# The Knickerbocker/Volume 64/Number 3/Brazil and Brazilian Society

←Chapters 5 & 6
Brazil and Brazilian Society
Chapters 8 & 9→
Originally appeared in French as "Le Brésil et la Société brésilienne," in Revue des Deux Mondes, 2e période, tome 45 (June 1863)
Layout 2
BRAZIL AND BRAZILIAN SOCIETY.
TRANSLATED FROM THE REVUE DES DEUX MONDES, BY ASHER HALL.
THE FESTIVAL.
The next day the senhor's festival took place. I should be more exact, perhaps, to say the festival of the negroes. In the morning punishments were revoked, and the prisons thrown open. A padre of the neighborhood came and celebrated mass in a large storehouse, which had been temporarily transformed into a chapel. A table, covered with a cloth, served as an altar. Outside were crouched several hundred slaves of both sexes, of all ages, and of every complexion. I was watching the little half-naked negroes, whining like young wild-cats upon their mother's knees, the tame monkeys gravely foraging on the heads of the young negresses, the parrots screeching Quer cafe? (want some coffee?) and the dogs running hither and thither among the groups, when, at a signal given by the sacristan, the choir of negresses commenced a religious hymn. It was a mixture of wild exclamations—an indescribable clucking—strange sounds, in which there was nothing human, and which would defy analysis by the most skilful ear. The negroes took up the refrain at the end of each strophe, and completed the tumult. Things were carried to such a point, that the dog of my guide, which had hitherto been content to play with the monkeys, suddenly got excited at the noise, and began barking at the negroes. His example was soon followed by all his kindred of the estate, and the din shortly became infernal. Fortunately, the padre went earnestly to work, and mass was soon said. When the crowd had dispersed, I approached the priest and asked him to what language those strange utterances belonged. He confessed that he did not know, and that he had never taken the trouble to inform himself—'E costume'—(it is the custom,) he added in conclusion.
After mass the slaves ranged themselves in line in the court-yard to be reviewed. They formed in double rank, parallel to the mansion. The first, composed exclusively of men, presented a fine appearance. The second, composed of women, children, and infants at the breast, did not present so good an aspect, however, as would be desirable on such an occasion. A feitor first called the roll, and then the inspection began. The fazendeiro silently passed along the lines, stopping before each slave with the grave and scrutinizing gaze of an old sergeant inspecting his company. The negro, with bare head, his gaze bent downward, and his arms crossed upon his breast, stretched out his right hand for the benças as soon as his master arrived before him, instantly replacing it in its former position, and waiting with the greatest anxiety for the inquisitive gaze that was fixed upon him to be removed to his neighbor. The only reproofs I saw were administered to those negresses who had neglected to extract the bichos (the jigger, or pulex penetrans) from the feet of their little ones.
DISTRIBUTING MERCHANDISE.
After the review, my cicerone re-conducted me to the room where mass had been performed. A new metamorphosis had taken place. The chapel had become a store-room, and the altar served as a counter. 'All these goods that you see,' said he, pointing to the stuffs—woollen caps, shirts, pipes, foulards, calicoes of all kinds, etc.—'are for my slaves. Like most planters in Brazil, I give my ​slaves their Sundays to work on their little fields, and devote the product to their wardrobe. But the negro left to himself, buys nothing but cachaça, and always goes in rags. I therefore under take to buy their crops, and pay for them in such articles as they need. That explains why I am every Sunday a merchant. I have thus the double advantage of assuring myself of their morality, and of looking after their personal neatness. Besides, I let them have every thing at cost, as you may convince yourself by examining the accounts. A feitor keeps the register while I distribute the required articles myself. The goods most in demand are pipes and red foulards. Notwithstanding all the attention of myself and my secretary, there seldom passes a Sunday without my missing some articles, so much does theft seem to be the element of those rogues.'
THE BRAZILIAN CUISINE.
At length the breakfast hour arrived, It was difficult to find places around the long table arranged in the immense hall, for all the numerous guests who had come to congratulate the senhor. The service, which presented at once the most luxurious comfort and the greatest simplicity, permitted me to study at leisure the culinary resources of the country, and the taste of the inhabitants.
Like all his congeners of the torrid zone, the South-American is temperate in eating. Rice boiled in water, beans cooked with lard and manioc flour compose his food the year round. On holidays he kills a hog, which is stuffed and served up whole. His most habitual food, and that of which he is most fond, consists of a sort of cake which be extemporizes on his plate by covering his beans with a thick layer of manioc flour, and mixing the whole. Bread and wine are alike unknown to him. His knife serves him instead of a fork, and a large glass circulating around quenches the thirst of all the guests as in the days of the heroes of Homer.
