620 Anecdotes of Brazil. 



The vesper-bell sends forth its solemn peal, the hum of htiman voices 

 is hushed, the devout Brazilian piously repeats his Ave Maria, a magic 

 stillness pervades all nature, which on a sudden ceases ; the " Boa nocte" 

 passes from lip to lip, and the various topics of conversation are resumed- 

 There is something solemn and singularly beautiful in this custom ; the 

 mind, chastened by religion, withdraws from the consideration of worldly 

 affairs, and indulges in the effusions of friendship and affection. 



Such are some of the leading external features of Brazilian life. The 

 streets of the capital are deserted by an early hour, for its enervated 

 inhabitant dreads the nocturnal dews as much as the modern Roman the 

 malaria of the Pontine marshes. You may wander through their silent 

 expanse, lighted up by the silver moon and her starry court, and nothing 

 breaks on the soft stillness of the hour, save the wiry sound of a guitar., 

 or the solemn hymn of the dead, which tells that some frail son of earth 

 is leaving this world of care and woe. 



Many of the prevailing manners and domestic habits of this people are 

 of Moorish origin. With the exception of the highest class of society, 

 the Brazilians take their meals squatted a-la-Turc on mats spread on the 

 ground. A very singular custom is observed at these repasts towards a 

 stranger. The host, or the person whom chance may place beside him, 

 extracts from his plate some portion of the dainty it may contain, and, 

 in return, will convey some choice morsel from his own on to that of the 

 stranger guest. As the use of knives and forks is on these occasions 

 most religiously dispensed, there is certainly something in this custom 

 revolting to our European refinement ; but here it is the pledge of hos- 

 pitality, like salt with the wandering Arab. 



Some traces of the language of flowers, so common all over the East, 

 are still to be found in Brazil. A stranger, on entering a house, is inva- 

 riably presented with a flower by some female member of the family. 

 This custom has survived the lapse of time, and the gradual revolution 

 of manners ; but the language, the delicate allusion, the sentiment of 

 high-flown gallantry and tender affection, allegorically expressed by 

 these beautiful productions of nature, is as little understood by the Bra- 

 zilian as the mathematical analysis of the tables, by which he calculates 

 an eclipse, by the modern Brahmin. By nature a Gascon, a Brazilian's 

 description both of persons and things must be received with cautious 

 limitation, for they are always in the richest vein of oriental bombast. 

 I have repeatedly heard the emperor compared to a god, and his people 

 to a nation of heroes. Their usual style of addressing a person is ' ' most 

 illustrious." A splendid entertainment is merely termed " hum copo 

 d'ago" a glass of water ; while the courage of some favourite military 

 officer is represented as something superhuman, varying in a ratio from 

 that of ten to a hundred thousand devils. (< Tern o animo de ceno-mil 

 diabos" is the hyperbole used on such occasions. One unacquainted 

 with their national character would imagine he were residing among a 

 nation of fire-eaters ; but in few countries is the personal dignity of man 

 sunk to a lower ebb than in Brazil. During a nine years' residence, I 

 never heard of a single duel, nocturnal assassination being the fashionable 

 mode of vindicating outraged honour. The rigid state of seclusion in 

 which the females are kept deprives society of that fascinating polish of 

 exterior cast over its surface in other countries by the influence of the 

 softer sex. The mind of the Brazilian female is left in all the wild lux- 

 uriance of uncultivated nature; her existence is monotony itself, gliding on 



