, 1888-04-01

fingers fluttered among the r~ustling palm
strands with the rapidity of the swift
coming and going of the bushes upon the
perfect face. The old senoras beamed;
the young senoritas kept up an undertone
Of gay s%allies, interspersed with gurgles of
laughter; the little ninas giggled hysteri-
cally; a crowd of fat negroes looked on
grinningly; the don rocked benignly to and
fro in his capacious chair; | swung leis-
urely in my plated hammock; and l
pledge you that, looking lazily through
our curling cigarette smoke, as the old Sc
noras smoked with us, | saw such 70.
nance and situations in the real secene
and surroundings of this one Cuban
portco as the comedy opera makers
might utilize with exquisite pleasure and
delight.
Another most lovely spot is San Jose de
Las Vegas, over where the Iron or Jaru-
co, mountains begin and thence wind
northwesterly to the sleepy little port of
Jaruco, on the gulf. The scenery here
is grand beyond description; while the
reaches of country, as seen from many of
the heights. furnish studies of the inter.
Tor of Cuba splendid and complete in
character and variety. The Avra or gap
in the Jaruco is a natural opening with
magnificent precipitous sides upward of
| 900 i'll height, the broad, white calzada
stretching from this point to San Jose
village as unbroken and level as the pla-
cid sea. Here, if one wishes to loiter he
may be housed at the quaint and cele-
brated inn belonging to Don Ignacio
Iturbe, an old Byzcayan ~bodeguero,
matchless as a teller of Falstafian tales
and juggler of Cuban viands. Near the
inn is a wonderful laguna, or pool, that
legend saws has no bottom. Here we
caught, and atterward ate, some delicious
fish, the vjaca, resembling our American
perch, and as toothsome as Adirondack
trout. We also discovered that here
were even more beautiful women
than at far famed San Francisco de
Paula; joined in the genuine g~uateque
or country dance at one cabin, in
the zapateo of another; and we re treated
to the fandago at a pretty villa on the
heights. We also fought the Cuban
mosquito all night with the escoba amar-
"a; a shrub resembling the potato vine in
bloom, as a smudge, to the soft and SEN
suous accompaniment OF unseen bandur-
rias and guitars, and passed a grewsome
day exploring a cave, or subterranean
roadway edged with "a melOdious invisible
stream, fully two leagues long and iphab-
tied by million of bats. In no other spot
have | ever seen, or heard of, such my
RAIDS of bats. At every stumble of our
ponies, rafting, Tapping and moaning
they foil upon us, and chung to our AM
mails like lazy, drunken spirits of dark
ness, and after a clammy, half human,
half impish embrace, slid gaumily
down upon the dank earth, uttering
hoarse, mournful, curling plants of pro-
test.
Again, at old Guines, which is scarcely
more than a village, the ~loiterer has much
to study and enjoy. 1t is more Moorish
than H~avana;m mere Doric than any village
of the Holy Land; and as pretty as a rose
embowered garden. No village in Europe
than | have ever seen furnishes such
quaint old corners, or when the eye aud
mind tire of these gives in every direction
across its marvellous valley such enchant-
ing prospects. The untold riches of the
earth far and near have set their opulent
seal on all things; and one can easily i'm
agine that the handsomest women in the
world are here housed. So, too, in
Guines, the Spanish idea of the constant
seclusIon Of women is less rigorous. Bal
cony and portico swarm with the beau
ties, fair as the tropic flowers among
which they smile. They are even upon
INV GNiSIIo III Nhlh11 plhaiS. NiSiS
are song and music and flowers and
women and Incidence. And seated un-
derneath the cool porch arches of old
Posada de Reig, what medieval sights
and grouping are beEeldl There against
the portals Of San Julien de los Guines
church is a group of lazzarOni basking in
the sun as typical of all hat is desperate
and dolorous as Rome, C~onstantInople or
Morocco c., show. Here, beside you,
are Gitanos tlthier and more permanent
than ply their black arts in Lisbon, Ma
drid or Valladolid. At the mouth of
that narrow calle are a dozen whites and
blacks, as innocent of clothing or shame
AS the Karnker girls of the Solomon Is
lands. All about in half caught threno-
dies are sounds of music from instru'
ments made and played precisely as when
the same notes resounded among the ara
besques and network OF the Alhambran
court of Lions half a thousand years ago.
Water carriers pass with puncheons on their
heads Just as they did IN the days of He
rod in Egypt. While through the medic.
val vision set actually before your eyes of
to-day, coming to a later time and form,
which yet seem but relics of dead centu.
ries, are the ancient volantes, dragged
sleepily along; caballeros senorltas Oh
nOIscDdCh, as InOuBu Il page VI bOh SulA-
ote were furnished; and half naked qua.
jiros with OK boats, primitive as the port
erage OF the ancient Cloths and Huns.
These three villages of western central
Cuba are exceptionally winsome. There
are others most interesting for instance,
Santiago, where the wonderful banos or
baths are found, and the walled town of
Holguin, over to the east lear the impen-
ctrable iungles OF Sepa, where the deni,
zens live in more complete isolation from
the outer world than the swarthy herds OF
Morocco. But the ordinary Cuban VII
age-particularly all those dotting at in
tervals the 1000 miles of island coast line
where sugar, molasses, bananas, cocoa
nuts and pines are brought to tide-water,
and from thence to the greater seaports
by the dainty Spanish coasters is as
drearY and lugubrious a place in appear
ance as could be easily found. 1t is as
when one comes upon some deserted farm
home, where nature seems to strive for
the concealment OF desolation, and, in its
wild Insurance, serves but to dolefully
emphasiye H. Their ontemnlati from