Such are the customs still practised in the interior of Brazil; but among the rich planters who have been received at the court of the Emperor, Don Pedro II., or who have travelled in Europe, silver plate is found upon the table, and the best wines of France, Spain, and Portugal are freely circulated. Rice, feijão, and manioc are placed at the foot of the table, as if to satisfy the national custom, while cutlets of fresh pork, quarters of mutton, splendid fish, luscious fowl, excellent bread and cheese, and all the legumes of Europe are served up. Two black cooks, who have served their apprenticeship in the French hotels of the large towns upon the coast, take their turn each week, the better to resist the heat of the furnaces, which becomes insupportable under the tropical sun. A crowd of little negreos, especially remarkable for their untidiness, dance like imps around the furnaces, scouring the warming-pans, stirring the fire, strangling the fowls, puring the legumes, and stopping from time to time to extract a bicho or a carrapato (acarus anericanus) from their naked feet; then again taking up the food without washing either hands or knives, for time presses, and the chief does not wish to be late. I must nevertheless confess that the black cooks appeared to me quite as skilful as the white ones; yet beneath these fiery skins, and in this hot and moist climate, meats and vegetables are much inferior to those of Europe. The rapid development of plants renders them ligneous, and therefore very tough. If eaten before they are sufficiently matured, they are watery and insipid. It is the same with animals, which, nourished by herbage that is juiceless, so to speak, furnish a meat fat and without savor. The only exception is the flesh of the pig and the lamb. The same may also be said of fruit. That which constitutes the delicacy of the peaches, prunes, figs, raisins, etc., of Provence, and the two neighboring Peninsulas, is the slight predominance of an acid savor in a west pulp. A dry ​climate is necessary for the development of this aroma, and to prevent the excess of sugar from overpowering it. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the tropics. The enormous quantity of water conveyed in the sap, and which vegetables absorb through every pore in an atmosphere constantly loaded with vapors, swells the fruit, neutralizes its acidity, and changes the pulp into a sweet paste, (mélasse,) In justice, however, it must be observed that the creoles appreciate the sweet juice of the pulp better than ourselves, and with them, therefore, their fruit has the advantage. The doces (sweetmeats) which they form from them constitute the principal merit of the Brazilian table.
ORIGINAL CHARACTERS—THE PADRE.
The description of the fazenda would be incomplete, if we did not describe some of the original characters one meets with on all the large plantations. First in order come the padre and the doutor, then the mascate (the muleteer) and the formigueiro, (the ant-killer,) of which we have heretofore merely mentioned the name.
The padre is the almoner of the country, Let not the reader picture to himself, the dark figure of an inquisitor, enveloped in black gown and wearing a three-cornered hat. No; the South-American padre is a hale apostle. Clothed in linen like a worldly mortal, he wears his hair as short as a layman, dances, smokes, and plays and converses like the rest of the world. A mass glosses over the Sabbath, and that suffices for all the week.
A muleteer generally serves him as sacristan, and his music consists of a choir of negroes. After mass he baptizes the little negroes who are brought to him from various parts of the neighborhood. Of these he takes possession in the name of heaven and the Catholic religion, and to this effect inscribes their names in a register, under a rubric taken from the Roman martyrology. This duty performed, the new Christian returns to the hut, goes into the field as soon as he is able to walk, works as long as his strength permits, till at length he one day falls exhausted. A few hours later he takes his way to the grave upon the shoulders of four of his comrades, who form the entire funeral procession. The padre does not trouble himself to visit him in his dying moments, unless he is a free negro, and can pay the expense; for he thinks the sufferings of servitude are sufficient to redeem the faults of the poor slaves, and open to them the gates of heaven. Of what use, then, is the catechism, and instruction, and masses, and sacraments? The cleansing of baptism is enough; slavery will do the rest.
Lack of employment is not unknown to the padre; but he knows how to remedy this by the aid of some light employments with which his transatlantic brethren are unacquainted. If a fazendeiro thinks himself neither sufficiently rich nor devout to pay for a mass every week, he makes an arrangement with his neighbors. The padre then alternates week by week with one estate after another, till he comes around to the one with which he commenced. If his cure is too ungrateful, he ekes out a supplement by raising cattle or keeping a venda.
AN ITINERANT PADRE.
I one day met, in the province of Minas, one of these reverends who was traversing the estates with a herd of cattle, performing mass as occasion demanded, Being overtaken by a shower, we had both sought shelter at the same rancho. Seated upon a bench, we soon engaged in conversation.
'You see, senhor,' said he, with a profound sigh, 'the occupation to which a man of my condition is reduced! In the time of the King Don Joãs VI. we had more masses than we wanted; but since the independence, all is changed. There are still some senhoras who have them performed occasionally, but their husbands prefer to employ their money in cattle or mules. That is why you ​see me as a tropeiro. Did you chance, anywhere upon the road, to meet any fazendeiro who wished to replenish his horned stock, or needed a priest?'
