Narrative of Bahama Expedition. 195 



if I am informed correctly, have never seen a horse or a cow or 

 a wheeled vehicle; whose personal knowledge of the Mammalia 

 is confined to man, pigs, dogs. cats, and rats: to whom not 

 only the locomotive, electric light, telegraph, and phonograph 

 are matters of hearsay, but also the threshing machine, self- 

 binder, and even the common plough. Here are people wlio 

 never saw a river, mountain, two-story house, or field of 

 grain, and, until recentlv, were guiltless of a practical knowl- 

 edge of a pane of glass, a lamp, or an iron stove. 



It is hard to imagine the effect of such a life upon naturally 

 intelligent people, but intercourse with them will show strange 

 and unexpected glimpses of the results of this environment. 

 For instance, I remember that while talking to a bright young- 

 man, who was head scholar and assistant teacher in the school, 

 we got onto the subject of panthers. He seemed to have 

 a good idea of the size, agility, and ferocity of this animaL 

 but upon being asked for a more particularized description, 

 replied that he thought it was like a large lizard! Now. as a 

 matter of fact, the largest wild animal that this youth had ever 

 seen was the iguana, a large lizard, and his mental picture of 

 the panther was simply a greatly exaggerated and particu- 

 larly ferocious lizard, a perfectlv natural result of his circum- 

 scribed experiences. 



Physicall}^ many of the men are up to the average in most 

 respects, except in ?n appearance which would indicate an 

 insufficiency of food. They are tall, well-formed, straight- 

 limbed, with bright, kindlv faces, indicative of a clean moral 

 and physical habit, but their \outh departs altogether too 

 soon, and a really well-fed man or woman is a raritv. They 

 have enough to eat to satisfy hunger, probablv, but they 

 appear as if physiologically starved for all that; and no wonder! 

 Except in the pine-apple season they have verv little fruit 

 indeed. Their principal vegetables are yams and a scant sup- 

 ply of bananas and j-)lantains. The flour that thev ha\-e is 

 poor in cpiality. and they can afford to bu\' but little of that. 

 Fresh meat is rarely obtained, and then usuallv in the shape 

 of green turtle. Salt beef and pork thev greatlv prize, but do 



