A Tour Through South America

by A. S. Forrest

A racing story is told in the locality about an Englishman who owned a horse he was eager to match against all comers. A day and course were fixed upon, but, to the surprise of outsiders, the race was won by an old “caipira,” whose steed was heavily backed by the punters on the course. The crestfallen and astonished “Ingleze” did not discover till long after his defeat that the winner was an old race-horse that had been surreptitiously obtained from São Paulo for the purpose of taking down his boastful pride. It was the last appearance of an English owner on the Parnahyba race-course, and the natives chuckle to this day over the way the old “caipira” soaked the “Ingleze.” A few days spent at the manager’s house on the hill are full of interest, and the details of the day’s work in connection with the station provide ample topics of conversation. Watchful attention has to be given night and day to the great installation, for lightning storms occur frequently, and may at any moment cause a slight disturbance of the transmission, which, but for the reserve steam power station in the city, would envelop the town in darkness, bring the whole tramway service to a standstill, and stop thousands of machines which are dependent upon the station for driving power. Telephones connect the distributing with the power station, and the latter with the manager’s house, and even his bedroom is provided with an alarum which can rouse him at any moment from his slumber. The Light and Power Company of São Paulo have acquired many concessions along the Tieté, and other rivers and sites for future stations have already been fixed upon—two at Pirapora, and one, where construction has been going on for some time, at Sorocaba, about three miles distant from Parnahyba. Surveyors and engineers are at work planning another station at Pau d’Alho, so that the rapid developments which are taking place in the State will not catch this enterprising company napping. At Pirapora, not far from the village, there is a Roman Catholic convent where a dozen priests under the direction of a bishop are housed. The building itself is new, but the site was occupied by one of the earliest Jesuit mission stations in the State. The church, Bom Jesus de Pirapora, in the village of about 1500 inhabitants, has an extensive fame, not only in the State of São Paulo, but in others lying at a great distance, for it has a reputation for miraculous cures. It is the Lourdes of Brazil. The great annual pilgrimage to this shrine attracts thousands of afflicted persons, lame, halt, deformed, and blind, who walk from great distances, enduring many hardships and suffering privations with astonishing fortitude. Many die on the way, but the thousands of photographs preserved in the church are evidence of the numbers who have visited the spot, and these pictures of the cured, with their crutches and bandages, serve to advertise the virtues of the shrine. A legend exists in Pirapora to the effect that Christ rose from out the river some years ago, and the authority of the church supports and spreads the myth. At the annual gathering of the pilgrims, bishops and priests from distant parishes are present in great numbers, encouraging the patients with advice, and administering healing slaps on the faces and bodies of the victims to accelerate the cures. Many of the natives of Pirapora have never left the precincts of the little village, and spend their lives in ignorance of the ways of the great city not fifty miles away. The priests still exercise a powerful influence over their lives, and girls and unmarried women are kept indoors and out of the public gaze with Oriental strictness. A curious market is held outside the church on Sunday mornings and on festa days. The priests hold an auction, and horses, cattle, goats, pigs, chickens, flour, rice, vegetables, fruit, furniture, and innumerable odds and ends are offered for sale and knocked down to the highest bidder. The proceeds of these sales go into the coffers of the church, and as the stock sold is the gift of the people this is their way of supporting their religion. This system is prevalent throughout the country, and in many districts it becomes a sort of “fair,” at which all kinds of little stalls, covered with bunting and adorned with flags, are set up to provide refreshment to the holiday crowd. Firework displays wind up the day, and as all the squibs, rockets, and roman candles are home-made, the uncertainty of the behaviour of each separate piece gives an added zest to the spectators. At the church auctions strange lots are sometimes offered to the public; mysterious parcels, without any marks or signs to give indications of their contents, occasionally fetch high prices, and on being opened disclose some ludicrous object such as a baby’s feeding-bottle or rattle. A bunch of wild flowers, gathered and given by some village beauty, will generally cause excited bidding by her admirers, who compete with extravagant bids against one another, until it is knocked down at an absurdly high figure. There is plenty of sport to be had along the river’s bank, and hunting parties make good bags of birds, monkeys, carpincha, and occasional deer. Fishing is also a popular and profitable sport with the natives, who are not too partial to strenuous exertion. Most of the workers on the small farms own their land, and the crops of maize, sugar, and rice provide a comfortable and easily obtained livelihood. From the sugar juice a highly intoxicating liquor called “pinga” is distilled, and sold in kegs to the small stores, who retail it to the public at about 20 reis a glass (less than a farthing English money), a price that brings it within the reach of all, and contributes largely to its popularity. This fiery brand is responsible for much of the crime that takes place in the country. A tragedy attributable to pinga occurred some little time back at Parnahyba, which for about a fortnight was full of speculation as to the cause. One of the great gates that guard the entrance to the water conduits leading from the upper dam to the reservoir had become jammed, and a diver was sent down to ascertain the cause. It was noticed that he had taken a peg or two of pinga before he donned his helmet, but little heed was given at the time to this not unusual proceeding. He soon came up from his first examination, and reported the position, which necessitated the attachment of a strong wire rope to the damaged door, in order that it might be pulled back into its proper place. The diver descended again, taking the end of the stout rope with him, and for a long time the men at the pump went on turning to supply him with air. After an hour had gone by without a sign of the diver they grew alarmed, and pulled at the communication cord without receiving any answering signal. Two more divers were telegraphed for from Santos, and until they arrived the following day the pump was kept going, in the hope that the unfortunate man was alive, but perhaps entangled with some obstruction which prevented him from coming to the surface or from replying to their repeated signals. All that the newly arrived divers could discover, when they descended, however, was that the air supply pipe to the missing man led over the jammed gates into the great pipe, and that it was divided; the victim must be somewhere in the long 2000 feet tube. Search was made in the reservoir above the

