s; and
when you added to this the monotonous bellowing of cows and oxen, the
frantic neighing of horses and mules waiting to be fed, the crowing of
cocks and the cackling of hens, the unmusical shrieks of a beautiful
_arara_ (or macaw, of gorgeous green, blue, and yellow plumage), and of
two green parrots--to which total add, please, the piercing yells of the
children--it was really enough to drive one insane.

They were superior farmers, those of the "Merry Rest"--no one could
doubt it when the lady of the house and her pretty daughter arrived from
an errand and found strangers in the house. Dear me, what style, what
enchanting affectation, the pretty maid and her mamma put on when they
perceived us!... With an air of solemnity that was really delightful,
they each offered us the tip of one finger for us to shake, and spoke
with such affectation that their words stumbled one against the other.
Their vocabulary was evidently restricted, and in order to make the
conversation elegant they interpolated high-sounding words which did not
exactly belong, but sounded grand in their ears. It was a trial to have
to remain serious.

Dinner was served--always the same fare wherever you went. Boiled rice
(very badly boiled), beans, stewed chicken chopped up, _pimienta_
(peppers), fried eggs and Indian corn flour, which one mixed up together
on one's plate and rendered into a paste. The coffee was always plentiful
and good, but so strong that it was quite bitter.

By the light of a wick burning and smoking terribly from the neck of an
ex-medicine bottle filled with oil, we enjoyed our meal, watched intently
by the entire family, silent and flattened in semi-obscurity against the
walls. The primitive lamp gave so little light--although it gave abundant
smell--that the many figures were almost indistinguishable against the
dirty background, and all one perceived on raising one's eyes from the
dinner-plate was a row of expanded eyes, following the movements of our
hands, and just under that row a row of white teeth.

When seen in a stronger light it was curious to notice criminal
characteristics on nearly every face one saw; in the servants at those
farmhouses one frequently observed murderous-looking creatures whom one
would not care to meet alone in the dark. They were a special breed of
stranded outcasts who had drifted there--the outcome of a complex mixture
of Portuguese, former black slaves, and Indians. When you realized that