Brazil, the Amazons and the coast . s have been coming in from all directions,bringing their roupa de ver a Dens—** clothes to see God in —on their heads. Every house is crowded with guests, andmany swing their hammocks to the trees ; the old women * Que voulez-vousf Our white heathen in the United States give twenty-fivecents for a dish of strawberries, and call it charity. 394 BRAZIL busy themselves in preparing sweetmeats and mandioca-beer; the men build an arbor of boughs before the attends the final prayer-meeting, and devoutlysalutes the saint; then the dancing begins, i
Brazil, the Amazons and the coast . s have been coming in from all directions,bringing their roupa de ver a Dens—** clothes to see God in —on their heads. Every house is crowded with guests, andmany swing their hammocks to the trees ; the old women * Que voulez-vousf Our white heathen in the United States give twenty-fivecents for a dish of strawberries, and call it charity. 394 BRAZIL busy themselves in preparing sweetmeats and mandioca-beer; the men build an arbor of boughs before the attends the final prayer-meeting, and devoutlysalutes the saint; then the dancing begins, in several housesat once, and is continued, with very little intermission, untilTuesday or Wednesday, as the refreshments last. Many ofthe young people get only five or six hours of sleep duringthis time. The dancers are orderly, and, for the most part,sober ; the old people sit around and watch them, and growtalkative, and enjoy themselves quietly ; and white clerksfrom town move about with a pleasing sense of their own m^-^-s-. The Sair§. glory. On Sunday morning there is an interlude, duringwhich the grand breakfast is served. An ox has been killedfor the occasion, and the guests eat as much as they please,with their fingers for forks. Ceremonious toasts are pro- AN INDIAN VILLAGE. 395 posed in bad Portuguese and drunk in bad wine ; every-body says Viva / in acknowledgment of everybodys sen-timents, and there is a solemn aping of all that is ridicu-lous in the grand dinners of the brancos. With this, theIndians feel that they have done their duty, and return totheir sports with fresh unction. They dance rustic waltzes and quadrilles, not ungrace-fully, to the music of a violin and a little wire-stringed there is the favorite hmdil^ a kind of slow fandango,involving much snapping of fingers and shuffling of saracura * dance is led off by a special musician, a merryold fellow, who marches about the room playing a tiny reedflute with the right hand and
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