THE FALLS OF PARNAHYBA.

power station, but no sign of the missing man could be discovered. The excitement in the village grew to fever pitch, and spread to the inhabitants along the river’s bank. Endless suggestions and theories were forthcoming as to what had happened and the means to be taken to clear up the mystery, which puzzled the wisest and most expert opinion. One theory set up and spread by the subtle-minded labourers was that the missing man had slipped out of his suit underwater, and had, under cover of the darkness, made his way to a distant part of the river, and there he had climbed out and escaped, his object being to get compensation for his widow and children. This theory spread, in spite of its absurdity, for the simple folk recalled the case of a man who conspired to have his effigy burnt in a fire that took place in another part of the country, and whose supposed widow got insurance money, which the supposed victim and his fellow-conspirators shared among them. Other theories, no less ridiculous, were current, and the superstitions of the natives were aroused, when one of the night watchmen refused further duty at the tragic spot, alleging that he had seen the ghost of the diver emerge from the water and hover round the spot, and it was only when the body of the missing man floated to the surface of the reservoir, a fortnight later, that an end was put to the endless surmises and stupid conjectures that were the talk of the whole neighbourhood.

CHAPTER XXVIII
Coffee

FROM an obscure origin the habit of coffee-drinking has grown to be almost universal. That the natural home of the plant itself is Abyssinia or East Africa is generally known, but how its fruit came to be used in the making of a beverage is the subject of many legends. One ancient Mohammedan tradition tells how the superior of a monastery, observing that goats eating the coffee berries became very wakeful and lively at night, prepared a decoction of the berries, in order to keep his dervishes awake when the religious services at the mosque demanded their attention during the whole of the night. He proved the efficacy of the beverage, and recommended it to his co-religionists, who, on discovering that it was pleasant as well as useful, soon acquired the coffee habit, and frequently refreshed themselves throughout the day with the dark brown liquid.

So popular did coffee-drinking become amongst the faithful that one section endeavoured to put down the practice, which they looked upon as an evil. They alleged that it was an intoxicant, and as such was expressly forbidden by the Koran. Their religious zeal or bigotry was not, however, so powerful as the hold which the coffee bean had acquired over the people, and the custom of coffee-drinking, now time-honoured throughout the East, has spread, not only over the whole of Europe, but practically throughout the world.

The first coffee-house or café was established in Constantinople early in the sixteenth century, and its popularity was such as to arouse the hostility of the priesthood, who saw in the attractions of the café a serious menace to the attendances at the mosque. Thus that which according to legend had originated as an aid to worship, came to be regarded as an enemy to devotion, and a bitter feeling was aroused which persisted for many years.

For a century the habit was almost exclusively practised by the Orientals, but in the middle of the seventeenth century it spread to France and England. In the year 1652 a coffee-house was opened in London, in St. Michael’s Alley, Cornhill, and was the forerunner of many rival establishments that quickly opened throughout the capital.

These houses came to be frequented more particularly by the political and literary circles of the day, and in the reign of Charles II a royal proclamation was issued against coffee-shops, alleging them to be the rendezvous of disaffected persons; but this was not such an effective check upon the spread of the habit as was the imposition of a heavy tax upon the article. It is remarkable that although coffee, tea, and cocoa were all introduced into Europe about the same time, the preference for tea in England has been as steady as the predilection for coffee in France.