BRAZIL. 



491 



numblest grades of life. In the Minas Geraes there js a great seminary for ecclesiastical edu- 

 cation, and a university for the laity at St. Paul's, and another at Pernambuco, besides which 

 every town has its primary schools, and, generally, at least one professor in Latin. At Rio 

 there is a military academy, where the students attend lectures on military subjects, for seven 

 years, and at the naval academy they embark at the end of three years. There is a medical 

 and surgical academy, where degrees are given at the end of five years, and to these institutions 

 the usual professorships are annexed. The hospital of the Misericordia is the great school for 

 medical students ; dissections, however, are not frequent, notwithstanding the abundance of sub- 

 jects, nor are post-mortem examinations. There are two libraries to which the public have 

 free access ; one of which, the Imperial Library, has 60,000 volumes, and perhaps the most 

 complete collection of bibles in the world. 



16. Arts^ &c. There is at Rio an academy of Fine Arts, where instructions are given in 

 painting, sculpture, and architecture. The arts are at a low state, and, though the churches are 

 richly adorned, it is in puerile taste. 



17. Religion. The religion is almost universally the Catholic. It was provided, however, 

 by treaty with England, that the English at Rio might erect a church, without a bell, and aftei 

 the manner of a private dwelling. The constitutional charter confirms the same privilege undei 

 some restrictions to all denominations. Though Brazil is a Catholic country, there are few 

 convents for nuns, and only 2 at Rio, 1 of which has but 21 sisters. The clergy are support- 

 ed by the government, which formerly made a compositon with the court of Rome, and on 

 release of the payment of tithes contracted to give a stipend of 200 dollars to the ecclesiastics. 

 This at present is an insufficient salary, and the clergy would hve in poverty, were not many of 

 them skilful cultivators. This may be the reason why so many blacks are in orders. Had the 

 tithes been retained, the clergy would now be the most opulent class. There is 1 archbish- 

 op and 6 bishops, who are paid on the same economical scale, and their best support comes 

 from fees in the ecclesiastical tribunals. The regular clergy are not numerous ; the richest or- 

 der is that of the Benedictines and the ancient Carmehtes ; the others make vows of poverty. 

 The wealth of the rich orders, however, is in peril, if not already confiscated to the use of the 

 State. The Benedictines have more than 700 houses in Rio alone, and at their convents so 

 much food and alms are distributed that there is little mendicity in the streets, and a beggar is 

 seldom seen. Besides the regular orders there are brotherhoods of tiades-people, and others 

 who hold large funds, to buy masses, found hospitals, and bury the dead. The benefits they 

 confer in charity are immense, and as there are no laws to restrain mortmain, much money is 

 left to them by will. 



The observance of the Sabbath is exemplary in Brazil, though it has none of the display, 

 that is made on the saints' holidays. Public or private devotion is attended to by all classes of 

 people, though the shops are open in the afternoon. 



Marriages are contracted at early years, and disparity of ages seems to be no obstacle, as it 

 is not uncommon to see a man of 60 married to a girl of 16. The burials are peculiar ; those 

 of infants are celebrated with rejoicing, for, as it is thought that such are translated at once into 

 a blissful life, it is held improper to mourn for them. All funerals are ostentatious, for the Bra- 

 zilians are as fond as the Chinese of splendid funerals. Rich coffins are let out for hire ; the 

 body is carried in them to the grave, where it is deposited naked, or wrapped in a cloth. Few 

 relatives attend the interment ; and when they do, they often behave with levity. At Rio the 

 bodies of the poor are laid on a platform till enough are collected, when the service is perform- 

 ed over them, and all are thrown into a trench, and, for closer stowage, the feet of one are laid 

 by the head of another. Negroes are carted through the streets with scarcely the covering of a 

 mat. People of higher classes are sometimes buried under the pavement of a church, if it can 

 be called burial ; the stones are removed, and a small cavity made, often insufficient to hold the 

 body, which is pounded down to a mass, and the stones are often replaced over it with some 

 parts of the corpse in sight. Anatomical students may take the bodies of slaves and some 

 others without fear of penalty or prejudice. In fact, the people are to a great degree careless 

 of the disposal of their deceased friends, though their bones are sometimes kept as relics. 

 There is a festival in commemoration of the dead generally, in the great church of Francisco 

 de Paula. In a large garden surrounded by cloisters, is an immense number of cases of differ- 

 ent shape and size, some no larger than tea chests ; all have locks and inscriptions, such as, 

 " Pray for our brother Thomas ; " " Here he the bones of our brother Stephen," and " hare 



