BRAZIL 



899 



BRAZIL 



and by the lyrics of many gifted men and 

 women of Portugal, is the official language of 

 this great republic. The Brazilians, like the 

 Portuguese, are poetically designated as Lusi- 

 tanians (from the ancient Latin designation of 

 their ancestors). Brazil was named from the 

 Brazil-wood, chips of which, falling from the 

 woodman's ax, seemed like coals of fire to the 

 first explorers. Brazil is a modification of the 

 old English word brazier, meaning a metal 

 basket of coals for heating rooms, and the in- 

 terchange of I and r is not uncommon in such 

 words. 



Of the population of Brazil, estimated at 

 21,500,000, less than one-half are whites of un- 

 mixed blood, and one-third are of mixed blood. 

 The remainder are negroes and Indians, many 

 of the latter being little influenced by civiliza- 

 tion. The ne- 

 groes of Pernam- 

 buco played so 

 remarkable a part 

 in the early his- 

 tory of Brazil 

 that they claim a 

 respect seldom 

 accorded to their 

 race in other 

 lands. Robert 

 Southey sought 

 to do for Brazil 

 what W. H. Pres- 

 cott accomplished 

 for Peru and 



Mexico; and his 



. ... f The proportion of the South 



great history of American continent it occu- 



the country in P ies - 



past centuries relates the story of the Brazilian 



negro republic of the seventeenth century. 



Despite the warm personal attachment of 

 many American authors to the last emperor, 

 Pedro II, his two visits to the United States 

 and the historic friendship existing between 

 the British and the Portuguese, there has never 

 been a large number of British or American 

 residents in Brazil. A large majority of the 

 white population are of Portuguese descent, 

 and while there has been much Italian immi- 

 gration within recent years, it has been speedily 

 assimilated. The Portuguese language, which 

 has much of the beauty of the Spanish, but 

 some features to remind us of the French, is 

 not lacking in tender and beautiful poems, such 

 as those of Violante do Ceo. In translations 

 these are not unfamiliar to Northern readers. 

 And the women of Brazil may take pride in 



BRAZIL, 



the noble careers of Catherine of Braganca 

 wife of Charles II of Great Britain of their 

 late empresses and of that marvelous scholar 

 and writer, Dona Bernarda Ferreyra, as types 

 of Lusitanian character and achievement. Bra- 

 zilian women of the upper class are very care- 

 fully trained in the proprieties of deportment, 

 and to some their duenas (chaperons) seem to 

 be over-strict. 



The population of Brazil is densest in the 

 coast regions. In the state of Alagoas, on the 

 coast, it averages 76.6 to the square mile; in 

 the state of Rio de Janeiro, 57.6; in Amazonas, 

 0.5; and in Matto Grosso, 0.3. 



The most important cities of Brazil are Rio 

 de Janeiro, the capital, Sao Paulo, Bahia, Per- 

 nambuco, Para or Belem, and Manaos. Of 

 these, Manaos alone is far from the coast. 

 Each city is described in these volumes. 



Education and Religion. There is no com- 

 pulsory education law in Brazil, and in conse- 

 quence the free schools which exist in every 

 parish are very poorly attended. The illiteracy 

 percentage, counting the entire central popula- 

 tion, is eighty, but changes in the school system 

 introduced in 1911 are expected to improve 

 conditions. The more thickly populated coast 

 states are far in advance of the interior edu- 

 cationally, for they have secondary and tech- 

 nical schools, while the large cities possess 

 libraries, museums and professional schools. 

 Rio de Janeiro is one of the world's most pro- 

 gressive cities. In the entire country there is 

 nothing which can correctly be called a uni- 

 versity. 



Theoretically, freedom of worship prevails in 

 Brazil, but there seems little need for such 

 legal regulation, since over ninety-nine per cent 

 of the population are Roman Catholics. This 

 does not mean, as in most of the South Amer- 

 ican states, that there is an established Church, 

 for Church and State are entirely separate. 



Highlands and Lowlands. The two great 

 regions into which Brazil is divided according 

 to its surface features are sharply distinguished. 

 To the south and east lies the vast tableland 

 known as the Brazilian Highlands, which geolo- 

 gists consider the first part of the continent 

 to have been lifted above the sea. Everywhere 

 this is in the neighborhood of 2,000 feet above 

 sea level, and through much of its extent 

 4,000 feet. Little rivers carrying the drainage 

 of this plateau region to the great river sys- 

 tems have cut gorges in the surface, and at 

 intervals mountain ranges rise, though they 

 nowhere attain great height. Most important 



