TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



light walk of these savages, had excited in us the 

 most sorrowful feelings at the debasement of Im- 

 manity in them, these were farther increased by 

 the melancholy expression of their festivity in the 

 darkness of the night. The men placed themselves 

 close together in a line, and behind them the women 

 also in a line. The male children, sometimes two 

 or three, took hold of each other and of the fathers 

 round the waist, as the female children did their 

 mothers. In this position, they begin their melan- 

 choly " Han— jo — Jid — ha — ^a." * 



The song and the dance were repeated several 

 times, and the two rows moved slowly forward in a 

 measured triple time. In the first three steps they 

 put the left foot forward and bent the left side ; at 

 the first and third step they stamped with the left 

 foot, and at the second with the right ; in the fol- 

 lowing three steps they advanced the right foot at 

 the first and last, bending on the right side. In this 

 manner they advanced a little alternately in short 

 steps. As soon as the song was concluded, they 

 ran back in disorder as if in flight ; first the women 

 with their daughters, and then the men with their 

 sons. After this they placed themselves in the 

 same order as before, and the scene was repeated. 

 A negro who had lived a long time among the 



* It is remarkable that the melodies which Lery noted above 

 200 years ago among the Indians, in the neighbourhood of Rio 

 de Janeiro, very much resemble those observed by us. (See 

 Lery, Hist. Nav. in Brazil, Geneva, 1594.) 



