TO CAPE FRIO. 



67 



ashes, and boiled in water. This is still done by their descendants : 

 the root is also called mandiocca doce. 



Though they profess the Christian faith, many of them go to 

 church only for the sake of appearance, and but seldom : they are, 

 at the same time, superstitious, and full of prejudices. Koster found, 

 even in Pernambuco, the maracas in an Indian house ; a proof that 

 they are still attached to that custom of their ancestors. As this people 

 advances in civilisation, its originality, and the last remnant of its 

 ancient manners and customs, will vanish altogether. 



At St. Pedro we held a long conversation with the inhabitants, 

 who sat, during the coolness of the evening, before their huts. The 

 Captain Mor, a sensible old Indian, and with him all the inhabitants 

 of the place, could not conceal their suspicion that we were English 

 spies ; and even when we produced our passports he was not fully 

 satisfied. 



As the surrounding country seemed to afford abundant materials for 

 prosecuting our enquiries, we remained here several days. Our hunters 

 brought us some micos ( simia fatuellus, Linn.), the horned sahui, black 

 collared sloth *, a species yet but little known, &c. The latter we after- 

 wards found in great number in the southern districts, but met with 

 none of them in the northern. The following day being Sunday, all the 

 inhabitants of the neighbouring country flocked to St. Pedro to mass. 

 We also went to the church, before which a long row of withered palm 

 branches stuck in the ground, that had served for a preceding festival, 

 formed an alley. A Captain Carvalho, who had also come thither, 

 was very attentive to us. His plantations were in the neighbourhood, 



* The collared sloth (bradypus torquatus of Illiger) is a new, nondescript species. It 

 differs but little in shape from the di. The colour is a mixture of grey and reddish ; the 

 head more inclining to red, and mixed with white. On the upper part of the neck is a large 

 patch of long black hair. This species has three toes like the di, and not two, as Illiger 

 says in his Prodroraus. 



