TOPOaEAPHY OF MINAS GEEAES. 215 



Neither the Cayuas nor the Chavantes understand the lang-uage of the Coroados, 

 who have been credited with a symbolic system of representation, which the 

 whites are unable to interpret, and which will probably have perished before any 

 attempt can be be made to decipher the symbols. 



The traveller crossing the woodlands enclosed on all four sides by the rivers 

 Paranapanema, Parana, Ivahy, and Tibagy, often meets in the vicinity of aban- 

 doned huts coils of creeping plants suspended across the path intentionally and 

 decorated with bits of wood, feathers, bones, birds' talons, the jaws of monkeys 

 or of wild boars, and similar strange objects. From their peculiar arrangement it 

 seems evident that the whole series forms a sort of historic record, a statement or 

 message addressed for some purpose to allied or kindred tribes, and intelligible to 

 them. 



Occasionally the Coroados make use of this mysterious method of composition 

 to threaten the whites. Arms planted in the ground, wings of the aras, like 

 those with which they feather their arrows, are symbols, the sense of which can 

 scarcely be misunderstood. They are certainly more significant than the strange 

 markings which from time to time appear on the mangoes and other trees over 

 wide tracts in India, and which raise periodical scares amongst the white rulers 

 of the land. 



Topography — Tow>'s of South Minas. 



Since the introduction of railways new directions have been given to the 

 current of migration. Thanks to the facilities afforded by this means of commu- 

 nication, the populations of the Upper S. Francisco, and of the chief towns, such 

 as Ouro Preto, Sahara, and Pitanguy, have begun to gravitate in the direction of 

 Rio de Janeiro, despite the natural slope of the land, which should constitute 

 Bahia the centre of attraction. Still more powerfully drawn towards Rio and 

 S. Paulo are the mineral towns of the south-east in the Parahyba basin, and 

 those of the south-western districts traversed by the head- waters of the Parana. 

 Several of these places have already acquired some importance as secondary 

 centres of trade and industry. In these respects thej^ have even outstripped the 

 city of Ouro Preto, which still retains the rank of capital, but which is situated in 

 a narrow valley draining to the Rio Doce, and standing apart from the main high- 

 ways of communication. 



On the Parahyba slope, within the Minas frontier, the chief place is Juiz de 

 Fora, which stands about 2,300 feet above the sea on the right bank of the Para- 

 hybuna affluent. Here is the seat of a flourishing German colony, and since the 

 opening of the central railway and of the carriage -road to Petropolis, Juiz de 

 Fora has become an industrial town, and the most active agricultural centre in 

 Minas Geraes. It now aspires to succeed Ouro Preto as the future capital of the 

 State. 



In the same basin follow other thriving settlements, such as ParahybiDia, on - 

 the river of like name, at the foot of the superb Fortaleza bluff; 3Iar dc Hespunlia, 



