A summer on the borders of the Caribbean sea.Harris, J. Dennis
History
A summer on the borders of the Caribbean sea.
Harris, J. Dennis
Caribbean Area -- Description and travel
The largest “señorita” had a dress to make up. It was a piece of light
blue delaine, and to her, no doubt, was “superb.” She left off assisting
the old patriarch in dressing the goat, walked to the pitcher, took the
cocoanut dipper, and filled her mouth with water until her cheeks
swelled out like a porpoise’s. She then deliberately spirted it into her
hands; and this was her mode of washing! She then spreads out her
dry-goods, admires them a while, folds them up again, and lays them
aside.
The four, and even six year old, running about the place, were as
innocent of even a shirt as any son of Adam at his coming into the
world.
We look out into the open, slab-sided kitchen, and see old and young
sitting around on the dirt floor, enjoying a meal of fresh goat, winter
squash, and plantain stewed together.
Our dinner is over; we bid these folks good-bye, and pronounce them the
happiest set of miserably contented mortals the sun ever shone upon. Man
needs excitement; he prays for ease.
We return to Pastorisa Place to spend the Sabbath. Two or three days of
rest, and we start fresh again for Porto Cabello.
So ends the week--one at least in my life for which it was worth the
trouble to have lived.
LETTER VI.
Dominican Republic.
ON THE WAY TO PORTO CABELLO--ANTILLE-AMERICANA--EMIGRATION ORDINANCE.
“Here in my arms as happy you shall be,
As halcyon brooding on a winter sea.”
--DRYDEN.
When the saffron sunlight lingers on the fleecy edges of these mountain
clouds, there is a singular solemnity and peculiar fascination about
them which can not be likened to any thing earthly. More than any thing
else, the resemblance is that of a dark mourning-gown, lined with white
satin and trimmed with silver tassels.
This reminds me that the sign of mourning here is somewhat novel. It is
that of a spotless white kerchief worn on the head--a thing rarely seen,
however, for the reason that people in this district rarely die except
from sheer old age. There is near us an old man (black) whose entire
grey hair and bodily appearance indicate his being at least eighty. His
father died only a year ago, and for some time before the aged sire’s
death it is said that fires had to be kindled for him to sleep by, in
order to generate sufficient heat to keep his thin, chilly blood in
circulation. His age was beyond his own knowledge.
But the great object of life here seems to be that of eating. The first
thing in the morning after leaving your hammock, you are furnished with
a dish of aromatic coffee, strong and excellent as a beverage, and as
little like the ordinary stuff you get at hotels as pure rich cream is
like chalk and water. Bah! think of your dish-water slops, made of
parched peas, and supposed to be West India coffee! Oh! nation of
Barnums and egregious dupes!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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