522 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



have introduced the Last Judgment, and with a solemnity worthy of 

 that subject, he told me that our Lady had lately granted a very singular 

 favour, having communicated to some distinguished individual, an 

 infallible method — of destroying ants. I could not but acknowledge 

 that this was an object worthy the interposition of the blessed Virgin 

 herself, in a region where there are more ants than leaves, where these 

 insects are sometimes more than an inch long, and cannot be kept from 

 intruding into the most sacred places, not even from making their abode 

 among the petticoats of our Lady herself ; nor could I fail to be curious 

 as to the modes, which she had deigned to prescribe. These were, to 

 iiiflame a quantity of sulphur, near the apertures to their nests, and to 

 fill the hollow dome with its fumes, by means of an instrument never 

 heard of before. This new, celestial machine, he described minutely, 

 and by his imitation of the motion of the hands in using it, made me 

 clearly comprehend that it was no other than an English pair of bellows. 

 To be longer grave, though on holy ground, was impossible; and I 

 advised him the next time the Virgin interfered in the affair, to whisper 

 in her ear, that gunpowder would answer the purpose much more effec- 

 tually, which the heretics knew, by experience, long before her Ladyship 

 manifested any concern about the business. Still he maintained, that 

 the Instrument was a gift becoming the first favourite in Heaven ; and 

 remained utterly faithless, when assured that it had long been conferred 

 on almost every cottager in Britain. He would converse no longer ; and 

 I, too, thought it high time to be silent, recollecting the poor wanderer 

 at Coral Novo, and his incredible story of English glass windows. 



Seldom have I met with so thorough a Catholic devotee as this man. 

 Had he lived a few ages earlier, and been allowed a wider stage on 

 which to figure, he could hardly have missed the honour of canoniza- 

 tion. He was a native of Caancunha, and had seldom gone beyond 

 its precincts; he had taken an early vow never to leave this Church, 

 and was ignorant of all extraneous matters, things unconnected with his 

 <jwn chosen and perpetual abode. In him faith had blotted out almost 

 every trace of reason and judgment, to a degree which might 



