26 



SHYNESS OF LADIES. 



Chap. 11. 



groups — little families or parties — as they had left 

 their native villages, and most of these parties had 

 a servant or two walking behind them, and carry- 

 ing some food to refresh them by the way, and a 

 bundle of umbrellas to protect them from the rain. 

 Each of the ladies — young and old — who were not 

 in chairs, walked with a long stick, which was 

 used partly to prevent her from stumbling, and 

 partly to help her along the road. Most of them 

 were dressed gaily in silks, satins, and crapes of 

 various colours, but blue seemed the favourite and 

 predominating one. As I walked onward and 

 passed group after group on the way, the ladies, 

 as etiquette required, looked demure and shy, as if 

 they could neither speak nor smile. Sometimes 

 one past the middle age would condescend to 

 answer me goodhumouredly ; but this was even 

 rare. The men on the contrary were chatty 

 enough, and so were the ladies too as soon as I 

 had passed them and joined other groups farther 

 a-head. Oftentimes I heard a clear ringing laugh, 

 after I had passed, from the lips of some fair one 

 who but a minute before had looked as if she had 

 never given way to such frivolity in her life. 



But while I am still on a little eminence from 

 which I have been viewing man, let me turn to 

 the other and not less beautiful works of nature. 

 Behind me lay a large and fertile valley, the same 

 through which I had passed during the night, 

 intersected in all directions with navigable canals, 

 and teeming with an industrious and happy 



