The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-06-06
CoLFAz. GRANT PARISH, La, SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 1885,

fortunate enough to have Q wife on
at service. The Indians never marry
= because they can not afford to. Th
law compels him to pay the priest {
fee of IS more money than most o
them can ever accumulate. When |,
Spaniard msrries, the fee is paid b,
contributions from his relatives.
| It is popularity of the Indiar
that be will sell nothing at wholesale
nor will he trade with You anywhere
but in the market place, on the spo,
where he and bis forefathers have
sold garden truck for three centuries
Although travellers on the highways
meet whole armies of Indians, bear.
ing upon their backs heavy burdens
of vegetables and other supplies,
they can purchase nothing of them,
a. the native will not sell his goods
until be gets to the place where he is
in habit of selling them. He will
carry them ten miles and dispose oil
them for less than be was offered at
home. An old woman was trudgine
along the other day with q heavy
basket of pineapples and other fruits,
and we tried to relieve her of part OF
her load, offering ten cents for pine
apples which can be had for quar-
tiliO, or two and a half cents, in
market. She was polite, but firm,
and declined to sell anything until
she got to town. although there was
q weary, dusty journey OF two leagues
ahead of her The guide explained
that she was suspicious at the high
price we offered, and imagined that
pineapples must be very scarce in the
market, or we would not pay 30 much
on the road; but it is . common rule
for them to refuse to sell except at
their regular stand.
The same rule exists in Guatemala.
A gentleman whU lives some distance
from town said that for the last four
years he had been trying to get the
Indians, who passed every morning
with packs Of alfalfa (the tropical
clover) to sell him some ct his gate,
but they invariably refused to do so;
consequently he was compelled to go
into town to buy what was carried
by his own door.
Nor will the natives sell ct whole
sale. They will give you q gourdful
OF potatoes for . penny as often a.
You like, but will not sell their stock
in q lump. They will give You .
dozen eggs for real (tsn oents), but
will not sell you Eve dozen for dol
lar. This logged adherence to Gus
tom cannot be accounted for except
on the supposition that their suspi-
cions are excited by an attempt to
depart from it.
In Ecuador there are no smaller
coins than the quartillo; change is
therefore made BY the use of bread.
On his way to market the purchaser |
stops ut the bakery and gets a dozen |
Or twenty breakfast rolls. which cost |
about one cent each, and the market |
women receive them and give them
Is change for small purchases. II
7ou buy . cents worth Of anything |
md offer quartillo in payment you
get . breakfast roll for the balance
lue you.
The Indians live in villages and |
communities, which are presided
,ver by an Alcalde or Governor.
Fhe native women all wear black.
)ne never finds q glimpse of color
lpou q descendant race. They are
q perpetual mourning for Atshuallpa,
he last of the meas, who was cruelty
murdered by Pizarro. Their costume
8 short black skirt and square
ODE or mantle of black, which they
year over their hesds and hold in
,lace by q large pin or thorn between
he shoulders. They look like nuns,
nd walk the streets with burdens
Ipon their backs or heads in process
ions a. solemn As = funeral. They
ever laugh. and scarcely ever smile;
hey have no aongs and no amuse-
nents. Their only semblapce to
ausic il q mournful chat which thew
i've in unison at the feasts which are
Intended to keep alive the memories
{ the Ipcas. They cling to their I
raditions and the customs Of their I,
ncestors. They remember the an
lent glory of their race, and look
0 its restoration a. the Aztecs of
lexico look for the coming of Mon
rzuma. They have relics which
hey guard with the most sacred care,
nd two great secrets no amount of ,
'rture at the hands Of the Spaniards .
as been able to wiring from them. ,
hess are the art of tempering cop ,
er 80 as TO give it as keen aud en- Z
uring an edge as steel and the !
urial OF the Incarial treasures. II
It viii be remembered that Pixarro I
dered 10 release AtahualIpa If the q