The Portland daily press., 1893-06-05
IN THE MARKET PLACE.
How People go Shopping in Asuncion,
Paraguay.
[Fanny B. Ward in Belfast Journal1


For country in financial straits, the
market is we'll supplied. The river fur
nishes an abundance of fish, great vari-
ETY. of vegetables are cultivated in the
suburban gardens, meat of various kinds
is sent down from interior cattle-farms
and sheep ranches, and fruit grows any
where, wild and in profusion. There are
heaps of oranges, water-melons, pump
kins, gourds, sweet potatoes, yams; piles
of bread and cakes of various kinds, in
Guiding crescent-shaped biscuit baked
with cheese in the middle of it; cigars,
made of native tobacco. dark in color
and strong in favor,-the best brand,
that known as "Papa Lucas" selling at
two dollars the hundred; yerba, the
dried and pulverized leaf of the Para
guayan tea~plant; monkeys, parroquets
and other pets, including living snakes
for rat-catchers; slabs Of white cheese;
unsalted butter in an almost liquid state;
bouquets of flowers; cream in stone jugs
and a thousand of other things made for
use or ornament.
The market-women have no carts or
carriers by which to send home pur-
chases, nor even paper to wrap them in;
so the purchaser must bring along her
own pail, pan, sack or wrapping paper.
and when it is filled with meat, vegeta-
bles, bread, cheese, etc., for the days or
weeks supply, it is poised on top of the
head and thus carried home. There are
several restaurants inside the market
where tidy matrons, in snowy, burnoose-
Tide cemisoles, preside over caldrons of
steaming stews or dispensed pots of cana
beer. The scant portions of food bought
and sold in most quarters, the few ears
of corn and half dozen yams and tiny
bits of meat, bespeak the poverty of the
people, as well as the infinitesimal value
of the coins in circulation. Excepting
copper, paper is now the only money in
the country. The printing on its face
demands the Bank of Paraguay to pay
the bearer one 'shard'' or silver dollar
for each Of paper; but you will soon find
in making purchase or seeking change,
that this paper money is at a deprecia-
ton of % per cent. However, that is not
SO bad as In the big and boastful Argen-
tine Republic, whose paper currency
IS often worth only forty cents on the
dollar.
Next to the people, the things that in
terest us most in the market are those of
native manufacture. Ponchos, for ex-
ample-the. bright-hued blankets. Square
with slit in the middle for inserting the
head) worn by the men in lieu of coats;
nugh, clumsy saddles, like those OF Tur-
key, loaded with silver ornaments,
strange pottery, and the wonderful lace
made by the women. In the pottery
booths are round, large bowls. two or
three feet in diameter, with straight sides
dark red outside and brown within, with
white edges and Greek patterns traced
IN black all over them. There are deco
rated .gourds OF all shapes and sizes, tiny
ones for pepper and SALT larger ones for
meal, grain, mace. etc., all with pattern
scratched on with fish-bone and then
colored with different clays. The pat
terms are always geometrical, never rep
RESERVATIONS OF fruit, flowers, birds, ami
mails, like the ornamental gourds of
Ecuador and Columbia. :, !.
But the finest thing is the lace called
Nanduti. which is Guarani for spider
web. tits made with threaded needle,
wen ana pattern being woven at the same