Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/321

 Rh home; she becomes the real companion of her husband in poverty as well as in luxury, in sickness as in health. The Haitian woman will not give up to any outside help the care of husband and child stricken with disease, no matter how deadly or contagious it may be. With the fearless unconcern peculiar to her sex, she becomes the most tender and skillful of nurses at the patient's bedside, and the doctor's principal auxiliary. Should misfortune overtake her family she rises nobly to the occasion, helping and encouraging her husband with her courage and sympathy. Her delicate rearing does not prevent her from working hard, should the necessity arise, in order to assist her husband and help with the education of her children. Few Haitian women there are who understand otherwise their duty as wife and mother.

It would be erroneous, however, to believe that they are stern and cheerless; they are, on the contrary, bright and gay, enjoying life according to circumstances. Consequently their influence is great and their advice much valued. The one reproach that can be made to them is that their extreme fondness leads them to spoil their children somewhat by over-indulgence.

The peasant woman is quite as devoted as those of the cities. She will till the soil along with the man of her choice, both working side by side through the heat of the day; together they set out for the nearest market, there to sell the fruits of their common labor. The woman shrinks at no task, however rude; to dispose of her goods she will journey many miles into the town, her basket on her head and often with her child fastened to her back or on her hips; thus she goes singing merrily or chatting whilst journeying with her friends or neighbors toward their destination. Her garment is very simple: a "caraco" tied at the waist by a cloth, her head tied with a picturesque colored handkerchief