28 KIO DE JANEIRO, 



cing that one of the horses was very restive, v^^ent 

 to see what was the matter, and fancying he could 

 distinguish something, suddenly put his hand on 

 the beast's withers, and secured the vampire. In 

 the morning the spot where the bite had been in- 

 flicted was easily distinguished from being slightly 

 swollen and bloody. The third day afterwards we 

 rode the horse, without any ill effects. 



Aj^ril 13th. — After three days' travelling we ar- 

 rived at Socego, the estate of Senhor Manuel Figui- 

 reda, a relation of one of our party. The house 

 was simple, and, though like a barn in form, was 

 well suited to the climate. In the sitting-room 

 gilded chairs and sofas were oddly contrasted with 

 the whitewashed walls, thatched roof, and windows 

 without glass. The house, together with the gran- 

 aries, the stables, and workshops for the blacks, 

 who had been taught various trades, formed a rude 

 kind of quadrangle ; in the centre of which a large 

 pile of coffee was drying. These buildings stand 

 on a little hill, overlooking the cultivated gi'ound, 

 and surrounded on every side by a wall of dark 

 green luxuriant forest. The chief produce of this 

 part of the country is coffee. Each tree is supposed 

 to yield annually, on an average, two pounds ; but 

 some give as much as eight. Mandioca or cassada 

 is likewise cultivated in gi-eat quantity. Every 

 part of this plant is useful : the leaves and stalks 

 are eaten by the horses, and the roots are ground 

 into a pulp, which, when pressed dry and baked, 

 forms the farinha, the principal article of sustenance 

 in the Brazils. It is a curious, though well-known 

 fact, that the juice of this most nutritious plant is 

 highly poisonous. A few years ago a cow died at 

 this Fazenda, in consequence of having drunk 

 some of it. Senhor Figuireda told me that he had 

 planted, the year before, one bag of feijao or beans, 



