216 



stoue ill liorizoiital layers and is coustaiitly decaying away by the 

 action of the weather. The top is formed by a stratnm of hard, 

 crystalline rock, which resists the rain and sun," etc. This upper 

 crystalline rock is probably like the excessively hard sand-stoue 

 of the serra of Erere. The pillar bears the name Indud mena* 

 in Lingoa Geral, or JIao de j^ildo in Portuguese, and, together with 

 anotlier similar column in tlie vicinity, figures in the legend of the 

 Paitiina, a mythological personage from whom the Indians say that 

 the serra has derived its name. 



The sandstone of Erere is, for the most part, composed of fine, 

 rounded grains of clear quartz, with a silicious cement, the rock 

 being so excessively hard that a fracture passes directly through the 

 sand grains. The rock has a slight brownish tint, and a saccharine 

 look, sometimes being almost translucent in thin flakes. On the 

 surface the cement decomposes, becoming milk white, and the hard 

 beds scale away in concentric coats, giving rise to rounded surfaces. 

 This is the general character of the Erere sandstone, but there are 

 some very fine-grained layers like quartzite, while others are soft 

 and friable. The rock is never very coarse, and pebbles are rare. 

 The bedding is massive, and oblique lamination is everywhere 

 observable. 



Underneath the sandstone at the notch of Aroxi there is a thick 

 band of hardened, variegated clay. Being well jointed and of une- 

 qual hardness, the Erere sandstones, have, under denudation, given 

 rise to a multitude of curious pillars and imitative forms. To the 

 latter class belongs a large rock on the east extremity of the serra, 

 called Piraijaudra\ or porpoise, because of its resemblance to that 

 animal, while near by, on the brink of a precipice, is a projecting, bird- 

 like rock, called yurutaut. On the summit of the mountain, and 

 overlooking the lofty precipice facing the village, is an immense, iso- 

 lated rock, about fifty feet high, which, from afar, looks like a huge 

 boulder perched upon the top of the serra. This mass, which is rep- 

 resented in the cut on page 213, is composed of a very hard, white 

 sandstone, obliquely laminated and rounded by decomposition. Its 

 western side is covered with rude Indian drawings in red paint. 



* Pestle. Sometimes it is called IndaU; the mortar. Mtna meaus husband. By some the 

 pillar is called yapona, the oven. 



+ rird, fish, and yaudra, dog. 



