RIO DE J ANEIRO. 89 
than to the heat of the chmate. The ground floors of the 
houses are rarely swept : they serve as repositories for fire- 
wood, for lumber, and for the lodgings of their numerous slaves. 
The same want of cleanliness is visible in their dress and in 
their persons. Few, if any, are free from a certain cutaneous 
disorder, which is supposed in our country to be the joint 
effect of poverty of food and filth ; many have confirmed le- 
prosy ; and the elephantiasis is by no means uncommon. A 
great part of their diet consists of fish, fruit, and vegetables, 
with the never-failing dish of farinha de pao, or flour of the 
maniota root ; all their substantial food, whatever it may 
be, is first dipped in oil or grease, and then rolled in this 
flour and made up into little balls in the palm of the hand. 
Milk, butter and cheese are rarely used. With the utmost 
diflficulty we procured a little of the first for our tea, and it 
was miserably bad. Their beef is lean and very indifferent, 
and mutton is scarcely to be had at any rate. Fowls and 
turkies are abundant, and tolerably good ; and the market is 
well supplied Avith a great variety of very excellent fish. The 
bread which is made of wheaten flour, the produce of the 
southern provinces, is exceedingly good. The fruits in gene- 
ral are not excelled in any part of the world. 
One of the first objects of inquiry to an inquisitive traveller, 
on his entering a city or large town, is a booksoller s shop. 
An Englishman in particular is so accustomed to the con- 
venience of a printed guide, wherever he moves about in his 
own country, that he is very apt to run into the mistake of 
expecting to be accommodated with a similar fund of inform- 
ation abroad. After a long search, and many inquiries, wc 