I had heard of a lady in the neighborhood, recently deceased, and who, wishing to set herself right with her conscience, or conform to custom, had placed in her will four hundred milreis {two hundred dollars) to be devoted to masses. I did not recollect the lady's name, but I informed the padre in what village she lived, which was only a few leagues distant. I added, to prevent any mistake, that the death had occurred several days before, and that this sum was probably destined to the padre of the neighboring freguezia or parish.
'Never fear, senhor; if it is not too late I will take care of the affair. Moleque!' he cried to his chief herdsman, 'bring me my mule, quick!'
A few minutes later our reverend set off at a brisk trot, in spite of the rain, which still fell in torrents. Leaving the herd in charge of the negro, he went straight to the testamentary executor, and frankly proposed to give him a receipt for four hundred milreis, on payment of half the sum. The proposition was too seductive to be refused, and the executor, making the mere necessary conditions, counted out the two hundred milreis.
Being generally the head of a family, the padre acquires through his domestic sentiments a kindness of heart, which too frequently exists only upon the lips of his austere colleagues of the Old World, His parishioners seem to like his free way of living, and willingly excuse his peccadillos.
A PRIEST OF EASY DOCTRINES.
A few years ago the officiating priest of Santa Ana, a village situated thirty or forty miles from Rio Janeiro, on the road to Novo Friburgo, declared from his pulpit, in a moment of good humor, that one might boldly refuse to believe there was a hell! Good souls with us would have hid their faces at hearing such frightful blasphemy. The Brazilian is more calm; he reserves his severity for the African bondsmen, and shows the most evangelical indulgence for his own race.. The congregation smiled at each other at this singular declaration, and contented themselves with exchanging a look, as much as to say, Está bebado, (he has been drinking.)
THE DOUTOR.
The doutor is, in the eyes of the fazendeiro, a more important personage even than the padre. Since the slave-trade has been interdicted upon the coast of Africa, the price of negroes has advanced to ruinous proportions. An adult slave, at the present time, represents a capital of two contos de reis, or one thousand dollars, and sometimes more. The loss of a negro is therefore a serious one to the planter, and he neglects nothing to restore him when he falls sick. A spacious and well-ventilated hospital, with medical stores from Paris or London, an attendant who never leaves the patients, and who prepares their medicines, sufficiently attest his solicitude. Nevertheless, notwithstanding all these ample precautions, notwithstanding the real skill of the Brazilian physicians, my observation tells me that a negro seldom goes into the hospital except to die there. But this is easily accounted for. The negro never complains of sickness, and is never supposed to be sick till he is at the very end of his career and his strength is gone.
Besides the plantation to which he is attached, the doctor, like the padre, has to attend upon the small proprietors of the neighborhood, who are not rich enough to keep a private physician. Formerly medical men were scarce, for there was no faculty in the country, and young men were obliged to get their education in the schools of France or Portugal. Since the emancipation, things have completely changed. Schools of medicine have been established in the large towns, and professors are found ​there who would do credit to the first institutions of Europe. The greater part of their medical works are written in French, All are acquainted with the language, and many speak it. Some also are acquainted with the German, and have libraries partly French and partly German. With such elements one need not be astonished to find, that most of the physicians upon the coast possess real merit, We cannot say as much of those of the interior. It is not rare to find among them a mulatto, who, having learnt in a negro infirmary to prepare mercurial pomades, administer purgatives, and dress snake-bites, styles himself a doctor. Sometimes a Frenchman comes over as cook upon some vessel, goes ashore, and sets himself up as surgeon-dentist, But as a set-off to this, it must be confessed that one sometimes meets with excellent black physicians at Bahia and Rio.
PLANTATION HOSPITALS.
Upon the large fazendas the infirmary is open to all the sick of the neighborhood, Alongside of plantation negroes treated for incipient elephantiasis or a wound, you find a tropeiro arrested on the road by imprudent exposure to the sun; or agregados from the neighboring forests stricken with fever, or poor colonists of the district who have left their mud-cabins to seek a healthier asylum and more efficacious medicines, Separate apartments are provided for the two sexes. Sometimes a negress who has fled from slavery, having become a mother, and being unable, through fear and privation, to nurse her child, comes at night and lays it behind the door of the infirmary. The rest is evident. The padre baptizes the little black, and forthwith delivers it to the director of the hospice, who is charged with bringing it up. In years of epidemic, when pestiferous breezes sweep over the country, and death carries his terrors into the plantation, and the rancho, the infirmary of the fazenda is a godsend to the people. The creoles then suddenly throw aside their nonchalance, and rival each other in zeal and sacrifices. The foree of physicians, attendants, and nurses is doubled. A physician from the cidade is brought at great expense, while a caravan goes to bring from a distance a supply of all the pharmaceutical ingredients that can counteract the plague. Poor people who do not wish to leave their families, come at all hours of the day or night to obtain consultations or advice. Sometimes a free man, kept back by fear or false pride, permits himself to waste away in fever upon his bunk rather than apply to the neighboring fazenda. Whenever the planter hears of such a case, he instructs a doctor, who forthwith mounts on horseback, and goes to persuade the sufferer to allow himself to be treated. These outbursts of spontaneous philanthropy, which give birth to such noble devotion, are not rare in creole life.
