SOME SUMMER DAYS IN MARTINIQUE. 285 



articles from the United States into favor. Clothing 

 is higher than in the English islands, and tailors few 

 and inexpert. The business dress is the loose-fitting, 

 blue or black, blouse, and white pants. The hot and 

 stiff panama is preferred to all other hats, though its 

 closeness of texture, affording no chance for ventila- 

 tion, makes it the very worst possible for a tropical 

 climate. Some of the more sensible, however, are 

 adopting the cool and well-ventilated Indian pith hel- 

 met, so much worn in the English islands. Panamas 

 are the rage, and every street has its magasin, or 

 store, with the conspicuous sign, " Chateaux de Pana- 

 ma veritable" some of which sell as high as fifteen 

 or twenty dollars. Silks and cottons are extremely 

 dear. The only thing cheap and tolerably good is 

 the claret, which comes direct from France duty free ; 

 and the vessel that brings the claret carries back as 

 ballast the essential logwood. 



Nothing can be said against the costumes of the 

 ladies, which are really elegant and in good taste. 

 As in these islands there are no teachers of the terpsi- 

 chorean art, so there are no dressmakers or, if 

 any, very few and the ladies cut and make their 

 own garments. In this they take especial pride, and 

 their toilettes, as seen on a Sunday at ten-o'clock 

 mass, do credit to their hands and heads. There is 

 nothing that attracts a stranger's attention so quickly 

 as the costumes of the hucksters, the demi ?nonde, and 

 the market-women : a single flowing robe of bright- 

 colored calico, or white muslin, sometimes of silk, 

 loose at the throat, and with a waistband high up 

 under the shoulder-blades. It is that of the past 

 century. These women are mulattresses, quadroons, 



