Sylvio Romero adds that “all the first-class people of Brazil have white blood, either pure or mingled with that of another race,” but that the white element should do justice to the degree to which the black has been a mental, political, economic and social factor. He traces, in a little book of which I found a stray copy on a bookstall in Manáos market, the negro element in the folklore of Brazil (_Contos Populares_, Rio de Janeiro) as well as that of the native Indian, and makes the point that both Indian and negro are “inarticulate” in Brazilian society, except through the medium of a language foreign to their ideas, Portuguese, which has undoubtedly coloured their mental expression. These Folk-tales of Sylvio Romero’s collection, as well as those preserved by Couto de Magalhães in his _Selvagem_, are delightful tales, many hinging upon the adventures of various wild animals, and frequently displaying a decided streak of humour not unlike that of the “Uncle Remus” negro tales of North America. At least one negro poet of Brazil has a claim to fame—Cruz e Souza; the sculptor Pinheiro was also chiefly of African blood; José de Patrocinio, who worked hard for the abolition of slavery and stood by the chair of Princess Isabel when she signed the decree of freedom, was an able and eloquent negro writer. Altogether, the debt of Brazil to the strong African races appears to be quite as important, if not much more so, than that owed to the Tupi-Guarani and other “Indian” tribes of native Brazil. Fleeing from before the hard hand of the white man, the Indian as a separate social element has disappeared from those parts of Brazil brought into touch with modern life. This native Brazilian, the “Indian” of the coasts, inland plains, and forest-bordered rivers who lived in the country before Portuguese possession, has left no traces of civilization comparable with that of the Incas or pre-Incas of the north-west of South America, or with the culture of the Maya of Central America and their pupils and conquerors, the Aztecs. Only in the north, along the Amazonian river highway connecting with Peru are there remains of ceramic art, and survivals of weaving skill, which denote marked attainments by a people with settled homes and defined social habits.