Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/103

Rh here lovely poetical forms, and poetically lovely costumes. That transparent Spanish veil is like moonlight, a talisman which conceals deformity, and enhances beauty by its mystic, shadowy, half light.

My amiable entertainers drove me one day to a village, or small town, called Guanabacoa, which is said to be the oldest on the island, and which still preserves some memories of the aborigines, the mild, peaceful Indians who inhabited Cuba, when the Spaniards discovered this beautiful island. And it is one of the peculiarities of Cuba that its aborigines were as mild as its climate, which even to this day exercises its delicious influence upon those who are born in the island. The Creoles are mild and of good disposition. There exist on the island neither poisonous plants nor venemous creatures. The native bee of Cuba has not even poison in its sting. The barbarities of the Spaniards in the island have not been able to poison its natural character; the blood of its massacred, inoffensive aborigines cries still from the earth, but its cry is a beautiful melody; it has baptised the most beautiful valley of Cuba with the name of Yumori!

Among the memories which the Indians have left in Guanabacoa, is a kind of earthen vessel made from a sort of porous clay, peculiar to the place, and which is still made there. These earthen vessels are universal in Cuba for the keeping drinking-water cool in the house. The water evaporates through the porous vessel, around which a cloth is bound, which is thus always moist, and the water which is drawn off is fresh, if not always cool enough for my taste. The want of good drinking-water is a great want in Cuba. Ice is not as yet used there for the cooling of water, except in the large hotels of Havanna.

The day was beautiful on which we drove to Guanabacoa, and the drive was beautiful also: but I was not able fully to enjoy it. I was worn out, from the want