired effect, when they pro 
 ceed to load their canoes. Afterwards at the host s house the fish is 
 equally divided among the guests. 
 
 This sort of fishing is strictly but vainly prohibited by the munici 
 pal authorities. Of course, it involves a great waste of the smaller 
 fry." 
 
 6?
 
 68 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 matches are all very well in civilized countries ; for 
 the inhabitants of a forest or rivermen, who live in 
 the closest contact with nature, subject at every mo 
 ment to her froward moods, they are useless. 
 
 Above all to the fishermen, who are constantly 
 " entre a agua do rio e a agua do ceo " (between 
 water of river and water of sky). 
 
 The tinder-bag can be wet a week without refusing 
 fire. Should the canoe be submerged, which fre 
 quently happens, the poor fishermen, being obliged 
 to dive like duel*, the well-tempered steel, at the 
 bottom of the water, beats in the tinder-bag and 
 produces fire. This is why the provident and prac 
 tical Sr. Manoel, going to a tinguijada, strung on his 
 arm his old sacco do isqueiro. 
 
 At daybreak, then, this gentleman, with a large 
 escort, started out for the igarapt, called Luiza 
 Grande. The Caiaidra, or, as he is called, preparer 
 of the igarape, with other Indian servants, were over 
 looking the tapage (covering) or damming of the 
 stream, which had taken place the midnight before 
 at high tide. The first tucunari assti flew promptly 
 above the/drj. 
 
 " That s the mother of the stream," said Sr. 
 Manoel, disappointed. " The brute broke my pindal 
 last week." 
 
 To prevent new disasters, canoes were pushed just 
 outside the covering. A shoal of Tucanarts pitangas 
 were caught, beautiful creatures, shining like span 
 gles of gold in the crystal water. As soon as they 
 
 1 In Indian tongue ci ; the Indians believe that everything, forest, 
 mountain, river, stream, has a ci.
 
 A FISHING PARTY. 69 
 
 knew they were prisoners they retreated to a certain 
 distance and began, all together, to fly away. Then 
 the canoes approached still nearer ; Sr. Manoel 
 rubbing his hands with content, as these fish were 
 laden in the holds. An Indian girl, meanwhile, ran 
 to the woods to gather fagots, with which she quickly 
 made a fire to heat the beijus (tapioca cakes) and 
 prepare coffee . . . Then began the real work of 
 the day, the tinguijada. Great quantities of the 
 poisonous /^were lashed to atoms, over the surface 
 of the water, which seethed and foamed far down the 
 igarapt. 
 
 The fish were soon floating, and the maddening 
 excitement of the sport began . . . To seize 
 them as soon .as possible that is the thing or soon 
 they will descend to the bottom to die ! Men and 
 women worked together 
 
 But on these excursions, it is necessary to beware 
 of the arraias (ray-fish) which inflict a sting that can 
 knock a person senseless, or can even cause death. 
 
 These igarape s are filled with them. 1 
 
 He had been cured, i.e., made invulnerable and 
 could now with impunity tread on any number of 
 them without feeling their sting. But Sr. Manoel, 
 in his enthusiasm over the lucky fishing, sent discre 
 tion to the winds and jumped right out into the 
 middle of the stream. 
 
 Suddenly through the forest echoed a cry deep as 
 the Miserere of the Trovador : 
 
 "At/ Jesu ! ai ! ai ! help! Jesii ! ai ! 
 
 1 The Cararara had already warned Sr. Manoel to not jump out of 
 his canoe into the water.
 
 70 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 the ray-fish. . . ." He was carried along to the 
 canoe, roaring like a wild animal. 
 
 " Where is the flask ? " cried one. The Indian 
 girl mentioned, with her skirts rolled up like trousers 
 between her bamboo-colored legs, stooped down to 
 examine the wound. " Where is it, patron ? " 
 
 " Here there here ai Jesu ! " groaned the 
 poor man, pointing to his ankle and turning his head 
 away to not see the blood. 
 
 The wound, somewhat larger than a sixpence, and 
 as round, was speedily stanched, to be presently 
 cicatrized. 
 
 But Sr. Manoeljoao was confined to his hammock 
 for a good fifteen days afterwards, and never again, 
 it is to be noted, ventured, when leading a tinguijada, 
 into the waters of the igarapd !
 
 AMAZONIAN RUBBER IN " FIRST HANDS." 
 
 (Dedicated to the dainty maiden, of that lost 
 rubber shoe.) 
 
