98 RIO DE JANEIRO, 
churches and convents are amply endowed ; but whatever 
the zeal of the clergy might once, have been to accomplish 
this object, it has long given way to the more preferable ease 
and hixury of a monastic life ; and though these holy men 
may find it prudent to keep up a shew of devotion, by a more 
than ordinary observance of ceremonies* that are calculated 
to strike the senses, they are loose in their own morals and 
conversation, and not much disposed to throw any restraint 
on those of the \aitj. Their influence, however, is very 
great, but they are less the objects of fear, as no oflice of the 
Holy Inquisition has been established in the Brazils. The 
perpetual tolling of bells for matins, for vespers, for high 
mass, or for announcing the performance of a solemn requiem 
to some departed soul who may have left a liberal legacy to 
the church, and the frequent firing of rockets and crackers, 
keep up such a constant din that, as the French satyrist 
has observed, 
" Pour honorer les morts, font mourir les vivans." 
Not a day scarcely passed in which ^vc did not see some 
funeral procession, accompanied by priests bearing flambeaux, 
and chaunting their solemn dirges in passing along the streets ; 
and scarcely an evening occurred without some Saint in the 
calendar, or the holy Virgin, whose image is stuck in a 
wooden box at the corner of every street, being marched 
about the town, with the parade of soldiers and priests and 
musicians. Tlic ragged finery in which this lady in particular 
is usually clothed, her powdered locks, and the tinsel and 
tawdry with which she is bedaubed, really put one in mind 
