114 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



The Brazilian is of a lively disposition, and fond 

 of pleasure. Almost everywhere, when we arrived 

 in the evening, we were sainted with the sound 

 of the guitar (viola), accompanied by singing or 

 dancing. At Estiva, a solitary farm-house, with 

 fine extensive campos bounded in the distance by 

 mountains, the inhabitants were dancing the ba- 

 ducca } they scarcely learnt the arrival of foreign 

 travellers when they invited us to be witnesses 

 of their festival. The baducca is danced by one 

 man and one woman, who, snapping their fingers 

 with the most extravagant motions and attitudes, 

 dance sometimes towards and sometimes from 

 each other. The principal charm of this dance, 

 in the opinion of the Brazilians, consists in ro- 

 tations and contortions of the hips, in which 

 they are almost as expert as the East Indian jug- 

 glers. It sometimes lasts for several hours together 

 without interruption, alternately accompanied with 

 the monotonous notes of the guitar, or with ex- 

 tempore singing ; or popular songs, the words of 

 which are in character with its rudeness ; the male 

 dancers are sometimes dressed in women's clothes. 

 Notwithstanding its indecency, this dance is com- 

 mon throughout Brazil, and the property of the 

 lower classes, who cannot be induced, even by 

 ecclesiastical prohibitions, to give it up. It seems 

 to be of Ethiopic origin, and introduced into Bra- 

 zil by the negro slaves, where, like many of their 

 customs, it has become naturalised. 



