G.]

At early dawn our traveler is up and his toilet is made. Before the door
silently file the women of the colony on their way to the bank of the
river. Each bears on her head a large jug of red clay ornamented with
fanciful designs, the clay resembling that of which the bowl of an
Arab's pipe is made. When these jugs are empty the women carry them in a
pretty way inclining to one side, as the French soldier wears his
_kepi_. This gives to their walk an air of ease and nonchalance that is
extremely graceful. They are draped after a charming fashion in a piece
of white cotton called the rebozo, which is scrupulously clean, and they
walk one behind the other in bare feet and with elastic step. Their
garment consists of a white cotton chemise embroidered around the neck
and at the top of the sleeves with black worsted. It is cut very low in
the neck, leaving a part of the breast bare, and descends to a point
below the knee. A cotton cord tied around the waist keeps the chemise to
the figure, and serves as girdle and corset at the same time. The space
between the top of the chemise and the belt is used as a receptacle for
cigars, money, and generally for all the small objects that elsewhere
people carry in their pockets. The rebozo is worn over the head and
shoulders, with the ends thrown back over the left shoulder. As they
thus pass in single file, the customary mode of walking with the
Guaranian women, nothing can be more coquettish than the pose of the
jugs on their heads. They resemble an ancient bas-relief. Some of them
have admirable figures, and nearly all have fine teeth. Though the type
of the race is not a handsome one, owing to the high cheek-bones and
square chin, many individuals are pretty. Their large dark eyes are
shaded with heavy eyebrows, and their hair is as black as the crow's
wing, but very coarse, notwithstanding the constant attention which its
owners devote to it. Add to this, and spoiling all, an immense cigar in
each mouth, for the Paraguayan women all smoke incessantly. Even
children of tender years smoke, and the only ones exempt from the habit
are babes at the breast. Indeed, M. Forgues remembers to have seen a
Guaranian mother, with her little one straddling her hip, endeavoring to
quiet the child's cries by placing between its lips the half-chewed end
of her cigar. Among the women of this class marriages are rare. Their
principal characteristics are attachment to the companions whom they
h