MASQUERADING 



371 



of the festival the fun commences. The managers of the 

 feast keep open houses, and dancing, drumming, tinkHng 

 of wire guitars, and unbridled drinking by both sexes, old 

 and young, are kept up for a couple of days and a night 

 with little intermission. The ways of the people at these 

 merry-makings, of which there are many in the course of 

 the year, always struck me as being not greatly different 

 from those seen at an old-fashioned village wake in retired 

 parts of England. The old folks look on and get very 

 talkative over their cups ; the children are allowed a little 

 extra indulgence in sitting up ; the dull, reserved fellows 

 become loquacious, shake one another by the hand or 

 slap each other on the back, discovering, all at once, what 

 capital friends they are. The cantankerous individual 

 gets quarrelsome, and the amorous unusually loving. 

 The Indian, ordinarily so taciturn, finds the use of his 

 tongue, and gives the minutest details of some little dis- 

 pute which he had with his master years ago, and which 

 every one else had forgotten ; just as I have known lump- 

 ish labouring men in England do, when half -fuddled. 

 One cannot help reflecting when witnessing these traits of 

 manners, on the similarity of human nature everywhere, 

 when classes are compared whose state of culture and 

 conditions of life are pretty nearly .the same. 



The Indians play a conspicuous part in the amuse- 

 ments at St. John's eve, and at one or two other holidays 

 which happen about that time of the year — the end of 

 June. In some of the sports the Portuguese element is 

 visible, in others the Indian ; but it must be recollected 

 that masquerading, recitative singing, and so forth, are 

 common originally to both peoples. A large number of 

 men and boys disguise themselves to represent different 

 grotesque figures, animals, or persons. Two or three dress 

 themselves up as giants, with the help of a tall framework. 

 One enacts the part of the Caypor, a kind of sylvan deity 

 similar to the Curupira which I have before mentioned. 

 The belief in this being seems to be common to all the 

 tribes of the Tupi stock. According to the figure they 

 dressed up at Ega, he is a bulky, misshapen monster, with 

 red skin and long shaggy red hair hanging half way down 

 his back. They believe that he has subterranean campos 

 and hunting grounds in the forest, well stocked with pacas 

 and deer. He is not at all an object of worship nor of 

 fear, except to children, being considered merely as a kind 



