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132 



TRAVELLING PRIESTS. 



from orders, but merely for my own amusement, 

 and as the guide was afraid of proceeding, 1 

 did not think I was authorised in persevering ; 

 it^ I had had orders for the purpose, the case 

 would have been altered, and I must have run 

 all hazards. Here, also, desertion was easier in 

 the night, as the country was comparatively 

 inhabited towards A9U — the difficulty was in 

 advancing, and not in retreating. 



Each cattle estate has a tolerably decent 

 house, in which the owner or herdsman resides, 

 and usually a few smaller habitations are scat- 

 tered about upon the plain around it. The pens 

 stand near to the principal house, and enable the 

 travellers to distinguish immediately, although 

 at some distance, the site of ajazenda. 



I heard of a strange custom existing in these 

 parts of the country that are so thinly inhabited, 

 which arises from this state of things. Certain 

 priests obtain a licence from the bishop (of Per- 

 nambuco), and travel through these regions with 

 a small altar constructed for the purpose ; of a 

 size to be placed upon one side of a pack-saddle, 

 and they have with them all their apparatus for 

 saying mass. Thus with a horse conveying the 

 necessary paraphernalia, and a boy to drive it, 

 who likewise assists in saying mass, and another 

 horse on which the priest himself rides, and car- 

 ries his own small portmanteau, these men make 

 in the course of the year between 1.501. and 200L 



