F 



£04 DISTRESS AT A COTTAGE. 



lodging. On enquiry, they told me that their 

 parents were gone to some distance to make paste 

 from the stem of the Carnauba, for that thetf 

 usual food, the flour of the mandioc, was no 

 longer to be had at any price in that neighbour- 

 hood. I was shown some of this paste, which 

 was of a dark brown colour*, and of the con- 

 sistence of dough that has not been sufficiently 

 kneaded ; it was bitter and nauseous to the taste. 

 On this substance these miserable people were 

 under the necessity of subsisting, adding to it 

 occasionally dried fish or meat. My party ar- 

 rived about an hour after me, and late in the 

 evening, the younger boy began to beg ; incon- 

 siderately I gave him money, but shortly he re- 

 turned, saying his elder brother desired him to 

 tell me, that it would be of no use to them, as 

 nothing could be purchased with it. Then I 

 understood their meaning in begging at this 

 moment, — my men were going to supper, — 

 the children were of course desired to sit down 

 with them. Here Feliciano, one of the Indians, 

 sewed two hides looselv round the two bags of 

 farinha, saying, that if we proceeded without 

 disguising what they contained, we should at 

 some hamlet upon the road be obliged to satisfy 

 the people, who would probably beg part of it 



* Arrudasays it is white, [vide Appendix,] therefore some 

 other ingredient may have been mixed with that which I saw. 

 14 



