THE CONQUERING TREE 197 



water is used in washing coloured clothing, especially black, 

 the colours being cleaned and held fast. 



In the country in which it is supposed to be endemic it 

 is believed that if male animals graze under the papaw 

 tree they become blasi; but science alleges that the roots 

 and extracted juice possess aphrodisiac properties, and who 

 among us would not rather place credence upon this par- 

 ticular fairy tale of science than the fairy tales of swarthy 

 and illiterate and possibly biassed gentlemen. 



And as to its beauty-bestowing attributes, an admirer's 

 word might be quoted as a final note of praise — 



" The strange and beautiful races of the Antilles astonish 

 the eyes of the traveller who sees them for the first time. 

 It has been said that they have taken their black, brown, 

 and olive and yellow skin-tints from the satiny and bright- 

 hued rinds of the fruit which surround them. If they are 

 to be believed, the mystery of their clean, clear complexion 

 and exquisite pulp-like flesh arises from the use of the papaw 

 fruit as a cosmetic. A slice of ripe fruit is rubbed over the 

 skin, and is said to dissolve spare flesh and remove every 

 blemish. It is a toilet requisite in use by the young and 

 old, producing the most beautiful specimens of the human 

 race." 



The Conquering Tree 



Inconsequent as Nature appears to be at times and 

 given to whims, fancies and contradictions, only those who 

 study with attention her moods may estimate how truthful 

 and how sober she really is. She is honest in all her 

 purposes, and though changeful and gay in apparel never 

 cheap nor meretricious. A slim-shafted palm shooting 

 through the leafy mantle, and swaying airily a profuse 

 mass of fiery red seeds, distinctive in shape, may be the 

 prototype of a flirt, but the flirtation which arrests attention 

 and bewitches the beholder is also innoxious. There is 

 nothing of the artificial about the display. The colours 



