BAHIA. 97 



The sleeping apartment was a space of abont eight feet square, 

 separated from the front room by a low partition : in it were 

 three light cane-bottomed sofas, one at each end, and one op- 

 posite the door ; they were packed so close together as to touch 

 one another. A neatly folded small coverlet and a pillow were 

 placed in the middle of each. 



Here we turned in ; the third bed being occupied by a very 

 dirty dealer in tobacco. Eenderecl sleepless by the fleas, I lay 

 awake most of the night listening to the mingled crying of 

 children, barking of dogs, croaking of frogs in the marsh below, 

 and squeaking and groaning of the axles of the ox-carts bringing 

 merchandise to the fair. 



Though other charges were comparatively cheap, we had 

 each to pay two shillings for our beds, as did also some of the 

 cattle dealers who slept in a small house over the way, rented 

 by the host for that purpose, and to keep the guests' saddles and 

 bridles in. 



At 6 A.M. there was no bustle or signs of the fair, and not 

 till 9 or 10 o'clock did strings of mules, laden each with a 

 pair of bales of tobacco, arrive opposite the inn. The mules 

 carry about seven or eight arrobas (arroba = 25 lbs.). The 

 tobacco comes to the market compressed and cut into neat 

 rectangular bundles ; the merchants test it by pulling some 

 from the bundle and rolling a rough cigar. 



In the broad open street in the middle of the town were 

 rows of small booths, at which farinha, fruit, vegetables, and 

 jerked beef, imported largely from Buenos Ayres, were for sale ; 

 the dried beef varies in price from six to two milreis = 2s. an 

 arroba. It seemed singular that it should pay to bring it to a 

 place where fresh meat was so abundant. 



Other stalls offered needles and thread, sweet stuff for 

 children, &c. ; but most trying to a naturalist's eye, were stalls 

 where various Eodents and other small native animals were for 

 sale, spitted on wooden skewers, roasted and dried for eating. 

 Amongst these I saw at least a dozen of the tree-climbing ant- 

 eater, the Tamandua, and many Three-toed Sloths : the skulls of 

 all were split open, and they were utterly lost to science. The 

 flesh is supposed to cure various diseases. 



H 



