ROADSIDE SKETCHES IN GUATEMALA 103 



peaks between the capital and the Pacific. I do not intend 

 to give a description of the city, which has already so often 

 been described, but we will pay a visit to the market, a scene 

 as pretty as it is interesting, giving at once an idea of the 

 productions of the country, and of the national characteristics 

 of the people. Like everything else in the capital, so also does 

 the market open at a late hour ; only at about noon is it really 

 in full swing, the distances the vendors have to bring their 

 wares being probably the reason. It is held in two squares, 

 connected by a passage, but enclosed nearly all round by a 

 series of shops constructed of stone. Articles of native clothing, 

 generally cotton in the brightest colours, iron ware, gigantic 

 Mexican spurs and cruel-looking bits ; rope made of the fibres 

 of the agave, mats of palm leaves, knives, from the small 

 European pocket-knife to the gigantic machete, &c., are exposed 

 for sale in the shops ; but the real interest lies not here, but 

 in the Indians who with their wares crowd the inner squares. 

 What a subject such a market scene would be for a painter ! 

 Everything is bright, full of colour and full of life. The 

 native women in their picturesque and most becoming dress 

 squat on the ground behind the mats or baskets wherein their 

 goods are displayed to the best advantage. We will take a 

 glimpse at the latter first, and study the ladies' dress after- 

 wards. This woman here presides over several baskets, the 

 centre one filled with bright green, that one with deep crimson 

 chillies, another with white or black beans, while potatoes 

 and onions lie in heaps around. That lady carrying a baby 

 in a shawl upon her back while she smokes her cigarette in 

 evident enjoyment is surrounded by huge piles of yellow 

 limes and golden oranges, plantains, green anonas, one cut 

 in half to display its white creamy flesh, and alligator pears. 

 Here are baskets of Indian corn of which they all make their 

 bread, of lentils, peas, and rice ; golden yellow jocota berries ; 

 yams, green vegetables of various kinds. Then more heaps 

 of fruits, and of fresh crisp salads, baskets full of eggs, and 

 so on, the same everywhere. Turkeys and fowls are tied up 

 in most uncomfortable positions in many places; there are 

 stalls of meat and doubtful-looking sausages ; little heaps of 

 tobacco and cigarettes made with maize husk in neat bundles 

 of twenty, price three cents. Sugar of various degrees of purity 



