260 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
close of the afternoon. As we are with the President 
of the province, our picnic is of a much more magnificent 
character than our purely scientific excursions have been. 
Instead of our usual makeshifts, teacups doing duty 
as tumblers, and empty barrels acting as chairs, we 
have a silver soup-tureen, and a cook, and a waiter, and 
knives and forks enough to go round, and many other 
luxuries which such wayfarers as ourselves learn to do 
without. While we were dining, the Indians began to 
come in from the surrounding forest to pay their respects 
to the President, for his visit was the cause of great re- 
joicing, and there was to be a ball in his honor in the 
evening. They brought an enormous cluster of game as 
an offering. What a mass of color it was ! - - more like a 
gorgeous bouquet of flowers than a bunch of birds. It 
was composed .entirely of Toucans, with their red and 
yellow beaks, blue eyes, and soft white breasts bordered 
with crimson ; and of parrots, or papagaios as they call 
them here, with their gorgeous plumage of green, blue, 
purple, and red. When we had dined, we took coffee 
outside, while our places around the table were filled 
by the Indian guests, who were to have a dinner-party 
in their turn. It was pleasant to see with how much 
courtesy several of the Brazilian gentlemen of our party 
waited upon these Indian Senhoras, passing them a va- 
riety of dishes, helping them to wine, and treating them 
with as much attention as if they had been the highest 
ladies of the land. They seemed, however, rather shy 
and embarrassed, scarcely touching the nice things placed 
before them, till one of the gentlemen, who has lived a good 
deal among the Indians, and knows their habits perfectly, 
took the knife and fork from one of them, exclaiming, 
