MERRYMAKING ON A DEMERARA SUGAR ESTATE 61 



Each village on an estate builds its own Taja, which 

 is ceremoniously placed on a selected tomb of the 

 prophets, on the first day of the festival, a Saturday. 

 On Monday, the Tajas are carried round from village 

 DO village to be compared and admired, then, with the 

 best one leading, a procession is formed. Finally, each 

 group takes its Taja to the estate's wharf — called the 

 " stelling " — where, after it has been rifled for tokens, 

 it is thrown into the sea. 



Another Showtime is the Last Day of Grinding. On 

 this occasion, the mule-boys decorate their mules with 

 flowers, and the mill-hands bedeck the machinery with 

 bouquets and garlands. And floral adornments can 

 well be lavish and luxurious in a land where our most 

 carefully-nursed hothouse exhibits are common garden 

 blooms, where orchids, Victoria Eegia water-liUes, and 

 brilliant-flowering creepers grow in wild profusion. 



CHAPTER XIII 



HOW DEMERARA SUGAR LEAVES HOME 



Demerara sugar is sent down from the estates to 

 Georgetown, the distributing port, in sacks, which are 

 always spoken of as " bags." The bags nearly all do 

 this part of the journey by water, but some travel by 

 train. At Georgetown, they may have a short rest in 

 the storage quarters of the wharves, but very often 

 they are taken straight on board the 1 Ig steamers 

 which transport the bulk of the Colony's annual sugar- 

 supply to the world's markets. Of late, a large pro- 

 portion of that supply has been going to Canada, owing 



