ondition of the Cuban streets, the inefficient supply of water, the bad
lighting of the town at night, the total absence of anything like proper
drainage, are favourite topics with these open-air orators.

Like other Cuban celebrities, a characteristic _nom de guerre_ is
invented for every beggar.

That brown complexioned lady with a man's straw hat on her head, and a
faded cotton gown clinging to her shrunken form, is called Madama
Chaleco, from a popular tradition that the old lady formerly donned a
man's waistcoat or chaleco. From this cause she has become the butt of
every street boy, who irritates the poor mulatto woman into frenzy by
shouting her nickname in a derisive tone. The Madama has resided only a
few years in Cuba; her birthplace being some neighbouring island where
English and French are spoken: these languages being perfectly familiar
to the old lady.

Madama Pescuezo is another foreign importation, and her alias is
founded on a long sinewy throat or pescuezo which the dame possesses.

Isabel Huesito is famous for her leanness, and hence the appellation:
huesito, or skinny.

Madama Maja is said to have magic dealings with snakes or majas.

Gallito Pigmeo is noted for his shortness of stature and his attributes
of a chicken.

Barrigilla is pot-bellied, and El Nato has a flatter nose than his black
brethren.

Carfardote, Taita Tomas, Macundu, Cotuntum, Carabela Zuzunda, Na
Soledad, and Raton Cojonudo, are each named after some personal
peculiarity.

Sometimes whole sentences stand as nicknames for these popular
characters.

Amarrame-ese-perro is applied to a beggar who, like most negroes, has a
dread of dogs, and his repeated, and often causeless, cry of 'Chain me
up that dog!' earns for him this imposing title.

Another equally nervous negro fears horse-flesh, and his constant
ejaculation of 'Pull up! you horse-faced animal,' gains him the nickname
of Jala-pa-lante-cara-de-caballo!

Our Beggars' Opera concludes with a brilliant chorus of mendicants, who,
at twelve o'clock, visit their patrons in large companies. At that hour,
one of Don Benigno's slaves enters with a large flat basket containing a
quantity of small two-penny loaves, which the negro places upon the
marble floor in front of the open door. Soon a crowd of beggars of all
shades and castes, who during the last half-hour have been squatting in
a row under the broad shade of the opposite houses, approach, and,
without bidding, he