The
mats, beds, and pillows still lying about suggested the idea that the
salesmen and women had passed the night amongst their wares. The gaily
attired, good-looking, flower-decorated crowd, of some seven or eight
hundred people, all chatting and laughing, and some staring at us--but
not rudely--looked much more like a chorus of opera-singers, dressed
for their parts in some grand spectacle, than ordinary market-going
peasants. Whichever way one turned, the prospect was an animated and
attractive one. Here, beneath the shade of large, smooth, light-green
banana leaves, was a group of earnest bargainers for mysterious-looking
fish, luscious fruit, and vegetables; there, sheltered by a drooping
mango, whose rich clusters of purple and orange fruit hung in tempting
proximity to lips and hands, another little crowd was similarly
engaged. Orange-trees were evidently favourite _rendezvous_; and a row
of flower-sellers had established themselves in front of a hedge of
scarlet hibiscus and double Cape jasmine. Every vendor carried his
stock-in-trade, however small the articles composing it might be, on a
bamboo pole, across his shoulder, occasionally with rather ludicrous
effect, as, for instance, when the thick but light pole supported only
a tiny fish six inches long at one end, and two mangoes at the other.
Pages:
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311