into an
ornament by the coloured handkerchief which they twist about their
heads, leaving the ends flowing. They chattered like jackdaws about a
church tower. Two or three of the best looking, seeing that I admired
them a little, used their eyes and made some laughing remarks. They
spoke in their French _patois_, clipping off the first and last
syllables of the words. I but half understood them, and could not return
their bits of wit. I can only say that if their habits were as loose as
white people say they are, I did not see a single licentious expression
either in face or manner. They seemed to me light-hearted, merry,
innocent young women, as free from any thought of evil as the peasant
girls in Brittany.

Two middle-aged dames were in a state of violent excitement about some
subject on which they differed in opinion. A ring gathered about them,
and they declaimed at one another with fiery volubility. It did not go
beyond words; but both were natural orators, throwing their heads back,
waving their arms, limbs and chest quivering with emotion. There was no
personal abuse, or disposition to claw each other. On both sides it was
a rhetorical outpouring of emotional argument. One of them, a tall pure
blood negress, black as if she had just landed from Guinea, began at
last to get the best of it. Her gesticulations became more imposing. She
shook her finger. _Mandez_ this, she said, and _mandez_ that, till she
bore her antagonist down and sent her flying. The audience then melted
away, and I left the conqueror standing alone shooting a last volley
at the retreating enemy and making passionate appeals to the universe.
The subject of the discussion was a curious one. It was on the merits of
race. The defeated champion had a taint of white blood in her. The black
woman insisted that blacks were of pure breed, and whites were of pure
breed. Mulattoes were mongrels, not creatures of God at all, but
creatures of human wickedness. I do not suppose that the mulatto was
convinced, but she accepted her defeat. The conqueror, it was quite
clear, was satisfied that she had the best of the discussion, and that
the hearers were of the same opinion.

[Illustration: MORNING WALK, DOMINICA.]

From the market I stepped back upon the quay, where I had the luck to
witness a novel form of fishing, the most singular I have ever fallen in
with. I have mentioned the herring-sized white fish which come in upon
the shores of the island. They