Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/313

Rh foundation as that generally heard on the sanitary condition of Haiti. Haiti is not a Garden of Eden from which human infirmities have been banished; its inhabitants are in no wise exempt from the sufferings and diseases that fall to man's lot; but those sufferings and diseases are no greater here than they are elsewhere. Tuberculosis, for instance, whose victims in Europe and America cannot be numbered, is quite unknown among the country people in Haiti. But bilious fever is very common and malaria exists in many places. The country life is more pleasant from the fact that there are no dangerous animals or poisonous insects or reptiles; neither are there any venomous vipers. Such snakes as exist here are harmless and always ready to flee upon the approach of man. The climate is so mild that the country people need not close their windows and doors at night; they very often sleep in the open air. Yet cases of death caused by the stings of insects are unheard of. In some places, towns principally, flies and mosquitoes are a great nuisance; but these can be got rid of by taking the proper precautions. Among the reptiles there are many different kinds of lizards, all of them quite harmless.

Birds are very numerous in Haiti, there being at least 40 varieties of them, of which 17 are peculiar to the country. Among the best known are the nightingale, humming-bird, swallow, finch or cardinal-bird, ortolan, turtle-dove, quail, wood-pigeon, teal, wild duck, waterhen, plover, oyster-catcher, flamingo, woodpecker, parrot, etc. There is a great variety of beautiful butterflies; there are wasps whose sting is very painful, and bees which produce a superior quality of honey. The only wild animals which exist in Haiti are boars, wild goats, and wild oxen; and they are to be found only in some of the adjacent islands—l'Ile-à-Vaches, Tortuga, etc.