EETUEN TO MANAOS. 



267 



wrong or shame as if they said the father was absent or 

 dead, it has the most melancholy significance ; it seems to 

 speak of such absolute desertion. So far is this from being 

 an unusual case, that among the common people the oppo- 

 site seems the exception. Children are frequently quite 

 ignorant of their parentage. They know about their 

 mother, for all the care and responsibility falls upon 

 her, but they have no knowledge of their father ; nor 

 does it seem to occur to the woman that she or her 

 children have any claim upon him. 



But to return to the sitio. Tlie room I have described 

 stood on one side of a cleared and neatly swept ground, 

 about which, at various distances, stood a number of 

 little thatched " casinhas," as they call them, consisting 

 mostly of a single room. But beside these there was one 

 larger house, with mud walls and floor, containing two 

 or three rooms, and having a wooden veranda in front. 

 This was the Senhora's private establishment. At a little 

 distance farther down on the hill was the mandioca kitchen 

 and all the accompanying apparatus. Nothing could be 

 neater than the whole area of this sitio, and while we 

 were there two or three black girls were sent out to 

 sweep it afresh with their stiff twig-brooms. Around lay 

 the plantation of mandioca and cacao, with here and 

 there a few coffee-shrubs. It is difficult to judge of the 

 extent of these sitio plantations, because they are so irregu- 

 lar and comprise such a variety of trees, — mandioca, coffee, 

 cacao, and often cotton, being planted pellmell together. 

 But this one, like the whole establishment, seemed larger 

 and better cared for than those usually seen. On the 

 return of the gentlemen from the igarapd we took leave, 

 though very warmly pressed to stay and breakfast. At 



