CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE — PIERSON 



77 



I have a young calf called "Little Jaii." He is a good 

 little calf, and a lot of fun. He bellows something pretty 

 like and digs into the dirt with his hoofs and horns. He 

 is a mixed-blood, but a good one. In the morning, he is 

 there bellowing for me to open the gate, to let him eat 

 rastolho.'" After he has eaten all I will give him, he 

 bellows to be let out to pasture. He used to be a little 

 wild, but I am taming him and I curry him every day with 

 the curr.vcomb. 



Another schoolbo}' wrote the following para- 

 phrase of a song about the ox which is rather 

 common in Brazil and which seemed to express his 

 own sentiments. 



The ox, on the day of his birth, knows nothing of the 

 hard life to come; 



Only two or three montlis and he will begin to bear 

 heavy burdens. 



If his owner decides not to sell him to the slaughterer, 



He is happy and thinks to himself, 



"Who knows? Perhaps I am not going to be killed?" 



I am a good Little Ox, 



Born in the month of May. 



I was brought into this world only to suffer and to work. 



Ever since I came into the world, I have had to plod 

 long distances and to pull heavy loads. 



My coming into the world 



Was only to suffer and to work. 



The principal burden I bear is a big clodhopper 

 {cabocldo) 



Who strikes me with a club and sticks me with a goad ; 



And if I ram him with my horns and he is injured. 



He will say, "Away with this ox to the slaughterer ; 



None like that can pull my carro !" 



Then, there on the hill, 



I will see two horsemen with ropes, coming ; 



One is my master. 



And two dogs following ; 



And soon it will be all over with me. 



BEGINNINGS OF CAITLE RAISING AND DAIETING 



Although cattle have been raised in the com- 

 munity ever since it was settled by Europeans, the 

 number of farmers who possessed herds, as well 

 as the number of head involved, have always been 

 small. Most farmers have no cattle. One farmer, 

 however, has been gradually building up a herd 

 over the past 30 years. Another farmer began to 

 keep cattle about 18 years ago and a third farmer 

 about 10 years ago. These three men now have, 

 respectively, ISl, 360, and 15 head. Four other 

 farmers began raising cattle from 2 to 5 years ago 

 and now have from 17 to 119 head each. 



The farmer who began building up a herd 30 

 years ago, says: 



My life has been like a romance. When I was a boy, 

 I began working as a farm hand for 1 milreis, 200 reis a 

 day."" Then my uncle let me drive his pack train. He 

 had 15 burros. He paid mel7 »((7)"ei.s a day. Once as I was 

 returning with the pack train from Sao Jos6 dos Patos, 

 a Portuguese who lived along the road called out, "Don't 

 you want to buy a cow?" I had no money. But I had 

 a mare that I had been offered 100 milreis for. I asked 

 the Portuguese how much he wanted, and he said, "300 

 milreis." When I told him I couldn't pay that much, he 

 asked, "How much can you pay?" I studied a bit and then 

 I said, "130 milreis." The cow is yours," he said. There 

 was a pretty little calf with her. The Portuguese said, 

 "You bought the cow ; better take the calf, too." I offered 

 him 50 milreis and he accepted it. 



Then I had to do some hustling. I went to the man 

 who had offered me 100 milreis for the mare and he 

 bought her. Now I had 100 milreis. Then I went to my 

 uncle who owned the pack train and asked him to lend me 

 the rest of the money I needed. He did, and I settled the 

 matter with the Portuguese and brought home the cow 

 and the calf. That was 30 years ago. With that cow and 

 her calf, I began to build a herd. From that day to this, 

 my principal interest has been in raising cattle. I bor- 

 rowed a little money and bought a few more head. They 

 were cheap in those days. Even some years later, when 

 cattle were worth more than when I made the deal with 

 the Portuguese, you could buy a good heifer or a good 

 steer for 100 milreis. Little by little, I built up my herd, 

 until today I have 181 herd and 00 alqueires'^^^ of pasture. 

 Raising cattle is a good business. 



To prepare his pasture, this man says : 



I cut off a piece of timber and made the wood into 

 charcoal. I then planted corn on the land for the next 

 3 years. When the third crop was still young, I sowed 

 grass seed among it and by the time the corn was ripe, 

 the grass had begun to take over. I used eight sacks of 

 seed to each algiieire.'^" It took a year for the grass to 

 get a good start. When the grass had gone to seed, I let 

 the cattle in, and they helped seed those spots where the 

 grass had not yet caught on. 



All the work with this herd, including the milk- 

 ing daily of 30 cows and hauling the milk a mile 

 and a half out to the road to be picked up by the 

 bus, is done by this man and his family. 



Few cattle in the community are not of mixed 

 breed. There are several part-Holsteins and an 

 occasional part-Shorthorn. One farmer, a Hun- 

 garian immigrant, has two Holstein bulls. The 



1°" Ears of corn imperfectly filled out. 



160 The milreis used to be the medium of exchange In Brazil. 

 As the name indicates, it was equal to 1,000 reis. In 1942, it 

 was substituted by the cruzeiro, with the same value. 



'*" About 540 acres. 



■■" About 6 acres. 



