42 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



fowls ; and we then left him and Dame Moreland, 

 as we saw they were very busy. 



In the nice smooth green fields which we 

 passed through, there are no beautiful flowers, 

 like those which spread a brilliant carpet over 

 our plains ; nor is there any of that rank grass, 

 nearly the height of a man, so common in some 

 parts of Brazil. The hay was all made up some 

 weeks ago, so that I cannot see the delicate 

 flowers of the grasses, nor their slender stalks 

 or culms. My aunt says, that grass contains a 

 great deal of very nourishing sugary juice ; and 

 if the hay is cut and made up early, before that 

 juice is exhausted by maturing the seed, it be- 

 comes much more strengthening food than when 

 mowed late. 



Nor are there any herds of wild cattle here, like 

 those in parts of our country ; and, therefore, the 

 Brazilian custom of catching the cattle by a noose 

 is not in use. I described to Wentworth the dexte- 

 rity with which the peons fling the noose, or lasso, 

 over the head of any animal, even in full gallop. 

 Here the cattle are in small numbers, and sub- 

 mit readily to the restraint of being confined in 

 fields. The person who takes care of them has 

 comparatively little trouble ; and though he does 

 not live on beef for every meal, like the peon, yet 

 he is in fact more comfortable. We saw some 

 very poor people in the hamlet by which we re- 

 turned home, and found them civil in their man- 



