248 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



discipline, were established or filled up ; every man was taught that it 

 was his duty to connect himself with some one of them, and even 

 negroes were allowed to put on the habit of an order, to carry a silver 

 wand, and to appear in processions with Princes and Priests, the nobility 

 of earth and of heaven. 



On the day of Corpus Christi, the chief festival of the CathoUc 

 system, it was determined to have an exhibition which should make a 

 general and deep impression. Tlie people beheld the infant Saviour 

 conducted to Egypt with the utmost pomp, escorted by Princes and 

 Dignitaries, both lay and ecclesiastic, together with the whole body of 

 Military for his guard, and all the insignia which might represent him as 

 the King of Kings, the Universal Sovereign. They saw their own Chief 

 Priest following, and folding in his bosom that which they deem the 

 very essence of Godhead ; and their own Sovereign, whom they esteem 

 the greatest of Monarchs, submissively bearing a candle at his side. 

 The eye, thus assailed,, aroused the imagination, and overawed the 

 mind ; every knee was bent, every head uncovered, and every tongue 

 dumb ; the whole assembled crowd, for a time at least, became religious, 

 without the power of accounting for the change. ■ 



Religious festivals and ceremonies produced another and a more 

 permanent effect. Females, except those of the superior class, were 

 excluded from the palace ; and at the theatre no woman is admitted into 

 the pit. The Church is open to all, and its appointments were allowed 

 to be equally interesting to both sexes ; husbands and fathers therefore 

 were compelled, under the new order of things, to relax their domestic 

 discipline, and open the doors of their harems. Some degree of liberty 

 being allowed to the prisoners, it became impossible any longer to confine 

 them. Certain shrines must be visited, the boons which ladies desired 

 must be sought at the altar, and vows must be paid to their patron saints, 

 on days and at places more especially devoted to such a purpose. Mix- 

 tures of religion and pleasure, not unlike our village wakes, at their 

 earlier periods, were revived and multiplied. The fine climate of Brazil 

 ftud the brilliant full moon lent their aid to enliven such meetings, and 



