NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



435 



be some ground for such reports, so confidently and generally propagated 

 and believed, I am inclined to think, these creatures are the children 

 of Indians, who in their playfulness expose themselves at the skirts of 

 the woods, while their parents lie concealed because they know that they 

 are in the neighbourhood of " bearded men." 



An Hydraulic Machine, which is very common in the thinly inha- 

 bited parts of Brazil, pleasantly beguiled the time while we waited for 

 the recovery of some lost mules. It is used for the beating of Mandioca 

 Roots to a pulp, for taking the husk off Milho and Coffee, and for several 

 other purposes of a similar kind. It consists of a long beam unequally 

 balanced upon a fulcrum, its longer and heavier end is furnished with a 

 strong pestle-like foot, which descends into an Indoa, or Indian mortar. 

 At the other end is a cavity, capable of holding from one to ten gallons 

 of water ; when this bowl is full it descends and raises the pestle ; at the 

 lowest point the water runs out, and the other arm descends with force. 

 The most ingenious part of the contrivance consists in placing the lever 

 at right angles to the stream, and bringing the water to the cavity 

 through a narrow spout, by which means the stream, forming a parabolic 

 curve, shoots over the bowl and does not impede it in rising; the bowl 

 likewise is so formed as to spill no water until it reach the lowest point, 

 and then discharges it at once. This is effected by the most simple means 

 possible ; the end of the bowl farthest from the fulcrum makes an 

 exterior angle with the bottom produced equal to that which the beam 

 forms with the horizon when the pestle is raised. The Machine is of 

 Indian construction, and does great credit to the genius of some unknown 

 rude Mechanic. Europeans have called it the Sloth, because the 

 Indian name Ahy, which signifies the thing of water, sounds, when 

 pronounced without the h, something like Aig, the Tupi name of 

 tiiat animal. 



From this Engine the water flows to a small mill with a horizontal 



wheel, which is employed in giving motion to a lathe used in turning 



cooking vessels from pieces of solid stone. This material consists of a 



sort of saponaceous gneiss, soft to the chissel and smooth to the touch, 



3 1 2 



