are simply laid on the dusty ground or heaped upon the steps of
the piazza--reddish-yellow mangoes, that look like great apples
squeezed out of shape, bunches of bananas, pyramids of bright-
green cocoanuts, immense golden-green oranges, and various other
fruits and vegetables totally unfamiliar to Northern eyes.... It
is no use to ask questions--the black dealers speak no dialect
comprehensible outside of the Antilles: it is a negro-English
that sounds like some African tongue,--a rolling current of
vowels and consonants, pouring so rapidly that the inexperienced
ear cannot detach one intelligible word, A friendly white coming
up enabled me to learn one phrase: "Massa, youwancocknerfoobuy?"
(Master, do you want to buy a cocoanut?)

The market is quite crowded,--full of bright color under the
tremendous noon light. Buyers and dealers are generally black;
--very few yellow or brown people are visible in the gathering.
The greater number present are women; they are very simply,
almost savagely, garbed--only a skirt or petticoat, over which
is worn a sort of calico short dress, which scarcely descends two
inches below the hips, and is confined about the waist with a
belt or a string. The skirt bells out like the skirt of a
dancer, leaving the feet and bare legs well exposed; and the head
is covered with a white handkerchief, twisted so as to look like
a turban. Multitudes of these barelegged black women are walking
past us,--carrying bundles or baskets upon their heads, and
smoking very long cigars.

They are generally short and thick-set, and walk with surprising
erectness, and with long, firm steps, carrying the bosom well
forward. Their limbs are strong and finely rounded. Whether