CHAPTER XXVII.

After the evening song of salutation, on the day following the members of the corps’ visit to the school of the “ninyetas” they accepted the pr?tor’s invitation to join with his family in listening to the recital of the Dosch, which we transcribe.

During the ravages of the “coast” and yellow fever in Rio Janeiro in the year 18—, it made sad havoc among our provincial offshoots of Brazilian parentage, owing to a lack of means for provisionary precautions, so that I felt it a special duty and privilege devolving upon me to give my personal supervision for its arrest. The joint efforts of our Manatitlan corps of censors and nurses soon succeeded in rescuing our adherents from the deadly influence of the pestilence, affording us leisure to render succoring advice to the good of the Giga race. Among the foreigners, one had attracted my particular attention from the fact that he studiously avoided companionship with others, beyond the enforced necessities required for business relations. This, together with other singularities pertaining to his deportment, attracted a desire for an auramental investigation of the cause of his non-alliance with the herd. My first discovery after entering into auricular communication with his thoughts was, that his preference for communion with himself arose from a natural repugnance for association with men in form, whose instincts were degraded below the bestial capacity of the lower 377orders of animality. This, I soon learned, had its origin from the sympathetic impression of the animus of goodness revealed in desire. While studying his characteristics, as a key for after-thought substitution, I found that the intrusion of an indelicate impression from his own instinctive propensities, or in word reflection from others, gave him acute pain. Or when from natural promptings, induced from a genial disposition, he had been influenced to listen to or relate a humorous story, strongly tinctured with the passionate rulings of instinctive induction, for days afterwards he would subject himself to remorseful reproof. These sensitive traits, indicating a desire for the attainment of instinctive purity, although rare in the associations of Giga men, are by no means singular or unrealistic with the conceptions of the thoughtful. But a lack of discrimination in society association, subject to the arbitrary rule of money, blunts the perceptions of intelligent refinement, under the impress of the selfish policy it imposes for the successful enlistment of patronage. Vulgarity impairs the powers of inclination for refined perception, in like manner and degree with the action of foul odors upon the sense of smell, which renders it obtuse for the delicate appreciation of a well selected bouquet.

With this reflective introduction of our auramentee, we will ask you to picture him in meditative mood leaning against a huge pile of coffee-filled bags, waiting in the shadow they cast upon the wharf to witness the variegated effects of light imparted from the rays of the declining sun upon the beautifully environed waters of the harbor bay of Rio de Janeiro. The surface of the water, with its deeper blendings of green and blue, were tinted with the yellow light, while the rippled wavelets, gently moved by the waft of the evening breeze, sparkled in bright effulgence as their crests toppled and broke in foamy succession.

As the sierra peaks of the des Orgoaes began to 378cast their long shadows over the distant foliaged and villa-fringed bay of Jurbajuba, he was attracted from his reveried meditations by the distant strains of music, in harmonious accord with his mood. The instrumental combination in trio was so blended in harmony that he failed to recognize their individual characteristics, until a near approach enabled him to distinguish the movements of the performers. While yet distant his attention was impressed with the beseeching undertone of melancholy that pervaded the apparently improvised variations of familiar melodies, as if in wailing supplication for sympathy. As the boat approached the wharf, within its shadow, the awning was retroverted to admit of the upright position of a harp, supported by a woman yet young, but the resemblance of her features to a boy and girl, sitting upon either side of the stern thwart, proclaimed the relationship of mother. The children were yet within their first decade of years, but had advanced to the stage that rules with its impressions the after course of Giga life, in act, for good or evil. Their instrumental prelude had attracted all within hearing to the wharf, for the unusual tones of sad sweetness proved alike irresistible to the troglodyte negro and more insensate sea-monster of brutality, the slave-ship’s captain. The eyes of the mother, whose face was overshadowed by the broad brim of a Tuscan hat, moved with a quick glance from face to face of the gathered assemblage upon the wharf, while she directed the concerted movement of her children’s musical appeal, from violin and dulcetina, by touching in timed lead the strings of the harp. When all accessible to her sight had been passed in review, her eyes became suffused with the sad mists of disappointment, which were imparted to her children’s, upraised with hope. Drawing her veil to screen her emotions, she commenced a plaintive refrain, her fingers imparting to the strings of the harp 379an anguished tone of petition, so evident in its pleadings, that the uncouth negroes reverentially removed the turbaned bandas from their heads in recognition of the woful strains, and for the moment were raised above the grovelings of their debased condition. After the third repetition, the instrumental air was changed into an accompaniment for their voices, which in song preferred the following petition in Italian and English:—
“Father dear, art thou near?
Then listen without fear;
We came not to reprove,
But erring steps to soothe.
“Italy, dear land of our birth,
Though exiled, the choicest of earth,
Truly, thou wast cherished for love,
With only one object above.
“But alas, how frail was my stay!
Beguiled by a wanton away,
These pledges of love now remain,
To haunt me with loss, and the stain.
“To save, I have sought every trace,
A pilgrim to this distant place,
Hopeless, I have come in despair,
And now forlorn, breathe the last prayer.”

