332 
HAITI. 
see occasionally specimens whicli come to us from the 
neighbouring continent, with the silky flow of hair 
common in the Spaniel, and the Maltese Dog, those 
caressed household favourites of Europe, but the best 
known variety of the Indian Alco is the woolly 
breed, so much sought after under the appellation of 
the Mexican Mopsy. It assumes the lanigerous cha- 
racter, we may suppose, in the colder atmosphere 
of the mountains of Mexico, — or it may be that it 
has been mixed with a breed remarkable for a woolly 
coating found beyond the Rocky Mountains. The 
Indians are said to spin and work the hair of a dog, 
along with other woollen materials, into garments. 
‘‘When these Islands first greeted the eyes of their 
European discoverers, the simple manner of life of 
the natives, free from toil and disquietude, strangely 
fascinated them. Existence in these Western Edens 
seemed like a delicious dream. Their holiday life 
was a reiteration of luxurious indolence. Under a 
serene sky and a voluptuous climate, they enjoyed 
the quietude of home, in which their little dog bore 
them company and shared their affection with their 
children. In Yasica, in Eastern Haiti, I found un- 
changed memorials of the ancient Indians. Peculiar 
slopes, cut like terraces along the hills of the vale, 
decidedly artificial, were gardens of the aboriginal 
inhabitants. The little stockade cottages upon these 
terraces, surrounded by groves of palms, and trees 
laden with fruit, and with fences enclosing a court- 
yard filled with flowering shrubs, had, to my eyes, 
a character so primitive, and so identical with the 
life of the Indians, that I could not fail to recur 
