n
the foliage of the _"jaquetibas,"_ when night comes on to dim their
glowing colors.

On the jangada every one was at his post, in the attitude of repose.
The pilot alone, standing in the bow, showed his tall stature, scarcely
defined in the earlier shadows. The watch, with his long pole on
his shoulder, reminded one of an encampment of Tartar horsemen. The
Brazilian flag hung from the top of the staff in the bow, and the breeze
was scarcely strong enough to lift the bunting.

At eight o'clock the three first tinklings of the Angelus escaped from
the bell of the little chapel. The three tinklings of the second and
third verses sounded in their turn, and the salutation was completed in
the series of more rapid strokes of the little bell.

However, the family after this July day remained sitting under the
veranda to breathe the fresh air from the open.

It had been so each evening, and while Joam Garral, always silent, was
contented to listen, the young people gayly chatted away till bedtime.

"Ah! our splendid river! our magnificent Amazon!" exclaimed the young
girl, whose enthusiasm for the immense stream never failed.

"Unequaled river, in very truth," said Manoel; "and I do not understand
all its sublime beauties. We are going down it, however, like Orellana
and La Condamine did so many centuries ago, and I am not at all
surprised at their marvelous descriptions."

"A little fabulous," replied Benito.

"Now, brother," said Minha seriously, "say no evil of our Amazon."

"To remind you that it has its legends, my sister, is to say no ill of
it."

"Yes, that is true; and it has some marvelous ones," replied Minha.

"What legends?" asked Manoel. "I dare avow that they have not yet found
their way into Para--or rather that, for my part, I am not acquainted
with them."

"What, then do you learn in the Belem colleges?" laughingly asked Minha.

"I begin to perceive that they teach us nothing," replied Manoel.

"What, sir!" replied Minha, with a pleasant seriousness, "you do
not know, among other fables, that an enormous reptile called the
_'minhocao,'_ sometimes visits the Amazon, and that the waters of the
river rise or fall according as this serpent plunges in or quits them,
so gigantic is he?"

"But have you ever seen this phenomenal minhocao?"

"Alas, no!" replied Lina.

"What a pity!" Fragoso thought it proper to add.

"And the 'Mae d'Aqua,'" continued the girl--"that proud and redoubtable
woman w