NOTES ON BRAZIL, 



199 



paid for it. Resuming his upright position he again looked round, 

 pointed, purchased, and paid. There seemed to be no sense of difference 

 of qualities or varieties of price, no idea of abatement. Thus the party- 

 proceeded, until they had spent their dollars, if they saw in the place all 

 that they wanted. If they did not, some one would occasionally ask for 

 an unseen article ; and if it was not to be had, their trading was finished, 

 they asked for nothing more, and could not be induced to look any 

 farther, but gathered up their purchases and retired. If a seller ventured 

 to recommend his goods, their common suspicions of craft seemed to be 

 immediately confirmed ; and I have seen them, in such a case, leave a 

 store without speaking another word. 



The articles which these people purchased were numerous, the 

 quantities small. I have been astonished at the accuracy with which 

 they recollected the price of every thing which they had bought. 

 Apparently to aid such recollection, aU the articles were laid in a row, in 

 the exact order of purchase ; aU were repeatedly touched with a finger, 

 perhaps compared with some catalogue of wants previously committed to 

 memory, and the separate price of each recounted. It was, probably, 

 when disappointment interrupted the settled order of recollection, that 

 they could not be brought to continue their purchases. They appeared 

 to me to have no notion of writing, and small skiU in combina- 

 tion, more especially when there occurred fractional parts of a current 

 coin. If two parties arrived at a store together, they seldom appeared 

 to have any communication with each other, and the prevailing feeling 

 among them seemed to be an anxiety lest both should want the same 

 things, and there should not be a sufficient supply. 



For the smaller articles they had cotton bags, which, when reple- 

 nished with goods, were tied to their saddles ; printed calicoes were 

 generally wrapped round their bodies ; woollen-cloth, folded into a squai'e 

 form, was placed on the horses' backs, under the saddles. Thus, in many 

 instances, all the pains and expense employed by the manufacturer, to 

 give a gloss or other showy appearance to his goods, were rendered vain 

 by the steaming carcase of a horse, or of a less cleanly animal. 



