AND JOURNEY TO THE llIO DOCE. 



.163 



boats were sailing down the stream, Mas very agreeable. We wished 

 to cross immediately, but unfortunately no boats appeared to convey 

 us over ; we therefore begged the aged inhabitant of Pedra de Agoa 

 to gi^ e us a lodging, and passed the night in a small hut, which 

 afforded but little protection against the wind and rain : the good-will 

 of our host however amply mdemnified us for these inconveniences. 

 As evening came on, the cattle that had been out grazing began to 

 assemble ; we observed among them a singular sheep, which we 

 learnt on enquiry to be a cross of a ram and a she-goat. The animal 

 greatly resembled its dam ; it was thick, corpulent and round, had 

 soft goat's hair, and the horns turned rather more outwards. The 

 young lambs, that were taken up by the boys, were found to have 

 frequently on the still imperfectly healed navel, a number of maggots, 

 to kill which mercury was rubbed on the place. These maggots are 

 a very common evil in hot countries ; wherever there is a wound, flies 

 are immediately ready to deposit their eggs in it. In Brazil there is 

 another insect which deposits its eggs in the muscular flesh, or under 

 the skin, even of the human body, as has been already mentioned in 

 another place. 



Our boats arrived the next morning, and we crossed the river, which 

 is nearly a thousand paces broad. Our road lay through a valley, 

 that runs in various windings directly under the eminence on which 

 the Jucutucoara is situated : near at hand we saw the neat white 

 house of -^ fazenda belonging to a Mr. Pinto. We crossed the little 

 river Muruim, over which there is a wooden bridge that is generally 

 closed by a gate ; and after riding through some marshes overgrov^ n 

 with mangroves, we reached the sea-coast. On looking behind us, 

 we now more clearly distinguished the chain of mountains of Espirito 

 Santo, which, so long as the traveller is immediately between the ex- 

 treme points of those eminences, he cannot overlook. Three leagues 