When the refrain had been repeated for the fourth time without response, or sign of recognition, the mother sank back on her seat; the harp following, with its weight would have forced her backward into the water, but for the timely arrest of the padrone. In a moment her neck was encircled with the arms of her children, who bestowed, unabashed by the curious presence of the assemblage, the spontaneous promptings of their affection, in solace for the encouragement of hope. Never, in the course of a life devoted to auramental association with the Giga race, had I ever witnessed an influence that so quickly dispersed varied evidences of brutality in human expression, as from these manifestations of suffering in alliance with innocence, affection, and beauty, hallowed in preluded 380expression of emotions by instrumental and vocal music. The repulsive sensuality, so brutally prominent in the slave captain’s and their “owner’s” visages, which exceeded in the loathsome vulgarity of selfishness the hyena’s, gave place to the shadowy reflection of sympathetic pity, as if from the impression of a reality retrieved from the dim memories of childhood. In default of tears, to the moisture of which their eyes had long been dead, they relieved their pockets of the last representative coins of sympathy, for bestowal “in charity” upon these wandering minstrels, who had recalled a flitting reminiscence of a mother’s memory, which once entitled them to an alliance with affectionate humanity. In contrast, the black faces of the negroes glistened with moisture from eyes still open to the founts of primitive sympathy; those acting as boatmen collecting the coins with scrupulous honesty, deposited them in the sachels of the children.

The mother, aroused with the continued sound of falling money, for, as with the exampled impulse of panic fear in battle, and the gambler’s reckless course in the downward path of fate, charity becomes heedless of self under the associate impression of congregated bestowal, made an effort to free her eyes from tears, that she might give expression to her thankfulness and stay the uncalled-for gifts of money. Then making known her desire to land, the padrone directed the boat to the stairway of the pier, the eyes of the children the while being engaged in a wandering search among the spectators, with a woful expression of loving desire. Ascending the stairway from the water, the motley crowd opened a free passage; the foreigners following the example of the negroes, removed their hats in token of respect. My auramentee had been greatly moved from the first sound of the instrumental prelude, but the appealing sadness of their voiceful invocation enlisted 381his sympathetic excitability beyond control. Unable, with his utmost exertions, to approach within speaking distance, he followed in the wake of the procession until he saw the padrone and boat’s crew deposit the harp and baggage of the mother and children, at the street door of a house occupied by an attaché of the English consulate, in a court opening upon the Rua da Dereita. As their entertainer proved to be an acquaintance of the auramentee, he returned to his hotel well satisfied with the assurance of their congenial safety, which had fulfilled his kind intentions. On the second day after their arrival he obtained an introduction, and with an unobtrusive offer of service gained their confidence. When but partially recovered from the anxiety and fatigue of the voyage, they commenced their street perambulations as musicians, with a pecuniary success more than equal to the exalted expectations of favorite opera singers, which to the credit of the Rioans was bestowed from the enlistment of true sympathy in their behalf, rather than in acknowledgment for their musical talent. The family of the emperor became interested from the universal expression of sympathy bestowed in recognition of their sufferings; although the cause was unknown, they extended to them their protection. Failing in their endeavors to dissuade them from the exposure of street concertizing, by the offer of a less laborious and more pleasing method of rendering their talent provident, they were content to aid them with their special protection and patronage. A week later, in a private interview, she gave them such reasons for the course she had chosen, that they used their power to facilitate the attainment of her object.

