Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/109

Rh me arose a chain of dark-blue mountains, the heights of Camerioca.

I was quite well, no human being could be better; both body and soul had wings, and I flew over the beautiful, brilliant earth.

The villas disappeared by degrees, and plantations of sugar-cane and other vegetable growths which were unknown to me, took their places. We travelled through whole forests of planted banana-trees. After that the landscape became wilder, and parasite plants showed themselves on tree and meadow. Presently those got the upper hand, and seemed to choke vegetation. The crowns of many trees bore whole gardens of orchids and aloes on their branches. The appearance was queer rather than beautiful, although various of these parasitic plants had very lovely flowers, but the whole looked heavy and unnatural. In one field not far from the road, I noticed a lofty, half-dead ceiba-tree, around the gigantic stem of which the parasite Yaguay embra, a female fig-tree, had flung its hundred-fold arms in an immense embrace, entwining the tree from root to head, until it had nearly destroyed its life. This death-struggle between the ceiba-tree and the female parasite, which grows and nourishes itself with its life and finally destroys it, is a frequent sight in Cuba, and it is a very remarkable and really unpleasant spectacle. There is a complete tragedy in the picture, which reminds one of Hercules and Dejanira, of King Agne and Aslög.

The first part of the day and the journey were full of pleasures, amongst which I must reckon some excellent sandwiches and bananas which good Mrs. F. provided me with, and as I ate them I thought of her, so motherly, so kind, so thoughtful for me and for all who belong to her. Gratitude and joy in human beings is the best food of the soul. In awhile the day became too warm, and the whole of nature too much overrun with parasitic growths. It oppressed me and made me drowsy.