raised to say, ‘You are doing wrong.’  My country is sunk very low; and she cannot hope to rise, for the word of her Maker is not in her hand.  True, there are a few, a very few Bibles in the great cities; but that is all:  that cannot save her hundreds of towns and villages.  Thousands of her people are slaves in body,—­all, all are slaves in soul; and yet you ask me what she wants.  Ha! she wants truth,—­she wants to be purged of falsehood.  She has bones and muscles, and arteries and veins,—­everything to make a strong and healthy nation; but she wants blood,—­she has no vital stream; yes, Brazil, my country, wants the Bible!”

CHAPTER XII

A HUNTING EXPEDITION, IN WHICH ARE SEEN STONES THAT CAN RUN, AND COWS THAT REQUIRE NO FOOD—­BESIDES A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER WITH A JAGUAR, AND OTHER STRANGE THINGS

For many weeks Martin Rattler and his friend Barney O’Flannagan continued to dwell with the hermit in his forest-home, enjoying his entertaining and instructive discourse, and joining with him in the hunting expeditions which he undertook for the purpose of procuring fresh food for his table.  In these rambles they made constant discoveries of something new and surprising, both in reference to the vegetables and animals of that extraordinary region of the earth.  They also had many adventures,—­some amusing and some terrible,—­which we cannot enlarge on here, for they would fill ten volumes such as this, were they to be all recorded in detail.

One day the hermit roused them earlier than usual and told them to get ready, as he intended to go a considerable distance that day, and he wished to reach a particular spot before the heat of noon.  So Martin and Barney despatched breakfast in as short a time as possible, and the hermit read them a chapter out of his large and well-thumbed Bible, after which they equipped themselves for the chase.

When Martin and his friend escaped from the pirates and landed on the coast of Brazil, they were clothed in sailor-like costume, namely, white duck trousers, coloured flannel shirts, blue jackets, round straw hats, and strong shoes.  This costume was not very suitable for the warm climate in which they now found themselves, so their hospitable friend the hermit gave them two loose light cotton coats or jackets, of a blue colour, and broad brimmed straw hats similar to his own.  He also gave them two curious garments called ponchos.  The poncho serves the purpose of cloak and blanket.  It is simply a square dark-coloured blanket with a hole in the middle of it, through which the head is thrust in rainy weather, and the garment hangs down all round.  At night the poncho is useful as a covering.  The hermit wore a loose open hunting coat, and underneath it a girdle, in which was a long sharp knife and a brace of pistols.  His trousers were of blue-striped cotton.  He usually carried a double-barrelled gun over his shoulder, and a powder-horn