260 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



close of the afternoon. As we are with the.. President 

 of the province, our picnic is of a much more magnificent 

 character than our purely scientific excursions have been. 

 Instead of our usual makeshifts, teacups doing duty 

 as tumblers, and empty barrels acting as chairs, we 

 have a silver soup-tureen, and a cook, and a waiter, and 

 knives and forks enough to go round, and many other 

 luxuries which such wayfarers as ourselves learn to do 

 without. While we were dining, the Indians began to 

 come in from the surrounding forest to pay their respects 

 to the President, for his visit was the cause of great re 

 joicing, and there was to be a ball in his honor in the 

 evening. They brought an enormous cluster of game as 

 an offering. What a mass of color it was! more like a 

 gorgeous bouquet of flowers than a bunch of birds. It 

 was composed entirely of Toucans, with their red and 

 yellow beaks, blue eyes, and soft white breasts bordered 

 with crimson ; and of parrots, or papagaios as they call 

 them here, with their gorgeous plumage of green, blue, 

 purple, and red. When we had dined, we took coffee 

 outside, while our places around the table were filled 

 by the Indian guests, who were to have a dinner-party 

 in .their turn. It was pleasant to see with how much 

 courtesy several of the Brazilian gentlemen of our party 

 waited upon these Indian Senhoras, passing them a va 

 riety of dishes, helping them to wine, and treating them 

 with as much attention as if they had been the highest 

 ladies of the land. They seemed, however, rather shy 

 and embarrassed, scarcely touching the nice things placed 

 before them, till one of the gentlemen, who has lived a good 

 deal among the Indians, and knows their habits perfectly, 

 took the knife and fork from one of them, exclaiming, 



