Part 10

The funeral processions are rather singular; and the interment of a child particularly would appear to be the season of rejoicing rather than grief. On these occasions the musical performers are the most choice and costly. The corpse is never kept more than one day from the time of the demise, and the funeral rites are usually celebrated after dark; every one that chooses enlisting into the procession by the acceptance of a wax-light. At a funeral which I saw at the Carmo, a large and handsome church adjoining the royal chapel, two lines of persons were ranged along the body of the building, from the entrance towards the altar, facing each other, every one holding a wax-light, nearly six feet high, in the right hand, and projected rather forward. Some of the individuals of this assembly might be friends of the deceased, but the major part consisted of persons casually met with in the streets, or such as were led by curiosity into the church. The acceptance of a light is deemed an honour done to the friends of the dead, and the agents of the padres are not very scrupulous in forcing them, if possible, into the hands of every one they see; the motive for doing this is ascertained on knowing that the remainder of all candles which are used become the perquisite of those very _worthy_ brethren. At the head of the two lines, amounting to perhaps from one hundred to one hundred and fifty persons, the corpse was placed upon a table or elevated platform, with the head exposed to view, while its last vestments displayed the ill-founded notion of importance which its survivors attach to outward and meretricious show. The ceremony of itself not being calculated to impress the mind with awe, none of those feelings of respectful gravity were visible, which so solemn an occasion ought to have produced. When it was finished, the body was conducted, with no regular procession, through some outer avenues of the church, to the catacombs, situated in a passage opposite to the jesuitical library. On arriving at an inner cemetery of the catacombs, the lights of those who followed were extinguished and taken from them by the persons whose duty it was to secure this perquisite; and every one retiring in consequence, the body disappeared by some other avenue, and I could not possibly discover how it was afterwards disposed of. Upon another occasion of the funeral obsequies of a general officer, I attempted to see their mode of executing this last office; but, from the quickness with which they slid away, and the extinguishing of the lights, I was again disappointed. A friend, however, gave me the following description of the interment of a girl, at which he was present. After the ceremony and the music had ceased, they proceeded from the said church of Our Lady of Carmo to the catacombs, where he arrived, with two or three others, at that point of the cemetery which was to receive the remains. The padres had disappeared, and no one was there but the father of the girl and a person who may be styled the sexton. The outer coverings had been taken off, and the girl appeared richly dressed in embroidered muslin, with silk stockings, and new shoes on, as if equipped for an assembly. The coffin had no bottom, but the body was supported upon a piece of satin, securely nailed around the upper part of it, when the nails being withdrawn from the sides, the father, who was not dressed in the sable vestments of a mourner but in those of a bridegroom, disgusted my friend by his wanton and unfeeling conduct, and at this moment threw a piece of muslin to the sexton, urging him to despatch by shouting out “_depressa, depressa_.” The muslin being drawn over the face of the girl, a large quantity of quick lime was placed upon it, and another portion spread from the head along the breast to the body, with a quantity on each side, when the man, with much ceremony, formed a cross upon it with his trowel. During the operation, the father, devoid of every proper sense of decency, cried out to him, “_Vamos, vamos_” (let us go); and, at another time, “_Vamos, depressa, filho da pouta_.” To render this last exclamation into English would only wound the feelings of those who do not understand it. Quick lime being now placed upon the flat stone of the cemetery, which runs horizontally a long way back, exhibiting its awful contents, the coffin was lifted up, and the nails of the end being also taken out, the body and piece of satin fell upon the quick lime, and the coffin was removed away. The cemeteries are afterwards walled up and plastered over in front. This father then, and even before, at the close of the church ceremony, embraced many people for joy, invited some to go home with him to a grand supper prepared for the occasion, and felt convinced that his child was gone to Heaven. Two or three hundred pounds are occasionally expended at funerals.

The catacombs are small but extremely neat, the first part forming a square, ornamented with vases, and containing aromatic shrubs and flowers, is surrounded with a sort of piazza, the inner walls of which present the front of cemeteries, neatly plastered and numbered. Opposite the entrance, and crossing the square, a door-way leads to inner avenues, lined with cemeteries, kept exceedingly clean and in good order. At the extremity of one of these avenues is situated the general charnel-house, where the bones are piled in accumulating masses. After a certain lapse of time, the bones of individuals are taken from the cemeteries, bound together, and a large label, with their names inscribed upon it, affixed to them, then piled upon the bones of their predecessors in the charnel house, where two tapers are constantly burning; and it is not uncommon for the relatives of the deceased to visit this house of the dead on a certain day in the year, offering prayers in their behalf.

