82 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



less in its regular movement, which one hears in the 

 Catholic Church ; the candles were burning before the 

 altar, but the great window just outside the door was open 

 to the setting sun, and, as I stood in the balcony looking 

 out on the mountains and listening to the music, I thought 

 that a mind which had gone astray might find its way back 

 again in such scenes and under such influences. Certainly, 

 if nature has any healing power, it must be felt here. We 

 lingered and listened as long as we dared, and stole away as 

 the services were closing, just in time to take the evening 

 boat. 



May 2c)th. — The fish-market is, in all seaport towns, a 

 favorite haunt with Mr. Agassiz, and here it has an especial 

 interest for him on account of the variety and beauty of the 

 fishes brought in every morning. I sometimes accompany 

 him in these rambles for the pleasure of seeing the fresh 

 loads of oranges, flowers, and vegetables, and of watch- 

 ing tlie picturesque negro groups selling their wares or 

 sitting about in knots to gossip. We have already learned 

 that the fine-looking athletic negroes of a nobler type, at 

 least physically, than any we see in the States, are the 

 so-called Mina negroes, from the province of Mina, in 

 Western Africa. They are a very powerful-looking race, 

 and the women especially are finely made and have quite 

 a dignified presence. I am never tired of watching them 

 in the street and market, where they are to be seen in 

 numbers, being more commonly employed as venders of 

 fruit and vegetables than as house-servants. It is said that 

 a certain wild and independent element in their character 

 makes them unfit for domestic service. The women always 

 wear a high muslin turban, and a long, bright-colored snawl, 

 either crossed on the breast and thrown carelessly over the 



