portion of the
body--feet, hands, limbs, heads, all portions--the ceiling space is
completely covered with these uncanny figures. The wall is hung with
pictures, which portray all sorts of scenes, such as a man in
shipwreck, a carpenter falling down a ladder, a child falling out of a
second-story window, death chambers of various people, etc. These
figures and pictures are intended to represent miracles. When these
people were in their afflictions they prayed to the image of the Good
End and made a promise that if they should recover they would bring one
of these votive offerings of the part affected, whether of man or
beast, to the shrine. Some of them came before the cure was effected,
and with a prayer, left the image behind and the cures of their disease
or afflictions were attributed to the image of Bom Fim. It is said that
when this church is given its annual cleaning, just before the
celebration of the saint's day, thousands of people congregate here,
roll in the waters which are used to wash out the building, and drink
the filthy stuff, deeming it to be holy. There is hardly a more
revolting scene to be found anywhere, and all in the name of religion.
Until recently, when the police put an end to it, a most disgusting
species of holy dance was observed on this annual day in which the most
sensual practices were indulged.

Perhaps the most famous shrine in all Brazil is in the far interior of
the State of Bahia on the San Francisco River. It is the famous Lapa.
The image has its shrine in a cave in a very remarkable geological
formation. One hundred thousand people make pilgrimages to this shrine
every year from all of the States in Brazil. The last Emperor himself
made a visit to this shrine. From June to August of last year $20,000
was collected from the pilgrims. Our missionary, Jackson, met a man who
had been on the way six months. It required him a year to make this
trip. The same missionary saw a family from the State of Alagoas which
had been on the journey six weeks. Dr. Z. C. Taylor says he passed
through sections that had been almost depopulated because the men had
sold out their homes, horses and cattle in order to seek a miracle in
their favor at this same shrine. Fire destroyed the image in 1902.
Protestants were accused of setting fire to it because a missionary was
near at the time. (He was forty miles away.) In the controversy that
arose the missionary noted that, inasmuch as the new image was se