KINDNESS TO STRANGERS.
The hospitality so generously practised toward the sick extends to every thing and to every body, It may be said that the fazenda is the caravanserai of foreigners who are trayelling in Brazil. If it were not for them, travel would be impossible, It is true that one finds near the coast a few vendas smelling of putridity, cachaça, and decaying fish; but they become more and more rare upon advancing into the interior. The plantation, on the contrary, rarely disappoints one. Whenever a stranger arrives at the door, a negro shows him a rancho for his horse, and then conducts him into the house, where are the roomy allotted to travellers. At the dinner hour he seats himself at the senhor's table, takes part in the conversation if it interests him, and retires when he The next day he sets out immediately after breakfast, in order to reach the next fazenda before nightfall. If he needs rest, he can remain several days in succession. No one would even think of asking his name. This is ancient hospitality in ail its grandeur and ​simplicity. Many fazendas are famous for the heartiness of their reception, Among them may be mentioned that of the Baron d'Uba, known throughout Europe ever since the sojourn made there by the French traveller, Auguste St. Hilaire, half a century ago, and which has never ceased to be the privileged halting-place of the savans and artists who visit the provinces of Minas or Rio Janeiro.
CHAPTER VII.
PEDDLERS, MULETEERS, AND ANT-KILLERS.
As there is no good thing in this world which does not, by its very excess, engender an abuse, the hospitality of the fazenda has given birth to the mascate. The mascate is nothing else than a peddler, and he generally comes to Brazil from France, But he has nothing in common with those poor wretches who are still encountered on the inaccessible summits of the Alps and Pyrenees, with a pack upon their shoulders, and selling red handkerchiefs to the peasant-girls in exchange for a few pounds of rags. He understands things better; he gives himself less trouble, and takes banknotes in exchange for his wares. He leaves Havre with an hundred pieces of gold in his pocket, disembarks with a compatriot, who gives him his lesson, buys a mule for himself and another for his pack, hires a guide to whom he pays a milreis (fifty cents) per day, and traverses the fazendas, offering jewelry, calicoes, perfumery, etc., according to his specialty. This employment, which a few years ago insured a rapid fortune, has fallen off in consequence of the monstrous abuses which were practised. I have known mascates to realize one hundred contas de reis (fifty thousand dollars) in a single campaign, and return to France the same year with an income of twelve thousand francs, (upwards of two thousand dollars.) It was the golden age of peddlers; but abuses were carried too far, and the Brazilians have at length opened their eyes.
A PEDDLER'S ESTIMATE.
One of these adept peddlers one day made me the following estimate: a ring mounted with brilliants costs one hundred francs at the manufactory ; the exporter who sends it places it at two hundred; the expense of commission, box and transport, brings it up to one hundred milreis, (two hundred and fifty francs, or fifty dollars;) the duty, estimated at eighty per cent, makes its cost nearly two hundred milreis; the store from which we obtain the ring makes one hundred per cent, and it therefore costs us four hundred milreis. Certainly we, who have all the trouble, cannot make less than an hundred per cent, and we are obliged to sell the jewel to the senhoras of the interior for eight hundred milreis, As they generally buy on credit, their husbands give us a bill of exchange for a conto of reis, (five hundred dollars,) in order that we may not lose the interest.
The Brazilians long since knew that they were paying many times the true value of their wives' jewelry, and they have at last stopped patronizing the mascates. The Jews of Alsace and the Rhine provinces are those who most excel in this species of trade. The Parisian prefers to sell perfumery and other small merchandise. The Italians bring small plaster saints to ornament the chapels, or hand-organs. Sometimes the mascate becomes bankrupt by having his pack-mule carried away by the current in crossing a river, or by losing it among the precipices on the road. Some of them make journeys of eight hundred leagues, or to the extreme limits of civilized settlements. Few of these escape the fatigues of the route, the arrows of the Botocudos, the teeth of the tiger, or the tortures of hunger. I have frequently, during my travels, met them without mules, shoes, or clothing, and consoling themselves in their poverty by contemplating a box of small grains of quartz, which the natives of pretended diamond-bearing districts had given them as diamonds, in exchange for their merchandise, Those who return to life and civilization, having no longer any ​capital, seek a less rude employment, becoming comedians, gardeners, professors, dentists, photographers, etc.
