A MELANCHOLY SPECTACLE 
convey the loads down on men’s heads. Each animal was 
then with great difficulty and danger led by hand down 
to the stream. 
Great quantities of beautiful marble and crystals were 
met with* and masses of lava pellets and ferruginous rock. 
In the Jangada valley we found two hot springs emerging 
from the side of the plateau from which we had descended. 
I discovered there two miserable* tiny sheds belonging to 
a family of escaped negro slaves. They had lived seven¬ 
teen years in that secluded spot. They grew enough 
Indian corn to support them. All the members of the 
family were pitifully deformed and demented. Seldom 
have I seen such miserable-looking specimens of humanity. 
One was demented to such an extent that it was impossible 
to get out of him more than a few disconnected groans. 
He spent most of his time crouched like an animal* and 
hardly seemed conscious of what took place round him. 
Another was a deaf and dumb cretin; a third possessed a 
monstrous hare-lip and a deformed jaw; while two 
women, dried up and skinny* and a child were badly 
affected by goitre. For a single family that seemed a 
melancholy spectacle. 
It was really pitiable, everywhere in the interior of 
Brazil* wherever you came across a family* to find that 
all its members were cretins* and deformed to such an 
extent as to make them absolutely repulsive. Frequently 
I had noticed among the common abnormalities super¬ 
numerary fingers and toes. One child at this place* in 
fact* had six toes to each foot, besides being an idiot, deaf 
and dumb, and affected by goitre. The only one of the 
family who was able to realize what took place was terri¬ 
fied at our approach, and never got over his terror as long 
as we remained. He suffered from the illusion that every¬ 
body wished to murder him. For some reason or other he 
believed that I had come specially all the way from my 
own country in order to search for him and kill him. All 
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