One day the old man came to me with a face of dismay, to shew me a ball of leaves tied up with cypô, which he had found under a couple of boards, upon which he slept in an out-house; for he had removed from the house of his friend in the town to my place. The ball of leaves was about the size of an apple. I could not imagine what had caused his alarm, until he said that it was mandinga, which had been set for the purpose of killing him; and he bitterly bewailed his fate, that at his age any one should wish to hasten his death, and to carry him from this world before our Lady thought fit to send for him. I knew that two of the black women were at variance; and suspicion fell upon one of them who was acquainted with the old mandingueiro of Engenho Velho, therefore she was sent for. I judged that the mandinga was not set for Apollinario, but for the negress whose business it was to sweep the ouhouse. I threatened to confine the suspected woman at Pillar, and then to send her to Para, unless she discovered the whole affair; this she did, after she heard me tell the manager to prepare to take her to Pillar. She said that the mandinga was placed there to make one of the negroes dislike her fellow slave and prefer her to the other. The ball of mandinga was formed of five or six kinds of leaves of trees, among which was the pomegranate leaf; there were likewise two or three bits of rag, earth of a peculiar kind, ashes which were of the bones of some animal; and there might be other ingredients besides, but these were what I could recognise. The woman either could not from ignorance, or would not, give any information respecting the several things of which the ball was composed. I made this serious matter of the mandinga, from knowing the faith which not only many of the negroes have in it, but also some of the mulatto people; however I explained to every one that I was angry with her from the bad intention of the scheme, and not from any belief that it would have any effect. There is another name for this kind of charm; it is feitiço, and the initiated are called feitiçeiros; of these there was one formerly at the plantation of St. Joam, upon the island, who became so much dreaded that his master sold him to be sent to Maranham.
Old Apollinario was useful to me in taking care of my poultry. I had great quantities of the common fowl, and as I had cleared the land to a considerable distance around the house, the fowls had a good range without being molested by the foxes. I had ducks, turkeys, and pigeons; the young of these last were frequently destroyed by the timbu; this animal is about the size of a small cat, and has a long tail, which is scaly and whitish; the colour of the body is dark brown, with two white stripes from the nose to the tail down the back; the head is long, and the snout is pointed; it has an abdominal pouch, which is large. When pursued, it soon surrenders, by coiling itself up in its tail. I give the description as I received it, for although we watched oftentimes for the purpose of catching one of these animals, we were not successful. I had some geese at Jaguaribe and at Itamaraca, but from what cause I know not, the young ones were scarcely ever reared. Many other persons had found equal difficulty in this respect with myself. Guinea-fowls are esteemed, but give much trouble, for their unaccommodating disposition renders it necessary to keep them separate from all other kinds of fowl. There is only one pair of peacocks in Pernambuco; they are in the garden of the widow of a merchant, in the neighbourhood of Recife. Snipes and wild ducks are to be found in low marshy grounds; and upon the island at certain times of the year there were great numbers of wild doves. The bees which I have seen at some of the farm-houses are preserved in a part of the trunk of the tree in which they had originally been found; the tree is cut down, and the portion containing the nest is brought home. The bees are black, and much smaller than those of Europe, nor is their bite nearly so painful; the log of wood in which they are preserved is sawed or cut in some particular manner, which I cannot exactly describe, by which means the honey can be taken out. The honey is always liquid. It is used as a medicine rather than as food, for the small quantities of it which are to be obtained, render the demand of it for the medical men fully equal to the supply.[139]
In the month of November there arrived a priest upon a visit to the vicar, whose exertions are incessant on every subject which relates to the improvement of his country. He had now been staying with a friend in the province of Paraiba, and had made a drawing of a stone upon which were carved a great number of unknown characters and several figures, one of which had the appearance of being intended to represent a woman. The stone or rock is large, and stands in the middle of the bed of a river, which is quite dry in the summer. When the inhabitants of the neighbourhood saw him at work in taking this drawing, they said, that there were several others in different parts of the vicinity, and they gave him the names of the places. It was his intention to return again the following year, and seek them out. I should have brought with me a copy of this curious drawing, if my departure from Pernambuco had not been hastened from unavoidable circumstances.
