fruit, ready-cooked food, from door to door,--are very simply
dressed in a single plain robe of vivid colors (_douillette_)
reaching from neck to feet, and made with a train, but generally
girded well up so as to sit close to the figure and leave the
lower limbs partly bare and perfectly free. These women can walk
all day long up and down hill in the hot sun, without shoes,
carrying loads of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty
pounds on their heads; and if their little stock sometimes fails
to come up to the accustomed weight stones are added to make it
heavy enough. Doubtless the habit of carrying everything in this
way from childhood has much to do with the remarkable vigor and
erectness of the population.... I have seen a grand-piano
carried on the heads of four men. With the women the load is
very seldom steadied with the hand after having been once placed
in position. The head remains almost most motionless; but the
black, quick, piercing eyes flash into every window and door-way
to watch for a customer's signal. And the creole street-cries,
uttered in a sonorous, far-reaching high key, interblend and
produce random harmonies very pleasant to hear.

..._"Çe moune-là, ça qui lè bel mango?"_ Her basket of mangoes
certainly weighs as much as herself.... _"Ça qui lè bel avocat?,"_
The alligator-pear--cuts and tastes like beautiful green cheese...
_"Ça qui lè escargot?"_ Call her, if you like snails.... _"Ca qui lè
titiri?"_ Minuscule fish, of which a thousand would scarcely
fill a tea-cup;--one of the most delicate of Martinique
dishes.... _"Ça qui lè canna?--Ça qui lè charbon?--Ça qui lè di pain
aubè?" (Who wants ducks, charcoal, or pretty little loaves
shaped like cucumbers.)... _"Ça qui lè pain-mi?"_ A sweet maize
cake in the form of a tiny sugar-loaf, wrapped in a piece of