60 



humboldt's cuba. 



performance of wakes over the dead, and also at 

 their revels of john-canoeing, as it is termed, about 

 Christmas time ; on these or other occasions of the 

 kind, they give full scope to animal enjoyment; and 

 at the pitch of the excitement of the prevailing pas- 

 sions their gestures and acts resemble more those of 

 demons than of human beings." — Page 111. 



"Among the lower classes of the population there 

 is great reason to fear that little or no advance has 

 been made in the better maxims of social life. If a 

 moral feeling exists among them, it is (not ?) shown 

 by the calendars of our criminal courts, where the 

 women complain of rape, or attempt to commit 

 rape, and unhappily they occur incessantly." — Page 

 112. 



" Superstitious habits have always been, and will 

 always be, common in a community like this, com- 

 posed of individuals of so many different races and 

 countries, many of whom openly profess heathenism. 

 The dark practices of Obeah and Myalism have at 

 times effected a vast amount of mischief in this 

 island."— Page 113. 1 



" All the efforts of their pastors to eradicate, by moral and re- 

 ligious instructions, the belief in, and the dread of, this remnant of 

 African barbarism, have failed. The female natives of Haiti^ are 

 adepts in the artP — Replies of Dr Chamberlaine. Appendix to 

 Report of Central Board of Health of Jamaica, &c. — Page 158. 



