Water is brought to the city through an aqueduct which was built a hundred years ago, and is in good condition; some of the best modern houses are supplied through pipes from the aqueduct, but the greater part of the inhabitants rely upon the water-carriers, who are similar to their fellow-craftsmen whom we have already seen at Para. In the early morning the streets abound with these men, and with numerous house-servants, bearing buckets or small casks of water on their heads. The fountains are the great meeting-places for gossipers, as similar places have been since the days when the New Testament was written, and sometimes the scenes at the fountains of Rio are animated to a degree bordering on commotion. Of course, the aqueduct is one of the sights of the city, and the drive along the road leading past it was greatly enjoyed by the youths.
A BRAZILIAN FOREST, WITH CHARACTERISTIC MAMMALIA.
The aqueduct is twelve miles long, and at one place it crosses a valley seven hundred and forty feet wide and ninety feet deep, on double arches. It is insufficient for the wants of the city, and a new one is likely to be completed before long.
People die in Rio as well as in other cities, and the cemetery is one of the institutions of the place. The old cemeteries of Rio adjoin the churches; since 1850 no interments have been allowed in them, and new cemeteries have been established in the suburbs. The foreign cemetery is at Gamboa, on the shore of the bay.
COFFIN CLOSED.
"We went to one of the cemeteries," said Frank, "and happened to arrive at the entrance chapel just as a funeral was going on. The coffin was so shallow that the body lying within it was distinctly visible above the sides as it stood on a stand resembling a sarcophagus; the lid is shaped like the roof of a house, and is made of two sloping boards meeting and forming a ridge. The Catholic service for the dead was performed, and then a procession of priests and mourners formed, and the coffin was borne from the chapel to the cemetery.