 IMPELLED more by the force of the tide, than any 
 impulse given to the great oar, Jos reached the 
 bridge of the settlement. He called with him a 
 great " mould " of dark brown rubber, which with 
 his own hands he had gathered and made. And in 
 the good old-fashioned style, by slowly smoking the 
 milk of the rubber-tree over a smouldering fire, fed 
 with the hard nuts of the tucumd palm. . . . Now 
 in the great rubber emporium, Para, the soul of the 
 princely rubber merchant is grievously vexed at the 
 tricks civilization has taught many of these rubber 
 gatherers. 
 
 Balls of clay, sand, and what not, are introduced 
 into the pranchas, or " moulds," to increase their 
 weight. To augment the quantity of milk, sap from 
 other trees is mixed. And worst of all, to avoid the 
 tedious process of preparation, the seringueiro (rub 
 ber gatherer) makes a blazing fire, and when the 
 milk is liquid, puts in a kind of flour, and if this 
 causes it to coagulate too quickly, acid like lemon is 
 added, to prevent its consolidation. Consequently, 
 the purity of fine rubber is greatly damaged. 
 
 71
 
 72 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 But back again to the settlement. The principal 
 trader therein was a keen-witted Portuguese, whose 
 dwelling and store were in one rude habitation. The 
 seringueiro approached the heavy, old-fashioned 
 scales, and putting the " mould " on, the rusty balance 
 weighed out ten kilograms (20 Ibs.). The trader 
 kicked it out into an inner room, cheerfully remark 
 ing to his customer, six kilograms four goes out for 
 quebras (loss). The seringueiro never reclaims against 
 such a decision, in reality a shameful extortion. 
 
 Not alone in quebras is he cheated, but in the 
 purchase of the merest necessities of life, and above 
 all in the price or rubber at the capital. 
 
 When the poor man wishes to enter into business 
 secrets, the trader reads him an invoice from an ac 
 count current of the patron at Manaos or Para, al 
 ways ending up with the ominous word exchange. 
 
 The rustic is credulous by nature, and when he 
 hears the word exchange he is struck dumb. 
 
 To him it is the synonym of an all-powerful being, 
 who in another world orders the rise or fall of rub 
 ber ! 
 
 The trader walked to the counter, wetted his 
 pencil with the tip of his tongue, and taking there 
 from a piece of coarse brown paper, said, " Good, 
 what do you want this time, Jose ? " 
 
 Then commenced the transaction. Cacha^a, or 
 rum, candles, sugar, tobacco, matches, etc. All 
 noted down against so much rubber. 
 
 As the seringueiro never has a balance at the 
 traders ; always a debit in his books, this fact, as a 
 usual matter of form, was mentioned.
 
 AMAZONIAN RUBBER IN "FIRST HANDS" 73 
 
 And with a boa noite, and promising a speedy 
 supply of other rubber "moulds," Jose started on his 
 way. 
 
 But this time against the tide, and each stroke of 
 the great oar resounded through the air like thunder ! 
 
 And it being St. John s eve, over the bonfire built 
 round his hut, as he reached home, he jumped the 
 usual three times for good luck !
 
 SINHAZINHA ! 
 
 EIGHT o clock in the morning ! Sinhazinha had 
 gone to the balcony for a breath of fresh air. She 
 had swept and dusted the little shop below, which 
 she tended together with her mother, the Senhora 
 Margarida Carneiro, widow of a custom-house official 
 at Para. 
 
 The Sra. Margarida, as was her wont, took her 
 morning meal of coffee and beyu rolls in the shop 
 door, better to enjoy the morning air, and a gossip 
 with " Aunt" Anastasia, the herb-seller in front. 
 
 A good old soul was " Aunt " Anastasia, from 
 whose watchful eyes, however, were hidden few of 
 the secrets of the neighborhood. Sinhazinha heard 
 her say to her mother : " There goes Amaral. See, 
 he is going to the office. That s a proper young 
 fellow! A jewel. He is so good to his mother. 
 Poor woman, a widow like yourself, Sra. Margarida. 
 A good husband he would make your daughter ! " 
 
 And Sinhazinha saw passing down the street a 
 tall young man, fair and well-looking, in whose mild 
 physiognomy,however, mingled an air of sadness and 
 unrest. He walked on, looking neither to the right 
 nor to the left, without the least idea of being known 
 to the herb-seller, or that his footsteps were followed 
 by Sinhazinha, in whose ears were echoing the last 
 words of " Aunt " Anastasia. 
 
