TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. ^97 



note of these fowls, which are of European origin, 

 is a simple, harsh, or shrill tone, which gradually 

 becomes weaker and lower, is rougher and more 

 disagreeable than ours. These fowls are confined 

 in large baskets, made of the pliant stalks and 

 shoots of several kinds of paullinia, and the 

 troughs for them are made of thick stems {Ta- 

 guara) of arborescent grasses {Bamhusa). 



On the following morning, when we were going 

 from Tacasava, we found that the capitao mor of 

 Areas had but too justly appreciated the bad condi- 

 tion of our mules. The animals had been so much 

 galled by the saddles, which our unskilful Arieiro did 

 not know how to fit on them, that they were now inca- 

 pable of any other service, and compelled us to halt. 

 The swelling which the animals get from the rough- 

 ness of the saddle, or the unequal balance of the 

 burden, is often so malignant that it mortifies and 

 occasions death ; the greatest care was therefore 

 necessary not to run the risk of losing the whole 

 troop. The leader, it is true, laid the whole blame 

 on the thick fogs during the night, the heavy 

 morning dew, and, above all, on the light of the 

 moon, which made the animals' wounds worse ; for 

 these are the principal elements in the theory of 

 diseases of the common people : but we would not 

 leave the cure, as he proposed, to the beams of the 

 sun, and so the day was spent in the disagreeable 

 veterinary occupation of burning, scarifying, wash- 

 ing the wounds with a decoction of tobacco, and 



