Burton: travelling like a "tropeiro"
Autor: Patricia | Publicado: 2013-09-16T17:21:00-03:00

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; The establishment was the common compound of the third and fourth phases assumed by venal hospitality in a land where every second gentleman keeps open house.

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; No. 1 is the Pouso, a mere camping-ground, whose proprietor does not object to let troopers water their mules and tether them to stakes. In the first quarter of the present century travellers were often condemned to nights a la belle êtoile in these germs of accommodation, which have now become populous villages and towns.

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; No. 2, the. Rancho, represents the " Traveller's Bungalow", lacking, however, cot, chair, and table, Thugs and Dacoits. Essentially it is a long, tiled shed, sometimes fronted by a verandah on wooden posts or brick pillars ; at other times with outer walls, and even with inner compartments, formed by taipa adobes, or clay and wattle. Here the muleteers unload; the beasts wander xmdriven to the pasture, whilst the masters build a fire, hang their kettle, gipsy fashion, from a tripod of sticks, strew on the ground by way of bedding the hide covers of the cargoes, and make a snuggery with parallel partitions of neatly- piled panniers t and pack-saddles. The Brazilian poet describes the Rancho —

E por grapos apinhoados,
Em seu centro estão arreios,
Sacos, couros e broacas.

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; It requires the skin of a " tropeiro" to sleep in such places : all swarm with strange, outlandish vermin, which burrow into your flesh, and which make their homes under your nails.

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; No. 3 is the Venda, or shop, a decided advance, but not &nbsp;"thoroughly respectable". I was once reproved for owning to having enjoyed the opposite extremes of Fazenda and Venda. It is the "pulperia" of the Hispano- American colonies, the village emporium of England, combined with the grocery and the public-house ; it sells "a'things," from garlic and prayer-books to gin and rum, cake and candles ; sometimes it is double, with one side for wet, and the other for dry goods. A counter, over which swings the rude balance, bisects the length. Between it and the door are stools, boxes, or inverted tubs. The customer touches hat to the proprietor, and is here upon told to sit down. Behind the " balcão" is sacred ground, admitting to the gynecoeum. The shelves of untrimmed wood are laden with mugs, cans, and other pottery, and on both sides with full and empty bottles, upright and couchant. On the floor are salt-bins and open kegs of coarse sugar and beans, a box or two of maize, piles of lard and salted meat — the popular " carne seca," a rope of black tobacco curled round a stick, and tins and demijohns of the local rum. The items are umbrellas, horseshoes, hats, mirrors, belts, knives, long pistols (garruchas), cheap guns, and munitions, and sewing gear — in fact, everything that can be wanted by rustic man or woman. The Venda has usually a room where strangers are accommodated with a large platter for ablutions, a wooden bunk, a long-legged table, and a low bench.

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No. 4 is the Estalagem, or Hospedaria, the inn where we shall lodge at Marianna ; and No. 6, and last, is the more pretentious hotel, or 'otel, with which the reader has made acquaintance at Barbacena.