A Day in Bahia 53 



deritly in the annals of art. Portugal has produced few 

 painters and sculptors ; you could count them on your 

 fingers. The people of Bahia, representing in great 

 part the blood of Angola, or other West African coun- 

 tries, or the commingling of African blood with that 

 of Portuguese sailors and adventurers, is qualified for 

 exertion along many useful lines, but the imitative 

 arts have not up to the present time taken deep root. 

 There may come a change in the future; but it will 

 be by a process of instillation, rather than education, 

 and the result in the event will probably not be epoch- 

 making. 



There are no arrangements in Bahia for warming the 

 houses. None are needed. It is always summer in 

 Bahia. The kitchen is the only place where fire is 

 required, and the furniture for cooking in the homes 

 of the common people is very primitive. Wood and 

 charcoal are the fuel employed. I saw negroes carry- 

 ing fagots of firewood tied in bundles and fixed as huge 

 loads upon their backs, just as they do in Morocco, or 

 as I have seen poor peasants in the south of France 

 performing the same service. 



As there is little need of fire, so there is little need of 

 clothing, except for purposes of ornament. In the 

 case of the juvenile population among the poorer 

 classes the necessity for other apparel than that pro- 

 vided by kindly Nature is apparently not recognized. 

 I passed a number of houses, where the younger chil- 

 dren were playing in puris naturalibus . Thus arrayed 

 they even appeared upon the streets, and I saw one 

 fond mother leading along the sidewalk two little 

 figures in bronze, which might have served as models 

 for Cupids. 



The discovery of Brazil was made by Pedro Alvarez 



