364 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
Though it has no longer the charm of novelty for me, I am 
always glad to visit an Indian cottage. You find a cordial 
welcome ; the best hammock, the coolest corner, and a cuia 
of fresh water are ready for you. As a general thing, the 
houses of the Indians are also more tidy than those of the 
whites ; and there is a certain charm of picturesqueness 
about them which never wears off. 
After a short rest, we went on through the settlement, 
where the sitios are scattered at considerable distances, and 
so completely surrounded by trees that they seem quite iso- 
lated in the forest. Although the Indians are said to be a 
lazy people, and are unquestionably fitful and irregular in 
their habits of work, in almost all these houses some charac- 
teristic occupation was going on. In two or three the women 
were making hammocks, in one a boy was plaiting the leaves 
of the Curua palm into a tolda for his canoe, in another the 
inmates were making a coarse kind of pottery ; and in still an- 
other a woman, who is quite famous in the neighborhood for 
her skill in the art, was painting cuias. It was the first time 
I had seen the prepared colors made from a certain kind of 
clay found in the Serra. It is just the carnival season, and, as 
every one has a right to play pranks on his neighbors, we did 
not get off without making a closer acquaintance than was 
altogether pleasant with the rustic artist's colors. As we 
were leaving the cottage, she darted out upon us, her hands 
full of blue and red paints. If they had been tomahawks, 
they could not have produced a more sudden rout ; and 
it was a complete sauve qui pent of the whole company 
across the little bridge which led to the house. As a 
stranger, I was spared ; but all were not fortunate enough 
to escape, and some of the children carried their blue and 
red badges to the end of the day. 
