266 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



is passed with the cross thread, which is then pushed down 

 and straightened in its place by means of the same piece 

 of wood. After we had rested for a while, hammocks 

 of various color and texture being immediately brought 

 and hung up for our accommodation, the gentlemen went 

 down to bathe in the igarape, while the Senhora and her 

 daughter, a very pretty Indian woman, showed me the 

 rest of the establishment. The elder of the two had the 

 direction of everything now, as the master of the house 

 was absent, having a captain's commission in the army. 



In the course of our conversation I was reminded of a 

 social feature which strikes us as the more extraordi- 

 nary the longer we remain on the Amazons, on account 

 of its generality. Here were people of gentle condition, 

 although of Indian blood, lifted above everything like 

 want, living in comfort and, as compared with people 

 about them, with a certain affluence, people from whom, 

 therefore, in any other society, you might certainly expect 

 a knowledge of the common rules of morality. Yet when 

 I was introduced to the daughter, and naturally asked 

 something about her father, supposing him to be the absent 

 captain, the mother answered, smiling, quite as a matter 

 of course, " Nao tern pai ; 6 filha da fortuna," " She 

 has n't any father ; she is the daughter of chance." In 

 the same way, when the daughter showed me two children 

 of her own, little fair people, many shades lighter than 

 herself, and I asked whether their father was at the war, 

 like all the rest of the men, she gave me the same answer, 

 " They have n't any father." It is the way the Indian or 

 half-breed women here always speak of their illegitimate 

 children ; and though they say it without an intonation of 

 sadness or of blame, apparently as unconscious of any 



