IN THE VALLEY OF THE RIO CAMAPUAO. 129 



are rather hard, but when stewed are excellent. We had 

 a grand display for breakfast to-day, for, being a great 

 feast, we could not work vegetable marrows, aipim (a 

 kind of yam), rice, beans, a salad of tomatoes, cucumber, 

 and onion, bread, stewed peaches, melon, not forgetting the 

 usual fowl. But with all this good food the meal was not 

 what it should be, owing to wretched cookery, no oil or 

 vinegar, only some pepper (the remains of some I brought 

 from England), and salt as used by the natives, grey in 

 colour, and each grain the size of sparrow-hail shot. 



In the afternoon we had an amusing visit from four 

 lads, aged ten to sixteen ; one of them was quite a young 

 " masher," with long shirt cuffs, a ring, and three silver- 

 looking studs in his shirt. He smoked assiduously. They 

 were all bright, intelligent-looking boys, in their best " bib- 

 and-tucker," and carried little switches, though they had no 

 shoes or stockings. The youngest was really very good 

 looking, and all were very conversable, looking about, 

 admiring everything, asking questions, and making remarks, 

 very glad of the offer of a cup of vinho virgem ; and at 

 length, on leaving, they shook hands, took off their hats and 

 bowed, and hoped God would be with us. 



We bought a lot of aipim tubers, each about a foot 

 long and two or three inches in diameter, with a brown skin 

 that peels off revealing a white root ; they are very good 

 eating, when boiled, and similar to a mealy potato. 



In the evening we had a visit from a band of a dozen 

 men and boys, black and white, with three guitars and a 

 drum. They came to celebrate the Feast of the Three Kings 

 (Epiphany). I told them they were a week too soon, but 

 they did not see it. They shoved into the door of our 

 rancho a banner of white cotton. At the foot were repre- 

 sented two white kings, with long black beards and sweeping 