One day, on the way to Rio, I was stopped by a person whom I did not recognize; it was one of those poor wretches whom I had found, half dead with hunger, fatigue, and destitution, on the Upper Parahyba. I had given him a shirt, thinking it would be his winding-sheet. He survived by a miracle, dragged himself from tavern to tavern, and had established himself as a dentist at Rio Janeiro.
FRENCH IMPOSTURE.
As may be supposed, after these details, the French do not enjoy a high reputation in the country, and all the misdeeds of foreigners are attributed to them. It must be observed, however, in excuse of the Brazilians, that the greater part of foreigners speaking French style themselves Frenchmen, Many a time, upon asking one of these improvised Frenchmen the name of his department, I have been answered, Friburg, Namur, etc., a satisfactory answer for the Brazilian, who is ordinarily but little versed in geographical science. But the planter has something worse to fear than the misdoings of the Rhenish Jew, The latter looks only to his purse; but the Parisian, after the second glass of porto, enters upon the chapter of polities and discusses the constitution with his host. From the constitution to the abolition of slavery and emancipation of the blacks is only the distance to a third glass, and our man is upon too good a road to stop, One of those children of the Place Maubert, who had come to Brazil to do—no matter what—was taking leave of a rich nabob who had harbored him for six months.
'Well, are you satisfied with my people—have they treated you well?' asked the fazendeiro, grasping his hand.
'Senhor, your house is a palace, and you are a true gentleman. But———'
'But what?' demanded the astonished planter,
'My gratitude and my thanks,' continued the Parisian, 'would be better addressed to your negroes, for, to speak the truth, it was they who fed me.'
THE MULETEER.
A very original native character, sometimes met with upon the large fazendas of Central and Northern Brazil, is the muleteer. He is large in person, with a sun-burnt complexion. Long, glossy locks and a certain shade of the skin indicate that he has a large preponderance of Indian blood in his veins. His origin is unknown. The plantation people saw him arrive one day at the head of two or three hundred mules, He came from the most distant portion of the empire, made five or six hundred leagues through unexplored forests, sleeping in the open air, and having scarcely any thing for his daily nourishment beyond a handful of manioc, He stopped to ask the master of the fazenda for a lodging, and to refresh himself after his three months' journey; but being charmed with that liberality which is only found among the rich planters of, the New World, and by the immense unoceupied pasture-grounds that surrounded the estate, he asked the planter to let his animals profit by this neglected wealth. From that time he established his headquarters on the plantation, where he raises his mules. From time to time he makes a trip through the neighborhood, and sells those that are trained. In his spare moments he makes himself useful about the fazenda by giving instructions how to throw the lasso, and to subdue stubborn animals; he also serves as squire upon journeys and as sacristan to the padre. When all his mules are sold he goes away by the road upon which he came, makes new purchases, and reappears the next year with another herd. This traffic is very lucrative. Having no expenses to pay with the planters who entertain him, as well as his negroes and animals, buying young mules in a country where money is scarce, and re-selling them ready trained ​in the wealthy provinces, he realizes enormous profits. And hence, sometimes, he becomes carried away by pride, and makes his son a physician.
THE FORMIGUEIRO.
After the mascate and the muleteer, the formigueiro has also, as we have said, his allotted place among the useful guests of a fazenda. The formiga is a pest to many of these habitations. The ants of the tropics do not resemble the timid insects of our cool climate, which avoid mankind, and content themselves with making their nests in the trunk of a tree or under a stone, and at most cheating the domestic fowls of a few particles of grain. They are a hardy set, confident in their strength and intelligence, and make themselves inaccessible retreats. Before the arrival of the white man, the formiga was the true queen of the forest. The savage beings, who then represented humanity in this region, had rather a vague instinct of congregation than the true spirit of association. The idea of labor and solidarity, for example, was entirely wanting with them. A prisoner was to them only a victim condemned to serve as a feast. The ant early learned to cultivate higher notions.
At the present day it remains in Brazil one of the most perfect illustrations of those strange laws which introduce into the world of nature, under the form of instinct, certain forces of the moral world, The habitation of the formiga of Brazil is a citadel closed in on every side, communicating with the outer world only by secret passages. If there are any wood-lice in the vicinity, the formiga pursues them, takes them to its habitation, and thus forms itself a sort of farm-yard. A regular distribution of fresh leaves suffices to render captivity supportable to the prisoners, and no attempt at escape is thenceforth to be feared. Some species of ants, given to idleness, commit raids upon the more feeble races, and seize their eggs. The larvæ which are hatched from these, become so many slaves. These slaves with mandibles accept their fate, and perform service to the aristocratic race. It is a veritable subterranean fazenda, equally based on servitude, but without chicote or feitor.
