418 MEXICO, CENTRAL Aî^IEKICA, WEST INDIES. 



white goats, and even the " goat without horns," that is, children, are also said to 

 have been sacrificed.* Wizards and witches have preserved the receipts for the 

 preparation of charms, philters or poisons. Many Catholic ceremonies are mingled 

 with heathen rites, and at " camp meetings " the crowd is sometimes seized with a 

 religious frenzy, dancing with wild contortions, rolling on the ground, howling 

 and shouting like bedlamites. The so-called " moanes-pouvoir," persons possessed 

 of supernatural power, cast the horoscope of their enemies, and hold intercourse 

 with the invisible world by uttering certain words incomprehensible to the profane, 

 and agitating head, arms, and body like dancing dervishes. 



Nevertheless the people are endowed with a considerable share of natural intel- 

 ligence. They have their historians, journalists, and especially poets, and some of 

 their odes and elegies are masterpieces of the French-Creole language. 



Administration. 



In Haiti paper constitutions have followed in rapid succession, but they have 

 been so often violated or abrogated that it would be useless to enumerate their 

 various provisions. According to the charter of 1867 the machinery of govern- 

 ment comprises an upper and lower chamber with legislative functions, a president 

 or chief of the executive, and six ministers. The deputies, one for each commune, 

 three for the capital, and two for each of the chief towns of the departments, 

 are returned by universal suffrage for three years. One-third of the senate retires 

 every two years, and its 39 members are chosen, not by the electors, but by the 

 lower house, from two lists presented by the electoral colleges and the executive. 



There is no state religion, although the bulk of the people are nominal 

 Catholics, whose priests since 1861 have been exclusively of French birth. 

 Methodism and the Baptists have made a fe^v thousand converts in the capital and 

 the northern districts. 



The army comprises 7,000 or 8,000 volunteers or conscripts, but in theory all 

 citizens between twenty and fifty years of age are enrolled in the National Guard 

 for four years. The " generals " are reckoned by hundreds, and this military 

 system, combined with the extortions of certain presidents, and the indemnity of 

 £6,000,000 due to the old planters, has thrown the public finances into disorder. 

 The consolidated debt amounts to £2,720,000, exclusive of the floating debt, 

 represented by the paper currency. The revenue, derived almost entirely from the 

 customs, varies from £1,000,000 to £1,120,000. Since 1886 the French indemnity 

 has been completely discharged. 



The republic is divided into five administrative departments, tabulated in the 

 Appendix. 



III. — San Domingo. 



The Spanish republic presents less dramatic unity in its historic evolution than 

 Haiti. Its independence was acquired later, and down to the year 1809 a French 



* Relation des visites pastorales A.e'Kgv. 'HMlioTo., 1880-82; Sir Spencer St. John, Hayti or the Slack 

 Republic, 1884. 



