STREET SCENES IN NICARAGUA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2058, 3 August 1893, Page 42

STREET SCENES IN NICARAGUA.

A PICTORESQE LAND WHEEE REVOLUTIONS ARE ALWAYS EXPECTED.

Pictnres are everywhere; women bfaring burdens on their heads, their draperies blown into action as their usually strong and beautiful figures accentuated by the gentle trade winds; bathers or washerwomen on the beach, the sunlight glancing from their wet, bronzed bodies and coal-black hair, relieved against the deep blue of the sky and reflected in the waters of the lake and the white of the incoming waves ; the market places; the hammocks full of naked and Bleeping babies; the beautiful young girls; the withered and wrinkled crone sucking her cigarette as she crouohes over her spark of a charcoal fire, surrounded by her pots and pans; the islands of the lake; the volcanoes ; the tropical richness of the cultivated country, with its feathery palms and orchids, or the weird, lonesome, gloomy jungle, with its majestic trees and festooned vines. Here is a young boy selling pineapples ; he wears nothing but a breeoh cloth. Here comes a girl who is a perfect scheme of colour, her bronze face, black hair, yellowwhite chemise, red rebozo full of quality, and her brown skirt and sandals covered with dust. You watch her until Bhe turns the corner, and yon have a half mind to follow for one more glance ; but look in another direction, and behold ! Something equally fine is before you. Maybe it is a young senor, with a mane of black hair about his forehead and sticking out from under his hat rim, his moustache twisted into saucy curls, a gay sash about his waist, a short sword at his side, and his gamecock under bis arm. The soldiers, too, are picturesque. They are always expecting a revolution when life is eventful ; but in times of peace the arresting o£ stray pigs, goats. &c, is about all they have to do. They are small men, but look like good material, and, I have no doubt, fight bravely. They wear hardly any uniform, and remind one of FalstafE's men ; but in the larger towns they are on their mettle, and are as sprnoe as can be.— May Century.