The bodies of the churches are open spaces, without seats or pews, and the women sit down in the Turkish style; they, as well as the men, occasionally fall upon their knees, and, during mass, go through the ceremonies of crossing their foreheads, chins, and breasts, at regular stated periods, frequently beating their bosoms with great vehemence, but which probably must not be taken as a positive demonstration of sincerity, however imposing it may outwardly appear.

The relation of one more procession will enable the reader to form some estimate of the religious character of this people. On the event of illness having assumed the appearance of terminating in death, the Host is conducted by one or more padres, and its usual attendants, in much pomp, with a burning of incense and the tinkling of bells, to the house of the dying person, to afford him the last consolations of his religion.

The procession of the Host requires from the public more obsequious reverence than all the other component ingredients of the Catholic faith. Many persons prostrate themselves before it on their knees, in the streets and balconies; others bend the body, and all take off their hats. I have frequently met this procession some miles in the country, the padre mounted on horseback, carrying with the same facility as an umbrella, a canopy in his hand, and under its sacred shade the Host, or emblem of the Holy Ghost, accompanied by some attendants uncovered, and robed in scarlet cloaks, also on horseback; the whole moving on at a quick ambling pace, with the tinkling of bells, the peculiarity of which announces their approach, producing an universal prostration of all persons, white and black, who may be in the fields or houses adjoining the road. There is one custom the Brazilians have, which, if sincere, cannot but be admired; every evening at sun-set, by a simultaneous movement, they take off their hats in the public streets, offer up a prayer, or repeat Avi Marias; from which they have acquired the habit of denoting that period of the evening by the term of Avi Maria. And they say so and so before Avi Maria, at Avi Maria, or after Avi Maria.

I have been in the house of a Portuguese family at Avi Maria, when they appear to repeat a short prayer, after which a general salutation takes place, by saying “_boa noite_,” (good evening,) and holding out their hands, as if they were mutually bestowing a blessing. It is the custom for all slaves to hold their hands out in a similar manner night and morning, as soon as they see their superiors, for the purpose of offering a blessing, while their usual expression is “_Abençoa senhor_.”

Rio de Janeiro, although the residence of the court, is centuries behind in the comforts and enjoyments of civilized life. Strangers are disgusted with a first ramble through this city, and would not voluntarily pay it a second visit. Friendly attention to foreigners, although they may have letters of introduction, the Brazilians are seldom or ever known to practise. After some ceremony, they follow the person introduced to the top of the stairs, wait there till he arrives at the bottom, subject him to the further form of turning round to receive their final salutation, and thus the matter briefly ends. How different to the refinement of their neighbouring colonists, the Spaniards, whose houses and tertulas, at Monte Video, at Buenos Ayres, and all other parts of Spanish America, are open to strangers, who experience every liberality and social attention from them. I was assured by an English gentleman, who has resided ten years in the Brazil, that he never witnessed any symptom of genuine hospitality, and he had notwithstanding acted with friendship to many; and to one gentleman, in particular, he had rendered frequent services, at whose house he had called on various occasions, and sometimes casually at the dinner hour, but was never invited to take dinner or any kind of refreshment. Even the principal people have no idea of the comforts of the table; when they give feasts, it is with an extravagant profusion of dishes, without any regard to the arrangement, and unattended with any of that elegant ease and order practised by similar classes in most European countries.

[Illustration:

_On Stone by C. Shoosmith from a Sketch by Jas. Henderson._ _Printed by C. Hullmandel._

A FREE NEGRESS AND OTHER MARKET-WOMEN.]

To the want of encouragement and public spirit on the part of the leading inhabitants, and the consequent unwise regulation of the government, may be attributed the present state of the provision-market. The beef is of such a quality, that it is really quite disgusting to the sight. The cattle are certainly driven a great distance, and are in a wretched state on their arrival at the capital; but this difficulty would be remedied by the adoption of a different system. Beef now pays a small duty, and by law is sold at 30 reas (or about 3d.) per lb. and one man has the contract; let it be of the worst quality the price is the same; by the payment of an adequate sum a piece of good beef cannot be obtained. Let this important branch of commerce be thrown open, without any restriction of price; allow it to rest upon the basis of fair competition, and a good quality of this article would be seen in the metropolis, without any great additional price. Mutton is not very generally in use, particularly amongst the Brazilians; I have however seen some very good, which was fed by an Englishman. Veal is rarely if ever seen. Pork is decidedly the best meat obtained here. Vegetables and fruit are very abundant, and at reasonable prices. Potatoes are not produced, except by some of the English; but they degenerate after a year or two, by continuing to plant from the same stock. Poultry of all kinds is dear, and fish is occasionally so, arising more from the indolence of the fishermen, than any scarcity, as the bay and outside of the bar furnish an abundance, and some of a very fine flavour. Upon the whole, living at Rio is as expensive or more so than in London, with none of the comforts of the latter place. A house two stories high, consisting of a store below, and accommodation for a moderate sized family above, will let for two hundred and fifty or three hundred pounds per annum; and houses in the vicinity of the city, with little comparative convenience, will rent at seventy or eighty pounds a year; while those more commodious are proportionably higher.

