St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-10
SCENES OF sENsUoUs BEAUTY
Interesting People Who Loiter
Their Hours Awayin the Tropics

HI Nc2lIS0 COSTUMES.
Lufcedio Hearn in Harper's Magazine.
HindoOs, coolies, men, women and
misunderstanding, walking or sitting
in the sun, under the shadOwing OF the
palms. Men sQuatting, with hands
clasped over their black knees, steadily
observe you from under their white
turbans-very steadily, with slight
scowl. All these Indian faces have the
same set, stern expression, the same
knitting of the brows, and the keen,
strong gaze is not altogether pleasant.
1t borders upon hostility; it is the look
OF meaSurement-meaS physical
and moral. In the mighty swarming
of India these have learned the full
meaning and force of life's law as we
OccidentalS rarely learn it,. Under the
dark forehead, with its fixed flown, the
eye glitters like serpent'S.
Nearly all wear the same Indian dress,
the thickly folded turban, usually white,
white drawers reaching but halfway
down the thighs, leaving the keees and
legs bare, and white Jacket. A few don
long blue robes and wear colored head
dress. These are babageeS priests.
All the men look tall; they are 1.-the,
very slender, small-boned, but the
limbs are well turned. They are grave,
talk In low tones and seldom smile.
Those you see with very heavy full
boards are probably Mussulmans; they
have their mosques, and the cry of the
mueZZin sounds thrice daily over the
vast cane fields. Some shaye-Bud-
dhistS, or followers of HindOoism-
but the children of Islam never.
Very cOmely some of the wo-
men are, in their close-clinging
soft, brief robes and tantalizing wells,
costume leaving shoulders, arms and
ankles bare. The dark arm-iS always
tapered and rounded, the silver-circled
ankle always elegantly knit to the light,
straight foot. Many of these slim girls,
pose, present perpetual studies of
grace; their attitude when erect al
ways suggests lightness and Suppleness,
like the p0iSe of perfect dancer.
A c0olle mother passes, carrying at
her hip very pretty naked baby. 1t
has exquisite delicacy of limb; its tiny
ankles are circled by thin, bright, silver
rings; it looks like a little bronze
statuette, a statue of Kama, the Indian
Eros. The mothers arms are covered
from elbow to wrist with silver bracelets,
some fiat and decorated, others course,
round, smooth, with ends hammered
lntO Cne IOrnl OF viper neaQS. She has
large flowers of gold in her ears, small
gold flower in her delicate little nose.
This nose ornament does not seem alb
Surd; on these dark skins the effect is,
on the contrary, pleasing, although BIZ
Zarre. All this jewelry is pure metal;
it is thus the coolies carry their savings;
they do not learn to trust the banks
until they become rich.
There is a woman going to market,
very odd little woman; is she Chino
blancO-a coolie, or Malay half-breed?
do not know. She represents type
have never seen before. She wears one
loose, soft. white garment, leaving
arms, ankles and part of back aud
bosom exposed, like low-eut, sleeve
less chemise, but less long. Her whole
figure is rounded, compact, admirably
knit, and her walk is indescribably
light, supple, graceful. But her face is
queer; it is an Oriental grotesque, a
Chinese dream. oblique eyes and blue
black bfowS and hair, very high and
broad cheek-bOneS. Singular as 1t is, this
face has the yeritable beaute du diable;
it is very young and very fresh face,
and the uncommonly long, black, silky
lasheS give her gaze q very pleasing,
velvety expression. Still, the most re-
markable peculiarly she has is her
color, clear and strange, almost exactly
the color of fine ripe lemon.