Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-26
CURIOUS CUSTOMS
People in Porto Rico Are Set in Their
Habits. =
4 DREAD OF THE NIGHT AIR
All the Houses Are Shut Up Tight
After Dark.
'AD OF THE NIGHT AIR
OTHER PEG ULIARITIE


Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
AGUADILLA Porto Rico, April Is. 1900.
The natives of Porto Rico have ways that
are peculiarly their own. Peors and plant
ers. Notwithstanding the wide differences in
their station and their means of living.
share in common many customs. One of
these is that of shutting out the night air.
1t is followed with a steadness that al
most amounts to superstition.
l have noticed in all the towns how tight
ly the houses were closed at night. They
seemed like iron boxes. This might have
been due to fear of thieves or some other
cause. but on inquiring 1 was told it was
to keep out the night air. Every family
shuts itself in with hardly a keyhole
through which to breathe. 1t is hard for
Americans to think th5t this is healthy
practice. but the Porto Ricans all say that
not to do it is the more unhealthy. The
seasons make no difference In the hot
test nights of midsummer the sleeping apart
ments are shut up as tightly as in the mild
months of winter and spring. when there
Is an invigorating breeze from sea and
mountain.
Travelling through the country the GUS
tom also obtains. 1t is a queer sight to
see the houses Of the small planters and
the well-to-do farmers with their wooden
shutters closed in so as to make the dwell
ing as tight as a coffin. The shutters do
not even have a slit. There is no ventila-
ton through the chimneys. because the
houses have no chimneys. 1t might seem
more difficult to shut the air out from the
huts of the poems. because the palm thatch-
ing and the primitive Notwithstanding
would appear to afford some chinks. Be
sides they are all raised from one to three
feet from the ground and a current of air
might find circulation under the floor. New
ertheless the poems do manage to keep
themselves inclosed at night with hardly
lott hen ha had
cedar chest.
Dread the Night Air.
Seeing so many of the inhabitants with
the pallor which comes from thin blood, 1
wondered if this habit of sleeping shut in
in a warm country, where the doors and
windows might be left open the year round,
might not have something to do with it.
Medical observers all note that a large pro-
portion of the natives are anaemic. That
is. their blood is watery. Lack of good food,
in sufficient quantity, is undoubtedly the
chief cause of this anaemic condition, but
il seemed to me that breathing foul air
might have something to do with the watery
blood.
However. it would not be possible to con-
vince the Porto Rico people. whether ma
tives or Spanish-born, that this ia so. They
dread the night air as they dread nothing
else. and they insist that no foreigner can
afford to overlook the precautions which
they take to protect themselves from It. in
Cuba there is a widespread belief that the
night air is harmful on moonlight nights,
and that to go about with head uncovered
on moonlight evening invites certain ills.
The CubanS, a rule, keep in their dwell
ings far as possible when there is full
moon in the sky They do not explain just
what the malign influence is, yet they are
sure it exists.
Here in Porto Rico moon and stars and
cloudless skies all seem to be credited with
equally harmful influences. One evening
when We We're not sure of reaching viii
iage where there was an inn We stopped by
the way long enough TO look into the pros
pect of lodging. 1t required more courage
than any of us possessed to seek aCcommo-
dation in one of the poems huts, but l
thought might get along comfortably by
borrowing some of the hammOcks with
which every dwelling is supplied and string
ing them up in a neighboring cocoanut
grove. The bare idea filed the poems with
alarm for our safety. We told them we had
no fear Of bandits Then they quickly ex-
planned to US that the danger was not from
marauders. but from the dreaded night air
So we kept on our journey until We found
inn.
The experience of Americans who have
been in Porto Rico for year or mora is va
ried. Some of them say that the idea of
shutting themselves up to sleep Is a deIu-
sion which has grown from generation to
generation, until now the native popl,iatiaD
accepts 1t without sense and without knowl-
edge Others declare that while the night
air is more subtle in its effects and has to
be guarded against carefully, it is still pos
sible to let enough of it in a sleeping room
to insure fresh breath once in a while For
my own part, / could not help but syrnpa-
thize with an American tourist who was
passing his first night ashore in the hotel at
Mayasuez. He had taken so many precau-
tons for his health that he was an easy VIC
tim TO whatever was done for him. The land
lord had carefully closed all his windows
He stood ii a few hours, but about 9 a cIock
IN the morning the whole house was awak-
off 70, l. frT-. 1,
shutters open. When he finally wrenched a
piece from the bed post and welded il like
a batterlng ram the shutters flew open with
a noise like cannon. The landlord was in
American tourist declared that he had tn
have a breath of fresh air or die.
Competitive Druggists.
They have another custom in the Porto
Rlc" towns and villages which is NOT so
bad This seems to be the only country
IN the world where the customer has rights
which the druggist is forced to resnect
believe In the United States the rule of all
druggists is not to put up a prescrjntion
Tor less than p cents. In Porto Rico it is
10 cents native money or about . cents
American currency. But besides this the
customer gets the benefit of competition
one evening in the leading drug store in
san Juan l noticed good many peonIe
VINO, after showing their prescriptions to
the clerks and talking a little went aWay
without having them filled and without
Itdvlhg them In answer to my inquiry. 1t
was explained that the practice was to ask
now much the prescription would be filed
Tor, and IL the amount seemed too much
the patrons would leave and go to another
store. The practice Is quite common
An American who set UP in the drug
business told me that two-thirds of his
Customers usually tried to beat him down
He declared that he would not yield, and
that If they thought they could get their
prescriptions filled cheaper by his rivals.