i849j 



NEGRO CREDULITY. 



85 



opportunity to pay a visit to the lady. The husband, however, 

 returned rather unexpectedly, and the visitor climbed up on 

 the rafters to be out of sight among the old boards and baskets 

 that were stowed away there. The husband put his gun by 

 in a corner, and called to his wife to get his supper, and then 

 sat down in his hammock. Casting his eyes up to the rafters, 

 he saw a leg protruding from among the baskets, and, thinking 

 it something supernatural, crossed himself, and said, *Lord, 

 deliver us from the legs appearing overhead ! ' The other, 

 hearing this, attempted to draw up his legs out of sight, but, 

 losing his balance, came down suddenly on the floor in front 

 of the astonished husband, who, half frightened, asked, ' Where 

 do you come from ? ' 'I have just come from heaven,' said 

 the other, * and have brought you news of your little daughter 

 Maria.' ' Oh ! wife, wife ! come and see a man who has 

 brought us news of our little daughter Maria ; ' then, turning 

 to the visitor, continued, 'And what was my little daughter 

 doing when you left ? ' * Oh ! she was sitting at the feet of 

 the Virgin, with a golden crown on her head, and smoking a 

 golden pipe a yard long.' * And did she not send any message 

 to us ? ' * Oh yes, she sent many remembrances, and begged 

 you to send her two pounds of your tobacco from the little 

 rhossa, they have not got any half so good up there.' * Oh ! 

 wife, wife ! bring two pounds of our tobacco from the little 

 rhossa, for our daughter Maria is in heaven, and she says they 

 have not any half so good up there.* So the tobacco was 

 brought, and the visitor was departing, when he was asked, 

 ' Are there many white men up there ? ' ' Very few,' he 

 replied ; 'they are all down below with the diaho.^ ' I thought 

 so,' the other replied, apparently quite satisfied ; ' good-night ! ' " 

 Senhor Calistro had a beautiful canoe made of a single 

 piece of wood, without a nail, the benches being all notched 

 in. He often went in it to Para, near two hundred miles, and, 

 with twelve good Indians to paddle, and plenty of caxaca, 

 reached the city, without stopping, in twenty-four hours. We 

 sometimes went out to inspect the cane-fields in this canoe, 

 with eight little Negro and Indian boys to paddle, who were 

 always ready for such service. I then took my gun and net, 

 and shot some birds or caught any insects that we met with, 

 while Senhor Calistro would send the boys to climb after any 

 handsome flowers I admired, or to gather the fruit of the 



