54 JUNGLE PEACE 



with the dominant hope a laugh at some one's 

 expense. Here was one who sought us out, 

 who left unguarded her little tray of bananas 

 and garlic to speak a word of thanks, to present 

 a handful of fruit which in her station was a 

 munificent gift, and who was satisfied and 

 grateful with our sincere appreciation. She has 

 sisters in graciousness over all the world, but 

 they are rare and widely scattered, like the 

 Akawai Indian squaw who gave me her last 

 cassava, like the wrinkled Japanese crone who 

 persuaded her son to become one of my best 

 servants, like the wife of the headman of an 

 isolated village in Yunnan, who from among 

 her sodden, beastlike neighbors came forth and 

 oflPered fowls and vegetables with a courteous 

 spirit worthy of any station in life. 



St. Lucia^ a Study in Contrasts. — Each 

 time I have visited Castries it has seemed more 

 somber and less pleasant. It is colorless be- 

 cause it is full of coal and no change of weather 

 brings amelioration. When the sun fills the air 

 with a blinding glare and palpitating heat 

 waves (as it occasionally does), each step raises 

 a cloud of coal dust, and when the tropical rain 

 falls in a steady downpour (as it usually does). 