 74
 
 SINHAZINHA ! 75 
 
 And who might take her to be his wedded wife 
 would n t be so very unlucky. Indeed, not. Sinha- 
 zinha, with her eighteen years, though she looked 
 younger, active and laborious, would be no unworthy 
 helpmeet. Amaral passed every morning, on his 
 way to the office, without even raising his eyes to 
 her, and with the same air of preoccupation. And 
 in Sinhazinha s ears were ever echoing the last words 
 of " Aunt " Anastasia. And she had added that " he 
 was so good to his mother." She, too, promised her 
 self that she would be kind to her mother ; though 
 she certainly was not very amiable, nor had she ever 
 bestowed on her much of maternal tenderness or 
 love. Still it was strange he never even saw her. 
 One day, indeed, he lifted his eyes, and glanced at 
 her. How her heart beat ! and she went swiftly up 
 to her favorite balcony. The next day she did not 
 venture to the door, fearing lest he should think she 
 was waiting for him, and so form a poor opinion of 
 her. 
 
 And it seemed as if " Aunt " Anastasia sometimes 
 smiled maliciously. Heavens ! of what was she 
 thinking ! 
 
 Of what " Aunt " Anastasia was thinking is not 
 known, but it is certain that Amaral never again 
 took the trouble to even glance at Sinhazinha. 
 
 Days and weeks were passing. She thought 
 she observed a change in the physiognomy of the 
 young man, that he seemed contented, almost 
 joyous, and once she saw his lips part With a happy 
 smile. She was ignorant of the cause, but a little 
 after she knew all, overhearing a conversation be 
 tween " Aunt " Anastasia and her mother.
 
 76 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 " Amaral is walking on air," the former said. 
 " He is going to marry. The betrothed is the daugh 
 ter of his patron very fine people." All was 
 explained. " Probably the dot," she continued, 
 "is n t large, but she will have a grand enxoval 
 (outfit) ; " and she is so chic and fair a blonde." 
 
 " That is it," said poor Sinhazinha, with a de 
 spondent shrug; "I am so hatefully dark. He 
 likes blondes, and hair of gold. Well, she could 
 never care for another. 
 
 She received offers of marriage yes, and good 
 ones. Not all who passed the shop were blind, 
 but she refused all, an-d her mother found no fault. 
 Egoist as she was, she knew how much to be valued 
 were her daughter s services - The business was 
 extending they were very well to do. 
 
 Amaral married ; he frequented the theatre, and 
 all gatherings, with his wife, quite a grand lady, 
 dressed in the latest Para fashions. Sinhazinha 
 sometimes wondered if she were happy ; for she 
 thought she divined in her a certain touch of vanity, 
 of frivolity, and indifference. 
 
 Great joy in Amaral s house, a boy was born. 
 
 After some time, Sinhazinha saw, accompanying 
 the wife, a robust young countrywoman, fantasti 
 cally dressed, holding in her arms a fair and rosy 
 infant. " If* that baby were mine," she said in 
 homely phrase, " I would nurse him myself! " But 
 Amaral s wife had no desire for this. And in a
 
 SINHAZINHA ! 77 
 
 little while, with her capricious temper, her selfish 
 ness, and extravagance, her neglect of household 
 duties, so many dissensions arose in that household 
 that Amaral s mother, a saint if ever there were one 
 on this earth, thought it better to leave her old home 
 for a new. 
 
 " Is it possible ! " said Sinhazinha, upon hearing 
 this piece of news from " Aunt " Anastasia. " Poor 
 lady, so good, so kind. I think it should not be 
 very difficult to live with her! " 
 
 One day Amaral passed dressed in black. His 
 mother had died. " Deos meo ! " sighed the girl, 
 "what will now become of the poor boy!" And 
 not without reason was she disturbed. The child, 
 left almost wholly to the care of servants, was fast 
 becoming spoiled. The mother neglected him, limit 
 ing her affection to feeding him with cakes and 
 unwholesome sweetmeats. 
 
 The child, always pale and weakly, became stunted 
 in his growth. 
 
 Meanwhile the father, to satisfy the demands of 
 his wife, spent all his savings, and was obliged to 
 Devote many hours of rest to excessive labor. 
 
 Still the means of living grew more straitened. 
 His wife alternately chided and blamed him, urging 
 him to leave that tiresome place for Para, the capi 
 tal. There he could get a situation worth having. 
 
