The houses or homes of the peasant farmers are nearly all alike. They are built in a few days, from poles and royal palm bark. They are thatched with leaves of the palm or with grass. These huts are usually divided into two rooms.
There are no chimneys, often no windows, and but one door. A very poor house, you think; but then it is only intended for a shelter. It shields them from the damp and cool winds of night and the daily rains of the rainy season. At other times they live outside.
There is no stove, and of cooking utensils there are few. The cooking is done for the most part outside the house, when the weather is dry, on a sheet of iron or in an iron kettle. The food is served in gourd dishes and eaten with gourd spoons.
During the rainy season the people live in great discomfort. The cooking must be done inside the hut at this time. As there is no chimney, the room is soon filled with smoke, which can only escape through the openings under the eaves.
Would you like to see the furniture of one of these poor cabins? It consists of a few calabash shells used for eating vessels; some rude earthen pots; a tin cup, perhaps; two or three hammocks made of the bark of the palm tree, and a machete.
Bunches of dried herbs and gourds dangle on the walls, but there are no pictures, curtains, or ornaments of any kind.
At night the people sleep on the floor, or in hammocks. They spend much of the day also in swinging to and fro in their hammocks, smoking, and playing on their guitars and other native musical instruments.
By the door the family dog and the naked babies tumble in the dirt. Perhaps there is a pig and some poultry; but there is sure to be a game-cock or two.
Near the house is the garden. In this are raised sweet potatoes, beans, squashes, muskmelons, peppers, gourds, calabashes, bananas and plantains.
The farmers we see at work have their oxen harnessed to rude plows by the horns. The ground is so rich it is not necessary to plow it very deep.