34 SUGAR 



among the streamer leaves thereon, and immediately 

 they make you realize that there are thousands upon 

 thousands of multi-coloured stalks concealed in the 

 great, green beyond. And, see, a yard or two ahead 

 of you there is a brown figure slowly rising from the 

 dark depths of the earth, as it would seem, to stand in 

 the shadow of a cane-bower, with little sunbeams 

 darting around him hke fireflies. The sudden appear- 

 ance of this man, cutlass in hand, reminds you that 

 there is work to be done on a sugar plantation, that 

 this very estate employs several hundred field-hands, 

 men, women and children. The majority of them are 

 on duty to-day, but they are hidden away among 

 the canes. Many of them we shall discover when, 

 presently, we land and take a walk through the fields. 

 We have been towed along for a good quarter of a 

 mile without coming across another sign of life. Having 

 grown accustomed to the solitary aspect of our sur- 

 roundings, we again experience a shock of surprise 

 on seeing a coolie girl break through the canes ; but 

 this little disturbance of our equilibrium is a mere 

 nothing compared to the astonishment that takes 

 possession of us as we watch that girl step straight off 

 the dam into the water — with her clothes on. She 

 wades, neck-deep, through our navigation canal, hauls 

 herself up on to the tow-path, shakes herself, crosses 

 to the companion canal, and wades through that. On 

 the opposite bank she slips off her short, jumper bodice, 

 wrings it out, draws it over her head again, and 

 plunging into the canes, is lost to view. She has 

 simply been following the usual method of transit by 

 which the labourers cross the waterways between the 

 fields. 



