VOYAGE UP THE COAST TO PARA. 



141 



trying to escape into the air and light. The palm cannot 

 long survive, however, and with its death it seals the doom 

 of its murderer also. There is another evidence, and a 

 more pleasing one, of the luxuriance of nature on this 

 same road. The skeleton of a house stands by the way- 

 side ; whether a ruin or unfinished, I am unable to say, 

 but at all events only the walls are standing, with the 

 openings for doors and windows. Nature has completed 

 this imperfect dwelling ; — she has covered it over with 

 a green roof, she has planted the empty enclosure with 

 a garden of her own choosing, she has trained vines around 

 the open doors and windows ; and the deserted house, if it 

 has no other inmates, is at least a home for the birds. 

 It makes a very pretty picture. I never pass it without 

 wishing for a sketch of it. On our arrival in town we 

 went at once to the market. It is very near the water, 

 and we were much amused in watching the Indian canoes 

 at the landing. The " montaria," as the Indian calls his 

 canoe, is a long, narrow boat, covered at one end with 

 a thatched roof, under which is the living-room of the 

 family. Here the Indian has his home ; wife and children, 

 hammock, cooking utensils, — all his household goods, in 

 fact. In some of the boats the women were preparing break- 

 fast, cooking the coffee or the tapioca over a pan of coals. 

 In others they were selling the coarse pottery, which they 

 make into all kinds of utensils, sometimes of quite grace- 

 ful, pretty forms. We afterwards went through the mar- 

 ket. It is quite large and neatly kept ; but the Brazilian 

 markets are only good as compared with each other. 

 The meats are generally poor ; there is little game to be 

 seen ; they have no variety of vegetables, which might be 

 so easily cultivated here, and even the display of fruit 