I was invited about this period to attend the funeral of a young married woman of respectable family. I went about five o’clock to the house of the vicar, that I might go with him and three other priests. From hence we adjourned at dusk to the church, where the priests, all of whom were already in their black gowns, put on over these the short lace rochet, and the vicar took in his hands a large silver cross. We walked to the house in which the body was laid; this was habited in the coarse brown cloth of the Franciscan order, for the deceased had belonged to the lay sisterhood of the Third Order of St. Francis; the face was uncovered, and the body was laid upon a bier, the room being lighted with many torches. The habits in which the bodies of the deceased lay brothers and sisters of the Third Order are dressed, are obtained from the convents of St. Francis, and are said to be the habits of deceased friars; but probably the worn-out dresses of those who still live are likewise sold, and thus arises a considerable source of revenue to the convent. There were assembled in the room several of her male relations and others who had been invited. After a good deal of chaunting, a wax taper was given to each person present, and these being lighted, we proceeded to the church which was hard by, walking in pairs; the bier followed, carried by four persons, and there was chaunting as we went along. In the middle of the body of the church, a scaffolding was erected of about four feet from the ground, and upon this the bier was placed, the attendants standing round whilst the priests chaunted. The body was soon put into the grave which was in the church, and there was lime in it. The friends of persons deceased aim at having as many priests at the funeral as they can collect and afford to pay; though on the occasion of which I speak, the priests served without any remuneration, for the young woman was the near relative of a priest with whom the others were intimate. Likewise all the neighbours who are of an equal rank with the deceased, are invited to attend, that the ceremony may be as splendid as possible. Notwithstanding the manifest inconvenience, and the mischief which the unwholesomeness of the custom might, and perhaps does cause, all bodies are buried within the churches. Indeed the prejudice against being buried in the open air is so great, that even the priests would not dare to alter this mode of proceeding, supposing that they wished so to do.
Towards the end of the same month (November) it is customary for the vicar to determine upon those persons who are to sustain the expences of the nine evenings previous to the festival of Our Lady of Conception,—that is to supply the bon-fires, gunpowder, oil, &c. Each evening is provided for on all these occasions, by one or more persons of the immediate neighbourhood, and a greater or less expence is incurred, according to the means and the inclination of the individuals who have been named. It was my general practice to accompany the vicar to church on Sundays and holidays, returning with him to his house to breakfast. I was in the church when he read over the list of the names of those who were to provide for the nine evenings, and was somewhat surprised to hear my own in conjunction with that of a neighbour, for the ninth night. I had however, some suspicion that this would be the case, for I had heard some whisperings upon the subject among the secondary people; the custom is, thus to keep the individuals who are to be concerned ignorant of what is intended. We began on the following morning to make preparations for the occasion, and sent to Recife for the colours of several ships, some gunpowder, fireworks, and a few of the musicians of the band of the Olinda regiment, applying through a friend for the consent of their colonel. We likewise sent for Nicolau, a creole black, and a tailor by trade; but whose merry tongue and feet made him like dancing and singing better than the needle: and we agreed with him to bring over from the village of Pasmado, a set of fandango performers. The colours were raised upon long staffs, very early in the morning of our day, in two rows along the area of the town; and as the sun rose, several guns were fired,—of those which are usually made use of at festivals; they are composed of a small and short iron tube, which has a touch-hole of disproportionate dimensions; they are placed upright upon the ground, and the match is then applied. In the course of the day the band played, and in the evening were kindled about twenty bon-fires in the square of the village. The houses were illuminated with lamps, which were made of the half of the rind of an orange, each containing a small quantity of oil and cotton. There were likewise great numbers of large crosses, lighted up in the same manner in several parts of the square. The church was crowded, and the noise of the people was great; the guns were fired at intervals; the musicians of the festival, with violins and violoncellos played within the church, and the Olinda men on the outside; and rockets were let off occasionally; indeed the confusion was extreme. Some of the numerous horses which stood in all quarters, tied to railings or to door posts or held by little children, whilst their masters were amusing themselves, took