RAVAGES OF THE BRAZILIAN ANT.
When the workers go to forage in the fields, and the task is hard or pressing, the column is divided into two sections. The most active climb the trunk of the tree which is to be plundered, run out upon the branches to the base of the leaves, and cut off the stems with their serrated teeth. In an hour the foliage has disappeared. The tree seems as if blasted by lightning. In the mean time, those that remained upon the ground seize the leaves as they fall, and carry them away. If the burden is too heavy, this column separates into two groups, one of which separates the leaf into segments, while the other takes it away and stores it. Gardeners especially dread their ravages. If they neglect to surround their fields with a ditch filled with water, or if the latter dries up, good-by to flowers, fruits, and legumes—all disappear in a night. A well-filled ditch does not always suffice to keep such watchful and enterprising marauders at a distance. It is necessary ​to see that the current does not occasionally bring down a dead branch, which lodges and forms a communication between the two sides, A gardener told me that one morning he found one of his beds completely devastated by a nocturnal visit of ants, though his ditch, which was n very broad and deep one, was full of water. Curious to know how the enemy had gained access to a place he supposed so well protected, he set himself to watch their manœuvres and observe the route they took on their return. The workers having finished their night's task, the column soon formed, and proceeded to a tree that stood on the edge of the ditch. Climbing the trunk of this, they advanced to the outer branches, and passed over to an orange-tree that was situated on the other side of the ditch, The victimized gardener had not observed that the branches of the two trees touched each other, and formed a bridge in mid-air. A few weeks before, he had been obliged to re-dig his ditch to twice its former depth, in order to intercept the underground galleries which his indefatigable enemies had practised under the water.
CLEARING OUT THE ANTS.
In the houses, things are very different. Ordinarily no attention is paid to these inconvenient neighbors, which run through the rooms, over the tables, and even into the dishes. If too numerous a tribe happen to penetrate the wainscoting and get into a room, they are treated to a sprinkling of boiling water. The squad thereupon make a rapid retreat, in order to hold council over such an unexpected event, to appoint more skilful leaders, und select a less dangerous route; bat if the rain out-doors prevents the ants from getting out through, their subterranean galleries, or if their constructions completely occupy the ground, they are obliged to escape through the holes and fissures of the doors and floors, however abundant the hot shower. When these swarms repeatedly make their appearance, the inhabitants comprehend that there is something more than a single family; in fact, that there is a long series of generations confined in too narrow limits, and trying to spread outside. It is necessary, then, to apply the grand remedy, and a messenger is sent for the formigueiro, or ant-man.
The formigueiro is a man of great importance in a country where the ant has such destructive teeth, or rather mandibles, As the South-American is not given to over-exertion, and moreover as an invasion of ants is too common an event to excite much attention, the ant-man does not ordinarily arrive till a day or two after he is sent for. An enormous forge-bellows which he carries with him constitutes his entire apparatus. After a rapid inspection of the place, he stops up all the openings leading under the house, except a central one, which he enlarges, in order to extemporize a furnace, and allow free passage to the combustible, and to admit the pipe of the bellows. During this operation the negroes go into the neighboring forest, to cut a certain species of wood which he describes to them. The wood being cut and the furnace prepared, a fire is lighted, and by the aid of his enormous bellows he forces the smoke underground through the ant-cells. The smoke, after traversing these porous constructions, escapes everywhere from the fissures in the masonry and through the floor. Then, leaving the care of the fire and the bellows to the negroes, with express orders to keep up the action, he goes through the house to stop with clay all the fissures which permit any escape.
Let us now descend underground, and see what is going on with the ants. At the unusual noise which followed the arrival of the masons charged with stopping up the openings, the industrious insects quickly retreat to their nests, to protect their eggs and watch over their stores. Upon seeing the first suffocating puffs of smoke, they comprehend that they are threatened with an ​extreme danger, and that their only safety is in flight. At the same moment, upon a given signal, each seizes an egg and plunges into the subterranean galleries that lead into the gardens or fields, leaving behind only those stores which an industrious insect can easily replace in a country that has no winter. But here a cruel reception awaits the poor ants: the blue smoke-wreaths are before them, and there.is no hope. Like a consummate tactician, the formigueiro, having closed all the fissures of the interior, goes round the house to watch any signs, and hastens to close any new issue. But is there not a last chance to be attempted? What if the old, abandoned galleries were cleared, or new ones were made? The ants at once drop their burdens and set bravely to work. New outlets are made, and they again seize their eggs. Already they imagine themselves safe; but the smoke has again betrayed them, and at the moment when they are about to emerge, a stroke of the spade tells them that they are pursued by a pitiless enemy. In the mean time, the negroes posted at the bellows constantly send fresh quantities of hot vapors, that scorch and carbonize the frail bodies of these brave insects. At the same time the air becomes more and more rare, and their efforts relax. Soon no further attempts are made to escape. The operation is drawing to its close, Their strength fails them in attempting the last outlet, and they sink exhausted, The next day, when every thing is sufficiently cool, they are found in their galleries, lying side by side with their calcined eggs, but still recognizable. The earth taken from their nests, and their bodies, form one of the most powerful manures.
