A report for a punitive expedition in the mocambos in the state of Maranhão, and the quilombos of São Sebastião and Limoeiro in particular, at the end of the 1870s describes homes which were covered in straw and built with clay and which mostly had wooden doors and windows. These mocambos contained two so-called saints' houses, distinguished by the crosses adorning their front part. ${ }^{6}$ More specific information on the Limoeiro mocambo referred to the existence of 'two houses of prayer known as saints' houses'. One contained 'images of saints' and the other, extravagant figures made of wood, gourds with rotten herbs and stones. Even provided was a description of the inhabitants' smoking and use of marijuana, always lit by means of 'a wick which was taken everywhere with them, formed of beeswax and rosin'. ${ }^{7}$  
With the emergence of dozens of more quilombos in the nineteenth century, similar and more detailed descriptions appeared; reports from anti-mocambo expeditions described elements of the cultural material reinvented in the jungles. Evidence of quilombo culture became apparent, including: houses, covered in straw and clay, most of which had wooden windows and doors; two buildings known as saints' houses, which stood out because of the crosses they had out front; three buildings in which to prepare flour equipped with the necessary ovens; one building used for storage and wax; another building housing a clay alembic; and the residents' living quarters (Araújo, 1994, p. 78). Records also cited:
dozens of houses in which three, four or five black men and their wives and children lived; two more houses used for prayer and known as saints' houses - one contained images of saints and the other had extravagant figures made of wood, gourds with rotten herbs and stone pieces which Indigenous people would have used as axes in ancient times (Araújo, 1998, p. 28).  
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