THE HUMAN BEAST OF BURDEN. 



281 



weighing 160 pounds, and when all are ready tbey start off upon a 

 measured trot, which soon increases to a rapid run. (Fig. 34.) (Kidder 

 and Fletcher, Brazil and the Brazilians, p. 29.) 



Fig. 33. 

 Careying-feame. 



(Cat. No. 126805, V. S. N. M. British Honduras. 

 Collected by U. S. Consul A. E. Morlan. 



Tig. 34. 

 Coffee-carrier of Rio. 



(After Wilkes.) 



Slaves are almost the only carriers of burdens in Eio Janeiro. They 

 go almost naked and are exceedingly numerous. They appear to work 

 with cheerfulness, and go together in gangs with a leader, who carries 

 a rattle filled with stones, similar to a child's rattle. With this he keeps 

 time, causing them all to move on in a dog-trot. Each one joins in the 

 monotonous chorus, the notes seldom varying above a third from the 

 key. The words they use are frequently relative to their own country, 

 sometimes to what they beard from their master as they started with 

 their load, but the sound is the same. 



The coffee-carriers go in gangs of twenty or thirty. In singing, one- 

 half take the air, with one or two keeping up a kind of bum on the 

 common chord, and the remainder finish the bar. These slaves are re- 

 quired by their masters to obtain a certain sum, according to their 

 ability, say from 25 to 50 cents a day, and pay it every evening. The 

 surplus belongs to themselves. In default of not gaining the requisite 

 sum, castigation is always inflicted. The usual load is about 200 pounds. 

 (Wilkes.) 



