352 NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



do so without offence, began to raise the prices, and bought a few trifles 

 at an exorbitant rate, or enjoyed the mortification of an opponent^ 

 when they chose that a contested article should fall into his hands. The 

 first lot which fell to my own share, was two dozen of eggs, which cost 

 nearly a penny each ; the next was a cake, made no doubt, in the best 

 style of the donor. This I begged permission, if not absolutely contrary 

 to all rule, to divide among the ladies who were with us ; and being 

 allowed to eat, it was presumed that drinking would not be improper, 

 and the mistress of the house produced wine. We had thus, what may 

 perhaps be as worthily called a Love-feast, as some other things which 

 go by a similar name. The auctioneer, elevated, as it might seem, by 

 the high prices which he had obtained, quitted his beaten ground, stepped 

 into the ranks of the females, and strode over their shoulders. Incom- 

 moded by his freedoms, they at first repaid him with jokes, and after, 

 wards with pinches on his naked legs and feet, and at last with hearty 

 slaps on the buttocks, which a short jacket left unskirted. In this 

 manner they beat him off the field, and the feat was applauded as 

 excellent sport. The officiating Priest seemed to participate in our 

 feelings, on the conversion of a religious ceremony into a scene so 

 ludicrous ; for he commenced the more serious part of the service, 

 which imperatively demanded silence, and vindicated its claim to 

 attention. 



At this season, similar offerings are made all over the country, 

 and generally disposed of in the same way. In these sales, the common 

 character may not often make so unreserved a display of itself, as in the 

 present instance ; yet a man wishing to become acquainted with Brazilian 

 manners, will be well repaid for the time which he may spend in an 

 attendance upon them. 



On another festival of a religious kind, among the crowd collected 

 at the door of one of the churches in the city, I accidentally encountered 

 a person whom I had seen two years before in Rio Grande. Though X 

 had not then made the least acquaintance with him, he now addressed 

 me, and with great earnestness entreated that I would wait for a few 



