364 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



Though it has no longer the charm of novelty for me, I am 

 always glad to visit an Indian cottage. You find a cordial 

 welcome ; the best hammock, the coolest corner, and a cuia 

 of fresh water are ready for you. As a general thing, the 

 houses of the Indians are also more tidy than those of the 

 whites; and there is a certain charm of picturesqueness 

 about them which never wears off. 



After a short rest, we went on through the settlement, 

 where the sitios are scattered at considerable distances, and 

 so completely surrounded by trees that they seem quite iso 

 lated in the forest. Although the Indians are said to be a 

 lazy people, and are unquestionably fitful and irregular in 

 their habits of work, in almost all these houses some charac 

 teristic occupation was going on. In two or three the women 

 were making hammocks, in one a boy was plaiting the leaves 

 of the Curua palm into a tolda for his canoe, in another the 

 inmates were making a coarse kind of pottery ; and in still an 

 other a woman, who is quite famous in the neighborhood for 

 her skill in the art, was painting cuias. It was the first time 

 I had seen the prepared colors made from a certain kind of 

 clay found in the Serra. It is just the carnival season, and, as 

 every one has a right to play pranks on his neighbors, we did 

 not get off without making a closer acquaintance than was 

 altogether pleasant with the rustic artist s colors. As we 

 were leaving the cottage, she darted out upon us, her hands 

 full of blue and red paints. If they had been tomahawks, 

 they could not have produced a more sudden rout ; and 

 it was a complete sauve qui pent of the whole company 

 across the little bridge which led to the house. As a 

 stranger, I was spared ; but all were not fortunate enough 

 to escape, and some of the children carried their blue and 

 red badges to the end of the day. 