CHAP. IV.

PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO--_continued_.

_Population of the Capital--Negroes--Nocturnal Clamour of Reptiles--Vampire Bat--State of Literature--Jealousy--Dead Bodies--Military--Bank--Revenue--Imposts--Diamonds--Visit to Campinha--Tenure of Lands--Proof of Fertility--Swiss Emigrants--Visit to the Cascades of Tejuca--Commerce--Judicial Procedure--Pauta and Convention--New Exchange--Foundation of English Church--Towns, Villages, and Productions of the Comarca of Rio de Janeiro--Boundaries, Productions, Rivers, Lakes, and Povaoçoes of the Comarca of Cape Frio--Boundaries, Indians, Rivers, Lakes, Towns, and Sugar Works of the Comarca of Goytacazes--Boundaries, Coroado Indians, and Povaoçoes of the Comarca of Canta Gallo._

The population of Rio de Janeiro is estimated at about one hundred and fifty thousand souls, two-thirds of which are negroes, mulattoes, and others, exhibiting every variety of complexion. The Brazilians residing here, and in the vicinity are denominated _Cariocas_ by the European Portuguese; the meaning or origin of which term I could not learn; the latter falsely considering themselves much superior to the former.

The mulattoes are a portion of the population much the most healthy and robust, their mixture of African and Brazilian constitution appearing exactly adapted to the climate. The negroes are probably not used with more inhumanity here than in other colonies. In the interior they are treated much better than at Rio de Janeiro, where, in some instances, much cruelty is practised. For a trifling offence, they are sometimes committed to the charge of two or three soldiers, who pinion them with cords, and beat them in the most unfeeling manner along the streets, to the Calobouco, a prison for the blacks, where they are destined perhaps to receive a severe castigation before they are liberated. Their owners procure an order from the intendant-general of the police, for one, two, or three hundred lashes, according to the dictates of their caprice or passion, which punishment is administered to those poor wretches by one of their own countrymen, a stout, savage-looking, degraded Negro. A gentleman obtained an order for the flagellation of one of his runaway slaves, with two hundred lashes. On his name being called several times, he appeared at the door of a dungeon, where the negroes seemed to be promiscuously confined together. A rope was put round his neck, and he was led to a large post, in the adjoining yard; around which his arms and feet were bound, while a rope secured his body in like manner, and another, firmly fastened round his thighs, rendered the movement of a single member wholly impossible. The black degradado set to work very mechanically, and at every stroke, which appeared to cut part of the flesh away, he gave a singular whistle. The stripes were repeated always upon the same part, and the negro bore the one hundred lashes he received at this time with the most determined resolution. On receiving the first and second strokes he called out “_Jesu_,” but afterwards laid his head against the side of the post, not uttering a syllable, or asking for mercy; but what he suffered was strongly visible in the tremulous agitation of the whole frame. The scene was deeply afflicting, and it was to be regretted that the man who was capable of such fortitude should be in a condition that subjected him to so painful and degrading an infliction. He received the other one hundred lashes on the third day following, after which, a heavy iron chain to his leg, and an iron riveted round his neck, from which a trident stood up above the head, by way of ornament, would be no pleasant appendages with which to pursue his usual labour.

There are men who profess to be catchers of runaway negroes, and frequently detain and ill use them when they are proceeding upon their employment, keep them confined during a night, conduct them home tied with ropes, and pretend they have detected them running away, for which they demand certain charges and a recompense. I was present when two of those fellows brought a poor negro girl whom they had detained, and it was proved that they stopped her when she was really in pursuit of her occupation. They failed in receiving the recompense they so basely sought, but they ought to have been made a severe example of. It is painful to observe, that if a negro is stopped, or forced away, or in any manner ill-treated, nobody takes his part or believes his story.

