324 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



as well as the lower jaw, project but little ; the 

 black eyes have a more open and freer look than in 

 the Indians, yet are still a little oblique, if not stand- 

 ing so much inward as in them, on the other hand, 

 not turned outwards^ as in the Ethiopians. But 

 what gives these mestizoes a peculiarly striking ap- 

 pearance is the excessively long hair of the head, 

 which, especially at the end, is half curled and 

 rises almost perpendicularly from the forehead to 

 the height of a foot, or a foot and a half, thus 

 forming a prodigious and very ugly kind of peruke. 

 This strange head of hair, which, at first sight, 

 seems more artificial than natural, and almost puts 

 one in mind of the plica polonica, is not a disease, 

 but merely a consequence of their mixed descent 

 and the mean between the wool of the negro and 

 the long stiff hair of the American. This natural 

 peruke is often so high that the wearers must stoop 

 low to go in and out of the usual doors of their 

 huts ; the thick hair is, besides, so entangled that 

 all idea of combing it is out of the question. This 

 conformation of the hair gives the Cafusos a re- 

 semblance with the Papuas in New Guinea ; and 

 we, therefore, thought it interesting to give the re- 

 presentation of a woman of that race in her pecu- 

 liar costume. 



The low mountains at Aldea da Escada are the 

 last branches of the Serra do Mar. A small insig- 

 nificant row of hillocks here unites the promontory 

 of this chain with that of the Mantiqueira. The ve- 



