NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



55 



Here is a capacious baptismal font, the most used, perhaps, of any 

 in the city. I was surprised to see infants, quite naked, plunged into its 

 holy water. The priest receives the child, and grasping both ancles with 

 his left hand, while the right supports the breast, dips it with the face 

 downward. Afterward it is signed on the forehead with a cross, and thus 

 secured from the gripe of the wicked one. 



At the same place I saw, for the first time in Rio, the funeral of an 

 adult person. The body was conveyed through the streets in a sort of 

 open litter, or rather tray, covered with black velvet, ornamented with 

 gold lace, and furnished, like European coffins, with eight handles. 

 The tray or bier is about two feet and a half wide, six long, and from 

 six to eight inches deep ; so that the body, when laid upon the back, is 

 fully exposed to view. As in this warm climate the muscles do not 

 become rigid, and as funerals take place within a few hours of the last 

 scene of life, the corpse, as it is carried along, either by the hand or on 

 men's shoulders, has a considerable degree of motion, which greatly 

 resembles what might be expected from a living subject in the lowest 

 state of debility. It is conveyed, also, not with that slow and solemn 

 pace, and orderly procession, which seem best to agree with deep-rooted 

 sorrow, but in an indecent hurry, a sort of half run, attended with 

 loud talking, and a coarse air of joy. The shattered remains of man 

 are decked out in all the gaudy trappings of a gala-day ; the face 

 painted, the hair powdered, the head adorned with a 'wreath of flowers 

 or a metallic crown; the finery being limited only by the abifity of 

 surviving friends to procure it. The defunct is thus fitted to appear 

 before the key-bearer of heaven, and by him to be introduced to the 

 Judge of souls, with whom, as the delegates on earth assure us, it will 

 receive a favourable notice. 



At the church-door the corpse was laid down, and continued 

 for some time exposed to public view. It had not acquired that 

 cadaverous appearance which dead bodies usually assume with us ; for, 

 indeed, disease is here so rapid in its operation, and interment so quickly 

 follows death, as to prevent it. This exposure of the body, in a 



