RIDE UP COUNTRY. 51 



grass-covered, rounded down (campos), with occasional canons ; 

 but towards the divide, to the north, are forest-clad hills. 



In half an hour we descended to the Fazenda da 

 Pedra Branca, where we had coffee and a trayful of most 

 luscious oranges. A toucan's head was in the porch, which 

 the owner gave me as I admired it, telling me they are 

 very plentiful here. The house, which is over two hundred 

 years old, is exactly the same in its arrangements as all 

 other fazendas ; in fact, I believe these country-folk have 

 never changed since their ancestors took possession, a 

 couple of centuries ago. They grow castor-oil (mamond), 

 coffee — with which the whole courtyard was covered to 

 dry in the sun — sugar-cane, cotton, and tobacco. There 

 were a lot of cats about, the most miserably small skinny 

 little things I ever saw. One of them was very clever at 

 turning somersaults ; she put her head between her front 

 legs, an4 went head over heels with the gravest look on 

 her face all the time, which amused us much. 



After an hour's stay we left, and, passing through some 

 fine forest, arrived at 5.30 on the top of the divide, where 

 three roads meet. There was nothing but bare grass-covered 

 hills to be seen, no indication of the proper road, and not 

 a sign of a human habitation or of any cultivation. We 

 halted to consider our best move. Being just about sun- 

 set we were rather anxious, for it was far from pleasant 

 to be overtaken by night, not knowing the road (my 

 camarade never having been beyond Brumado), with 

 nothing to protect us from the cold and heavy dew, and, 

 worse still, without food. We determined to go straight 

 on, and began to descend. In a quarter of an hour we 

 were much relieved to descry a light shining through the 

 deepening darkness, and approaching, we came upon a 

 little farm in a hollow, unseen from the top of the hill. 



