102 
THE STANDARD GUIDE. 
ON THE WAY TO MATANZAS. 
and settings in an ever-changing picture of which it is the central feature. 
We shall see it in all its beauty in the Valley of the Yumuri. The ceiba, 
too, with massive trunk upholding its umbrella-like canopy, commands 
attention; it is a very giant among trees, and often assumes forms 
extremely grotesque. The trees are especially conspicuous, as they 
generally rise isolated out of the level plains. But the striking feature of 
all to the visitor accustomed to pass the fall and winter in higher latitudes 
is the ever-green foliage and grass-covered fields. Here and there are seen 
the shacks of the farmer, constructed of the fronds and bark of the royal 
palm. The hut still retains the Indian name of bohio; and it is built by 
the Cuban of to-day after the fashion of the huts of the natives of the 
time when Columbus landed on these shores. The children we see playing 
about the door are as innocent of clothing as were the Indians whom 
Columbus saw; in this respect at least primitive Cuban fashions have not 
changed. And the Cuban farmer yokes his bulls to the crooked branch 
of a tree for a plow, just as the Egyptians did in the time of Moses. 
, On the approach to Matanzas by sea, the first land discerned is the 
celebrated Pan of Matanzas, a peak southwest of the harbor, rising 1,277 
feet high in the shape of a truncated cone or loaf of bread (the Spanish 
