NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



117 



is, no doubt, in many cases, the only instance of her meddling with 

 the kitchen. 



What can be expected from women of this country transformed 

 into mothers ? Happily, in so warm a climate, no early demands are 

 made upon a mother's care as to the dress of her children, for both boys 

 and girls run about the house naked, until they are about five years old, 

 and three or four years beyond that period they wear nothing but the 

 under linen garment. In this state, it is true, they are seen only by the 

 members of the family, or by intimate friends ; when rare occasions call 

 them to church or to a visit, they are dressed up in all the fashionable 

 stiffness of a former age; there is no difference, except in dimensions, 

 between the dress of a boy, who has recently assumed the manly garb, 

 and his father's, between little miss and her matronly mother. As to 

 early instruction, what can be communicated by persons who know 

 nothing ? What pains are likely to be taken in the cultivation of good 

 morals by those, who lay no personal stress upon them ? There was, at 

 the period of my earlier acquaintance with the country, a necessity that 

 the education, to which any pretended, should be entirely at home ; for 

 there were no schools, and if there had been, the young Senhor or Senhora 

 then would have been too lofty or too delicate to attend them. Nothing 

 remained, therefore, but that the children should be permitted to run 

 wild, amidst a host of slaves and vagabonds of the worst description, 

 where they witnessed, and learned to practise, all the villanies, of which 

 their tender age was capable. The object of the little restraint, under 

 which they were occasionally placed, was to make formal and ceremonious 

 young people, without the slightest regard to the virtue of youth, or the 

 steadiness of maturer age. 



Children, in general, appeared to me of an affectionate cast of mind, 

 particularly towards their mothers. It is hardly to be questioned that 

 this was produced by the affection, with which they had been treated. 

 There was great actual neglect, but, probably, no real extraordinary 

 indifference with regard to the welfare of their children, to their life or 

 death. Yet I have marked some curious facts occurring at the funerals 