A great many persons live entirely in idleness, upon the earnings of one, two, or three slaves, who are denominated “_negros de ganho_,” and stroll about the streets for employment: they are distinguished by a large basket which they carry; others of both sexes are employed in carrying water in tubs, from the fountains, for the supply of the inhabitants; the fountains are crowded all day, and are attended by a couple of soldiers to preserve order. The streets after dark are most offensively filled with negroes, carrying tubs of soil to empty at the beach, a water-closet, or privy, not being known in this city. If these negroes do not bring a certain sum of money to their owners at night, the penalty is generally a severe castigation. Many of the negro slaves are remarkably well formed, particularly some of those who labour at the custom-house, and exhibit much muscular strength about their whole frames, combined with such symmetry of form, that the lineaments and swelling muscles of their naked bodies reminded me of some fine antique models. They wear cotton trowsers, the rest of the body being exposed. The principal part of the importations are removed from the custom-house by them, and their dreadful shoutings and yellings, as a stimulus under their burdens, resound through the streets and suburbs all day. Few waggons are used, and those of a rude construction; the axle-trees, revolving with the wheels, produce a loud and discordant noise.

The humane attempts of some English merchants to introduce waggons, for conveying goods from the custom-house, were effectually opposed by the clerks of that establishment, who have the privilege through intrigue of exclusively letting out their slaves for this employment. The universal diet of the negroes is the farinha, or flour, of the mandioca root, which they mix up with warm water, and occasionally are indulged with a little _toucinho_, or fat bacon, to it; but in the mining districts they use the flour of Indian corn, which a negro, who had worked at the gold mines, informed me, was preferred amongst them to the first. The Brazilians themselves use a great deal of farinha, many families almost subsisting upon it; and when dressed up, as is the custom in some parts of the Brazil, particularly at Pernambuco, with green peppers, &c. into a state they call _pirao_, it is very palatable. _Feijaos_ and _carne-secco_, which are black beans and dried beef stewed together, is a dish much used amongst the Brazilians, and an European with a sharp appetite will not find it a bad relish.

[Illustration:

_On Stone by C. Shoosmith from a Sketch by Jas. Henderson._ _Printed by C. Hullmandel._

NIGHTMAN. WATER CARRIER. WASHER-WOMAN.]

The slave-ships arriving at the Brazil present a terrible picture of human wretchedness, the decks being crowded with beings as closely stowed as it is possible, whose melancholy black faces, and gaunt naked bodies, are of themselves sufficient to transfix with horror an individual unused to such scenes, independently of the painful reflections connected with a consideration of the debasing circumstances and condition of this portion of mankind. A great many of them, as they are seen proceeding from the ships to the warehouses where they are to be exposed for sale, actually appear like walking skeletons, particularly the children; and the skin, which scarcely seems adequate to keep the bones together, is covered with a loathsome disease, which the Portuguese call _sarna_, but may more properly be denominated the scurvy. The poor wretches undergo painful remedies to prepare them as speedily as possible for market. If a visit to the street of warehouses appropriated to their reception be occasioned by a desire of gratifying curiosity, the sentiments brought into operation by such a scene will soon hurry the visitor away in pity and disgust. They are crowded together without regard to sex, and made to sit down in rows upon the ground, being by turns roughly forced upon their feet, for the purpose of exhibiting their bodily powers to a purchaser. Negroes are become very dear; those that might have been procured three years ago for thirty-five or forty pounds, are now worth sixty or seventy.

Strangers coming here are also subject to the _sarna_, as well as the natives, which is an irruption attended with considerable irritation and itching about the legs, feet, and ancles, and becomes troublesome unless great care is taken, by washing them every night with warm water and _cachaça_. The _bicho_ is also another annoyance peculiar to the climate, ever filling the air, the water, and the earth with new and infinite animation. This insect generates in the dust and sand, and penetrating the foot not larger than an atom at first, increases to the size of a small white worm, giving considerable pain till extracted; in doing which, it is necessary to remove all the little eggs which it leaves behind, otherwise they would soon acquire life, and, if allowed, eat away the foot. I have seen numbers of negroes, whose legs and feet, with the aid of the _sarna_, have been literally destroyed, and almost corroded away by them. The little black boys sitting down, and extracting them from their feet with a pin, reminded me of the celebrated bronze figure of a boy, in the attitude of taking a thorn from his foot, which occupies a place in the Salle de Laocoon, at the Louvre.

In traversing the woods, the _carrapato_, with which the branches frequently swarm, is an annoying and dangerous enemy. It is similar in appearance to a sheep-tick, and introduces the head and main part of the body into the flesh, when, if taken away forcibly, it leaves a disagreeable wound. One of these vermin penetrated the leg of the King, and, being injudiciously forced away, caused a wound, which has been occasionally troublesome to his Majesty ever since. The application of oil is deemed an efficacious mode of removing them; but I found this ineffectual, after using it copiously for about half an hour on one that was nearly buried in the ear of a negro-boy.