On the nineteenth day succeeding that of her landing, my auramentee was detained until a late hour in the evening at his place of business, and was hastening to pay a short visit to his protégés, 382when he was intercepted by a messenger from a friend who had been suddenly prostrated with an attack of the coast fever, who urged him to make haste as the symptoms threatened a fatal issue. We found the doctor in attendance on our arrival, who accepted a thought suggestion, and on the supposition that it was his own, adopted the recommendation, which served to relieve his patient from the fatal tendency, thereby relieving my auramentee from his apprehensions, in time to fulfill his first intentions. This fever scourge of Brazil differs from the yellow type of northern latitudes; as in Rio, during the first stages of accession, it is exceedingly erratic; suddenly appearing in one department to rage with deadly vigor for a few days, and then in apparent transfer, subsiding, to re?nact in a remote district its fatal ravages. At a later period of its sway, when the partially exhausted venom has become more generally dispersed, it flits hither and thither with demon activity, fastening upon its prey without premonitory symptoms, perceptible to curative observation, devoted to empirical treatment, although distinctly visible in inceptive cause to our censors. Even with coincident cause and effect clearly exposed for detection in current transfer, the Giga physicians utterly ignore ante-investigation, for prevising the means of prevention. This observance of limits, overleaping adjoining, to locate itself in remote districts, gives plain indication of local infecting agency, and we discover that the fermentable cause was overlooked, and allowed to exhaust itself in putrefactive dissemination. With this hint, in recurring attestation of the fatuous fatalism that will ever attend the curative devisements of humanity, while they neglect the means of prevention, we will resume our demonstration in narrative vindication of the axiom, that remedy is inherent with the cause.

But a few minutes had passed, after the auramentee had reached his hotel, before he was summoned 383to the house of his Italian protégés. On our arrival we found the mother in the height of the febrile stage of the plague’s accession, but calm and resigned in thought, although impressed with a premonition of the disease’s fatality, which with our knowledge we felt that it was impossible to avert, still we suggested remedies for transient relief. With the morning’s dawn, after soothing the anxious fears of her children, she expressed to them her desire to converse with the auramentee alone. Notwithstanding the unusual nature of the request, it was cheerfully complied with. She then related to him the cause of her husband’s estrangement and desertion, affirming that her sole object in following him was for his rescue from self-inflicted wretchedness, as she had brought with her a feeling of fatality, that warned her that her own and children’s days were numbered. This feeling had been confirmed in her mind by the strange sympathy which had been shown in her behalf, as the source of her sorrows was only known to an appreciative few. We used all our powers of persuasion to induce a more hopeful mood, by endeavoring to convince her that she was yielding to superstitious feelings unworthy of the courage which had sustained her through the trials of desertion, and her long search which had been continued in a manner humiliating to the affectionate pride of a mother in behalf of her children, exhorting her to bear up bravely until she had achieved the object of her mission. With a wailing sigh, quickly suppressed, she averted her face, while with choked utterance, scarcely raised above a whisper, she despairingly murmured, “I have seen him.”

