Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson

[128] am a little less bewildered. ... I have only looked and walked up and down the main street as yet, for this little narrow stony lane seems to be the main street. . . . Gibraltar may be more varied in its picturesqueness and more brilliant in costume, but this is as much so as we can take in at once. It realizes all and more than all my dreams of southern Europe--everywhere the same picturesqueness of dress or undress, reminding one of “Anzoleto” and “Consuelo” and all sorts of books. . . . Scarcely any men wear coats, hats, or caps, but little round or pointed caps half covering their black hair, vests of different colors or jackets, and trousers often rolled up; some women wear broad straw hats, some handkerchiefs, but nearly half of each sex have something on their heads, baskets of fruits, vegetables, and poultry, jars or high pails of water — loads of all kinds; for instance, each article of our baggage or freight (hundreds in all) went from the landing to the customhouse, a mile nearly, on somebody's head, and this wild procession came and went along the middle of the street. My heaviest trunk was carried by a boy of fourteen, on his head, for this whole distance. Next to the human passers-by in importance rank the donkeys, almost as constant a procession, sometimes with one high pile or box or basket, sometimes with two panniers. ... Or they go back empty, with men, boys, and girls riding. Once in a great while pass two oxen yoked to an uncouth cart, made of basketwork on a solid frame, supported by an axle which turns with the wheels, creaking so that the whole street resounds. Once only we have