the remotest idea, so that the easiest
and most taking melodies are often not recognisable. The sacred
music is a shade better, although even the arrangements of the
Imperial Chapel itself are susceptible of many improvements. The
military bands are certainly the best, and these are generally
composed of negroes and mulattoes.

The exterior of the Opera-house does not promise anything very
beautiful or astonishing, and the stranger is, consequently, much
surprised to find, on entering, a large and magnificent house with a
deep stage. I should say it could contain more than 2,000 persons.
There are four tiers of spacious boxes rising one above the other,
the balustrades of which, formed of delicately-wrought iron trellis-
work, give the theatre a very tasty appearance. The pit is only for
men. I was present at a tolerably good representation, by an
Italian company, of the opera of Lucrezia Borgia; the scenery and
costumes are not amiss.

If, however, I was agreeably surprised by my visit to the theatre, I
experienced quite a contrary feeling on going to the Museum. In a
land so richly and luxuriously endowed by Nature, I expected an
equally rich and magnificent museum, and found a number of very fine
rooms, it is true, which one day or other may be filled, but which
at present are empty. The collection of birds, which is the most
complete of all, is really fine; that of the minerals is very
defective; and those of the quadrupeds and insects poor in the
extreme. The objects which most excited my curiosity, were the
heads of four savages, in excellent preservation; two of them
belonged to the Malay, and two to the New Zealand tribes. The
latter especially I could not sufficiently contemplate, completely
covered as they were with tattooing of the most beautiful and
elegant design, and so well preserved that they seemed only to have
just ceased to live.

During the period of my stay in Rio Janeiro, the rooms of the Museum
were undergoing repairs, and a new classification of the different
objects was also talked of. In consequence of this, the building
was not open to the public, and I have to thank the kindness of Herr
Riedl, the director, for allowing me to view it. He acted himself
as my guide; and, like me, regretted that in a country where the
formation of a rich museum would be so easy a task, so little had
been done.

I likewise visited the studio of the sculptor Petrich, a native of
Dresden, who came