dexterity, and, on the part of the natives, the same wide-mouth
astonishment, the same curiosity, the same credulity as the simple
folk of the civilized world.

It followed, then, that ten minutes later the public were completely
won, and crowded round Fragoso, who was installed in a _"loja"_ of
the place, a sort of serving-bar to the inn.

The _loja_ belonged to a Brazilian settled at Tabatinga. There, for a
few vatems, which are the sols of the country, and worth about twenty
reis, or half a dozen centimes each, the natives could get drinks of
the crudest, and particularly assai, a liquor half-sold, half-liquid,
made of the fruit of the palm-tree, and drunk from a _"coui"_ or
half-calabash in general use in this district of the Amazon.

And then men and women, with equal eagerness, took their places on
the barber's stool. The scissors of Fragoso had little to do, for it
was not a question of cutting these wealthy heads of hair, nearly all
remarkable for their softness and their quality, but the use to which
he could put his comb and the tongs, which were kept warming in the
corner in a brasier.

And then the encouragements of the artist to the crowd!

"Look here! look here!" said he; "how will that do, my friends--if
you don't sleep on the top of it! There you are, for a twelvemonth!
and these are the latest novelties from Belem and Rio de Janeiro! The
queen's maids of honor are not more cleverly decked out; and observe,
I am not stingy with the pomade!"