Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1888-11-09
NATIVES OF MARTINIQUE.
Peculiar Type Of Physicai beauty
nyeudiur Of Races,

A Peculiar Type Of Physicai beauty-A
blending Of Races,
Then YOU begin to look about you at
the black, brown and yellow races that
are studying you curiously from beneath
the yellow striped Madras turbans, or
from under the shadow Of mushroom
shaned straw hats large as umbrellas.
Watching the bare backs, hare shoulders,
hare legs and arms and feet, you ma
that the colors of flesh are more varied
and surprising than the colors OF fruits.
And it is only with fruit colors that
many of these skin tints can be compared
at ali. the only terms Of comparison used
nv the colored people themselves being
terms of this kind. such as peau-sapotiiie,
..sapota skim" The sapota or sapouie
ia n iuicy brown fruit, with a rlnd
satiny like human cuticle, and
inst the color, when fresh and
y;ne Of a fine mulatto skin. But among
the brighter half breeds l think
the colors are much more fruit like; there
are pourd tints banana tints, orange col
ors with occasional finishes of pink show
inc through, like the first pink Of the
mango. Agreeable to the eye the darker
tints certainly are. and often very re-
n,arkable. all tones of bronze being repre-
sented; but the brighter hues are aoso-
lutely beautiful in certain half breed
types. coolie and quadroon. Standing
perfectly naked at doorways, or playing
naked in the sun, astonishing children
NAV be seen-banana colored and mango
colored babies. But there is one peculiar
TINE totally unlike all the rest; the skin
il an exquisite metallic yellow, perfect
gold tone; the ewes are long and black;
the intensely dark and lustrous hair falls
over the neck in heavy mass Of thick,
rich, glossy curls that show blue lights in
the sun.
cannot speal, of this comely and ex-
raordinarv type without translating a
passage from DR.. j. J. }. Cornilliac, an
eminent Martinique physician, who re-
Gently published most valuable series
upon the ethnology, climatology and his
tory of the Antilles. In these he writes:
.sWhen, among the populations of the
Antilles, we first notice those remark
able metis whose olive skins, elegant and
slender figures, fine straight profiles and
regular features remind us of the inhabl-
tants of Madras or Pondicherry, we ask
ourselves in wonder-while looking at
their long eyes, full Of a strange and
gentle melancholy Especially among the
women), and at the black, rich, silky
cleaning hair curling in abundance over
the temples and falling in profusion over
the neck-to what human race can be-
long this singular variety, in which there
is a dominant characteristic that seems
indelible, and always shows more and
more strongly in proportion as the type
is further removed from the African ele.
ment. 1t is the Carib blood, blended
with blood of Europeans and of blacks,
which in spite Of all subsequent cross
ings, and in spite of the fact that it has
: not been renewed for more than two
! hundred years, still conserves, as re
: markedly as at the time Of the first inter
I, blending, the race characteristic that in
q variably reveals its presence in the blooe
of every being through whose veins j
flows"
+ All this population is vigorous, grace
:, full, healthy; all you see passing by arr
+ well made; there are no sickly faces, M
81 oCIdWuy luilpo. II w SoiiiO idiC NiioiiS'
: you encounter person who has lost al
;. arm Or leg, you can be almost certain
!, you are looking at victim of the fer d
). lance-the serpent whose venom putrefe
q living tissue. Without fear of exagger
4 ating facts, can venture to say that tn
!. muscular development of the working
i men here Is something which must b
# seen in order to be believed; to study fin
i displays of it, one should watch the black
/. and half breeds working naked to tn
,s waist-on the landings, in the gas house
!. and slaughter houses, Or on tn
\. nearest plantations. They are nc
in large men, perhaps not extraord
n. narily powerful; but they have til
aspect of sculptural or even of an;
Is. tomical models; they seem absolutel
ct devoid of adipose tissue; their muscl,
or stand out with saliency that astonish,
or the eye. 1t Is marvellous. At tannin
Of yard, while l was watching a doze
4 blacks at work, young mulatto, wit
to the mischievous face of faun, wake
Il by, wearing nothing but a clout abo,
ct his loins; and never, not even in bronz
he did see so beautiful play Of muscle
st A demonstration of anatomy could hay
is used him for class model; sculpto
wishing to shape fine Mercury in bronz
" would be satisfied to take cast of sue
de a body, without thinking of making OF
MS modification from neck to heel.-Lafac
k dio Hearn in Harper's Magazine.