JAMAICA 231 



saw a young girl walking home from church. She was arrayed 

 from head to foot in virgin white. Her gloves were on, and her 

 parasol was up. Her hat also was white, and so was the lace, and 

 so were the bugles which adorned it. She walked with a stately 

 dignity that was worthy of such a costume, and worthy also of 

 higher grandeur; for behind her walked an attendant nymph, 

 carrying the beauty's prayer-book on her head. A negro woman 

 carries every burden on her head, from a tub of water weighing a 

 hundredweight down to a bottle of physic. 



When we came up to her, sh< turned toward us and curtsied. 

 She curtsied, for she recognized her "massa"; but she curtsied 

 with gnat dignity, for she recognized also her own finery. The 

 girl behind with the prayer-book made the ordinary obeisance, 

 crooking her leg up at the knee, and then standing upright quicker 

 than thought. 



Who on earth is that princess?" said I. 



" They are two sisters who both work at my mill," said my friend. 

 ' Next Sunday they will change places. Polly will have the parasol 

 and the hat, and Jenny will carry the prayer-book on her head be- 

 hind her." 



His story of how the barefooted field-hand came into a 

 shoe-shop to buy a pair of pumps, and how he imperiously 

 demanded a piece of carpet such as dealers ordinarily have 

 to keep their customers' stockings clean, is equally amus- 



ing. 



Not the least striking feature of the Jamaican negroes 

 is their talkativeness. The buckra man they treat with 

 outward diffidence, but when they meet they open a rapid 

 fire of badinage with one another, accompanied by many 

 exclamations and loud laughter. The noise of this jabber- 

 ing at the market-places sometimes elaborate affairs in 

 the towns, and sometimes merely fenced-in inclosures at 

 the cross-roads can be hoard rising above all other sounds 

 long before the locality is reached. 



And what interesting spots these markets are, where 

 dames and damsels from miles around have each brought 



a head-load of produce to sell yams, potatoes, peasant 



COffee, SapodillaS, oranges, sweet potatoes, Well-broWliei 1 



cakes of cassava bread, plantains, poppers, and other prod- 



