132 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



originally plastered and whitewashed, seldom receive a second coat, and, 

 for want of it, become yellow and green with mosses. The cabins, 

 which contain the beds, are seldom thrown open to the purifying 

 influence of the air ; nor are the beds, though moist with perspiration, 

 generally exposed to the sun. To render the rooms tolerably sweet, 

 and to drive away the pests with which they are filled, odoriferous drugs 

 are often burnt, just before the hour of retirement ; lulled by their 

 agreeable perfume, the lodger becomes, for a little time, insensible to 

 pain, but frequently awakes disfigured, having been attacked, during 

 his short repose, by thousands of invisible foes. Their bites produce 

 inflammation and swelling, with a slight degree of fever, during the 

 continuance of which the blood is said to undergo some change, which 

 renders it unpalatable to the tormentors. The best remedy, therefore, is 

 quiet submission ; patience saves the sufferer, at least from the additional 

 inflammation arising from rubbing the wounds ; or he may defend 

 himself by the application of lime juice to the parts exposed to the 

 ravages of insects. 



If we proceed from the bed-rooms to the kitchens, other nuisances 

 are not wanting. Among the worst is a tub, destined to receive all the 

 filth and refuse of the house; which is sometimes carried out and 

 emptied every day, sometimes only once a week, according to the 

 number of the slaves, or their comparative cleanliness and punctuality ; 

 but, whenever brought out, it is offensive beyond expression. If a hasty 

 shower chances to fall these tubs are generally produced, their nauseous 

 contents poured into the middle of the street, and left to flow down the 

 common water-course. In houses where they are not in use all sorts of 

 filth are thrown into the area, and form a more offensive mass than a 

 cleanly imagination can picture. There it lies, assisting the breed of 

 insects, and generating disease, for the heavy rains of a tropical climate 

 to carry it off; The water which falls into the area, thus impregnated, 

 is usually conveyed into the street, through channels under the floor of 

 the house, or into a well dug so deep as to communicate with the bed of 

 sand below high water-mark, in which it is swallowed up, or through 

 which a part of it finds its way into the sea. 



