p. 173 | IN SALVADOR

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 18, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 11.

IN SALVADOR.

IN two plazas the market is held every two or three weeks alternately. This change of place allows of their thorough clearing and airing, it being impossible in their crowded condition to do so otherwise. Women alone vend the wares, and in the absence of market house or sheltering roof, they shade their positions by a piece of matting placed on horizontal poles supported by four uprights. All these are cleared away in the general bi-weekly flitting.

When the hundreds of market women have unawares bundled their traps and stolen away to the other market-place, the effect produced in one's mind is comical on seeing not a vestige of yesterday's busy scene in the deserted open space. The baskets they use for marketing are open and round, without handles. The large ones are carried on the head, and the small ones are poised gracefully on the uplifted hand. The weight some of the women can carry on the head is astonishing. I have seen them walk away in this manner with a quantity of corn that would have been no small load for a mule's back, and the cheerful, musically intoned, "Adios, pues," in greeting to a passing acquaintance, indicated a mind unruffled and contented. Many of them are handsome and comely in figure and face, their beautiful eyes not sparkling, but introspective, and like lamps that burn low and clear.

The women of all classes dress neatly, and in a manner suited to the climate and to their means. The mozas appear on Sunday in a plain white dress. A broad, long scarf falls from the head, the ends being passed under and over the arms. The señoras wear shawls placed on the shoulders in the usual way, leaving the head bare. Comparatively few wear hats; they use parasols to shade from the sun, but not always—they do not seem to be afraid of the sunshine. I scarcely recollect seeing a single mantilla, which is supposed to be the regulation part of the Spanish ladies' dress, all the time I was in Central America. It is very animating to see the women thus dressed, and in colors corresponding to the bright sunshine streaming across the broad plaza to the church.—Sel.