Beggars are not very common except the blind, the lame and the sick. The necessaries of life are so easily procured, so little clothing is required, and any one may find land upon which to plant a little maize or bananas that it does not require much money or much exertion to sustain life. The condition of those who are helpless, however, is pitiable in the extreme and the sympathy of a stranger is aroused each day by a sight of some poor unfortunate.
Next to maize (corn) bananas and plantains form the principal food. The latter are cooked in many ways, boiled, baked or made into pastry, but are never eaten raw. Maize was indigenous on those shores, because the Spanish conquerors found it growing and it formed the principal food of the people. The banana is believed to have been introduced by the Spaniards, and the one argument used for this theory is that all the names of this plant are of Spanish derivation. In Honduras a sort of beer is brewed from maize that the natives are very fond of, but they prefer on “fiestas” the aguardiente (brandy) because it is stronger and affords more exhilaration. This is a drink brought by civilization, for the earlier inhabitants, not having any distilled liquors, had to be contented with the milder fermented forms of intoxicants.[[3]]
[3]. Note. “On the warmer plains the wine-palm is grown. The wine is very simply prepared. The tree is felled and an oblong hole cut into it, just above the crown of leaves. The hole is eight inches deep, passing nearly through the trunk. It is about a foot long and several inches broad; and in this hollow the juice of the tree immediately begins to collect, scarcely any running out at the butt where it has been cut off. In three days after cutting the wine-palm the hollow will be filled with a clear yellowish wine, the fermented juice of the tree, and this will continue to secrete daily for twenty days, during which the tree will have yielded some gallons of wine.”—Thomas Belt.
Cock-fighting is one of the principal forms of amusement among the people of Honduras. Their mode of cock-fighting is very cruel, as they usually tie long sickle-shaped knives onto their natural spurs with which they are able to give each other fearful gashes and wounds. It is no unusual sight to see a game cock tied up at the door by the leg, or in some other part of the house, and being treated as an honoured member of the family. The comb is cut off near the head in order that his opponent cannot grasp him there and thus place him at a disadvantage. Bets are made on every fight and considerable money is lost and won on this sport.
Education is not far advanced although the number of schools has been increased each year. There are very many full-grown boys and girls who do not even know their letters. Perhaps not more than half the inhabitants can boast of even a rudimentary education. There are only about seven hundred schools for primary instruction in the entire republic, with an average attendance of about twenty-five thousand pupils. The wealthier families send their boys to the famous university in Guatemala City for their education. They are not so much interested in the matter of education for girls.
A large force of soldiers is always kept under arms—that is, large in proportion to the population. Its standing army is almost half as great as our own with about one one-hundred and fiftieth of the population. Every town and village of any size has its commandancia, or barracks, in which a force of troops is quartered. They are not formidable looking troops, and yet they sometimes have a reckless way of shooting that is destructive to human life. Military service is compulsory for men from twenty-one to thirty years of age, and after that they remain members of the reserve until they are forty. This is the written law but the unwritten law of the revolutionary leader is far more potent.
As I have stated above, Honduras is the least progressive of the five republics of Central America, and yet it is a country of wonderful natural resources and is burdened with plenty of opportunities. The low coast land sloping up to the high mountain plateaus furnish every variety of climate and give a wide range of agricultural possibilities. Bananas, cocoanuts, oranges, sugar cane, wheat, corn, rice, rye, barley are among the list of profitable products that can be cultivated. Few fields are properly plowed and the care bestowed on growing crops amounts to nothing. The ground is so fertile that the mere insertion of a kernel of corn in the earth is sufficient. A kernel thus planted on Thursday has been found four inches high by the following Monday. With all this fertility there is sometimes an insufficient food supply for the cities. Agriculture is in the most primitive condition and will probably remain so until there are better roads, better markets and cheaper transportation facilities.
Copyright, 1907, by Judge Company, New York.
SOLDIERS OF HONDURAS.
In many parts of Honduras there are lands well suited to cattle raising. They may be found grazing on the sterile slopes of the mountain ranges as well as in the more fertile valleys. There is much fine rolling land, well watered during the rainy season and rich in pasturage, to be found in the republic, which is well suited to this industry. In the dry season, however, many of those plains, or savannahs, furnish scant fodder for the cattle. As irrigation has not been attempted the cattle have a feast half the year and a famine the other half. No care whatever is taken of their herds by the owners and they are left to forage as best they can. It is not much wonder that the grade of stock is poor, although hundreds of thousands of cattle are raised in this way, and wander over the public domain. Each rancher has his own brand which is recorded the same as in the United States. Thousands more would be raised and sent out of the country were it not for the heavy export tax.