Cuap. VIII. SOCIAL LIFE THERE. 183, 
They have, however, spacious town-houses, some of them two storeys 
high, with massive walls of stone or adobe. The principal citizen, 
Senhor Miguel Pinto de Guimaraens, is a native of the place, and is. 
an example of the readiness with which talent and industry meet with 
their reward under the wise government of Brazil. He began life in a 
very humble way ; I was told he was once a fisherman, and retailed the 
produce of his hook and line or nets in the port. He is now the chief 
merchant of the district, a large cattle and landed proprietor, and owner 
of a sugar estate and mills. When the new National Guard was 
formed in Brazil in 1853, he received from the Emperor the commission 
of colonel. He is a pale, grave, and white haired, though only middle- 
aged, man. I saw a good deal of him, and liked his sincerity and the 
uprightness of his dealings. When I arrived in Santarem he was the 
delegado of police. He is rather unmerciful both in and out of office 
towards the shortcomings, in private and public morality, of his fellow- 
countrymen ; but he is very much respected. The nation cannot be 
a despicable one whose best men are thus able to work themselves up 
to positions of trust and influence. 
The religious festivals were not so numerous here as in other towns,. 
and such as did take place were very poor and ill attended. ‘There is 
a handsome church, but the vicar showed remarkably little zeal for 
religion, except for a few days now and then when the bishop came 
from Para, on his rounds through the diocese. The people are as fond 
of holiday-making here as in other parts of the province ; but it seemed. 
to be a growing fashion to substitute rational amusements for the pro- 
cessions and mummeries of the saints’ days. The young folks are 
very musical, the principal instruments in use being the flute, violin, 
Spanish guitar, and a small four-stringed viola, called cavaquinho. 
During the early part of my stay at Santarem, a little party of instru- 
mentalists, led by a tall, thin, ragged mulatto, who was quite an en- 
thusiast in his art, used frequently to serenade their friends in the cool 
and brilliant moonlit evenings of the dry season, playing French and 
Italian marches and dance music with very good effect. The guitar 
was the favourite instrument with both sexes, as at Parad; the piano, 
however, is now fast superseding it. The ballads sung to the accom- 
paniment of the guitar were not learnt from written or printed music, 
but communicated orally from one friend to another. They were never 
spoken of as songs, but modinhas, or “little fashions,” each of which 
had its day, giving way to the next favourite brought by some young 
fellow from the capital. At festival times there was a great deal of 
masquerading, in which all the people, old and young, white, negro, 
and Indian, took great delight. The best things of this kind used to 
come off during the Carnival, in Easter week, and on St. John’s eve ; 
the negroes having a grand semi-dramatic display in the streets at 
Christmas time. The more select affairs were got up by the young 
whites, and coloured men associating with whites. A party of thirty 
or forty of these used to dress themselves in uniform style, and in very 
good taste, as cavaliers and dames, each disguised with a peculiar. kind 
of light gauze mask. The troop, with a party of musicians, went the 
round of their friends’ houses in the evening, and treated the large and 
