304 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



trying to propitiate them, called their employers 

 " buckra," white fools. The enterprise failed. 



Apart from the officials at the reformatory, 

 Bishop Nuttall's family, and one or two others, our 

 neighbors were black people. Their small hold- 

 ings were on every side. All about, the wattled 

 huts perched on the steep hillsides, or huddled close 

 together near the roadway. Even in our distant 

 wanderings in the high woods we frequently came 

 across a clearing, with its tiny patch of bananas 

 and plantains, straggling coffee bushes, yams, and 

 aki ; over all the dense shade of a breadfruit or cot- 

 ton tree. Nearly every cabin had its tame parrot, 

 one of the green variety peculiar to the island, 

 and a mocking-bird was often a member of the 

 family. Fowls were not abundant, owing to the 

 depredations of the mongoose, and the peasantry 

 seldom own cattle or horses. Occasionally some 

 one quite well to do possesses a diminutive don- 

 key. Salt fish from the United States is the food 

 most prized, meat is a rare luxury. Cocoanut 

 oil is used for cooking. Cocoanut cream made 

 from the fresh nuts still in the milk is delicious, 

 but must be eaten just after the nut has been 

 gathered. The various starchy vegetables make 

 up the rest of the diet of the peasants, and upon 

 it they seem to thrive. 



Wages are low, judged by our standard. Butlers, 

 cooks, and laundresses receive from ten shillings to 



