44 
THE STANDARD GUIDE. 
radianL ..ace, which quickly peeks out again from behind the shelter like the moon 
from out a gilded cloud. The little article (always rich and expensive), perfectly in¬ 
dispensable in a Cuban lady’s costume, in her hands seems almost to speak; she has a 
witching flirt with it that expresses scorn; a graceful wave of complaisance, an abrupt 
closing of it that indicates vexation or anger; a gradual and cautious opening of its 
folds that signifies reluctant forgiveness; in short, the language of the fan in a 
Cuban’s hand is an adroit and expressive pantomime that requires no foreign inter¬ 
preter.” 
There are for the women mantillas, Cuban drawn work, hand-made laces 
and embroideries; and for the men there are walking sticks of mahogany, 
acana, ebony, royal palm or other native woods, or of a shark’s vertebrae; 
Panama hats (jipi japi), or the immense headgear of the Cuban country¬ 
man, called the guajiro, high-crowned and broad-brimmed, turned up in 
front and turned down behind. It is of braided palm leaves, and if we go 
into the country we may perhaps see a native Cuban hat factory. The 
guajiro makes a good waste basket for papers. Among other native pro¬ 
ductions are belts and pocketbooks made of the skin of the maja, a harm¬ 
less Cuban snake of the constrictor species, which sometimes grows to a 
length of twenty feet or more. Then there is some fascinating feather 
work, picturing flowers, birds and cock fights; with photographs and 
colored views, jewelry, native preserves of guava jelly and marmalade, 
limes, mammey, sour-sop, cocoanut, orange, almond, mango, zapote and 
other fruits peculiar to the tropics. 
