CHAPTER V 
Travelling across Country — A Musical Genius — Valuable Woods 
— Thermal Springs 
A T the river were several picturesque, two-wheeled 
carts, waiting to be ferried across. Drawn by ten, 
twenty, and even as many as thirty oxen, these 
heavy, hooded vehicles travelled across country in a most 
wonderful manner. Naturally they had to be of solid 
construction to stand the wear and tear demanded of them. 
Their wheels were heavy, solid discs of hard wood, encir¬ 
cled by powerful tyres of iron. A primitive system of 
brake — a mere bar of wood held in position by ropes — 
retarded the speed of the vehicle down extra-steep 
declivities. When going up or down hill, the friction of 
the wheels upon their axles produced a continuous, shrill 
whistle, which, when heard from a distance, sounded not 
unlike the whistle of a locomotive. In the deathly stillness 
of the Goyaz landscape, those whistles could be heard a 
long way off. The expectant farmers—expectant, be¬ 
cause those trading carts conveyed to them a good deal 
of the food-stuff, salt, and other necessaries of life, as 
well as the luxuries they could afford — were clever at 
recognizing the whistles of the various carts, and they 
identified one special cart or another by what they 
poetically called the “ voice of the wheel ” or the 44 song 
of Goyaz.” 
There were some picturesque rapids just above the 
spot where we crossed the Corumba River, which flowed 
in a tortuous channel with a general direction of west- 
southwest. 
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