While I was on the island a child of a few weeks old was to be baptized. This they consider a most important ceremony; so the father and mother, with godfathers and godmothers, set out in a canoe for Chaves, on the island of Marajó, the nearest place where there is a priest. They were absent three days, and then returned with the news that the Padre was ill, and could not perform the ceremony; so they were obliged to bring back the poor little unsanctified creature, liable, according to their ideas, should it die, to eternal perdition. The same evening they sang for three hours to their usual music the whole history of their journey, judging from the portions which were here and there intelligible. They made every fact into a verse, which was several times repeated. Thus one would suddenly burst out,—
"The Padre was ill, and could not come,
The Padre was ill, and could not come."
CHORUS.
"The Padre was ill, and could not come."
Then for a time the music continued without the voices, while they were trying to find another fact to found a verse upon. At length some one continued the subject:—
"He told us to come the next day,
To see if he was better."
CHORUS.
"He told us to come the next day,