Chap. YI. SOCIAL PARTIES. 239 



and most primitive methods followed, and the conse- 

 quence is, that the proprietors are generally poor. A 

 few, however, have become rich by applying a moderate 

 amount of industry and skill to the management of 

 their estates. People spoke of several heiresses in the 

 neighbourhood whose wealth was reckoned in oxen 

 and slaves ; a dozen slaves and a few hundred head of 

 cattle being considered a great fortune. Some of them 

 I saw had already been appropriated by enterprising 

 young men, who had come from Para and Maranham 

 to seek their fortunes in this quarter. 



The few weeks I spent here passed away pleasantly. 

 I generally spent the evenings in the society of 

 the townspeople, who associated together (contrary to 

 Brazilian custom) in European fashion ; the different 

 families meeting at one another's houses for social 

 amusement, bachelor friends not being excluded, and 

 the whole company, manied and single, joining in 

 simple games. The meetings used to take place in the 

 sitting-rooms, and not in the open verandahs — a fashion 

 almost compulsory on account of the mosquitoes ; but 

 the evenings here are very cool, and the closeness of 

 a room is not so much felt as it is in Para. Sunday 

 was strictly observed at Obydos ; at least all the shops 

 are closed, and almost the whole population went to 

 church. The vicar, Padre Raimundo do Sanchez Brito, 

 was an excellent old man, and I fancy the friendly 

 manners of the people, and the general purity of morals 

 at Obydos, were owing in great part to the good example 

 he set to his parishioners. 



One day the owner of the house in which I occupied 



