NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



403 



been cut from a beautiful piece of light blue, mixture, French cloth, and 

 made, some fifty years ago, in the very acme of fashion ; altogether his 

 figure and manners furnished a fine contrast to those of my superior 

 visitor. The one may be described as corresponding to the ancient 

 Petit Maitre of France, the other as formed upon the model of a Boat- 

 swain in the British Navy. As the character of this villain developed 

 itself, I felt no doubt of having discovered the true reason why my 

 guide would not enter his house, yet afterwards it appeared that there 

 was another and more powerful motive behind. The little man had the 

 honour of being deemed the Conjuror, or Cunning-man of the country, 

 and certainly few men's appearance, or manners, or dress, could be better 

 adapted to such a profession. After he was gone, the evening passed 

 away pleasantly, and the great man sat until he quite forgot his dignity, 

 and fell fast asleep in public. 



We ascertained that the number of mules which had passed the 

 ferry to-day was about two hundred, loaded with cotton, cloth, and 

 leather. When we left Pampulia, at eight o'clock in the morning, the 

 thermometer was at 68°. It was 70° at noon, on the Parahyba, and 

 indicated no lower temperature at ten o'clock at night. It seems, there- 

 fore, that the atmosphere of this place is warm ; we estimated the level 

 about eleven hundred and fifty feet above the sea ; upon a fine knoll, 

 a hundred feet higher, stands a small Chapel, which, I think, is 

 still in the parish of Inhomerim. We set out early in the morning, 

 and passed nearly two miles along a sandy plain between mountains, of 

 moderate elevation, and arrived at a steep and lofty Serro. At its foot 

 runs a narrow mountain torrent, which we cross by a wooden bridge ; 

 from beneath the timbers sprang a bird, which I understood to be 

 peculiar to the upper parts of the country, and called there a Gaviam- 

 Pomba, or Hawk-Pigeon. It startled the animal I rode, so much as to 

 secure its own escape. We ascended by a narrow spur of the mountain, 

 with a dell on each side of it, and so steep that the mule laboured up it 

 with difficulty ; steeper, sometimes, than I could easily keep myself upon 



the saddle without clinging to the mane. In this manner we ascended, 



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