 Sinhazinha, who heard much of what was going on, 
 thought if only she could enter the house unper- 
 ceived, to put all in order if only she could do 
 something. But what could she do ? 
 
 She watched the child closely as he passed every
 
 78 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 day to school, beating his satchel of books against 
 his little legs. Notwithstanding his stunted growth, 
 he liked to run about the streets, and shout, and 
 play. With his curly hair flying in the wind, his 
 dark blue eyes, and winning smile, he was an at 
 tractive-looking little fellow. But it made Sinhazinha 
 tremble to watch his antics, here running into the 
 middle of the street, then calling out some rude name 
 to a passer-by. 
 
 One day she heard a coachman shout : " Here, 
 here, little boy, get out of the way ! " 
 
 A carriage was approaching and the horses were 
 going at full speed. The child heard" the cry, ran, 
 became confused, stumbled, fell down. 
 
 Sinhazinha threw herself under the horses very feet 
 and pulled the child up. By a miracle both escaped 
 unhurt. Wild with delight she took him into the 
 house. What kisses, what caresses she lavished 
 upon him ! And she persuaded him to stay a long 
 time, saying as he went : " Now good-by ; don t 
 say a word to your mother, so that she will not 
 scold you. And next time, more care ! " 
 
 The little one said nothing to his mother, nor ydl 
 to his father. When the child passed alone she 
 gave him tender smiles and bestowed upon him more 
 caresses, Oh ! what fond caresses ! " One must n t 
 expect too much in this world," the poor girl said. 
 "Even a little happiness so seldom comes!" 
 And, alas ! with her this little was to become less ! 
 Two days the little fellow had failed to pass. He 
 had died, one night, of convulsions. " The doctor 
 came too late," said " Aunt " Anastasia, " but when
 
 SINHAZINHA ! 79 
 
 did the mother ever look after anything, let alone the 
 child ? She should have seen the danger in time." 
 
 Sinhazinha s eyes filled with tears when she next 
 saw the father pass. He had grown gray, looked 
 worn and old. Was it possible she, the wife, only 
 sought to probe the bleeding wound ? Yes, it was 
 possible. 
 
 And finally things reached that pass, to use the 
 words of " Aunt " Anastasia, that he was forced to 
 close his doors upon his once well-beloved wife. She 
 long ago had deceived and betrayed him. He was 
 now indeed alone. And Sinhazinha too was alone. 
 Her mother, at the close of a tranquil old age, had lain 
 down to her long sleep. Yes, both were alone. . . . 
 And he continued to pass without glancing at her, 
 without even knowing that she existed. One day, 
 as she stood at the door, their eyes met. Was it 
 chance, was it premonition? He lifted his hat and 
 gravely bowed. She inclined her head and went 
 within, suffocated. Over her saddened existence 
 it seemed to her had opened one ray of light. He 
 had seen her, he knew her ! Poor creature ! this ray 
 of light was only to illume its close ! That same 
 day a neighbor s child fell ill of a fever. Sinhazinha 
 according to her wont, went to nurse him and took 
 herself the dangerous fever. During the three days 
 of her illness, she showed much resignation. At the 
 last, she made this request of " Aunt " Anastasia, 
 that after all was over she would send Amaral a card 
 of invitation to her funeral. He had seen her 
 he knew her. Amaral wondered at the card, but at 
 tended. He met " Aunt " Anastasia, now grown old
 
 80 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 and becoming more garrulous than ever. Upon his 
 inquiry, she explained that it was at Sinhazinha s 
 request she sent the card, and she told him who it 
 was who once saved his child s life, adding that for 
 ten years Sinhazinha had never failed to await him, 
 as he passed her door to his office. " I saw it all, 
 Senhor meo " Sainted soul, " she cared for you 
 well too well." 
 
 He gave no reply. But now every morning as he 
 passes the deserted shop, he says to himself : " There 
 was felicity there was true happiness. I had only 
 to have knocked at the door but now all is over " ; 
 a similar history perhaps, is that of many human 
 lives !
 
 AN AMAZONIAN FUNERAL. 
 
