A Land of Fair Women.

Evening Star, Issue 7628, 2 June 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Land of Fair Women.

Nothing astonishes the visitor to Paraguay to-day so much as the vast preponderance of the female over the male population. The proportion is something like nine to one. This is the result of a long and very fierce war, in which the patient Guaranians, faithful even to death, followed and supported a perfectly remorseless, cruel, and ambitious ruler through indescribable hardships and sufferings. This most hopeless and unwarrantable of wars ended only with the death of the modern Nero who waged it, and has reduced the whole population to about onesixth of what it was twenty years ago, leavind only women and boys. These women are as beautiful and fair to look upon as can be found in any part of the world. Though they belong to the Indian race they are not of the swarthy, coarße, and beastly Indian type. Some of them are very dark, but many are as light and fair as the purest Anglo-Saxon, with clear complexions; flowing, dark hair; large, deep, lustrous eyes; and delicate features of a very voluptuous cast. They are of medium height, rather slight and lithe, with finely moulded limbs; small, pretty hands aud feet, and figures of matchless grace aud beauty that would serve for models of the sculptor's art. Their carriage is so easy and natural as to be almost the peetry of motion, for the freedom from high-heeled boots and tight clothing has left their step light, supple, and strong. Their dress is of the simplest form—a short tunic or robe, not unlike a bkirt, falling below the knees, and a shoulder covering not unlike a shawl; both of pure white, and adorned with pretty, native lace. They are as gracefully worn as were the flowing Greek robes of old, and as bewitchingly serve to half reveal and half conceal the form beneath. The language spoken among themselves is the native Guarani, a soft, liquid, gentle tongue that falls more musically upon the ear than even the boasted Spanish, and seems so fitting for nothing else as for words and tales of love. Indeed these fair women themselves seem made to Sing and love all day, then under wins; Fold head till mora t.'Hs sing and love again. In the mid-day siesta they are fond of lying languidly in their graceful hammocks, sipping their mate and singing in their low, sweet voices, yet sad and with a touch of melancholy, the narancaros or songs of the orange gatherers, or those other strange, weird songs of theirs, whose words are all of love. Indeed, what need to do aught else in a land so blessed as theirs ? Living entirely upon fruits and vegetables, that are secured with but little effort; unmoved by the ambitious schemes of the money-making Europeans, upon whom they look with questioning wonder ; and possessed of languid, voluptuous natures, that are fostered by the climate, what else should they do save love and dance and sing ? Byron has faithfully portrayed the girls in his savage heroines. Strong and faithful in their attachments and gentle as doves, they are, nevertheless, fiery and passionate when they have cause for jealousy, for they have a touch of the tigress in them when moved by love and hate. Yet they are the best-natnred people in the world. Always gay, always laughing, always happy, their kindness and good nature toward each other is one of the chief characteristics of this amiable and innocent I race. And another of their chief characteristics is cleanliness. Their persons, their [ clothing, their houses (however scantily : furnished), and even their children, so far as possible, are always irreproachably clean and neat. Tobacco is one of the chief productions of the country, aud the manufacture of cigars one of the chief industries; the work of the women's hands. Large quantities of these cigars are exported to various parts of the world, but still larger quantities are consumed at home. For the use of the narcotic weed is almost universal in this dreamy land, and its influence no doubt tends toward making the inhabitants the inactive, indolent, careless people that they are, particularly since the smoking habit is often incurred in the tenderest age of childhood. The girls aud women are dressed only in the robes described, with the added decorations of shoes and a gold comb in the hair, if they possess such finery. The men wear white linen trousers and red ponchos. The dances are in qaaint, original figures, but nearly always very graceful. Sometimes the festivities will be kept up through the entire night, after which the participants wilt gayly return to their occupations of whatsoever nature, always contented, always happy. Sometimes there will be a grand contribution picnic at some distant point, where the dancing will be kept up through the round of a whole twenty-four hours. For truly these people live but to be happy through the live-long day. Who would introduce toil into such a dreamful realm as this ? Who would prate of ambition to the dwellers in such a land of plenty and ease and happiness, devoid of all carking ? Who would not rather become a lotus-eater among the lotus-eaters, and settle down upon the sunny hillsides or shady river banks, amid fragrant and fruitful orange groves, to forget a regretted past and live only in the happy present, waited upon by the simple, white-robed Indian womendevoted, affectionate, and surpassingly fair ? The question has been actually put and answered more than once, and more than once have the fascinating attractions of this veritable Atlantis proved irresistible to theweary wanderer. For many visiting Europeans, Englishmen among the rest» have fallen victims to the soft, restful, influence of this alluring country and climate, and have said, like the followers of Ulysses— We will return no more; our island borne Is fir beyond the ware; we wiU no longer roam. — V. 0. Grant, in \ Boston Transcript.' Port of 1834 from the Drapers' Company"* cellar recently brought Ll6los a dozen.