The Portland daily press., 1898-05-24

The only wild animal peculiar to Cube
black and small. 1t lives in the hollows
of trees, like our squirrel and eats leaves
and fruit. Its flesh Is insipid but it is
often eaten. Curious notifications oil
felines and CANNES inhabit the woods
The animals have sprung from dogs and
cats in the domestic state and differ from
them only in their size and habits. Some
of5the intelligence of civilization seems
to remain with them, and they caust
the farmer much anxiety by their care
fully planned attacks upon his poultry
and cattle.
The matter of lights is small item OF
expense to the poor man in Cuba, for In
the phosphorescent fly nature provides
him 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 give out so 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.
II they iced them on eugar, the sticky par
ticles adhering to their legs exasperate
Them SO much that they fall upon each
other like prize fighters. The children
avoid this by giving the flies sugar cane.
Ihey wash them carefully morning and
night, and tn this way keep their pets
alive and shining for many days.
fashlonable ladies wear the brilliant
nles IN their hair, ard sometimes the
DeiieS use them covered with q gauzy ma
terlal Tor living belts. One little girl re-
marked with much solrmnity after exam
lnlng cucullo's legs that God made it
Win npoKs to fasten on little girls dres,
ses. Left to themselves the cucullos fly
IN reg ular lines, giving the effect of the
long procession Of the watch at Havana
= CT tnls reason the Cubans call them
serenos de los bichos' watchmen of the
lhseGus. Flfteen or twenty of them in
caiapash pierced with holes make a
Sinn Oh lantern often used during the
nlgnG. a lew years ago an adventurous
traveller brought number of cucullos to
new 1ork and set them free In Broad
way, TO the lasting establishment Of an
lrlsnInan, TO whom the dancing lamps
were such mystery that be wavered be-
tween the pledge and the oculist.
announcer curious phenomenon Of Cuban
anllnai me IS the procession of land crabs
across Iiio stand. They travel from north
mence, ana are as regular an INSTITUTION
as the wet weather itself. Shell fish are
abundant, but they are of inferior nr,a1,1
ty. Tie climate is too warm for thew,
and oysters there at all times awe q. s,,I ;
satisfactory as ours in the monks ' 49, ~
no magic n appears. The rivers and
bays and inlets, however, are we'll stoclra .t
with palatable fish. The iguana cavn ras"
and crocodile are common. A hnsn "o On
riety of crocodile called cayman boe 20 =
colony of lite own on the Isles of Pines :"
Turtles are found in large nrmbers IN
shadows and reefs and on sandy beacbes
and they are put to all sorts of uses, from,
soup to walking sticks. For canes, the
shell of the carey variety turtle is used
First strong stick is cut of the length
desired Then the turtle she'll is boiled
until it becoms thin liquid, and into
this the stick is DIPPED and allowed to
cool The process Is repeated several
times till the beautiful tortoise shell COW
ering is of proper thickness. Afterward
the cane Is polished, headed, fitted with
ferrule, and sold for four or five dollars
Another curiosity cane made from the
drleu SKIN OF the nanatee, or sea COW.
The SKIN is perfectly transparent, and
when rightly. prepared is flexible, but
strong enough to be used as rapier for
defence. Mounted in gold and silver
rarely seen in Havana, and one tourist,
who wished to carry away n cane as
souvenir, paid $50 for the privilege.