66 



JOURNEY FROM RIO DE JANEIRO 



habit, and run naked to his brethren in the woods, where he took 

 several wives, after having seemed, for many years, to be thoroughly 

 impressed with the truth of the doctrines which he preached. The 

 negroes who live in Brazil are very different from these Indians ; they 

 are found to possess much capacity and perseverance in learning all 

 the arts and sciences ; some have been even known to become very 

 able men. 



So long as the Indians have enough to eat, it is not easy to per- 

 suade them to work : they would rather amuse themselves with 

 dancing and drinking. The dances now in use among them, have 

 been borrowed from the Portuguese : of one of them, called baducca^ 

 they are particularly fond. To the sound of the guitar, the dancers 

 place themselves in various indecorous attitudes, clap their hands, 

 smack with their tongues, and do not forget the well-known caiiy, 

 which is now made only of mandiocca flour, maize, or Spanish pota- 

 toes. Nothing can be more disgusting than the process through 

 which it goes before it is made use of. When prepared, it makes 

 rather an intoxicating and nourishing beverage, which, in taste, 

 greatly resembles whey. This favourite potation is usually taken 

 warm. The mode of life followed by these Indians is still not unlike 

 that of the ancient inha'bitants of the coast. The Portuguese have 

 adopted many things from them, and, amongst others, the prepara- 

 tion of the mandiocca meal. Already, in those early times, they pre- 

 pared their mingau, by throwing mandiocca flour into the broth 

 in which meat had been boiled. This the Portuguese have also 

 adopted. When at their meals, they placed a quantity of dry man- 

 diocca flour by them, and threw it into their mouths with such dex- 

 terity, that not a particle was lost. This custom is still found among 

 their descendants, as well as among the Portuguese planters. The 

 ancient Tupinambas distinguished a particularly excellent kind of 

 mandiocca root by the name of aypi, which they roasted in the 



