only in the State of São Paulo, but in others lying at a great distance, for it has a reputation for miraculous cures. It is the Lourdes of Brazil. The great annual pilgrimage to this shrine attracts thousands of afflicted persons, lame, halt, deformed, and blind, who walk from great distances, enduring many hardships and suffering privations with astonishing fortitude. Many die on the way, but the thousands of photographs preserved in the church are evidence of the numbers who have visited the spot, and these pictures of the cured, with their crutches and bandages, serve to advertise the virtues of the shrine. A legend exists in Pirapora to the effect that Christ rose from out the river some years ago, and the authority of the church supports and spreads the myth. At the annual gathering of the pilgrims, bishops and priests from distant parishes are present in great numbers, encouraging the patients with advice, and administering healing slaps on the faces and bodies of the victims to accelerate the cures. Many of the natives of Pirapora have never left the precincts of the little village, and spend their lives in ignorance of the ways of the great city not fifty miles away. The priests still exercise a powerful influence over their lives, and girls and unmarried women are kept indoors and out of the public gaze with Oriental strictness. A curious market is held outside the church on Sunday mornings and on festa days. The priests hold an auction, and horses, cattle, goats, pigs, chickens, flour, rice, vegetables, fruit, furniture, and innumerable odds and ends are offered for sale and knocked down to the highest bidder. The proceeds of these sales go into the coffers of the church, and as the stock sold is the gift of the people this is their way of supporting their religion. This system is prevalent throughout the country, and in many districts it becomes a sort of “fair,” at which all kinds of little stalls, covered with bunting and adorned with flags, are set up to provide refreshment to the holiday crowd. Firework displays wind up the day, and as all the squibs, rockets, and roman candles are home-made, the uncertainty of the behaviour of each separate piece gives an added zest to the spectators. At the church auctions strange lots are sometimes offered to the public; mysterious parcels, without any marks or signs to give indications of their contents, occasionally fetch high prices, and on being opened disclose some ludicrous object such as a baby’s feeding-bottle or rattle. A bunch of wild flowers, gathered and given by some village beauty, will generally cause excited bidding by her admirers, who compete with extravagant bids against one another, until it is knocked down at an absurdly high figure. There is plenty of sport to be had along the river’s bank, and hunting parties make good bags of birds, monkeys, carpincha, and occasional deer. Fishing is also a popular and