Chap, iv.] RELIGIOUS PROCESSION. 75 



ends, as at Lisbon, and usually an open plateau or square in 

 front. The architecture is thoroughly Portuguese. 



The bright green tropical vegetation, the palms and banana 

 plants, interspersed between the buildings, give the town in 

 reality a different look from that of a home Portuguese town. 

 A small strip of flat land, intervening between the foot of the 

 ridge occupied by the main town and the harbour, affords 

 space for wharves and warehouses for the mail steamers and 

 general shipping. There were a large number of small trading 

 vessels at anchor in the harbour, and two Brazilian vessels of 

 war, a gun brig, and a small iron ram, which had conspicuous 

 shot marks on its hull, received in the Paraguayan war. 



The usual mode of ascent from the lower shipping district to 

 the higher town is by means of sedan chairs of the old European 

 pattern, which are painted black, with yellow beading, and are 

 carried up the hill, each by a pair of negroes. A mechanical 

 lift was being constructed to take the place of this primitive 

 arrangement. 



I preferred walking, and made my way through steep narrow 

 stinking streets, where slops were being constantly emptied 

 from upper stories without any warning or " Gare a I'eau." 

 After a stiff climb, I reached the main street of the town, which 

 runs all along the top of the ridge, and was just in time to see 

 a religious procession, held in commemoration of the day of 

 the saint of one of the churches. 



The bells of the church were clanging and tinkling, sound- 

 ing something like Swiss cow-bells, a regular jangle, " tinkle, 

 tinkle, tinkle, cling, cling, clang," and the procession was 

 pouring itself from the church door. First came men in blue 

 cassocks with white surplices over them, carrying lighted paper 

 lanterns on poles. They marched on and then formed line on 

 each side of the street for the rest of the procession to pass. 



Then came men with white cassocks and black surplice-like 

 vestments, also bearing lanterns, and at intervals amongst them 

 were borne silver crosses with bunches of artificial flowers on 

 silver-mounted poles, carried on either side of each of them. 

 Amongst these also walked here and there a priest, in the usual 

 cassock and alb, and one or two old monks with hooded robes 

 and double chins, with a well-nourished appearance. 



A crowd of acolytes succeeded, dressed nearly like the 

 priests, and, like them, mostly white-skinned or but slightly 

 yellow. All the remainder of the procession had deep yellow- 

 brown or almost black faces. A body of priests came next, 

 and then the saint, carried on a silvered platform on the 

 shoulders of eight bearers. 



The saint was a wooden figure, of life-size, with a Vandyck- 



