Many have come to the United States 

 or to Nova Scotia as children and 

 have gone back grown men, with a 

 relatively high degree of education. 

 English is generally spoken along the 

 coast, even to a larger extent than 

 Spanish. The commodities of San 

 Bias life are an incongruous mix- 

 ture of native products and imported 

 goods.. 



Primitive ways are perpetuated by 

 the women, who have not been al- 

 lowed as yet to have even a glimpse 

 of the outer world and are, although 

 perhaps to a lesser degree than among 

 the Guaymies, the drudges of all 

 work. In justice to them it must be 

 said here that the often-repeated as- 

 sertion of their hideousness is as 

 wrong as it would be to affirm that 

 all American females are beauties. 

 The remarkable facility with which 

 the San Bias men return to their 

 simple and secluded life after stay- 

 ing for years in a more civilized en- 

 vironment must be attributed largely 

 to feminine influence. 



Times, however, are fast changing. 

 Elementary schools, open to little 

 girls, have already been established 

 at Nargana, under the guidance of a 

 Catholic priest, and it is apparent 

 that woman will soon turn out to be 

 the progressive element of the coast 

 of San Bias, as she is in most com- 

 munities of Central America. 



Besides being excellent sailors and 

 fishermen, the San Bias Indians ex- 

 cel in agricultural pursuits. The 

 whole coast, as well as the numerous 

 islands of Mandinga Bay and far- 

 ther east, are lined with extensive 

 cocoanut-palm groves, of a variety 

 remarkable for the superior quality 

 and shape of the nuts. Vast areas 

 of the forests are covered with the 

 native ivory-nut palm and the larger 

 growth abounds in balata or bully- 

 trees. 



The last three products — cocoa- 

 nuts, ivory-nuts, and balata — which 

 are sold or bartered either to local 

 merchants or to trading schooners 

 plying between the coast and the 

 United States or New Brunswick 

 and Nova Scotia, are the main 



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