Here the King will sometimes spend the whole day, and, upon the celebration of some favourite saint’s day, will remain till midnight. These holidays and festivities are usually attended by an immense consumption of gunpowder, in rockets, fire-works, &c. The days of some saints are remarkable for the right every man, bearing the same name, assumes of lighting up a great bonfire in front of his house; and I remember accompanying a friend in his chaise, on the evening of St. John’s day, when we had some difficulty in getting the horse through the flames and sky-rockets that illuminated and occupied the whole street fronting the dwellings of all the Senhor Joaos. The horses generally, however, do not regard it, being so accustomed to fire and gunpowder. During my stay at Rio, a bell was christened, and placed on the south side of the royal chapel with much ceremony. The King was godfather and the widow Princess godmother. The bell was named John the Sixth, in honour of his Majesty, who sprinkled it with salt and water, and at the period that it was hoisted to its ultimate position, the town resounded with fire-works and sky-rockets. Religious exhibitions and feasts succeed each other with very little intermission; and the Brazilian calendars present an innumerable list of them. At Whitsuntide, three or four days are dedicated to the consecration of oxen, fowls, &c. and their consumption. The churches retail these articles at high prices, producing a considerable revenue. In some of the parishes, at this time, the inhabitants, by turns, are at the expense of a public feast, and it occasionally costs some individuals seven or eight hundred pounds. A boy, the son of the person giving this entertainment, sits upon a throne, attended by boys and girls of his own age; he is called the emperor, and, with a sceptre in his hand, presides over the feast. I saw two exhibitions of this sort on the 1st of June, one in the Campo St. Anna, and the other at the Lappa, accompanied with fire-works. They are extremely ludicrous. The festival of Corpus Christi, on the 10th of June, is one of their grandest processional displays. It is only upon these occasions that the ladies appear in public. Early in the day cabriolets, drawn by mules, are seen driving in every direction towards the Ruas Direita and d’Aquitanda, containing females in their gala dresses, while the military of every description are assembled in the streets to assist in the procession, which consists principally of priests and friars, whose prodigious numbers are calculated to swell out a cavalcade, together with numerous inhabitants of different parishes, wearing cloaks peculiar to the churches, which are various and showy. The whole form two lines, preceded with banners, each person, including the priests, carrying a preposterous-looking wax candle, about six feet high, one end of which is placed, at every step, upon the ground. The