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page 305 ---wildlife---Guaratingueta---Nossa Senhora Aparecida---

We, therefore, could not be surprised, that in a place containing some thousand inhabitants we were obliged to be content with a frugal meal on an armadillo * which we had shot by the way. The flesh of this animal has, indeed, an agreeable taste, resembling fowl, but is very fat.

Valley of the Paraiba, province of Sao Paulo

The road goes from the villa, always southwest, through the valley of the Paraiba. To the left of us lay a pleasant well-cultivated chain of hills planted with beans, maize, mandiocca roots, and tobacco.

Serra do Mantiqueira

On the right, the broad valley extends to the chain of Serra do Mantiqueira, and bearing scarcely any traces of culture, is covered with thick low bushes of myrtles, cujawas,&c. a dreary and desolate prospect. Only the hope that thousands of happy people will one day inhabit this highly gifted country can cheer the mind of the traveller. After proceeding a mile we reached the shrine of Nossa Senhora Apparecida, a chapel situated on an eminence, with a few houses about it. We had brought letters from Rio for the capitão môr of Guaratinguetá, who resides here. He received us with visible pleasure, and treated us with everything that his house afforded. The cordial reception offered to a stranger, the busy haste with which all the inmates of the house are eager to wait upon him, excite an agreeable sensation in the mind of the European traveller.

* Tatu, Dasypus septemcinctus.

page 306 ---hospitality---lifestyle and dress---

Accustomed, in foreign countries, to purchase everything which is not offered gratis, he fancies himself transported to the patriarchal customs of oriental antiquity, when the name of a guest gave as it were, a legal claim to such a kind welcome and was more than an apology for the disturbance which it caused in the family. The first thing shown us here was the chapel. It was erected about seventy years ago, a long period in this country; it is partly built of stone, and adorned with gilding, bad paintings in fresco, and some in oil. The wonder-working image of the Virgin attracts many pilgrims from the whole province, and from Minas. We met many of these pilgrims when we proceeded on our journey on Christmas-eve. Everybody here, women as well as men, travels on mules or on horseback; frequently the man takes the woman behind him on the same saddle.

The dress of these planters is quite adapted to their local situation: a brown beaver hat with a very broad brim, which serves, at the same time, as a protection against the sun and the rain; a long very wide blue frock (poncho), with a hole at the top for the head; jacket and trousers, of dark calico; high unblacked boots, fastened below the knee with a leathern strap and buckle; a long knife with a silver handle, which serves as a defense, and sticks either in the boot at the knee, or in the girdle, and is used at meals as well as on other occasions, are the chief characteristics of a travelling Paulista.