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treme danger, and that their only safety is in flight. At the same moment, upon a given signal, each seizes an egg and plunges into the subterranean galleries that lead into the gardens or fields, leaving behind only those stores which an industrious insect can easily replace in a country that has no winter. But here a cruel reception awaits the poor ants: the blue smoke-wreaths are before them, and there.is no hope. Like a consummate tactician, the formigueiro, having closed all the fissures of the interior, goes round the house to watch any signs, and hastens to close any new issue. But is there not a last chance to be attempted? What if the old, abandoned galleries were cleared, or new ones were made? The ants at once drop their burdens and set bravely to work. New outlets are made, and they again seize their eggs. Already they imagine themselves safe; but the smoke has again betrayed them, and at the moment when they are about to emerge, a stroke of the spade tells them that they are pursued by a pitiless enemy. In the mean time, the negroes posted at the bellows constantly send fresh quantities of hot vapors, that scorch and carbonize the frail bodies of these brave insects. At the same time the air becomes more and more rare, and their efforts relax. Soon no further attempts are made to escape. The operation is drawing to its close, Their strength fails them in attempting the last outlet, and they sink exhausted, The next day, when every thing is sufficiently cool, they are found in their galleries, lying side by side with their calcined eggs, but still recognizable. The earth taken from their nests, and their bodies, form one of the most powerful manures.

The flooding rains which for six months inundate the soil, fortunately place a limit to the prolific increase of these marauding insects, The formigueiro is likewise often needed in the fields, especially when the land is being cleared. In these eases the negroes blow the smoke forcibly into the ground, while puffs of blue smoke, which sometimes rise at the distance of more than a hundred feet from the fire, sufficiently indicate the extent of the underground fazenda to be destroyed, and give an idea of the ravages that it might have committed. In justice, however, we must add that the ant is not without some utility. The large winged species serve as food for the blacks, especially those who retain a predilection for their African customs. It is especially in summer, in the amatory season, when the exhausted males sink by thousands upon the soil, that these ant-eaters regale themselves at their ease. It is needless to say that they are not the only ones to hunt this small game, and that the macacos, or monkeys, keep up an active competition against them,

Our readers must have remarked that, in this description of the fazenda, the senhora, or lady of the house, has scarcely been mentioned. I have the custom of speaking only of what I have seen; and I should trace a fancy picture were I to attempt to portray the creole lady of the interior. Of all the customs left by the old conquisiadores to their descendants, that of secluding the females is the most tenacious, The apartments of the Brazilians are as impenetrable to a stranger as a Mussulman harem. This custom, inspired by the moat ridiculous jealousy, is found in all the alluvial Portuguese provinces. The consequences are easily deduced. Condemned to remain from infancy in isolation, ignorance, and idleness, the young lady undergoes a check in development, as it were, which affects her whole being. Her intelligence is sickly and her faculties waste away. Never having any other instructors than the slaves charged with her personal service, she is often ignorant even of the art of reckoning. The negresses generally know only the three first numbers; when they come to four they say two pairs; and for five, two pairs and one, etc. The whites get as