ECONOMIC CONDITION OF HAITI. 



417 



bridges rare and neglected. The capital is unconnected by a single railway witli 

 the other towns, whose streets are dusty and filthy in dry, muddy quagmires in 

 wet, weather. Fires, often kindled by rival factions, have destroyed most of the 

 public buildings ; in a word, towns and villages are mere groups of straw huts and 

 log cabins. 



According to law education is gratuitous and compulsory ; but in Haiti the 



Fig. 200. — Geottp of Haitians. 



laws are not always enforced, and the bulk of the people remain in a state of 

 profound ignorance. There are three lyceums, and in 1884 the primary schools 

 numbered 400, with an attendance altogether of less than 25,000. The inheri- 

 tance of past superstitions, both pagan and Christian, still persists. The 

 people share with some of the French peasantry the belief in wehr- wolves, and, 

 like their African ancestors, still practise " vaudoux," or snake- worship. The 

 obi, papa-kings and mama-kings [j^apalois and mamaniois), sacrifice cocks and 

 60 



