MEBRYMAKING ON A DEMFEABA SUGAR ESTATE 47 



to take part in a Pageant, in which East and West 

 will vie with each other for your good opinion as to 

 which contributes the more engaging feature to the 

 spectacle. 



The finest scene is presented when the actors, coming 

 in family groups from all directions, join forces on the 

 tow-path, and stream in a dense crowd along the last 

 section of the route to the pay-office, alongside the 

 mill. En masse, that crowd makes you think of a 

 festival procession wending its way through an Oriental 

 fairyland ; coolies predominate in actual numbers, and 

 Western costumes are sombred into insignificance by 

 their Eastern robes, headgear and jewels, which flash 

 before your eyes in a gorgeous medley of scarlet, blue, 

 green, saffron, magenta and gold, freely interspersed 

 with patches of white and cream to throw into still 

 bolder relief the naturally vivid colours. 



Around the pay-office the Pageant breaks up into 

 groups. Now you can see the darkies to better 

 advantage. Most of them present quite a smart 

 appearance in their best clothes ; but the majority 

 follow one detail of fashion which strikes you as very 

 quaint. Accustomed as you have grown to seeing 

 them without shoes and stockings, you now look upon 

 their bare feet as a strange, new sight. Bare feet going 

 about their business in company with oddments of 

 workaday garments are not remarkably incongruous. 

 But bare feet beneath frilly petticoats and an elaborate 

 frock, bare feet protruding from the trousers of a 

 highly respectable suit — such a combination of primi- 

 tive custom and civilized fashion naturally strikes you 

 as somewhat odd. Some of the women tie up their 

 heads in a red cotton kerchief, and then perch on the 



