of the wealthier families will rise daily as early as five and go to the market, two miles distant, to buy what is needed for the table in the way of fish, meat, vegetables, and fruit. But, ordinarily, your man-servant rises at six, and in a pair of slip-shod slippers goes to the nearest meatshop for the day's supply; while the meat is being cut, he steps into the shop of the adjoining grocer and buys a morning journal, the columns of which he enjoys reading as much as any one. If he feels like it, he indulges in a small glass of the spirits of the country. On his return to the house, in the course of ten or fifteen minutes, he blacks your boots, sweeps the dining-room and hall, perhaps washes off the steps and sidewalk in front, sets the table for breakfast, cleans the parrot-cage, and generally continues occupied through the day, taking a few whiffs from a cigarette at intervals.

There is in common use in Brazil, as well as in Spanish America and in Portugal and Spain, an earthen bottle (called in Brazil moringue) for holding drinking-water, which is very serviceable, and would form a most useful addition to American household utensils in warm weather, as it keeps water fresh and cool a long time. It is likewise a very picturesque object, being in the form of an ancient Greek pattern, of which a specimen, all but the stopper, is given in Plate XXVIII, page 234, of Eastlake's "Household Taste," under the head of "Greek toiletware." The lower part of this bottle is bulbous in form, about eight inches in diameter, the neck four or five inches long, so as to be conveniently grasped by the hand, and one and a half inch in diameter at the mouth. stopper is hollow, with a neat circular cap top. The bottom is flat, and it is usually set on a small plate of the same material—the whole of a deep Indian-red color.

The

The quality of being unglazed gives it the power to keep water cool. Being used also with a stopper, as it always should be, it prevents the water from absorbing the impurities of the atmosphere; it also excludes insects; and for these reasons, and because it keeps the water cool, it would be a vast improvement on our open pitchers. In the sick-chamber at night it would prove especially valuable. Its introduction into our country would also tend to do away with the use of ice-water. These bottles are all made by hand, and beautifully shaped by the eye, from a lump of moist and prepared clay, while revolving rapidly on a little table which the workman keeps in motion by a crank worked with his foot. They are retailed singly, with the plate, at less than fifty cents. Glazed and fancy painted bottles are often to be seen on the tables of restaurants and hotels, but they do not keep the water cool, nor are they as picturesque as the unglazed bottles. No family undertakes to do without the latter.

CHAPTER III.

RIO AND ITS PEOPLE.

WHILE the first rude huts were being built where New York now stands, Rio de Janeiro, the commercial and political capital of Brazil, had been settled over fifty years. It is situated as far south as Havana is north of the equator, and has now a population of nearly half a million, it being the largest city, outside of the United States, on the American Continent. It is the seat of half the foreign commerce of the empire, has a navy-yard, arsenal, several ship-yards, cotton - mills, foundries, and other manufactures. If one of our larger ships of war needed repairs while in the South Atlantic, it could find only at Rio a sufficiently large dry-dock. The glory of the city is its splendid harbor, four miles wide by twelve miles long, and into which the largest ships can enter with ease and lie in safety. The city is built on one side of the bay which forms this harbor, with wooded and peaked mountains in the immediate background, whose spurs and foot-hills, in places, press down almost to the water's edge, forming headlands between which are smaller, crescent-shaped bays. The older part of the city is on low, flat land, where the streets are straight and narrow. Within the present city limits are twenty hills, some of which are quite prominent and covered with buildings. The principal hill is Santa Theresa. On the Gloria are a white

church of the same name, and a few villas amid scattered royal palms; on the Castle Hill are the observatory and shipping telegraph station, while the Saude Hill is covered with old and cheap dwellings. Two or three other hills are noticeable as the sites of old and rather dingy-looking convents. Others, again, are about in their natural state, clothed with bushes and trees, though here and there are considerable areas of green grass. Granite-quarrying is going on extensively at the base and sides of several hills.

From the Botanical Garden, situated at the foot of the Corcovado Mountain, around to the foot of the Tijuca Mountains, the distance is about ten miles, all of which is built up. The whole of this distance can be traveled in street-cars, and the trip would give one many interesting views and a fair idea of the city. Another interesting ride on the street-cars would be to Ponte Caju, and past the cemetery of that name. It is a promontory, at the end of which the Emperor has his hunting-park, but which, I imagine, he seldom visits. A still more interesting trip on the street-cars is up the inclined plane in cars pulled by a cable and stationary engine on the Santa Theresa Hill, and to the new reservoir, the view from which is fine.

The best view of Rio and its surroundings is obtained from the top of the Corcovado Mountain, two thousand feet high, situated about five miles from the customhouse. Though connected with the Tijuca group of mountains, among which are some higher peaks, it is easily distinguished by its peculiar form. The side toward the sea is a precipitous column of rock for half the distance down from the top-the Botanical Garden lying at the foot. The opposite side is gradually sloping, clothed with forest, and from some points of view is thought to look like the stooping shoulders of an old man—a fancy

which suggested its name. The view from the summit, taking in as it does almost the whole extended and irregular area of the city, with many interesting natural objects, is highly pleasing. Like Naples, as seen from the hill of St. Elmo, the level part of the city resembles a plane of tiled roofs, with steeples and domes interspersed, yet studded with several bright-green hills dotted with buildings and trees. In the direction of the Emperor's residence, some six miles distant, and which seems to stand amid an undulating, verdant park, are large tracts of vacant, level, and grass-covered land, showing what an extensive area remains for the city to be built upon farther up the bay. Beyond these in the distance are to be seen the Organ and Petropolis Mountains, though they are frequently obscured by the clouds. The blue Atlantic, visible as far as the eye can reach, the surf rolling over white beaches near the foot of the mountain, the few scattered islands near the shore, the Sugar-Loaf and other prominent heights near the entrance of the harbor, the capacious harbor itself with its numerous vessels, the old city of Nictheroy on the opposite side-these are some of the many objects upon which the eye lingers. A railway for most of the way up was opened in the latter part of 1884, and completed to the top the next year; so that now, by taking the Larangeiras street-car and the new railway connecting therewith, one can get from the heart of the city to the summit in an hour. The area on the summit is about a fifth of an acre, all granite, and is inclosed by a firm concrete wall. At Paineiras, two thirds of the way up, is a fashionable restaurant hotel.

Is Rio built of wood, of brick, or of marble? Neither. It is, however, massively built. The walls of the buildings are concrete, formed of small pieces of split stone,