A Land of Fair Women.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 852, 29 June 1888, Page 6

A Land of Fair Women.

Paraguay as Paradise and Lotus Land. 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 ooe. 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 wit the death of the modern Nero, who waged it, and has reduced the whole population to abont one-sixth of what it was twenty years ago, leaving only women and boys. These women are as beautiful and fair to look upon as oan be found in any part of the world. Though they belong to the Indian race, they are not of the swarthy, coarse 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 and feet, and figures of matchless grace and beauty, that would serve for models of the sculptor’s art. Their carriage is so easy and natural as to be almost the poetry 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 skirt, falling below the knees, and a shoulder covering not nnlike 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 halfconceal 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 only to-

* Sing and love all day, then under wing Fold head till morn bids sing and love again. In the mid-day siesta they are fond of lying languidly in their graceful hammocks, sipping choir 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 auaht else in a land so blessed as theirs ? Living entirely upon fruits and vegetables that are secured with but Tittle effort; unmoved by the ambitious schemes of the money-making Europeans, upon whom they look with questioning wonder, and possessed of languid, voluptuous natures, tbat-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 attachment, 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 natured pebple in the world. Always gay, always laughing, always happy, their kindness and good nature towards each other is one of the chief ■characteristics of this amiable and innocent 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. .

Their pastimes number but one, dancing, and into that they throw the whole spirit of their, joyous natures. The slightest excuse is all that is necessary for getting up a ball, •t which the whole neighborhood at once assembles—such is the freedom and social equality in this country. The girls and women are dressed only in the robes described, with the added decorations of shoes and a gold comb in the hair, if they possess suchTinery. The men wear white' linen trousers and red ponchos. The dances are in quaint, original figures, but nearly always very graceful. Sometimes the festivities will fee kept up through the entire night, after which the participants will gayly return to their occupations of whatsoever nature, always contented, always happy, Sometimes there will be a grand contribution .picnic at some distant pointy where the dancing will be kept up’ throfigb the round of a whole twenty-four hours. For truly these people live but to be happy through the live-long day.