 IN the palm-thatched hut by the side of the river, 
 old Francisco lay dying. Yet no one would suppose 
 that therein lay a Christian soul, passing into the 
 portals of death. It was more like a house of feast 
 ing. Coffee, a decoction of mandioca, assai, 1 and 
 sweetmeats were hourly passed round. Such 
 is the custom of the ro$a (settlement, clearing). 
 When the curandeiros (wise men) declare a cure im 
 probable, that there is no longer hope (although 
 with God nothing is impossible), and this often for 
 days before the light of life is extinguished, the 
 house is filled with guests. In civilized places, much 
 is spent for physicians, medicines, the funeral, the 
 service. Here, nothing of this, but there are the 
 neighbors. As I said, it seemed like a house of 
 feasting. The girls, sitting or reclining on mats of 
 braided palm spread on the floor (mother Earth), 
 told stories and laughed. Suddenly, wiping her 
 eyes with the back of her hand, there appeared at 
 the door of the room a withered old woman. 
 Laughter ceased, as all gathered round as if to ques 
 tion her, while she between her sobs stammered out: 
 " I said those herbs were no good ; he should have 
 taken the quinine my cousin sent," which, being in- 
 
 1 Assai, a fruit of the palm, crushed to a pulp and eaten with sugar 
 and farinha. 
 
 6 81
 
 82 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 terpreted, meant that the poor old man had passed 
 into the rest of the Hereafter ! 
 
 Reader, have you ever seen a tropical storm a 
 storm that falls generally late in the day, during 
 the change of the " wet " season to the " dry," or 
 the reverse ? 
 
 The sky darkens rapidly, a dry wind sweeps over 
 the earth, tearing off branches of trees and thicken 
 ing all the air with their falling leaves. After the 
 wind, comes the dense heavy rain. Suddenly the 
 tempest is past. The sun peers through the clouds. 
 Silence falls on all nature a moment before so 
 fiercely stirred. So it happened in the house of 
 poor old Francisco, in the hour in which he rendered 
 up his spirit to the Almighty. After the old woman 
 just mentioned had closed the door upon the visit 
 ors, there broke forth a perfect tempest of cries, 
 groans, and tears. 
 
 Soon quiet reigned. Sobs and tears ceased. Only 
 here and there could be heard an exclamation like 
 the following : " Eight days ago to-day it was that 
 he took his arrow-spear, the one hanging on the wall 
 yonder, and he said to me, he said, My old woman, 
 I am going to look out for a tucunari! " And she 
 choked up with sobs. " Yes," said a half-Indian 
 girl, who was leaning against the wall, " up there is 
 the head of the creature." Hunters and fishermen 
 of the Amazon are in the habit of smoking the heads 
 of all large fish or game caught, and stowing them 
 away in the straw and rubbish of the roof. 
 
 The funeral preparations now commenced. In
 
 AN AMAZONIAN FUNERAL. 83 
 
 the middle of the room, on a great mat of the miriti 
 palm, was placed the corpse. 
 
 At this moment Antonio, the nephew, appeared, 
 bringing in a cross, carefully wrapped round in a 
 linen towel. As he placed it on a rude bench, he 
 remarked : " Afterwards this must go to Aunt 
 Thomazia ; she is going to have a baptism in her 
 house." In the interior the cross is likewise used on 
 all festive occasions. As the cemetery lay at some 
 distance down the river, the funeral hearse was a 
 canoe, with an awning of the strong fibre of the 
 bossu palm. 
 
 Under this was placed the body of poor Francisco, 
 dressed simply in cotton shirt and trousers, his best 
 clothes, or, as the natives say, " clothes to see 
 God in." 
 
 To the sound of bitter weeping the company em 
 barked ; the young girls dressed in white, with 
 cayenne-jessamine, and lilies in their hair. 
 
 The canoe glided on to the sound of the tide. As 
 before, the sound of weeping soon ceased, and by 
 the time ihd&anna, or mixture of rum, went round, 
 there were not wanting piquant jests and jokes, 
 which these rustics, although ignorant, know well 
 how to season with a caustic and malicious flavor. 
 
 At a picturesque point of the river, reached by a 
 flight of shaky wooden steps, the canoe was fastened. 
 The body of the old man was placed in a grass 
 hammock, and borne on the shoulders of two near 
 relatives through the narrow forest path. In Indian 
 file followed the procession. Reaching a spot where
 
 84 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 the woods grew the thickest, a sharp note pierced 
 the solitude. It came from the throat of that 
 strange bird, the quin-quin-o. He only inhabits the 
 great forests of the mainland. His song if song it 
 can be called those measured notes of lamentation, 
 is weird in the extreme. 
 