The flooding rains which for six months inundate the soil, fortunately place a limit to the prolific increase of these marauding insects, The formigueiro is likewise often needed in the fields, especially when the land is being cleared. In these eases the negroes blow the smoke forcibly into the ground, while puffs of blue smoke, which sometimes rise at the distance of more than a hundred feet from the fire, sufficiently indicate the extent of the underground fazenda to be destroyed, and give an idea of the ravages that it might have committed. In justice, however, we must add that the ant is not without some utility. The large winged species serve as food for the blacks, especially those who retain a predilection for their African customs. It is especially in summer, in the amatory season, when the exhausted males sink by thousands upon the soil, that these ant-eaters regale themselves at their ease. It is needless to say that they are not the only ones to hunt this small game, and that the macacos, or monkeys, keep up an active competition against them,
BRAZILIAN LADIES.
Our readers must have remarked that, in this description of the fazenda, the senhora, or lady of the house, has scarcely been mentioned. I have the custom of speaking only of what I have seen; and I should trace a fancy picture were I to attempt to portray the creole lady of the interior. Of all the customs left by the old conquisiadores to their descendants, that of secluding the females is the most tenacious, The apartments of the Brazilians are as impenetrable to a stranger as a Mussulman harem. This custom, inspired by the moat ridiculous jealousy, is found in all the alluvial Portuguese provinces. The consequences are easily deduced. Condemned to remain from infancy in isolation, ignorance, and idleness, the young lady undergoes a check in development, as it were, which affects her whole being. Her intelligence is sickly and her faculties waste away. Never having any other instructors than the slaves charged with her personal service, she is often ignorant even of the art of reckoning. The negresses generally know only the three first numbers; when they come to four they say two pairs; and for five, two pairs and one, etc. The whites get as ​far as twelve, but rarely beyond. A Brazilian lady with whom I lodged at Petropolis, confessed to me that when her daily expenses amounted to more than twelve vintens, (pence,) she was obliged to put as many beans in a glass as she expended pieces of money, so that her husband, upon his return, could form a correct idea of the sum paid out, and rectify mistakes, The women of color vary their arithmetic from three to twelve, according to the deepness of their complexion. Often, in my excursions, obliged to seek shelter in a cabin, have entered into conversation with he mistress, thus:
'What is your age, madam?'
'Não sei, senhor,' (I do not know, sir.)
'How long have you lived here?'
'Não sei, senhor.'
'How old is this child?'
'Não sei, senhor.'
'How many children have you?'
Here embarrassment was visible, if the number reached the figure of four or five.
'Meia pataca,' (half a pataca,) I was answered, after a long pause, by the mother of a family in which I counted eight children. It was soon after my arrival, and I confess that I was obliged to have recourse to my guide to get the sense of this strange metaphor.
PECULIARITIES OF DIFFERENT DISTRICTS.
Such are the occupations, manners, and distinctions of the fazenda, What has been said is specially applicable to the large estates of the north and centre, that border upon the Atlantic. To the south, the configuration of the land as well as the latitude modifies the productions of the soil and the habits of the planters. Immense grazing tracts take the place of the sugar and coffee plantations, and the colonist devotes himself exclusively to the rearing of cattle. It is he who sends the leather and the carne seca that supply both hemispheres.
