there were few people on the road-an occasional man going off to his precipitous smallholding on the flank of a hill , his three-foot steel cutlass dangling from his right hand , chewing at his breakfast , a foot of raw sugar cane held in his left , or a woman sauntering up the road with a covered basket of fruit or vegetables for stony hill market , her shoes on her head , to be donned when she got near the village .