 Upon hearing it, Antonio stopped to fire his gun 
 into the air, meanwhile exclaiming : " Here goes 
 your grandfather, you bird of ill-omen ! " 
 
 Finally this strange, half-fluvial funeral procession 
 reached the cemetery, called, in the native tongue, 
 The Rest. In it was a simple chapel, in front of 
 which was erected a great cross of hard wood. 
 
 They laid the old man to his rest, each one drop 
 ping on his grave a handful of earth. And Antonio 
 murmured this funeral oration : " My good uncle, 
 sleep in peace ; there is one the less to eat fa- 
 rinha ! " 

 
 DOLCE FAR NIENTE. 
 
 " There is no joy but calm." TENNYSON. 
 
 OVER the turbid waters of the Amazon, rising and 
 falling to the blue fleecy waves of the Tocantins, 
 our canoe glides gaily on ! There, in one of those 
 bewitching islands, kissed by the sweet, warm breath 
 of eternal summer, caressed by sportive billows and 
 fragrant breezes, we come to anchor ! 
 
 In the midst of cocoa-palms and shady mango 
 trees stands a rude dwelling. 
 
 The furniture consists of one great cedar table, and 
 rude benches are placed along the adobe floors. What 
 of it ? In the open veranda we swing our hammocks ; 
 a couple of American rockers, patriotically keeping 
 time beside. A few other luxuries of civilization 
 meanwhile are unpacked. 
 
 Come in, reader, you who on your luxurious couch 
 tumbled and tossed the weary night long as you 
 thought over that last unfortunate speculation. It 
 went badly enough, to be sure ; you can weather 
 the loss, out not much more of "brandy and 
 vexation." 
 
 Even now they are telling on your once iron nerves. 
 Let well enough alone come rest in this " sum 
 mer isle of Eden ! " 
 
 And you, martyr of dyspepsia, hasten hither. 
 85
 
 86 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 Fish and hunt to your heart s content the whole 
 day long. After all 
 
 " Other joys are but toys, 
 And to be lamented." 
 
 In this open-air life your appetite will reach vo 
 racity. " Dyspepsia and despair " will " take to 
 themselves wings ! " 
 
 Herewith an Amazonian recipe for dyspeptics. 
 Catch your fish or game yourself, netting skilfully 
 besides a supply of great shell-pink shrimps. 
 
 Prepare, seasoning with salt, lemon, and odorous 
 native pepper. 
 
 Place over a brazier of red-hot coals, which blow 
 now and then with the native mat-fan. 
 
 To be eaten at leisure, and leisurely washed down 
 with the spring-cold water of the igara.pt. 
 
 To you of the aching heart and the o er weary 
 brain, here nature will lull you to rest, perchance 
 to forgetf ulness !
 
 A BALL IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 "GOOD-EVENING, Miss Anica." 
 
 " The same to you, Mr. Gregorio." 
 
 "Your blessing (literally benediction), Aunt 
 Chica." 
 
 " God preserve you for good, Manduca." 
 
 Other cordial greetings having been exchanged, 
 the girls seat themselves on great tupi mats, and the 
 men on long wooden benches. In one corner of the 
 room is the family oratory, covered over for this 
 festive occasion with a cloth of scarlet red. 
 
 The musicians, like King Cole s fiddlers, are three, 
 the instruments being the wire-strung guitar, the 
 fiddle, and the cavaquinho, or small violin. 
 
 Coffee with egg, sweetmeats, and mucuru, or na 
 tive punch, are presently served round. In a few 
 moments, the country dance begins to form. The 
 young men, after conferring briefly together, ap 
 proach the tupis ; each selects the girl of his choice, 
 assists her to rise, and marches with her to the mid 
 dle of the room. 
 
 These young fellows, though coatless, wear shoes 
 and sport gorgeous cravats. 
 
 The girls are dressed in gaily-colored cotton 
 
 skirts, and chemise-like sacques, falling a little below 
 
 "the hips. The hair is adorned with flowers, and 
 
 high-backed combs. Each girl has managed to se- 
 
 37
 
 88 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 cure a fan, with which she toys with all the languid 
 grace of a Spanish seflorita. 
 
 The beau of the ball seems to be a young fellow 
 of twenty, or thereabouts, tall, straight as an arrow, 
 loquacious, and extraordinarily at his ease. "Mr." 
 Sylvestre, for such is his name, reads, writes, and 
 reckons ; and throughout the island, is dubbed as a 
 learned young fellow. 
 
