NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



S75 



cut out of the side of a rock. At Itamarete, a lone house pleasantly 

 situated upon the Eastern side of the stream, which has here become 

 considerable by the junction of a brook from the West, and is now 

 joined by a larger one from the South-east, we took up our abode for 

 the night. 



This is one of those resting places which abound through the 

 whole central part of Brazil, at least where there are frequented roads. 

 The owner of a large estate builds what is called a Rancho, which, in 

 general, is nothing more than a long and broad roof covered with tiles, 

 and raised upon rough and unhewn posts, about twenty feet high ; 

 intended to afford shelter from the sun and rain, but it has generally no 

 walls whatever, and very frequently the ground upon which it stands 

 is not even rendered smooth and level. In these respects, therefore, 

 they are inferior to the common hovels of English farms, under which 

 cattle are usually housed. Beneath these sheds, those who travel with a 

 troop, for the most part, take up their residence for the night, and have 

 no communication whatever with the house or the owner of it. Just by 

 he establishes a venda, that he may be able to dispose of milho, a chief 

 article which the fai-m produces, and too bulky and heavy to be conveyed 

 over mountainous roads, to a distant market, where also the price 

 obtained would hardly defray the expences of carriage. At a small 

 distance also, upon the farm, is a pasture, into which the cattle belonging 

 to the troop are turned at night. This is generally in some secluded 

 valley, where the mules require neither inclosures nor keeper, for they 

 seldom stray from the spot, separate from each other, or mingle with the 

 individuals of another troop. For pasturage a small sum is paid to the 

 owner of the land, and he derives the additional advantage of keeping 

 his estate in some measure free from brushwood, and in a condition 

 suitable for furnishing his own cattle with grass. 



At Itamarete the Rancho was an hundred and fifty feet long by 

 thirty broad ; as the mules arrived and were unloaded, the larger packages 

 were carried within it, and arranged in such a manner as to inclose an 

 area of about ten feet square, at one corner of which was left an entrance 



