Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/247

CH. XV.] wished, so great appeared to be her confidence in, and attachment to, human society: I proceeded across a farm-yard to the spot from whence the harmony issued. The room was full of visitors, all dressed in their best holiday attire: some of the women wore short red petticoats, with deep plain white flounces round the bottom, gathered up in very thick plaits over their hips, with a white border; thence upwards, they had only a chemise to cover them, but, as this was starched into stiff folds, it supplied, in some measure, the place of a jacket: the hair in front was worn in the Madona form, and the hinder part, being of great length, was divided into tightly plaited cords which were twisted round the head in various devices. A pink satin shoe, extremely long and wide at the quarters, without stockings, completed the costume. Most of the Guatemalian damsels, that is, all the lower classes, dress in this style, excepting that they more frequently go without shoes, and at other times wear the finest