FESTIVAL OF CORPUS CHRISTI 6i 



boisterous conviviality, but a quiet enjoyment seems to 

 be felt everywhere, and a gentle courtesy rules amongst 

 all classes and colours. I have seen a splendidly-dressed 

 colonel, from the President's palace, walk up to r* mu- 

 latto, and politely ask his permission to take a light from 

 his cigar. When the service is over, the church bells are 

 set ringing, a shower of rockets mounts upwards, the 

 bands strike up, and parties of coloured people in the 

 booths begin their dances. About ten o'clock the 

 Brazilian national air is played, and all disperse quietly 

 and soberly to their homes. 



At the festival of Corpus Christi there was a very 

 pretty arrangement. The large green square of the 

 Trinidade was lighted up all round with bonfires. On 

 one side a fine pavilion was erected, the upright posts 

 consisting of real fan-leaved palm trees — the Mauri tia 

 flexuosa, which had been brought from the forest, stems 

 and heads entire, and fixed in the ground. The booth 

 was illuminated with coloured lamps, and lined with red 

 and white cloth. In it were seated the ladies, not all of 

 pure Caucasian blood, but presenting a fine sample of 

 Para beauty and fashion. 



The grandest of all these festivals is that held in honour 

 of Our Lady of Nazareth : it is, I believe, peculiar to 

 Para. As I have said before, it falls in the second quarter 

 of the moon, about the middle of the dry season — that is, 

 in October or November — and lasts, like the others, nine 

 days. On the first day a very extensive procession takes 

 place, starting from the Cathedral, whither the image of 

 the saint had been conveyed some days previous, and 

 terminating at the chapel or hermitage, as it is called, 

 of the saint at Nazareth, a distance of more than two 

 miles. The whole population turns out on this occasion. 

 All the soldiers, both of the line and the National Guard, 

 take part in it, each battalion accompanied by its band 

 of music. The civil authorities, also, with the President 

 at their head, and the principal citizens, including many 

 of the foreign residents, join in the line. The boat of 

 the shipwrecked Portuguese vessel is carried after the 

 saint on the shoulders of officers or men of the Brazilian 

 navy, and along with it are borne the other symbols of 

 the miracles which Our Lady is supposed to have per- 

 formed. The procession starts soon after the sun's heat 

 begins to moderate — that is, about half -past four o'clock 