Surprise, mingled with an oppressive sorrow, held us speechless; for words of sympathy, however pure in expression, would have added to the pangs of her agonized affection, which seemed already struggling for liberation from the body, held back by her children’s 384love; but divided, and bereaved of the sentient unity of her affection, grief overshadowed and dimmed her assurance of a happy immortality. A silence of many minutes followed, unbroken save by convulsed sobs, which she vainly tried to suppress; at last a flood from the fount of tears enabled her to regain self-command, but only to be borne back for the realization of deeper woe. Her children, with anxious solicitation for the revival of fond memories, had caught the reflection of their mother’s lullaby, with which she had soothed them in dawning infancy, when with undimmed eyes she had breathed her affection in song. Then no cloud had arisen to darken with its gloom the joys of her wedded life. The daughter had been encouraged, with guided hands, to touch the strings of the harp during the period of toddling babyhood, when from feeble, faltering incertitude an answering response came to the mother’s leading song. Soon her tiny fingers, instructed by a retentive memory, enabled her to render with remarkable accuracy the most difficult compositions within the compass of her reach. The sadly harmonious memorial that had opened with renewed anguish the fount of the mother’s tears, was the sleep requiem early impressed on the daughter’s dawning memory. Commencing with an imitative prelude, suggestive of childhood’s hesitating touch, accompanied with her brother’s violin, the various canzanatas were modulated with the far-off lisp of invocation, as if from dawning perception, intuitively increasing in volume until it reached the flowing harmony of present maturity. From the joyous expression of childhood’s buoyancy, the strain suddenly changed into the sad wailing of uncertainty, improvised with mournful variations descriptive of their wanderings and disappointments. Again, in renewal, as if led by some inspiration beyond their control, they reached their present source of sorrow. The 385burden of the plaintive strains was frequently interrupted with sobbing outbursts, rendering their touch tremulous and uncertain, the efforts made for suppression being easily detected by hesitations, which they endeavored to cover with bolder movements. Recovering, as if with the sudden impression of hopeful assurance, there came a stream of melody of inconceivable purity, as from an echo of futurity bearing in waft joyful gladness. This change caused the mother to whisper, with tears fresh flowing over a sadly joyous expression, “I would have so, it is our requiem.”

With the lullaby, that was improvised in quick succession, the mother again clasped her hands convulsively, while the spasmodic workings of her compressed lips and trembling eyelids bespoke the inward struggle made to suppress the gathering strength of her emotions. But with the rehearsal of the melodious symphonies of the halcyon days of united love, grief found vent in an abundant flow of tears, which called forth from the auramentee stifled throbs of masculine sympathy. But while the melodies were growing more earnest in the sad sweetness of their expression, the strain suddenly ceased with the startled cry of, “Father!”

The mother sprang from the bed, but with tottering dizziness fell back, still retaining her consciousness with a placid expression, which despite the ashy paleness of the face bespoke the full consummation of earthly hopes. The children gently opening the door led in the wretched father, upon whose features were imprinted with haggard remorse the interwoven lines of despair. Blind with the searing touch of hopeless shame, he passed the auramentee unnoticed; then pressed down by the remorseful revival of first affection, he knelt at the bedside and was enfolded in his wife’s arms. Not a syllable had been spoken save the word, father, and the auramentee feeling that his 386voice and presence would prove alike embarrassing, quietly withdrew.

Five hours later, while crossing the palace plaza on his return from a walk on the Botofogian beach, we met the husband hastening back to his house of refuge and partner in disgrace. Although evidently bracing himself for the utmost exertion of his powers of resistance and speed, in opposition to the foe whose seal was legibly visible in the ashy paleness of his face, the wavering uncertainty of his steps betokened speedy prostration. The natives, accustomed to the symptoms, detected the cause of his swaying progress, and held their course as far to the windward as possible, following his movements with eyes subject to the instinctive fascination that a person under the doom of deadly infection attracts. Becoming fully impressed with his condition from increasing weakness, and the fixed stare of the passers-by, who avoided him, his steps faltered and a momentary shadow of dismay caused a wavering of his eyes and lips; but in quick revulsion he again braced himself, with a determination that bespoke the energetic self-possession of the Englishman in extremity. Leaning against the palace wall, which he had reached, he hastily buttoned his coat to his throat, then drawing in his breath resolutely, he again started forward with a defiant stride. But he was in the deadly grasp of a foe who toyed with his mortal powers as relentlessly in sacrificial oblation, as he had with the ties of affection. This fact his tottering steps soon betrayed, for in despite of his desperate struggles he sank back in a half kneeling and leaning position against a pediment of stone, in transition for the tower of a neighboring church, while its priest passed by on the other side hastily crossing himself and muffling his face with aversion.

