BEGINNING OF THE RAINY SEASON. 113 



Aleixo, his wife, and children wait upon us at our meals, 

 and squat on the floor watching every morsel we put into 

 our mouths, while our door is surrounded by a motley crowd 

 of chickens and pigs, dogs and cats. On the grass-covered 

 hill beyond are the cattle and horses feeding, and a slave 

 or two stands outside the door, while nigger youngsters 

 play around. Occasionally my dog rushes after some 

 presuming pig, who comes in grunting to pick up morsels, 

 which doggie thinks are his perquisites. 



I am thankful that I sleep away in the tent, as the 

 children are not very quiet during the night season, and 

 dogs and pigs constantly give notice of their proximity by 

 barking and howling, grunting and squeaking. 



On Sunday we had a constant throng of visitors in our 

 room, and one lady performed the generous operation of 

 cutting Roberts's hair, for which she did not refuse a milreis ! 

 The last time my hair was cut was at Brumado, by a butcher, 

 and very well he cut it too, " ao escovinho " (lit. a little 

 brush), i.e. d, la Frangaise, so short you could not pick up 

 a hair with your nails. 



There was a crowd at our midday breakfast, the squat- 

 ting natives surrounding our table (a drawing-board) ad- 

 miring and fingering my damask breakfast-cloth. It was 

 the same at dinner, and presented a queer " Study of an 

 Interior : " the natives squatting on the mud floor, in a room 

 with walls composed of bamboo framing filled with mud ; 

 the walls reaching to the level of the springing of the roof 

 (architecturally yclept wall-plate) ; above, the roof — of tiles 

 placed on the rafters (long sticks), the cross rafters or 

 purlins tied on by llianas, the tiles blackened with the 

 smoke from the chimneyless kitchen ; in the next room, 

 the voices of a dozen female voluble tongues talking about 

 the English " doctors," and plainly heard over the partition ; 



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