196 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



kitchen, of an inferior order to the rest of the building, here adjoined the 

 house ; sometimes it is placed at a small distance. 



In houses of this description, the chief furniture of the principal 

 apartment is the never-failing, long, clumsy table and forms, made of 

 wood so hard, as to serve for generations. There are also chests and 

 boxes of wood or hide, and occasionally of flag. Above them hang the 

 rude trappings of horses and oxen, made from slips of undressed hide ; 

 and in a corner stand some of the implements of husbandry. On the 

 chest of drawers in the house of our host, was a cupboard with folding 

 doors, containing a crucifix, decorated with silver and artificial flowers, 

 and beheld through a pane of glass. When we entered the room, the 

 Penates were exposed to view ; but soon afterward, the master of the 

 house, probably observing that the exhibition attracted littte notice, made 

 a respectful bow to the image, and closed its doors. The women, with 

 their knees crowded up to their chin, sate in, rather than upon, stools of 

 a singular form, about eighteen inches long, twelve broad, and six high 

 at the sides, sunk in the middle so as to come within an inch of the 

 ground, and forming some resemblance of a trough. In the other parts 

 of the house, there was a greater scarcity of the humblest accommodations. 

 The apparatus for cookery was a wood fire, surrounded with three 

 stones, to support the earthen utensils. In the lodging rooms, the 

 bedsteads were nothing more than four stakes set upright in the 

 ground, to which rods were attached, with a hide stretched over 

 the top. 



The Farm contained four or five hundred acres of rich meadow land, 

 part of it well inclosed with fences formed of the mimosa. The Cattle 

 were numerous and thriving, and some Horses made their appearance. 

 Its contiguity to the town secured a ready sale for its excellent Butter 

 and Cheese. The Pigs appeared to live luxuriously ; their sty was a 

 stoccado, raised under the shelter of a large tree ; their food, at the time 

 of our visit, chiefly peaches of good flavour, was thrown over the inclo- 

 sure, and they literally rolled in abundance. Upon the Farm are no 

 outbuildings, for the climate renders them unnecessary ; but our horses 



