NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



521 



his stumps by an assistant, and in that manner their most delicate cutting 

 was executed. One circumstance slightly supports the credibility of this 

 story, the stone, of which the Statues are formed, is of the soft and 

 saponaceous kind, which abounds in the quarries of the neighbourhood, 

 and appears to harden from exposure to the air. 



But the internal wealth and decoration of this Church are the things 

 which give it most celebrity. The walls are divided into rows of compart- 

 ments, of which the upper ones are filled with good paintings, represent- 

 ing portions of the History of Jesus Christ, from his birth to his cruci- 

 fixion, and the lower with pictures, in a less relieved style, of several de- 

 tached religious subjects. Round the bottom of the arched roof, are repre- 

 sentations of the state of innocence, of sin, and regeneration ; and above 

 them, some historical pieces from the Old Testament. The great Altar 

 is exceedingly splendid, and over it, covered with a glass case, is a small 

 image of our Lady, most exquisitely cut from a stone of the country, 

 of the purest white, probably quartz or fel-spar. The Altars of parti- 

 cular Saints are, also, highly ornamented with polished stones of Brazil, 

 of different colours, white, green, red and variegated. A small organ, 

 gaudily painted, is placed over the principal entrance, and in various 

 parts are distributed lamps, the donations of the pious, some of them 

 of silver, others of cut glass. The Conservatory has, in its ceiling, an 

 excellent portrait of Pope Pius the Sixth. 



Close by the Church, yet separate from it, is the House of Miracles, 

 consisting of one large room, and containing some hundreds of paintings, 

 models and tablets, memorials of cures performed and deliverances 

 granted. There are in it, also, four statues of wood, which are carried 

 in religious processions ; one of th^m, that of the converted Centurion, 

 is really a fine piece of carving. My companions were not pleased, 

 that this should receive higher admiration than the multitude of clumsy 

 models of heads and limbs, and of miserable daubings, with which it was 

 surrounded; and the Cicerone, who was in a Priest's habit, seemed 

 particularly anxious to correct my pitiable ignorance, and rouse my. 

 attention to proper objects. With all the preface which might 



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