Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/163

Rh poultry for household use. The present cook of the family, a tall, handsome, Spanish soldier, came this morning to fetch away a couple of the feathered company for dinner, for the family and guests. The first that he carried off was a large black turkey; and I could not but admire the manner in which he set about the business, it was so gentle, so humane, and wise. He stroked the turkey in the first place, before he took it from the pen, and even this was done with so much suavity, that the turkey, when he carried him off quite comfortably across the court, merely looked a little astonished, and uttered a few sounds in his throat, as if he would say, “Now what's going to be done?”

I have seen with us, when a hen was to be killed, the whole poultry yard in a state of uproar, and she herself breathless from terror before she gave up the ghost. Spaniards are not in a general way remarkable for humanity to animals; and the country people frequently come to market with turkeys and fowls hanging by the feet tied together across the horse's saddle; so that their heads hang down. This barbarity was forbidden by a Governor Tacon of Cuba, who is described as having been a severe man, but who abolished many abuses; this, however, is still continued, and I have frequently met monteros riding between clusters of poultry thus suspended, and sometimes half dead.

There is a district not far from Cardinas which is called Havanavana, which is almost entirely peopled by free negroes, the number of whom, I understand, amounts to twelve or thirteen hundred. They are mostly cultivators of land, on the half system, with Spanish Creoles. I should be extremely glad to see how these small farms are managed by them—to see with my own eyes how negroes manage when they are left to themselves; but I am advised not to go there as I am not acquainted with the language of the country, and the government is very