fright and broke loose adding not a little to the noise and bustle. All the affairs in and about the church ended at so late an hour, that the fandangos were deferred until the following evening. The band had been playing close to the door of the vicar’s residence, which was much crowded with several of the first families of the island; and in the front of the house a great concourse of people was assembled. At the moment that the music ceased, an improvisatori or glozador, as these persons are there called, set up his voice, and delivered a few verses in praise of the vicar; he then praised Our Lady in a strange style, giving her every fine epithet whether appropriate or not, which came to his recollection. Then he rung changes upon every body he could think of, and I heard the name of Henrique da Costa, to which mine was metamorphosed, thrown in every now and then among the rest. I was praised for my superior piety, in giving so splendid a night in honour of Our Lady. On the following morning every arrangement was made for the fandangos. A spacious platform was erected, in the middle of the area of the town, and in front of the vicar’s dwelling, raised about three feet from the ground. In the evening four bon-fires were lighted, two being on each side of the stage, and soon afterwards the performers made their appearance. The story which forms the basis of this amusement is invariably the same; the parts however, are not written, and are to be supplied by the actors; but these, from practice, know more or less what they are to say. The scene is a ship at sea, which, during part of the time is sailing regularly and gently along; but in the latter part of the voyage she is in distress. The cause of the badness of the weather remains for a long time unknown; but at last the persons who are on board discover that it has arisen from the devil, who is in the ship, under the disguise of the mizen-topmast-man. The persons represented, are
The Captain,
The Master,
The Chaplain,
The Pilot or Mate,
The Boatswain,
| The Raçam, or distributor of the rations, Vasoura, or sweeper of the decks, | } | Two clowns; |
The Gageiro da Gata, or mizen-topmast-man, alias the Devil.
Twelve men and boys, who are dancers and singers, stand on the stage, six of them being on each side of it; and the leader of the chorus sits at the back of the stage with a guitar, with which he keeps the time, and this person is sometimes assisted by a second guitar player. A ship is made for the occasion; and when the performers stepped on to the platform, the vessel appeared at a distance under full sail, coming towards us upon wheels, which were concealed. As soon as the ship arrived near to the stage it stopped, and the performance commenced. The men and boys who were to sing and to dance, were dressed in white jackets and trowsers; they had ribbons tied round their ankles and arms, and upon their heads they wore long paper caps, painted of various colours. The guitar player commenced with one of the favourite airs of the country, and the chorus followed him, dancing at the same time. The number of voices being considerable, and the evening extremely calm, the open air was rather advantageous than the contrary. The scene was striking, for the bon-fires threw sufficient light to allow of our seeing the persons of the performers distinctly; but all beyond was dark, and they seemed to be inclosed by a spacious dome; the crowd of persons who were near to the stage was great, and as the fires were stirred and the flame became brighter, more persons were seen beyond on every side; and at intervals the horses which were standing still farther off, waiting for their masters.
When the chorus retired, the captain and other superior officers came forwards, and a long and serious conversation ensued upon the state of the ship and the weather. These actors were dressed in old uniforms of the irregular troops of the country. They were succeeded by the boatswain and the two clowns; the former gave his orders, to which the two latter made so many objections that the officer was provoked to strike one of them, and much coarse wit passed between the three. Soon afterwards came the chaplain in his gown, and his breviary in his hand; and he was as much the butt of the clowns, as they were of the rest of the performers. The most scurrilous language was used by them to him; he was abused, and was taxed with almost every irregularity possible. The jokes became at last so very indecent, as to make the vicar order his doors to be shut. The dancers came on at each change of scene, if I may so say. I went home soon after the vicar’s doors were closed, and did not see the conclusion; but the matter ended by throwing the devil overboard, and reaching the port in safety. The performers do not expect payment, but rather consider themselves complimented in being sent for. They were tradesmen of several descriptions residing at Pasmado, and they attend on these occasions to act the fandangos, if requested so to do; but if not, many of them would most probably go to enjoy any other sport which the festival might afford. We paid their expences, and gave them their food during their stay; they were accompanied by their families, which were all treated in the same manner, to the number of about forty persons.