52 To the River Plate and Back 



principally, if not entirely, of European or American 

 manufacture. The great majority of the stores or 

 shops consist of a single room with a high ceiling, open- 

 ing out to the street, as do the shops in Spain and 

 North Africa. At times I could almost imagine myself 

 back again in Granada or Tangier. The merchants 

 sit surrounded by their wares at their elbows; the 

 artisans, the cobbler, the cabinet-maker, the book- 

 binder, the printer, work in full view of the passers-by, 

 and exchange greetings and carry on conversations 

 with the people who loiter past the open front of the 

 little rooms which they occupy. Some of the lanes are 

 almost as narrow as in an old Moorish town, and once 

 I had to step aside as a street peddler came along 

 with his donkey bearing a pair of panniers contain- 

 ing the wares which he was retailing. The incident 

 suggested the Orient. 



I noted the fact that there was nothing in the way of 

 manufactured articles which might be regarded as 

 characteristic of the country, and used as souvenirs 

 of my visit. The absence of artistic instincts among 

 the craftsmen struck me. It is so totally unlike what 

 is seen under like conditions, in many similar places 

 in Italy, France, and more particularly in Japan. It 

 might be imagined that in a land which is rich in its 

 products, and where the necessities of life are easily 

 supplied, the consequent leisure would lead to activities 

 along artistic lines, but the impulse is apparently 

 lacking. Something more than idleness and pictur- 

 esque surroundings is necessary to awaken artistic 

 yearnings and activities. The decorative, imitative, and 

 interpreting spirit must exist in the blood of a people. 

 Environment alone will not produce them. Africa 

 since the days of the Pharaohs has not shone resplen- 



