These Men Had Been Incarcerated For
Various Reasons, Murder, Etc., For Even In This State Of Matto Grosso
An Assassin Who Cannot Pay Or Escape Suffers A Little Imprisonment.
The Excuse Was, "We Cannot Afford To Keep So Many Idle Men - We Are
Poor." What A Confession For A Brazilian!
I do not vouch for the
story, for I was not an eye-witness to the act, but it is quite in
the range of Brazilian possibilities.
The only discrepancy may be the
strange way of Portuguese counting. A man buys three horses, but his
account is that he has bought twelve feet of horses. He embarks a
hundred cows, but the manifest describes the transaction as four
hundred feet. The Brazilian is in this respect almost a Yankee -
little sums do not content him. Why should they, when he can
truthfully boast that his territory is larger than that of the United
States? His mile is longer than that of any other nation, and the
bocadinho, or extra "mouthful," which generally accompanies it, is
endless. Instead of having one hundred cents to the dollar, he has
two thousand, and each cent is called a "king." The sound is big, but
alas, the value of his money is insignificantly small!
The child is not content with being called John Smith. "Jose Maria
Jesus Joao dois Sanctos Sylva da Costa da Cunha" is his name; and he
recites it, as I, in my boyhood's days, used to "say a piece" while
standing on a chair. There is no school in the town. In Brazil, 84
per cent. of the entire population are illiterate.
Corumba contains a few stores of all descriptions, but it would seem
that the stock in trade of the chemist is very low, for I overheard a
conversation between two women one day, who said they could not get
this or that - in fact, "he only keeps cures for stabs and such like
things." In the armazems liquors are sold, and rice, salt and beans
despatched to the customer by the pint. Why wine and milk are not
sold by the pound I did not enquire.
One is not to ask too much in Brazil, or offence is given. When
seated at table one day with a comrade, who had the misfortune to
swallow a bone, I quietly "swallowed" the remedy a Brazilian told us
of. He said their custom was for all to turn away their heads, while
the unfortunate one revolved his plate around three times to the
left, and presto! the bone disappeared. My friend did not believe in
the cure; consequently, he suffered for several days.
I have said that dogs are numerous. These animals roam the streets by
day and night in packs and fight and tear at anyone or anything. Some
days before we arrived there were even more, but a few pounds of
poison had been scattered about the streets - which, by the way, are
the worst of any town I have ever entered - and the dog population of
the world decreased nine hundred. This is the Corumba version.
Perhaps the truth is, nine hundred feet, or, as we count, two hundred
and twenty-five dogs. In the interests of humanity, I hope the number
was nine hundred heads. Five carts then patrolled the streets and
carried away to the outskirts those dead dogs, which were there
burnt. I, the writer, find the latter part of the story hardest to
believe. Why should a freeborn Brazilian lift dogs out of the street?
In what better place could they be? They would fill up the holes and
ruts, and, in such intense heat, why do needless work?
Corumba is a typical Brazilian town. Little carts, drawn by a string
of goats or rams, thread their way through the streets. Any animal
but the human must do the work. As the majority of the people go
barefooted, the patriarchal custom prevails of having water offered
on entering a house to wash the feet. At all hours of the day men,
women and children seek to cool themselves in the river, which is
here a mile wide, and with a depth of 20 feet in the channel. While
on the subject of bathing, I might mention that a wooden image of the
patron saint of the town is, with great pomp, brought down at the
head of a long procession, once every year, to receive his annual
"duck" in the water. This is supposed to benefit him much. After his
immersion, all the inhabitants, men, women and children, make a rush
to be the first to dip in the "blessed water," for, by doing this,
all their sins are forgiven them for a year to come. The sick are
careful to see that they are not left in the position of the
unfortunate one mentioned in the Gospel by John, who "had no one to
put him into the pool."
I have also known the Virgin solemnly carried down to the water's
edge, that she might command it to rise or fall, as suited the
convenience of the people. While she exercised her power the natives
knelt around her on the shingly beach in rapturous devotion. At such
times the "Mother of Heaven" is clothed in her best, and the jewels
in her costume sparkle in the tropical sun.
What the Nile is to Egypt, the Paraguay River is to these interior
lands, and what Isis was to the Egyptians, so is the Virgin to these
people. Once, when the waters were low, it is related the Virgin came
down from heaven and stood upon some rocks in the river bed. To this
day the pilot tells you how her footprints are to be clearly seen,
impressed in the stone, when the water is shallow. Strange that
Mahomet does not rise from his tomb and protest, for that miracle we
must concede to him, because his footprints have been on the sacred
rocks at Mecca for a thousand years.
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