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.
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.