Three women labourers

Three young Ceylonese women of low caste, outdoors by the road. All three wear a wrap-skirt (redda), pleated in the Ceylonese manner and pinned at the waist. Their upper bodies are bare. Their hair, parted in the middle, is pulled back into a bun (condé). Their stretched earlobes are pierced. The woman on the left stands with a full basket in her left arm; the contents resemble tamarind pods. The middle woman sits crouching, with a basket on the ground to her left. The standing woman on the right holds a basket against her left hip. They are gathering materials; perhaps they are on their way to the market. Page 26 from a sketchbook with 117 pages.