The
Panniers Are About A Yard Deep, And May Often Be Seen Full To The
Brim With Live Fowls Pinioned By The Legs.
Other women go around with
large wicker trays on their heads, selling chipa, the native bread,
made from Indian corn, or mandioca root, the staple food of the
country.
Wheat is not grown in Paraguay, and any flour used is
imported. These daughters of Eve often wear nothing more than a robe-
de-chambre, and invariably smoke cigars six or eight inches long.
Their figure is erect and stately, and the laughing eyes full of
mischief and merriment; but they fade into old age at forty. Until
then they seem proud as children of their brass jewellery and red
coral beads. The Paraguayans are the happiest race of people I have
met; care seems undreamed of by them.
In the post-office of the capital I have sometimes been unable to
procure stamps, and "Dypore" (We have none) has been the civil
answer of the clerk. When they had stamps they were not provided
with mucilage, but a brush and pot of paste were handed the buyer. If
you ask for a one cent stamp the clerk will cut a two cent stamp and
give you a half. They have, however, stamps the tenth part of a cent
in value, and a bank note in circulation whose face value is less
than a cent. There are only four numerals in the Guarani language: 1,
petei; 2,moncoi; 3,bohapy; 4,irundu.
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