The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-01-23
QUEER CUSTOMS OF BRAZIL
PEcuLIARITIEs OF FUNERALS AND
WEDDINGS.
Strange Diseases Which Puzzle
Medical Men-Porters and Ped
diers-Streets and Houses.

| uters-Streets anu Houses.
There are many curious customs OBJ
served by the Brazilians, says Rio
de Janeiro letter to the New York Times.
Funerals are notable in that for young
unmarried lady, coffin, hearse, and the
livery of the driver must be bright scar
let, the four white horses drawing the
hearse must be covered with scarlet nets,
and scarlet plumes must deck the horses
heads. No women go to the cemeteries.
The mother, the widow, must not exhibit
her grief in public.
For the swell funeral of young girl
the coffin, hearse, livery of the driver,
and nets and plumes for the horses must
be royal purple. For elderly persons
black and gold are the adornments of
mortuary trappings.
AT weddings the bride does not wear
orange blossoms, but organe flowers are
presented by the groom and his bride to
their unmarried friends, and they are
supposed to pass them on to their un-
married acquaintance. This custom
has hidden meaning dating back to the
twilight OF mans history. The flower
is an emblem of fecundity, and the
"passing on" of the gift signifies: go
thou and do likewise"
The calling of porters--the business of
| porterage-is regular one, and is
divided into classes. There are porters
whose speciality is handling pianos-de-
livering, transferring them. You never
see a piano on truck orin furniture
van. Four men bear upright pianos on
their heads, and square and grand pianos
are carriedin sings suspended from two
poles resting on the shoulders of four
men.
Iron safes are transported by porters,
delivered from the warehouse, moved
from one place to another and put in
position-all by sheer strength,
If you buy anything-furniture, a
piano, IA safe--the purchaser must bar
gain with the porters for the delivery.
And if you do not make your bargain to
carry and put in position, the porters
will leave the article or articles at your
door, unless you agree to pay additional
for placing them in your house or rooms.
In the business streets of the city-in
the wholesale and warehouse districts
the carros urbanos-a street car line with
narrow-gauge track--runs up one and
| down another of the narrow ways, on al
most every street. In the coffee districts
there are regular freight cars run on these
tracks for the transport of coffee in bags
to the coffee docks.
The porters who have their habitat in
these streets use hand trucks made to
"track" on the street car rails. As you
walk along the shady sides of these
streets the porters unoccupied are loung-
ing in the doorways or sleeping on their
trucks, which partly obstruct the side
walks. You have to keep lookout all
the time or you will soil the bottoms of
your trousers against the grease drip
ping wheels of these trucks.
The streets in the residence portion of
the city are infested day and night with
peripatetic vendors, peddlers, and re-
tailers of fruits, vegetables, and, in the
summer, of ices. Their discorlant cries,
clapping of sticks, rat-a-tat on tin or iron
pans, make both day and night hideous.
The Brazilians are fond of looking out
upon the passers-by in the streds. In the
mornings and evenings the windows of
the houses on the shady sides of the
streets are filed with women anil children
leaning half out. They recognize their
acquaintance walking or riding by in the
street cars with waves of tlSir hands.
Fine places with grounds in fi3nt of the
houses have raised platforms, where the
members of the family sit in the evening
for the double purpose of enjoying the
breeze and watching the passess-by.
The middle of December is the height
of the summer season, and hethermom-
eter in the shade stands for several hours
of the daytime at from eighty -tie degrees
to ninety-tive degrees. In the business
part of the city, with its narrow streets,
this heat is at times very oppressive, but,
except in extraordinary seasons there is
scarcely a day without breeze, either
from the bay and sea or from the mount
aims, which ameliorates the heat percepti-
bly,. The mornings and evenings are al
most invariably fresh and delightful. The
temperature of the houses at night de-
ponds greatly upon their location. If
they are situated so as to catch the breeze
from the water or from the mountains
there is no trouble in sleeping.
There are some strange diseases here
which puzzle the medical profession to
account for. Beri-beri is swelling of
the feet and lower part of the legs
dropsical in its nature. 1t is the result
of yitiated blood, but what causes this
vitiation of the blood is not so satisfac-
torily accounted for. Accesso perniciosa
is another remarkable disease. 1t is a
violent fever, which comes on with
scarcely any premonitions--a terrific
heat in the head-the brain on fre-and
death ensues in a few hours. The medi-
cal profession attribute it to the effect of
the heat--a sort of sunstroke-but per-
sons die of it who are not exposed to the
sun.
There are always endemic cases of yell
low fever here, but it is only epidemic
when there is long continued season of
dry hot weather. So long as there is
rain every day Or several times a week
yellow fever does not become epidemic.
Keep the city perfectly clean, flush the
drains twice a day, wash the streets
morning and night, use disinfectants
freely, introduce and compel the use of
the cork closet in all tenement houses
and localities, and there would never be
yellow fever epidemic in Rio or any
other Brazilian coast city.
The Length of the Day.
AT London, England, and Bremen,