The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-06-01
Cuba's Curious Animals.


The Spaniard is not the only foe the
soldier will encounter on his Cuban
marches. Cuban sandfies and mos
quitoes are much like our own, but we
have nothing to match the huge spider,
whose bite causes fever, nor the bellig-
erent ant known as vivajagua. A
scorpion, though not so dangerous as
the European variety, proves itself un-
pleasant enough to the careless travel
er, and the chigoe, or digger" deals
swift retribution to an offender. lis
method Of attack is inconvenient, for
it burrows under the toe nail, and I'M
less removed at once builds its nest
there. In that case Inflammation &C.
ours and the only relief is the painful
operation Of having the little animal
cut out.
Snakes are not numerous, but they
include some of the freaks of the ami
NAL kingdom. The huge maja, longer
than two six feet men set end to end,
with a body twenty inches in circum-
ference, looks fierce enough and for
midable enough to put a whole regi-
ment to flight. 1t is all bluff, for the
big reptile is harmless.
Among the birds, the soldier may ex-
ercise his taste for pets. Those pecul-
lar 10 the island have beautiful plum
age, rich in coloring. There are near
ly two hundred kinds to be found
there, and among them all the vulture
and the turkey buzzard are almost the
only birds of prey. They are so useful
as scavengers to carry away waste ma
terial that they are protected from
death by law. Geese, turkeys, pea
cocks and pigeons are the most familiar
domestic fowls, and pigs, sheep, goats,
mules and horses, the animals used.
The Cuban horses are almost race
by themselves. They are very gentle,
they never kick nor bite nor play any
unseemly tricks on their riders. In
some parts of the island horses receive
as much consideration as a member of
the family. They are not tied or con-
fined, but they wander about the door
yard, put their heads into the kitchen
windows to exchange the time of day,
and even on occasion have the privil-
enge of entering the house.
Sometimes the roads are very bad
and the mud so sticky that it holds any
foreign substance like glue. For this
reason farmers braid their horses tails,
turn them up over their backs and tie
them to the saddle. No Northern pony
would stand this indignity, but the
Cuban pack animals seem quite willing
to endure it. In mountainous regions
mules are used to carry coffee and
sugar down the mountain paths, and to
save drivers mules in long procession
q iaA tn arto
tail, and with only one man at the head
of the column to guide the leader, they
carry down their burdens safely. The
hind legs of Cuban mules must be
worked on different principle from
that in vogue among United States
mules. Here no insurance agency
would insure man whose business was
tying mules to one another's tails.
The matter Of lights is small item
of expense to the poor man in Cuba,
for in the phosphorescent fly nature
provides him a lamp free. This fly,
the cucullo, about the size of our roach,
is perfectly black, with transparent
breast. Two eyes in front, and one in
the point of its breast gives out go much
light when its wings are spread that one
can see by it to read a letter. Children
make pets of cucullos and shut them up
in reed cages. If they feed them on
sugar, the sticky particles adhering to
their legs eXasperate them 80 much that
they fall upon each other like prize
fighters. The children avoid this by
giving the flies sugar cane. They wash
them carefully morning and night, and
in this way keep their pets alive and
shining for many days.
Fashionable ladies wear the brilliant
flies in their hair, and sometimes the
bellies use them covered with gauzy
material, for living belts. One little
girl remarked with much solemnity af-
ter examining a cucullo's legs that God
made it with hooks to fasten ON little
girls dresses. Left to themselves the
cucullos fly in regular lines, giving the
effect OF the long procession of the
watch at Havana. For this reason the
Cubans call them "serenos de los BIZ
chos"- of the insects. Fiji.
teen or twenty of them in calabash
pierced with holes make kind of Ian
tern often used during the night. A
few years ago an adventurous traveller
brought number of cucullos to New
York and set them free in Broadway,
to the lasting astonishment of an Irish
man, to whom the dancing lamps were
such a mystery that he wavered between
the pledge and the oculist,
Another curiosity is a cane made
from the dried skin of the manatee, or
sea COW. The skin is perfectly trans
parent, and when rightly prepared is
flexible, but strong enough to be used
as rapier for defence. Mounted in
gold and silver, these canes are very
expensive. They are rarely seen in
Havana, and one tourist, who wished
to carry away cane as souvenir,
paid $50 for the privilege.-N. Y. Sun.