270 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



former has a healthful out-of-door life ; she has her canoe 

 on the lake or river and her paths through the forest, with 

 perfect liberty to come and go ; she has her appointed daily 

 occupations, being busy not only with the care of her house 

 and children, but in making farinha or tapioca, or in drying 

 and rolling tobacco, while the men are fishing and turtle- 

 hunting ; and she has her frequent festa-days to enliven 

 her working life. It is, on the contrary, impossible to 

 imagine anything more dreary and monotonous than the 

 life of the Brazilian Senhora in the smaller towns. In 

 the northern provinces especially the old Portuguese no- 

 tions about shutting women up and making their home- 

 life as colorless as that of a cloistered nun, without even 

 the element of religious enthusiasm to give it zest, still 

 prevail. Many a Brazilian lady passes day after day with- 

 out stirring beyond her four walls, scarcely ever show- 

 ing herself at the door or window; for she is always in a 

 slovenly dishabille, unless she expects company. It is sad 

 to see these stifled existences ; without any contact with 

 the world outside, without any charm of domestic life, 

 without books or culture of any kind, the Brazilian Sen- 

 hora in this part of the country either sinks contentedly 

 into a vapid, empty, aimless life, or frets against her chains, 

 and is as discontented as she is useless. 



On the day of our arrival the dinner was interrupted 

 by the entrance of the Indians with their greetings and 

 presents of game to the President ; yesterday it was en- 

 livened by quite a number of appropriate toasts and speech- 

 es. I thought, as we sat around the dinner-table, there had 

 probably never been gathered under the palm-roof of an 

 Indian house on the Amazons just such a party before, 

 combining so many different elements and objects. There 



