The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-05-26

butHiHs pdNementS. But WhaI pro-
duees the most novel impressions on
the stranger is the singularly and bril-
lance of the women's costumes They
We're developed at least 100 years ago
by curious sumptuary law, regulat-
ing the dress of slaves and colored peo-
pie OF free condition, law which al
lowed considerable liberty as to ma
terlal and tint, prescribing only form.
But these fashions suggest the Orient;
they offer beautiful audacities Of color
contrast. and the coiffeur, above ALL
IS so strlkingly eastern that you can
not help wondering whether il was not
first introduced into the colony by
some Mohammedan negro slave. 1t is
simply an immense Madras handker-
chief which is folded about the head
with admirable art like a turban. Then
this turban, always full of bright
canary colOrs, is fastened with great
golden or silver brooches. The
greater number Of the women carry
burdens on their head-peddling vege-
tables, cakes. fruits or ready-cOOked
food from door 10 door. All day long
they can walk up and down Hill with
out shoes, carrying loads Of from 100
to zoo pounds on their turbaned heads,
under the fierce sun. Everything is
borne on the head. have seen a grand
piano carried on the heads of six men.
With the women a burden is very sell
dom steadied by the hand The head
remains perfectly motionless, only the
quick. black, dancing eyes flash into
every window and doorway to watch
for customer. This evening
Mont Pelee is more heavily coiffed
than usual. OF purple and lilac clouds
the couture is-a Veritable turban, a
magnificent Madras! Mont Pelee today
is in costume de fete-like d quadrOOn
attiTed for baptism or a ball-and in
her phantom headdress a young moon
glimmers for a brooch.
You descend through some very tor
tuous and steep, narrow streets to the
market place-a square well paved and
We'll Swallowed with a fountain in the
midst. Here the dealers are seated in
rows. One-half of the market is de-
voted TO fruits and vegetables, the 9TH
er to the salt Of fresh fish and meats
On first entering you are confused by
the press and deafened by the storm
of creole speech; then you begin TO dis
Germ some order in this chaos and TO
observe curious things. Right in the
middle of the pavement are lying long
boats filed with fish-bOats carried up
from the water on mems shoulders or
upon rollers and set down close to the
market fountain. Such fish. Black
scarlet, lilac, gold bright blue, rOseate,
green. No phantom tints these, but
colors luminous and strong, like fire.
Then. again, you see heaps of long.
thin fish, looking like piled bars Of pol
/ ished silver. absolutely dazzling, of
equal thickness from head to tail; fur
| Their on you observe heaps of fiat,
| bright pink creatures, a metallic car
mine; further yet you perceive q. mass
/ of azure backs and golden yellow bel
! lies. Here also are the monsters, some
twelve or fifteen feet long. of sinister
dark colOrs; the eccentricities-sOme
round, perfectly round disks Of amaZ-
I ing thinness with fieshy, brilliant,
long, wormy feelers instead of fins. AS
the sun gets high. banana leaves are
laid over the fish.
Infinitely more puZZling are the as
! tonishing varieties Of green and yellow
and parti-colored fruits and roots and
vegetables, out of the confusion of
/ which you retain only a memory of
| calabashes, cocoas, guRvas, sapOtillas,
! barbadines and punches of tiny bana-
1 mas two inches long, immense oranges
and lemOns-the former extraordinarily
/ sweet and juicy, the latter of an aroma
/ and acid puissance without parallel.
/ Among the vegetables you may catch
/ sight Of a huge. cylindrical, gray-white
/ mass. Il is palm pith, the edible core
+ Of the cabbage palm, the brain of the
noble tree, which had to be totally de-
! stroyed in order to procure it. It is
( cooked in a score Of ways-hashed,
| stewed, fried, and also eaten raw as a
salad with vinegar and oil.
! Then you begta to look about you at
/ the brown, black and yellow faces.
+ Watching the bare backs, bare shout
/ ders, bare legs and arms and feet, you
/ find that the colOrs of flesh are more
/ varied and surprising than the color
( of fruits. And it is only with fruit col
/ ors that many Of these skin tints can
( be compared at all, the only terms Of
/ comparison used by the colored people
( themselves being terms Of this kind,
! such as 'peau sapotille, or sapoti skin.
! The sapoti is juicy, brown fruit, with
a rind satiny, like the human cuticle.
! and just the color, when fresh and
ripe, of a fine. muIattO skin. But the
/ brighter half-breeds think the coIors
/ are much more fruitlike. There are
gourd tints, banana tints. orange col
ors, with occasional flushings of pink
/ showing through like the first pink of
the mango. Agreeable to the eye the
darker tints certainly are, and often
/ very remarkable, all tones Of bronze
J
! hues are absolutely beautiful. Standing
perfectly naked at doorways or play
ing naked in the sun, astonishing chill
/ dren may be Seen-banana-c OlOred or
/ orange -cOlored babies. There is one
peculiar type totally unlike the rest;
the skin is an exquisite metallic yell
low, perfect gold tone; the eyes are
long and black; the intensely dark and
I lustrous hair falls over the neck in
| a heavy mass of thick, rich, glossy
curls that show blue lights in the sun.
What mingling Of races produced this
beautiful type2 There is some strange
blood in the blending, not q coOlie, nor
Of African, nor of Chinese, although
there are Chinese types here Of in
dubitable beauty.
Il subsequently discovered the mys-
terry Of this very strange and beautiful
mixed race, many fine specimens Of
which may also be seen in Trinidad.
Three widely diverse elements have
combined to form it, European, negro
apd Indian; but strange to say. it is
the most savage Of these three bloods
/ which creates the peculiar charm. DR..
]. J. J. Cornilliac, an eminent Martin
ique physician, in his recent valuable
publication Of studies upon the eth
nOlOgy, climatology and history Of the
I AuIlli6S, writes. II Is the OdtiD DlOOu'
blended with the blood of Europeans
and of blacks in spite of all subsequent
+ crossings. and in spite of the fact that
it has not been renewed for more than
eco years. still cOnserves as remarkably
as at the time Of the first interblend-
ing. the race Characteristic that in
variably reveals its presence in the
blood of every being through whose
veins its flows.
All this population is vigorous,
graceful, healthy: all you see passing
by are we'll made; there are no sickly
faces, no scrawny limbs. II. by some