The imploring language of his eyes, which he cast around with beseeching entreaty for help, moved 387even the stolid pity of the natives to unwonted activity, causing them to start in search of the brotherhood in charge of the department. But the auramentee, forgetful of the unfortunate’s great wrong, gave him supporting assistance, while urging with his voice the necessity for the utmost exertion of self-determination. Pointing to the Hotel des Estrangeiros he made an effort to take from his pocket a card partially in view. Understanding his wish, the auramentee took it, adding to its anticipated intention in his own handwriting, “sick with the fever,” dispatched it by a kindly hand to its destination. Scarcely five minutes elapsed before a female form darted from the portal and directed her steps in wild dismay to the stricken one’s side, and kneeling claimed the support of his head, while with a kiss she supplicated, “Oh, Edward, what can I do?” A faint smile lighted his face at this appeal, as he whispered the ever abiding talismanic word, “home,” so dear to the honest attachments of instinct, however much misused in collateral signification. The auramentee then entreated him to muster all the energy possible in aid of their support. Raising him with great difficulty to an upright position upon his feet, all his efforts to walk proved abortive, but a kind-hearted Frenchman who was passing, volunteered his aid to bear the doomed bodily to his hotel and bed. By profession a nurse, the Frenchman undertook the patient’s charge, after he was placed in bed, but gave no hopes of his recovery; on the contrary, with the coolness of a physician, urged him to use quick dispatch if he wished to dispose of anything by his will for the living advantage of others, as it was impossible for him to live longer than two or three hours.

A smile, with the answering words, “It is well,” aroused the anguished despair of the being, who still ministered with all absorbing thought her tender care and caresses, bringing forth the expostulation, 388“Oh, Edward, Edward, if you go, you must not leave me! for wherever you go, I must go with you!”

The dying man raised his eyes to hers with a look of unutterable fondness, then, with mustered energy, whispered: “Julia, it is hard to part from you, after so much suffering. But living, it would prove to us both a continued scene of remorseful misery, without the possibility of atonement, while dying, I have gloomy forebodings that there will be for us no future. Yet, whatever may come after death, it is better that I should die as the cause, than live as the renewed source of misery to others.”

Such a look of despairing desolation as she cast upon her expiring lover I had never before seen depicted upon the face of Giga woman. Her beauty, surpassing, in fair unblemishing complexion those of kindred type, was refined by the hopeless anguish of its expression, which in its passionless void betokened, as with him, a reviving hope struggling for the bodily retrievement of an assured immortality. At the expiration of an hour, her arm that supported his head grew lax and nerveless; but his efforts to raise himself recalled her thoughts for his assistance. Perceiving that it was his desire to be left alone with her, while he yet retained his consciousness, the auramentee was prompted to inform him of his kindly attentions bestowed upon his wife and children, as it offered the opportunity of affording mutual consolation, by conveying to his wife and children some affectionate token or message. The announcement revived his energies, imparting to his “allovee” a kindred impression of desire. Beckoning the auramentee nearer, in earnest, whispered accents, he implored him to plead with his wife, Julia’s forgiveness, as the “sin” of desertion was wholly his own. “Say to her,” he continued, “that it was my own unencouraged infatuation; against which she, loving, did all that she could to resist my entreaties, striving 389earnestly in the toils to escape from me and ‘love’s’ allurements. She is not wanton, but pure and devoted as a wife can be, although misguided. It is my own ‘heart’ that is divided, even in death, which makes me feel doubly thankful for its nearer rescue.”

