1 1 8 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



breeze. The poise of their bodies reflects the perfect calm 

 and repose of their smooth, brown faces. 



What an antithesis they are to the ponderous old black 

 women who are striding along, with bedraggled skirts gath- 

 ered up in a roll around their massive waists. They are 

 untidy and slatternly in dress, heavy and awkward in move- 

 ment in comparison with the straight, slim, coolie women. 

 They are full of loud laughter and talk and song. At every 

 street corner they gather in friendly, jovial groups, while the 

 coolie women are strangely silent and reserved. No wonder 

 that these two races so hate and scorn one another, for in 

 temperament they are as far apart as the poles! 



The British Guiana blacks were to us an unending source 

 of interest and amusement. They were always courteous 

 and kindly and most original. Even when swearing at each 

 other their manner was always polite and each anathema 

 ended with a civil "Suh!" Their dialect was at first very 

 difficult to understand, but when our ears became familiar 

 with it we found it singularly attractive. All the a's are 

 broad, even in such words as bad and man; while the intona- 

 tion is indescribable, the verbs in a sentence being always 

 emphasized and given a slight rising inflection, as for ex- 

 ample, "I have been to Berbice." An interrogation is often 

 not at all indicated by the form of a question, but merely by 

 the rising inflection, as "These are nice?" The general 

 effect of their speech is a very musical and distinctive intona- 

 tion. 



Always the irrepressible spirit of the black rises serenely 

 above all the vicissitudes of life. A black woman from 

 Arakaka was sentenced to a month in jail. Upon her return 

 she was welcomed by a crowd of friends, all eager to hear 

 something of that mysterious jail, to which none of them 

 were sure they might not some day go. To their questions 

 "How was it? how was it?" the heroine of the occasion 