 As the music is about to strike up, the host ap 
 pears, and looking around with an important air, 
 calls : " All in places, then. Who leads ? " 
 
 " He is at the head there, Sylvestre." 
 
 " That is right ; nobody gives such an air to the 
 fandango as does Sylvestre." Contented to see so 
 many of his neighbors around him, the good man 
 advances to a cabocla of middle age, and leads 
 her towards the " set," remarking : " Come, my 
 old woman, we will dance bis-a-viz with Sylvestre. 
 That 11 be fun ! " 
 
 The hostess, standing near Aunt Quiteria, is also a 
 cabocla, tall and sympathetic. She is dressed in red 
 cotton skirt, and white camisola so "blued" that 
 it is difficult to distinguish the original color. From 
 her ears hang the largest pair of ear-rings mortal 
 ever beheld, of good Portuguese gold. 
 
 They were placed there in her girlhood, and were 
 never removed, except when through their own 
 weight they fell down, parting open the ears. 
 
 Thus they were now imprisoned in their seventh 
 aperture. 
 
 In Holy Week, or when she was in mourning for 
 
 1 Civilized Indian.
 
 A BALL IN AMAZON LAND. 89 
 
 some relative, a piece of black cloth was sewed over 
 them. 
 
 The music striking up, Sylvestre, like a command 
 ing officer, shouts out : 
 
 " Balance." 
 
 " Tour." 
 
 " Dama passa, cavalheiro resta ! " etc., etc. 
 
 With this ends the formalities of the dance ; and 
 now begins the real fun of the evening. 
 
 " Walk of the roca," (settlement) is called out. 
 Each puts his dusky partner behind him, seizes her 
 by the arm, and bears her aloft, over his shoulder. 
 
 " Olha cobra ! " (Beware of the snake). Each 
 turns round, continuing the figure, contrary-wise. 
 Presently this is exchanged for " furta-pares" 
 couple-snatching, and other grotesque figures, often 
 prolonging one quadrille until the morning. 
 
 At a late hour appears an important character, the 
 harmonium-player, a new arrival in this part of the 
 island. Approaching the host, with somewhat per 
 turbed visage, he inquires : " How is it, Uncle Chico, 
 that you did n t invite me to your fandango ? " 
 
 " Uai ! did n t you hear the guns ? " retorts, rather 
 scornfully, Uncle Chico. 
 
 The roceiro (settler) never sends out invitations. 
 A gun shot at five o clock in the morning, one at 
 mid-day, and another at six o clock at night, are 
 sufficient to fill his house with guests. 
 
 Thus Uncle Chico s scornful question : " Uai, 
 # did n t you hear the gun of the roga ? " 
 
 As a sort of interlude, the harmonium-player now
 
 go IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 begins the lundum, mournful in tune and discordant 
 in the extreme. 
 
 Still on tired ears sometimes resounds the refrain 
 of that melody : 
 
 " Nosso ceo tern mais estrellas ; 
 Nossas varzeas tern mais floras ; 
 Nossos bosques tem mais vida, 
 Nossa vida mais amores." 
 
 Our sky has more stars ; 
 Our meadows more flowers 
 Our woods more life ; 
 Our life more love.
 
 ORCHIDS FROM A TROPICAL GARDEN. 
 
 NEAR THE FOREST. 
 
 DAYBREAK. Perfumes from rare orchids fill the 
 air, red passion-flowers strew the ground. Great blue 
 butterflies elude the grasp. A dewy freshness is 
 over all. Now the sun glows into fuller life. We 
 will descend the forest path, where the forest stream 
 meets the tiny lake, and in whose clear depths the 
 miriti palms are mirrored. 
 
 An Indian hut stands by the margin. Indian 
 children, in tiny shirts, come and go, and stretch 
 their bamboo-colored legs in the sun. Now the 
 mother, in gay-colored skirt and camisola, ap 
 proaches the lake for water. With what superb 
 bearing, the red, filled jar poised on her head, does 
 she walk away ! 
 
 Still we are virtually alone. Indian apathy never 
 slackens ; never is roused into curiosity ; asks no 
 questions. We are free to come and go. 
 
 A glorious dip a stretch in the sunshine a 
 reverie and home to our palm-thatched hut again ! 
 
 A MORNING CALL. 
 
