CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE — PIERSON 



31 



the younger. "At night, after supper," remarked 

 a mother in the village, "the children take a bath 

 before going to bed. Ana and Jose put the baby '^* 

 in the basin and wash him. The others wash their 

 feet, or maybe their arms — whatever is needed to 

 keep from getting the beds dirty." The river or 

 creek furnishes a ready means of keeping clean, 

 especially for the boys. 



Brushing the teeth is comparatively rare. 

 "When I asked the children the other day if they 

 had brushed their teeth,"' remarked a school 

 teacher, "one boy said, 'I brush mine every day 

 with father's tooth brush. Father brushes first, 

 then mother, then me and my sisters.' " 



The wife and mother, both in the village and on 

 the farm, washes the family's clothes, except when 

 incapacitated by reason of childbirth or illness or 

 when relieved of this duty by a daughter or other 

 woman in the household. Nearly all farm women 

 wash clothes in a nearby brook or creek (pi. 7), as 

 also do several women in the village. Many vil- 

 lage homes, however, as has been indicated, have 

 water piped into them, and seven also have a ce- 

 ment tank for washing clothes. On one of the 17 

 farms visited, a cement tank is located at the side 

 of the house, to which water is brought from a 

 nearby stream by way of a small ditch. On an- 

 other farm, water has similarly been diverted from 

 a brook that passes near the house and let to run 

 the last few yards through a bamboo cane and 

 fall into a barrel, where it is handy for washing 

 as well as other purposes. A third farm has a well 

 46 feet deep back of the house. The washing of 

 clothes on all the other farms visited is done at 

 nearby streams, the distance from the kitchen 

 varying from 10 to 540 yards and averaging 140 

 yards. 



Washing is done in cold water and usually with 

 home-made soap, especially on the farms, or cheap 

 laundry soap pui-chased at a village store. The 

 clothes are first dipped in water and soaped well. 

 Each piece is then doubled over and struck forci- 

 bly a number of times against a board or rock, 

 and then spread out to bleach for a few hours 

 in the bright tropical sunlight. Subsequently, the 

 clothes are taken up, rinsed and put out to dry 

 completely before they are taken into the house. 



In a number of cases, houses are kept cleaner 

 than the everyday clothes of the members of the 



family. The work clothes often are worn quite 

 soiled. It is common to see a mother clean the 

 nose of her baby or other small child with the hem 

 of its garment. 



There is often evident, however, a genuine de- 

 sire to appear to better advantage, especially to 

 outsiders. Mothers continually apologize for the 

 appearance of their children who, in many cases, 

 have of necessity to play on earthen floors. As 

 one mother said, "I gave my child a bath last night 

 and put clean clothes on her this morning and now 

 see how she looks ! She crawls around in the dirt 

 all day and I just can't keep her clean." 



On the farm, with rare exceptions, bodily elimi- 

 nation is usually taken care of in a nearby piece 

 of timber or brush. An occasional farm family 

 has a privy back of the house, as do about a third 

 of the families in the village. It is usually located 

 about 1-2 to 15 yards from the kitchen door. A 

 fossa is dug in the ground about 6 to 7 feet deep 

 and 3 feet across. A board floor is laid over this 

 excavation, and a small opening is cut in the center. 

 A rude shelter some 5 to 6 feet in height is then 

 erected, usually of brick and with a tile roof, al- 

 though in at least one case, the sides and the 

 roof are of galvanized iron. The building is 

 called the casinJia (little house), the term privada 

 (privy) rarely being used. Due to the type of 

 soil some of these excavations never fill; others 

 are from time to time covered over with dirt and 

 abandoned and a new fossa dug nearby. One vil- 

 lager uses lime in the fossa, a portion being put 

 in once every 3 months. Toilet paper is not used, 

 leaves from trees or bushes being used instead or, 

 when available, old newspapers. 



Since houses, both on the farms and in the vil- 

 lage, are usually too small to afford more than one 

 bedroom, in many cases the entire family sleeps 

 in the same room. In a farmer's home visited, 

 for instance, the father and mother sleep on a 

 narrow double bed while a 7-year-old daughter 

 and a 5-year-old son sleep on the same bed at 

 their feet. A 13-year-old daughter sleeps on a 

 small child's bed in the same room. In another 

 home, nine persons — the father, mother, and their 

 children, aged 1 to 18 years, and including a 13- 

 and a 15-year-old daughter — sleep in one room and 

 the adjoining space between it and the kitchen, 

 where a girau "^ has been placed. In a third farm- 



■" Eleven months old. 

 843S05— 51 4 



0= See Dwellinss and Furnishings, p. 4-1. 



