Evening star., 1899-07-08
PORTO RICAN CUSTOMS

Porto Rico Is all very beautiful and in.
teresting," said Miss Emma Lane, a Wash
ins9on young woman, who has spent the
past -FOUR months in the interior of the is
land. but Some Of the customs of the peo
PIE down there are calculated to Jar upon
the nerves of Arhericans The burial Gus.
toms are almost as barbarous as those OF
wnich one reads as prevailing in Siam.
was sn inv9luntaty witness of a number of
Porto Rican buria4s, and would give some
thing were Liable to dispense with the memo
ry of them. The 'cortege' of one very old wo-
man whose buriaEI saw in Manti consisted
Oh Tour young and not very extensively clad
boys. They carried the coffin on two long
poles. There was no lid to the coffin, and
the body was borne through the streets ex-
poseo 20 the rays OF the sun. l need not
say that 1t made a ghastly sight, this cor
tege When the boy pallbearers arrived at
the cemetery, the grave digger took matters
IN nano and the body was incontinently
Jumped INTO the ground without the coffin,
Tor In Porto Rico especially in the interior,
coinns are rarely sold outright; they are
SIMPLY rented out by the undertakers, and
Ihey are not devised at all to be placed in
the ground. Not alone that, but even the
ground IN the cemeteries is only rented for
specihed periods, and If the rental of plots
is not promptly paid the bodies are sim
Ply removed from the cemeteries to the
nearest boneyards
while the Porto Ricans are kindly and
nospitable, their ignorance is great and
their credulity Is almost beyond belief For
example, the Porto Ricans were told by the
spanish soldiers, before the landing of the
Americans, that the United States soldiers
were possessed Of two heads and were can
nlpais pais OF the deepest dye. The poor folks
peneVed the story implicitly, and their re-
hei Wnen they found that our troops were
quite like ordinary human beings was ma
thetlc There are places in the interior
even now where the people believe that
americans belong to two-headed species
o. OF, tne human family. A little girl in Man
atl examined me with big-eyed wonder for
several days after my arrival. She finally
eugeo up TO me and asked me in childish
Spanish where 1 kept the other one
other what?' 1 asked her.
Your other head" she replied. and
at length succeeded in convincing the little
one that mad no superfiuous No. head
concealed anywhere.
In number of the small inland places
Where L visited I was the first American
woman the natives had ever seen and T
was olstinct curiosity TO them. They fol-
Ts ioWsu me ABOUT in embarrassing droves
oalilhs ;as me America Throughout the
island the natives are crazy to learn Eng
lish, wherefore don't blame them a great
deal, Tor the language they now speak Is
ohIy to be called Spanish by courtesy 1t is
Ine most extraordinary tumble of Spanish,
lndian, Africanese and Portuguese jmagi.
naple. L speak, of course, Of the patois of
the inferior people. The high-class Porto
Slcans speak, probably, a purer article of
SFanish than the Spaniards themselves-
the oid, uncontaminated Spanish
Tho contrast between splendor and
SauaIor IS everywhere notable throughout
Porto Rico: The very rich people live on
estates OF dazzling magnificence, surround
ed py every conceivable luxury. while the
poverty of the inferior people is often pitia
BILE. ~ p
fhe scenery is everywhere inspiring. but
1iie cannon ilVe on scenery alone. 1t should
forto Rican tables-even on the very best
rs Us very bad Il would not pass muster on
the ;r table OF third-rate Washington board
ing mouse. The tropical meats, of course,
no puttef OF course, their fruits are
superb butl one wearies of tropical fruits
L have found that out.
70 ,L Let me say something that is true even
II 1t is not ,startliag-it is a deliphtfuI tbina
TO nVe in the United StatesI'