One Of The Most Attractive Spots To Me Was The Congregating Place Of
The _Lavanderas_, South Of My Street.
Here on the broad beach under
the cliff one saw a whiteness like a white cloud, covering the ground
For a space of about a third of a mile; and the cloud, as one drew
near, resolved itself into innumerable garments, sheets and quilts,
and other linen pieces, fluttering from long lines, and covering the
low rocks washed clean by the tide and the stretches of green turf
between. It was the spot where the washerwomen were allowed to wash
all the dirty linen of Buenos Ayres in public. All over the ground the
women, mostly negresses, were seen on their knees, beside the pools
among the rocks, furiously scrubbing and pounding away at their work,
and like all negresses they were exceedingly vociferous, and their
loud gabble, mingled with yells and shrieks of laughter, reminded me
of the hubbub made by a great concourse of gulls, ibises, godwits,
geese, and other noisy water-fowl on some marshy lake. It was a
wonderfully animated scene, and drew me to it again and again: I
found, however, that it was necessary to go warily among these women,
as they looked with suspicion at idling boys, and sometimes, when I
picked my way among the spread garments, I was sharply ordered off.
Then, too, they often quarrelled over their right to certain places
and spaces among themselves; then very suddenly their hilarious gabble
would change to wild cries of anger and torrents of abuse. By and by I
discovered that their greatest rages and worst language were when
certain young gentlemen of the upper classes visited the spot to amuse
themselves by baiting the _lavanderas_. The young gentleman would
saunter about in an absent-minded manner and presently walk right on
to a beautifully embroidered and belaced nightdress or other dainty
garment spread out to dry on the sward or rock, and, standing on it,
calmly proceed to take out and light a cigarette. Instantly the black
virago would be on her feet confronting him and pouring out a torrent
of her foulest expressions and deadliest curses. He, in a pretended
rage, would reply in even worse language. That would put her on her
mettle; for now all her friends and foes scattered about the ground
would suspend their work to listen with all their ears; and the
contest of words growing louder and fiercer would last until the
combatants were both exhausted and unable to invent any more new and
horrible expressions of opprobrium to hurl at each other. Then the
insulted young gentleman would kick the garment away in a fury and
hurling the unfinished cigarette in his adversary's face would walk
off with his nose in the air.
I laugh to recall these unseemly word-battles on the beach, but they
were shocking to me when I first heard them as a small, innocent-
minded boy, and it only made the case worse when I was assured that
the young gentleman was only acting a part, that the extreme anger he
exhibited, which might have served as an excuse for using such
language, was all pretence.
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