RIDE UP COUNTRY. 71 



parents', so we adjourned there, and were entertained with 

 music (guitar, trombone, and concertina) and songs to the 

 guitar, and we passed a very pleasant evening. I took the 

 opportunity of asking the reverend gentleman why they had 

 no sacred music, only dance music in church ; he said the 

 people were not educated up to it yet, but he hoped in time 

 to introduce it. 



The following morning, after taking leave of the priest, 

 and our host the captain, we rode off about ten. Travel- 

 ling by a rather different route to that we had come up 

 by, we called a halt at 3.30 for half an hour to rest the 

 horses and have some lunch. We stopped opposite a 

 nigger's hut, where there were only three women and some 

 children at home. We gave them some cheese, and a little 

 boy then brought us a calabash full of small fish, and also 

 one large one. We presented the little fellow with two 

 hundred reis (fourpence), with which they were very 

 pleased. They told us that their way of catching fish is 

 to pour some poison into the stream ; this kills the fish, 

 which float on the surface. I did not much care for the 

 idea of eating poisoned fish, but did so, and derived no 

 harm from it. Were it injurious, of course the natives, 

 who only make use of the poison to supply themselves 

 with food, would choose some other method. 



In one of the fine valleys full of palms, on the way to 

 the Fazenda da Mata, we came across fourteen " urubus " 

 (Cathartes urubitinga, Pelz., a black vulture larger than a 

 turkey) all perched on one dead tree. 



I was rather reluctant to take such a large party for 

 we numbered nine men and thirteen animals to claim the 

 hospitality of the gallant colonel of the Fazenda da Mata ; 

 but there being no other place we could shelter in, we were 

 compelled to go there, and he received us with as much 



