Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-03-08

more varieties, with whose names and
uses we are entirely unacquainted. The
palmtree plays as important part IN this
section of the universe and is as necessary
to the existence of the people as the
maguey or century plant in Mexico, the
bamboo in tropical Asia, or the rice plant
in china. Domestic utensils and weapons
Of war, pins, needles, cloth and thread,
boats, houses, roofs and furniture are made
from it, and in many instances it answers
also for food and drink. Children are born
under its shadow, Graded in its leaves,
reared on its fruit and sap, clothed in its
woven fbers, and finally go to the last
sleep in coffin made of its bark. The
railway villages are all populated with
blacks,
A JOLLY SET OF CREATURES
Who exhibit a wide expanse Of ivory and
cheer the train as it passes. Most OF them
are half naked, some entirely so. We saw
three halt-grown girls, black as ebony and
entirely nude, disporting themselves in
cascade close by the wayside, who waved
their hands at us in cheerful salutation, I'M
embarrassed bv the attention they attracted
from the CT wded train. A young woman,
naked to the waist, her lower limbs par
TALLY covered with a short skirt, sat play
ing with her babe on a doorstep. There
were old women wearing only the scanty
white garment not usually mentioned IN
polite society, and children, whose name
was legion, enjoying life to the utmost, un-
tramelled by a rag of conventionallty.
The houses are mostly of palm trunks
and wild bamboo, thatched with shredded
palm leaves. A few, more substantially
built of wood, now deserted, were probably
the residences of canal overseers. Nearly
every village has its little "store," con-
tanning small stocks of groceries, liquors,
tobacco, soap, candles and the cheapest dry
goods, but apparently with no patrons.
Every now and then we saw negro police
man perambulating his beat, bare-footed
and in short white trousers, armed with
rife, sword and brace of pistols. At every
station men and women scampered through
the train, offering cakes, like brick-bats, to
the hungry passengers, drinks of various
kinds, tall, cone-like cups made of cocoa
nut fiber, paper fans with advertisements
printed on them-such as ''Scott's Emul-
Sion" or Little Liver Pills, evidently
intended for gratuitous distribution but
which readily sold in this sweltering heat
at from 25c to soc each-anything to turn
an honest penny.
Then on we rush again, deeper and
deeper into the ejungles-greenness, bloom
and beauty everywhere, fragrance and
noxious exhalations. Parrots of various
specious make the forests ring with their
unmusical cries. We saw humming birds
of gorgeous hues,
SCARCELY BIGGER THAN BEES,
And great toucans whose ugly beaks seem
especially designed for the gobbling of
tropical fruits. Tapirs abound in the
marshes and we are told that their flesh,
which greatly resembles pork. is relished
by the natives as well as coon in Kentucky.
There is also the wild hog, or peccary "a
distant relative of the tapir), which is
hunted for food, as well as the monkeys
that mock Isthmian humanity and prowl
the forest in troops. There are ant-eaters,
too and deer, cougars and tiger-cats. Boa
constructors and other big snakes are not
uncommon, but are not nearly so much to
be dreaded as the tiny asps and vipers,
some not longer than your finger, and the
exact color of dead leaves or bits of moss
under which they hide,
There are lizards without number,
some whose bite is deadly-from Shiny
reptiles, two or three inches in length,
milk-white, green or coral, to scaly six
foot-long iguanas, whose flesh is consid-
cred the greatest possible delicncy, next
to the Juicy white breast of a roasted baby
monkey. By the way, the eggs of the
iguana may be found for sale in many of
the markets of Spanish-America and COM
mand high price.
OF course there are scorpions, centipedes,
tarantulas, ct al, for which we are warned
to keep sharp lookout, even in the cars,
but they are not circumstance compared
to the wicked fea," with which every
grain of sand and particle Of dust is
loaded. They are too tiny to be looked
out for, but every one of us is a living
and speckled monument to their persist
ent industry Even smaller than the flea
and more enterprising III pursuit of busi-
ness, is
THE JIGGER,
Whose native name is ohigoe, of which l
have seen several interesting specimens
but. happily, on somebody else. So very
tiny is the pestiferous little wretch that
he can crowd in "where angels fear to
tread; for instance, bet cen the seams of
YOUR garments, or between the sole and up
per Of your shoe. He entertains an es-
pecial fondness for the human foot, and
will invariably confne himself to that part
of your anatomy if you give him chance.
So delicate is his football and so slight
his sting, that you scarcely feel it yet all
the same he gets in his work, depositing an
infnitesimal egg beneath the toe-nail or
somewhere under the cuts. Presently a
slight itching ensues, and in day or two
membranous sac is formed, which must
at once be pierced deep with needle, and
afterward thoroughly washed with tobacco
Juice. If the sac is allowed to remain, a
huge ulcer forms, and the victim is likely
to loose his toes for the infant jigger that
issued from the first egg is most astonish-
ing propagator, capable of raising several
interesting families and becoming hale
and hearty grandmother in a fortnight's
time.
Among other sights along the line Of the
Isthmian Railway we were shown two cot
tage occupied by John q. Stephens, the
well-known author and traveller, during
his brief connection with the road, and
also a gigantic tree, the largest in all this
section, under whose shade he frequently
wrote or rested and which is still known
far and wide as stephens tree"
Part of the way winds along the low
mountains that form the backbone of the
Isthmus, none of them more than 1000 feet
in hight. It is said that Balboa, in the
year 1919, caught his first glimpse of the
Pacific from the summit Of one of them,
and that he fell upon his knees at sight Of
that mighty ocean. Most celebrated of all
in local annals is the
CERRo DE LOS BUCANERos,
Or Hill of the Buccaneers, from whose top
the pirate, Morgan, had his first view Of
ancient Panama, and at whose base he en-
camped the night before his attack upoA
that citv-just 22l years ago. As that old
time buccaneer played so important part
on the Isfhmus-at one time nearly depop-