62 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



lumps and fried black in its own fat. The only variety is 

 in the size of the lumps. 



The meal concluded, we set off in search of the camp of 

 the third section, and after a ride of two hours and a half we 

 saw through a gate the top of one of the tents we were in 

 search of, and, crossing a level pasture, alighted, leaving 

 our horses to a man at the tents while we went along the 

 " picadas " (the path cut through the forest and brush) by 

 the side of the river Para, until we came across our friends 

 at work. Owing to information I received from them, I 

 determined to return to Cajuru ; and so, leaving the camp, 

 just before sunset, we rode back in two hours in the dark, 

 having had nothing to eat since we left in the morning. 

 Right glad were we, therefore, even of a vegetable supper, 

 which was all we could get, being long past cooking hours, 

 and the natives consider that a plate of black beans with 

 farinha, and perhaps rice, is enough for any one. 



To-day — August 5 — being Sunday, the country folk 

 began early to arrive from all round the neighbourhood for 

 Mass. Some come ten or twelve miles every Sunday, and 

 the same distance back in the evening. The women and 

 girls were very picturesque, with black hair, fine eyes, and 

 brilliant shawls. One of the first I saw come in was a 

 white woman in a bright green dress, on horseback, with 

 a child in front of her ; she was followed by a negress in 

 a red gown, who rode a mule, and had one child in front 

 and another behind. The men were in their Sunday best 

 — black coats, clean white unstarched shirts, and cotton 

 trousers, which look like bed-ticking ; some with buff- 

 coloured or black long boots, some without, but all with 

 spurs, which have rowels an inch or an inch and a half in 

 diameter. Fortunately for their animals, they are not 

 sharp. 



