258 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



scattered through the forest ; and though the inhabitants 

 look on each other as friends and neighbors, yet from our 

 landing-place only one sitio is to be seen, that at which 

 we are staying. It stands on a hill sloping gently up 

 from the lake-shore, and consists of a mud-house contain- 

 ing two rooms, besides several large, open palm-thatched 

 rooms outside. One of these outer sheds is the mandioca 

 kitchen, another is the common kitchen, and a third, which 

 is just now used as our dining-room, serves on festal days 

 and occasional Sundays as a chapel. It differs from the 

 others in having the upper end closed in with a neat 

 thatched wall, against which, in time of need, the altar- 

 table may stand, with candles and rough prints or figures 

 of the Virgin and saints. We were very hospitably re- 

 ceived by the Senhora of the mud-house, an old Indian 



/ / 



woman, whose gold ornaments, necklace, and ear-rings were 

 rather out of keeping with her calico skirt and cotton 

 waist. This is, however, by no means an unusual combi- 

 nation here. Beside the old lady, the family consists, at 

 this moment, of her "afilhada"* (god-daughter), with 

 her little boy, and several other women employed about 

 the place ; but it is difficult to judge of the population 

 of the sitios now, because a great number of the men 

 have been taken as recruits for the war with Paraguay 

 and others are hiding in the forest for fear of being 

 pressed into the same service. The situation of this sitio 

 is exceedingly pretty, and as we sit around the table in 

 our open, airy dining-room, surrounded by the forest, we 

 command a view of the lake and wooded hillside opposite 

 and of the little landing below, where are moored our 



* This relation is a much nearer one throughout Brazil than with us. A 

 god-child is treated as a member of their own family by its sponsors. 



