MERRYMAKING ON A DEMERARA SUGAR ESTATE 49 



themselves on Mother Earth, kneeling, squatting, 

 sitting cross-legged, crouching with knees drawn up to 

 chin, or lounging in the near neighbourhood of their 

 wares ; here and there, an odd figure is perched on a 

 dwarf stool. 



Eatables are very prominent among the goods for 

 sale. One ground-stall is set out with an assortment 

 of vegetables ; you are quite excited when you recog- 

 nize the familiar potato amongst piles of strange- 

 looking roots, tubers, pods, and fruits of the cucumber 

 and marrow family, which boast such queer names as 

 bolinjays, tanniers, eddoes and squash. A smaU 

 expanse of neighbouring grass exhibits a very pretty 

 display of green and red pepper-pods — caUed " pi- 

 mento," and their neighbours on the other side are 

 some giant hands of bananas and plantains. Next 

 comes a rival attraction to food — an exhibition of 

 clothes and finery ; ranged along the ground in piles 

 are cinnamon and cream-coloured tunics for the coolie 

 men, best plush juilas and everyday cotton juilas for 

 the coolie women, striped prints beloved by the darkies, 

 and neat Uttle heaps of brilliant-hued silk scarves hob- 

 nobbing with bundles of merino pants and vests. On 

 the opposite side of the way is another stretch of food- 

 supplies — piles of unhusked rice, known as " paddy,' 

 baskets of monkey-nuts, trays of gaudy sweetmeat 

 fairings, and so on to another stack of clothing. 



The highway is thronged with folk who have come 

 to make a merry festival of marketing, and again you 

 are struck with the decorative effect produced by the 

 costumes of the masses. The traders, too, have nearly 

 all donned holiday garments, and resemble their cus- 

 tomers in appearance ; but now and again you espy an 



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