Arabian Nights. It is many-colored; but the general dominant
tint is yellow, like that of the town itself--yellow in the
interblending of all the hues characterizing _mulâtresse,
capresse, griffe, quarteronne, métisse, chabine,_--a general
effect of rich brownish yellow. You are among a people of half-
breeds,--the finest mixed race of the West Indies.

Straight as palms, and supple and tall, these colored women and
men impress one powerfully by their dignified carriage and easy
elegance of movement. They walk without swinging of the
shoulders;--the perfectly set torso seems to remain rigid; yet
the step is a long full stride, and the whole weight is springily
poised on the very tip of the bare foot. All, or nearly all, are
without shoes: the treading of many naked feet over the heated
pavement makes a continuous whispering sound.

... Perhaps the most novel impression of all is that produced by
the singularity and brilliancy of certain of the women's
costumes. These were developed, at least a hundred years ago, by
some curious sumptuary law regulating the dress of slaves and
colored people of free condition,--a law which allowed
considerable liberty as to material and tint, prescribing chiefly
form. But some of these fashions suggest the Orient: they offer
beautiful audacities of color contrast; and the full-dress
coiffure, above all, is so strikingly Eastern that one might be
tempted to believe it was first introduced into the colony by
some Mohammedan slave. It is merely an immense Madras
handkerchief, which is folded about the head with admirable art,
like a turban;--one bright end pushed through at the top in
front, being left sticking up like a plume. Then this turban,