Senhoiia Liberadina Dances the Baducca. 
313 
872. Tilings seemed to be taking a lively turn in tue large bouse 
wbicb the vaqueiros and Brazilian soldiers were occupying, because a pecu- 
liar sound, accompanied by the tremolo of the guitar was coming from 
that direction when we got into the open air: the beloved Baducca was 
being danced, a dance that was repeated every evening during our guests’ 
stay — for how could the pleasure-loving and lively Brazilians let an 
evening pass without its being performed ? As we stepped into the house 
a handsome corporal was just then dancing with the pretty and fiery 
young Brazilian woman, Senhora Liberadina, the wife of one of the 
vaqueiros whom we had not seen again since her arrival and had 
forgotten all about. /The languishing look she cast at Captain 
Leal, from whom an equally tender one was returned, expressed 
clearly enough on her own part that she would rather have spent t he 
day in his than in her husband’s company, while a side-glance from the 
Captain at us showed her that this was unfortunately impossible. The 
Baducca is always performed in couples and except for a continual 
snapping of the thumbs consists of the most wanton and obscene gestures 
and movements of the body, particularly of the artful turning and 
twisting of the hips, during which both partners, like the Negroes when 
they dance, now advance, and now retire, the figures being regulated by 
the monotonous chords of the guitars and by the improvised singing. 
S73. Captain Leal at our request now let his subordinate retire 
and started dancing with Senhora Liberadina as gracefully as possible, 
both performers trying to bewitch us with sentimental improvised songs 
of which the officers formed the main subject! matter and we the balance. 
With murmurs of applause, for both had indeed tried to surpass them- 
selves in grace of movement as well as in neatness of execution, the 
couple finally retired and were replaced by vaqueiros to whom Mr. 
Bingham’s present of rum, that seemed to be just as rare a drink for 
them as champagne was for the Captain and Friar, Bad made uncom- 
monly merry and talkative. On the days following they continued to 
amuse themselves in addition with different round games that reminded 
me forcibly of the old “Tit-tat-toe,” etc.* : these games were all accom- 
panied on the guitar and regulated by its music. 
874. As the Commandant had brought no provisions with him from 
Sao Joaquim, the vaqueiros were sent out in the morning to rope in one 
of the biggest oxen in the savannah, and they soon returned to the 
village where it was to be killed with a huge tall well-built steer, the long 
pointed widely-separated horns of which were particularly noticeable. 
Interested as T had been in the lassoing, I was the more shocked at the 
manner of slaughter. After throwing another lasso over its head the 
latter was pinned down to the ground by an arrangement so contrived 
that the wildly-struggling beast could not move it. Sneaking with his 
long sharp knife close up to the chained colossus, a vaqueiro tried to cut 
the Achilles tendons of its hind-feet immediately above the hoofs which, 
however, hie only succeeded in doing after the fourth or fifth stroke at 
each foot. After the first stab the distressed beast did its very best to 
* — “ Wer die Gans gestohlen hat, der ist ein Dieb ” etc. i.e, He who stole the goose 
is a thief, etc, 