In the provinces of the interior, a few descendants of the old mineiros still work the veins of quartz spangled with gold, or the diamond-bearing alluvium, This industry, which once formed the wealth of the country, is now but a mere memento of the past. The mining companies themselves no longer pay expenses. Whatever part of the country the traveller traverses, however, he always finds in the Brazilian fazenda that courtesy and heartiness of reception that have rendered the Spanish hacienda so famous, It nevertheless occasionally happens that a stranger who stops at a house at three or four o'clock in the afternoon is told: 'You have two hours of daylight yet, and that will bring you to Senhor X———'s plantation, or the rancho on the other side of the river.' These words, sufficiently unpleasant to the ear of one weary and travel-worn, are easily explained. It is not every one's fortune to be the possessor of estates and slaves. Many of the colonists have no other patrimony than a clay hut and a few fields of corn or manioc which they cultivate by hard labor. What can they offer? Hospitality would be to them. burdensome if not impossible. At other times it is Portuguese pride that renders the threshold of the case inaccessible, Every man of inferior condition feels himself ill at ease, when he is obliged to introduce a stranger into the heavy atmosphere of a dirty and destitute interior. Fortunately these cases are rare. Of a profoundly chivalric character, the creole, whatever his fortune, reminds one in all its aspects of the inexhaustible prolificness of the virgin Nature that surrounds him, and which from his infancy has never ceased to lavish upon him her caresses and her treasures.
A GLANCE AT THE FUTURE.
Let us now cast a glance at the future, and see what fate is reserved for the fazenda, It must be observed that this agricultural and patriarchal mode of life is tending toa radical modification. Although improgressiveness seems to be ​the natural characteristic of the Indo-Latin races, still they cannot escape the slow but inevitable action of moral transformation. The spirit that for the last three centuries has swept over Europe, and which steam and wind daily convey to the Atlantic coast, will soon reach the virgin forests, and in good time fecundate the land which the Portuguese axe has thrown open. The plantation, as it exists at the present day, based upon slavery, is slowly becoming extinct, Since the slave-trade was strictly interdicted, and the squadrons of France and England [and the United States] guard the coast of Africa, the price of slaves exceeds the means of most of the colonists. On the other hand, the plantation negro, upon whom falls all laborious service, is rapidly disappearing. Though prolific by nature, like all the strong races, excessive toil wears him out before his time, and arrests or restrains reproduction. Those fazendas that twenty years ago possessed a thousand slaves, now possess only a few hundred. In years of abundance, the planters often see a portion of their coffee rot in the field, for want of a sufficient number of hands to gather it. Besides, the small proprietors, who find it more profitable to let out their slaves in the populous and commercial towns, desert their estates and bring their human herd to the city. This emigration, which depopulates the farms, is offset by another current, in the opposite direction, of European colonists going into the interior, As in the time of Jornandes, vast and sombre Germania is the grand laboratory of nations—magna officina gentium. The overflow which formerly spread into Gaul, Greece, and Italy, now takes its way across the Atlantic, and finds a place upon the two continents of the West. Up to a recent period the immense stream flowed to New-York, and from there pushed on to the prairies of the far West. Now a portion of the German emigrants prefer to go to the southern tropics. Unfortunately, great obstacles are encountered from the outset. The want of roads, a lack of capital, the severity of the climate, and the uncertain adventure of every new colony, have cheeked many impulses and cooled many burning ambitions. But the foundations are laid, and the result is inevitable, and can only be a question of time. The fazenda is destined to disappear, or at least to assume another character.
What, then, is to take its place? No one can yet say with certainty; but if the past and future are considered through the aid of an attentive study of the various European colonies for the last three centuries, two solutions may be given: either through a change of personality, by substituting the coolie for the negro, the plantation will preserve its old traditions; or, abandoning the plantations to the colonist in consideration of an annual equivalent, the fazendeiro will give up his vast domains, and all those immense estates will be parcelled out. I think that both Brazilians and foreigners would gain by the change. Air and light would penetrate into the hut of the laborer; the railroad would cause the picadas of the forest to be forgotten, and the venda and rancho of the tropics would disappear before the comfort of European hotels. Nobody in Brazil is doubtful of this more or less distant future. The great proprietors, too, understand the epoch in which they live, and are seeking to ascertain the true direction of the current that bears us on; and many of them are even now at work, not wishing to be surprised by a day of unforeseen reckoning.
* ↑ BRAZILIAN STUDENT. One of these rich muleteers, whom I had frequently seen at a planter's in the province of Rio Janeiro, came one day to show me a letter from his son, who was a student at the Brazilian University of St. Paul, and who asked him to send a few books. I kept the list of works which the muleteer's son named, as an index of the literary taste of the young Brazilians, It comprised Brantôime, Alexandre Dumas, La Fontaine, Paul de Kock, Parny, Eugène Sue, Piron, Boccaccio, Parent Duchâtelet, etc., Among these names, so strangely associated together, I vainly looked for the name of some writer on law, The student was doubtless postponing more serious reading to the second year. However that may be, in order to procure the books he selected, the father had to pay for commission, exportation, customs, etc., two contos de reis, (one thousand dollars.) He had to sell twenty-five mules to cover this sum, and the honest muleteer thought his son might educate himself without going to so much expense. He would rather have arranged the matter with two or three mules, he said, and I perfectly agreed with him.
* ↑ The pataca is a piece of money worth sixteen vintens.