BRAZIL AND BRAZILIAN SOCIETY.
TRANSLATED FROM THE REVUE DES DEUX MONDES, BY ASHER HALL.
CHAPTER THIRD.
PEOPLE OF COLOR.
One would form a poor estimate of the future prospects of Brazil, if he only saw the works of the negro and the Indian. He who would know all the elements of vitality existing in the Brazilian people, must observe the men of color, who seem to have drawn from the mixture of races the necessary vigor for subjugating the rugged and torrid nature of the tropics. The constantly increasing number of people of color is explained by European emigration. Few women emigrate across the ocean, while, on the contrary, twenty-five thousand men from Europe annually land in Brazil, where they disperse, some in the towns and others in the country, according to their taste, aptitude, or ambition. In the absence of white women, they ally themselves to negresses or Indians, and hence springs the class of mestizos, who, amalgamating in their turn, produce all the intermediate shades of the race. This crossing of the different classes may be divided into three primitive branches—the Mameluco, the Mulatte, and the Caboclo.
THE MAMELUCO.
Of these three types the mameluco presents the most singular characteristics. By this name are designated the descendants of the old conquistadores, who took Indian wives, after exterminating the warriors of the wilderness. They occupy a large belt on both shores of the Rio de la Plata, from the Atlantic coast to the most secluded forests of the interior. The southern provinces are almost exclusively populated by them.
HORSEMANSHIP
Accustomed to the horse from childhood, the mamelucosrarely put their feet to the ground. They attend to business, hunt, fish, and talk over their affairs on horseback. Armed with the lasso, they form those redoubtable centaurs, so well known in South-America under the name of Gauchos, and who may be considered the first horsemen in the world. They easily ride down the swiftest animals, such as the nandu, or American ostrich, and strike them with their terrible bolas.[1] It is among them that are found, at the present day, the most intrepid soldiers and the best colonists of Brazil and the Argentine Republic. Accustomed to wrestle against the difficulties of wilderness life, to respire the air of the broad plains, and to race through the immense campos of the South with all the swiftness of their wild steeds, they differ wonderfully from their degenerate brethren, who have been effimitated by the opulent fazendas of the coast, or the voluptuous cities near the Atlantic. One thing alone is common to them all, namely, a deep sense of the duty of hospitality. It would be necessary to go back to Homeric legends to meet, in Europe, with the reception that the humblest plantation offers to the traveller in the forests of the new world.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF RANCHO.
Like all people of color, the mameluco troubles himself little about his lodging The rancho suffices for him. This is an open structure that serves, according to its situation, as a shelter for provisions, residents, mules, travellers, and frequently for all together. Nothing is more simple, and at the same time more varied, than the architecture of this shelter. The rancho of the venda, or tavern, is not at all like that of the forest, which differs still more from that of the plan-
- ↑ The bolas are the leaden balls that terminate the lasso.
