60 JUNGLE PEACE 



pleadings, offers and refusals. After the aural 

 came the olfactory zone, and none may describe 

 this, so intermingled that fish and vegetables, 

 spice and onions were only to be detected when 

 one approached their respective booths. 



The details of market life hold the possibili- 

 ties of epic description; the transactions of a 

 stock exchange pale into mediocrity when com- 

 pared with the noise and excitement when a 

 sixpence changes hands between Martinique 

 negresses. 



All the sales in the market were of the small- 

 est quantities; little silver was seen, pennies, 

 ha'pennies and sous composing all the piles of 

 coppers. The colors of the fruits were like 

 flowers, melons white with a delicate fretwork 

 of green; brilhant touches of red peppers like 

 scarlet passion flowers; tiny bits of garlic lilac- 

 tinted. The fish had the hues of sunsets on their 

 scales, and the most beautiful, the angelfish, 

 were three for a penny, while the uglier, more 

 edible ones, were sixpence each. Beauty was 

 rated at inverse value here. 



Around and around the iron fence which 

 bounded the market place, paced a pitiful pair 

 — a tiny black mite who could not have passed 



