DRESS OF THE SERTANEJOS. 



horsewomen, and the high Portuguese saddle 

 serves the purpose of a side-saddle very com- 

 pletely. I never saw any Brazilian woman riding, 

 as is the case occasionally in Portugal, in the 

 manner that men do. Their employment con- 

 sists in household arrangements entirely, for the 

 men even milk the cows and goats : the women 

 spin and work with the needle. No females of 

 free birth are ever seen employed in any kind 

 of labour in the open air, excepting in that of 

 occasionally fetching wood or water, if the men 

 are not at home. The children generally run 

 about naked until a certain age, but this is often 

 seen even in Recife ; to the age of six or seven 

 years, boys are allowed to run about without 

 any clothing. Formerly, I mean before the 

 commencement of a direct trade with England, 

 both sexes dressed in the coarse cotton cloth 

 which is made in the country ; the petticoats of 

 this cloth were sometimes tinged with a red 

 dye, which was obtained from the bark of the 

 coipuna tree, a native of their woods ; and even 

 now this dye is used for tinging fishing-nets, as 

 it is said that those which have undergone this 

 process last the longer. 



In those times, a dress of the common printed 

 cotton of English or of Portuguese manufacture 

 cost from eight to twelve milreis> from two to three 

 guineas, owing to the monopoly of the trade, by 

 which the merchants of Recife put what price 



Q 3 



