1848.] 



A SWARM OF WASPS. 



43 



ing new patterns for printed calicoes and other goods, while the 

 ugly insects were supposed to be valuable for " remedios," or 

 medicine. We found it best quietly to assent to this, as it 

 saved us a deal of questioning, and no other explanation that 

 we could give would be at all intelligible to them. 



One day, while I was in the woods pursuing some insects, I 

 was suddenly attacked by a whole swarm of small wasps, whose 

 nest^ hanging from a leaf, I had inadvertently disturbed. They 

 covered my face and neck, stinging me severely, while in my 

 haste to escape, and free myself from them, I knocked off 

 my spectacles, which I did not perceive till I was at some 

 distance from the spot, and as I was quite out of any path, and 

 had not noticed where I was, it was useless to seek them. 

 The pain of the stings, which was at first very severe, went 

 off altogether in about an hour ; and as I had several more 

 glasses with me, I did not suffer any inconvenience from my 

 loss. 



The soil here is red clay, in some places of so bright a 

 colour as to be used for painting earthenware. Igaripes are 

 much rarer than they were lower down, and where they occur 

 form little valleys or ravines in the high bank. When Senhor 

 Seixus arrived, he insisted on our all taking our meals with 

 him, and was in every way very obliging to us. His son, a 

 little boy of six or seven, ran about the house completely 

 naked. 



The neighbours would drop in once or twice a day to see 

 how the brancos (white people) got on, and have a little 

 conversation, mostly with Mr. Leavens, who spoke Portuguese 

 fluently. One inquired if in America (meaning in the United 

 States) there was any terra jfir7na, appearing to have an idea 

 that it was all a cluster of islands. Another asked if there were 

 campos, and if the people had mandiocca and seringa. On 

 being told they had neither, he asked why they did not plant 

 them, and said he thought it would answer well to plant 

 seringa-trees, and so have fresh milk every day to make india- 

 rubber shoes. When told that the climate was too cold for 

 mandiocca or seringa to grow if planted, he was quite astonished, 

 and wondered how people could live in a country where such 

 necessaries of life could not be grown ; and he no doubt felt a 

 kind of superiority over us, on account of our coming to his 

 country to buy india-rubber and cocoa, just as the inhabitants 