 , INTOXICATING sweetness from clouds of snowy 
 jasmines fills house and garden. In the drawing- 
 room, with its bare floor of black and white acapti, 
 
 91
 
 92 IN AMAZON LAND. 
 
 lofty ceilings, and simple bamboo furniture, are 
 seated two visitors. They are sisters, neighbors, 
 who greet the new-comer warmly. One of these 
 girls might pose as a study for Murillo s " Madonna." 
 The other, too, is superb in her way, with fine flash 
 ing eyes, and dark hair that hangs in braids nearly 
 to her feet. In all-unconscious grace they sit, and 
 " soft Southern speech " falls musically from their 
 tongue. But what does the elder girl hold in her 
 hands? A great, practical bunch of jingling keys! 
 (She must be the housekeeper.) And my Madonna ? 
 She has a mother-of-pearl opera-glass in her hand, 
 and nestling in her sleeve is a pet rouxinole, that 
 flits hither and thither from a bowl of fragrant roses. 
 
 These girls wear dainty white muslins, and with 
 filmy lace of their own handiwork. What need of 
 bonnets or gloves ! 
 
 All this was long ago. 
 
 My Para belle of to-day visits me in the finest 
 French toilette, and at the hottest hour of the day, 
 it being the fashionable one. She has more chic ; 
 she is more accomplished, it may be, than her sister 
 of old, but I miss well, I miss the golden 
 rouxinole ! 
 
 FESTA OF OUR LADY OF NAZARETH. 
 (The Patron Saint of Para.) 
 
 "THEN the lady will assist, this night, at the 
 Festa of Nazareth ? Ah, but it is bonita, the festa ! " 
 
 So smilingly affirms my cabocla maid, Marie, 
 whose smiles deepen over her brown face, as she 
 receives an affirmative answer.
 
 ORCHIDS FROM A TROPICAL GARDEN. 93 
 
 Can I describe the first impressions of this strange 
 annual festa ? A little white-washed church, its one 
 cross pointing up to skies where is the " sweet south 
 ern cross " ; in front, a large square, not regularly laid 
 out, in fact, not laid out at all, but illuminated by 
 hundreds of gaslights until far after midnight ; 
 gorgeous fireworks, at which the stately palms them 
 selves seem to unbend a little, and to nod approv 
 ingly. Around the tree-bordered square are 
 countless little tables of fruits and doces, the sellers 
 thereof laughing, chattering Indian girls and 
 negresses, whose brilliancy of attire Joseph s coat 
 of old could not well eclipse. The evening Mass at 
 chapel heard, the leilao, or fair for charitable pur 
 poses, attended, a long hour passed in watching the 
 novel crowd that pass and repass the wide paseo 
 round, and down the beautiful, silent Nazareth 
 avenue, homeward again. 
 
 A SUMMER ISLE. 
 
 NOT unlike an emerald, in uncouth setting, rises 
 my fairy islet, fresh and sparkling, from the turbid 
 waters which gave it birth. Ay, not many centuries 
 ago ! On over the tiny beach of sand, under trees 
 of fragrant cajti and golden orange, by " palms in 
 cluster," to where mango shades woo, and cooling 
 breezes caress ! 
 
 Pressed close to mother Earth, I dream, and am 
 
 happy. Love breathes o er the fragrant hours. 
 
 ^ Doubt, and pain, and sorrow, what are they? Less. 
 
 than yonder fleecy cloud floating over the mango 
 
 trees, the turbid waters, and the fairy islet, Tatuoca!
 
 AT REST. 
 
 " To where, beyond these voices, there is peace ! " 
 
 IN a lone cemetery by the tangled tropical forest 
 is a grave. There he rests ! Over that grave willows 
 never weep ; birds sing never ; flowers bloom not, 
 for they wither in the fierce sunshine, or the raging 
 tropic storms cast them away. 
 
 But the " sweet southern cross," the cross he and 
 I have so often watched, looks peacefully down on 
 that grave. What, then, if willow weeps not ; if 
 white flowers bloom never ; if tropic birds in the 
 forest have no song ? My thoughts are more fra 
 grant than the flowers ; my heart weeps when even 
 the willow would be silent ; my love watches as do 
 never watch floating clouds, nor dewy stars. 
 
 Even what of " death, the tomb, sorrow " ; a 
 broken heart? He is at rest. He knoweth nought 
 of them more. " Only the living know. Only the 
 living." 
 
 Oh, my love, my love, would I, too, were above 
 the clouds, and the stars, and the beating storms ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 94
 
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