Charged with this message we left them, Julia courting the virulence of the malady with an assiduous intention that plainly declared her determination to share in death his grave, in opposition to his own and the Frenchman’s vehement protestations. We reached the bedside of his wife in time to receive her last recognition, who answered with a smile and pressure of the hand her husband’s last petition, and while passing away invoked, with the reviving spark of conscious vitality, the auramentee’s guardian protection of her children, should they survive, as she was aware that they had been seized with the fever in the presence of their father, who had bestowed upon them his care with the intention of returning. After bestowing upon the children his affectionate care in the fulfillment of his accepted charge, he hastened as speedily as possible to the bedside of the doomed husband, and found the dying lovers supported in each other’s arms. For Julia, in the short period of our absence, had excited the latent seeds of the infection, and was already nearing the confines of her desire. The husband, although speechless, still retained his consciousness, with the power of making known, with grateful expression, the consolation imparted from our tidings. Julia, in anticipation of death, placed her attendant in charge of the auramentee, desiring him to send her back to Italy, as she had followed her own misguided steps from affection. The auramentee promised the faithful discharge of all their wishes in the event of his own preservation. Then with a sorrowful farewell, in freedom from the bitterness of our first impressions, we left them with a sure remedy at hand for the cure 390of their self-inflicted unhappiness. Returning to the children, we bestowed upon them our personal care and affection until death relieved us of our charge; but the scenes that preceded their final departure from life are too harrowing for recital. Let it suffice, that on the morrow when the western hills cast their shadows over the city, under the upward halo of the setting sun, the father, mother, and children, with their cousin Julia, whose beauty was the sad cause of her own and their misery, were borne together, in their bodies’ materiality, for burial far beyond the city’s limits. The place of interment had been granted as a special mark of interest by the emperor, whose family were deeply affected by the tragic end of their protégés. The harp, violin, and dulcetina were retained by Captain Greenwood, the auramentee, as mementoes of the sad scenes described, and are held in “devout” estimation as pledges of affectionate remembrance.

Annette, the companion of Julia, while assisting in packing the instruments for shipment to Montevideo, displayed versatile accomplishments as a musician that astonished Captain Greenwood, and while playing some airs found noted in the satchels of the children, she was frequently moved to tears, and in explanation of the cause, it transpired in revelation that she was the daughter of Signor Pozzuoli, the inventor of the dulcetina, and early teacher of the children, a majority of the preserved musical annotations being of her own composition. On the day previous to the one appointed for the sailing of the steamer for Montevideo the captain proposed to introduce Annette to the consignee of a ship about to sail for Leghorn. She then declared her desire to accompany him to Montevideo, as she felt a disinclination to return to Italy, urging that her musical ability would prove amply sufficient for her support, if he would assume the character of guardian for her countenance 391and protection. From the mutual interest engendered from the scenes through which they had passed, the captain encouraged her decision, gladly assuming the charge of protector. In closing, the Dosch said, I have related the history of the dulcetina, with desire of enforcing the absolute necessity of the Manatitlan system of education, if the Giga race really wish to bequeath happiness from unity in the marriage alliance, as a memorial source of example to succeeding generations. As scenes of the kind are constantly increasing in an engendered series from degenerate inoculation, with thoughtful consideration its practicability must be apparent to the meanest capacity. The relation will also impress upon you the characteristic value of your late companion, when relieved from the influence of habit, as well as the discernment of Correliana, which penetrated beneath the crisp asperities of his outer husk. In the exceptions we are about to advise, you will recognize the prudence of our judgment. The “brides” will surely afford an invincible security from their incorruptible purity and goodness, which, with kindred beauty in personal endowment, would insure constancy in defiance of all the temptations that could be proffered by the most lauded belles of civilized society, even if the ages of their intended husbands were less by two thirds. The countenance of Correliana, during the recital of the Dosch, was a mirror of reflection for the grateful expression of her thoughts.