NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



MS 



mile distant, got near enough to be perceived by some of the people, 

 then dropped, and, twenty-four hours afterwards, expired in agonies. 

 No one near him had the least idea of preventing the baneful effects of 

 the poison by excision or bandage, or by severing the lacteals ; and when 

 told of these resources, the people evidently mixed much incredulity with 

 their thankfulness for the information. Happily there is a bird in the 

 open parts of the country, about the size of a Bustard, which seizes the 

 snake with impunity, mounts aloft, suffers his prey to drop, and 

 plunging, retakes before it reaches the ground, again mounts, and 

 repeats the process until its victim is deprived of life. 



The mode of burning the grass in this Province, in order to prepare 

 the land for culture, must doubtless destroy or drive away a vast number 

 of troublesome insects and pernicious reptiles. It is said that the latter 

 do not return to the spot so long as it retains the smell of fire, or ashes 

 remain upon the land. But, notwithstanding such a desirable effect, this 

 burning is here carried much too far ; fire is put to the woods and 

 coppices, as well as to the grass, and that often without a thought of the 

 increasing scarcity of timber and fuel. This system, however, is an old 

 and established one, therefore it must be the best ; and such impressions 

 will retain their influence, until the wants of society imperiously demand 

 a change. 



Having been eight hours on horseback, and ridden thirty miles 



toward the West by North, upon a road which had diminished our 



elevation seven hundred feet, evening advanced. I was aware that we 



were approaching the home of our guide, but had yet to learn his 



rank in society. Instead of following the hard and anxious life of a 



Tropeiro from necessity, it now appeared, long before we reached the 



house, that we were travelling oyer his own estate. He saw every thing 



with a master's eye, and remarked upon every circumstance with a 



master's strictness. This estate measured a square league, and was 



completely his own. He possessed another of the same extent, only 



half of which was paid for, and on a third, near to Barbacena, he had 



settled a son, upon his marriage with a young woman of inferior birth, 



3 K 2 



