The food of the inhabitants of the Sertam consists chiefly of meat, of which they make three meals; and to this is added the flour of the mandioc stirred up into paste, or rice sometimes supplies its place. The bean, which is commonly called in England the French bean, is a favourite food; it is suffered to run to seed, and is only plucked up when quite dry and hard. I have often been surprised to see of how little service maize is to them as food, but yet it is occasionally used. In default of these, the paste of the carnàûba is made; and I have seen meat eaten with curds. Of green vegetables they know nothing, and they laugh at the idea of eating any kind of salad. The wild fruits are numerous, and to be obtained in any quantities, but few species are cultivated; among the latter are the water-melon and the plantain. The cheese of the Sertam, when it is fresh, is excellent; but after four or five weeks, it becomes hard and tough. Some few persons make butter, by shaking the milk in a common black bottle, but this must of course be experimental, and not general. In the towns even of the Sertam, rancid Irish butter is the only kind which is to be obtained. Wherever the lands admit of it, these people plant mandioc, rice, &c. but much, I may say the greater part of the vegetable portion of their food, is brought either from more fertile districts near to the coast, or from the settlements still further back,—the vallies and skirts of the Cariris, Serra do Teixeira, and other inland mountains.