ver moves a foot without his portable
armory of cigars, as indispensable to him as is his quiver to the wild
Indian, and he would feel equally lost without it. Some one has
facetiously said that the cigar ought to be the national emblem of Cuba.

The gentlemen consume from ten to twelve cigars per day, and many of the
women half that number, saying nothing of the juvenile portion of the
community. The consequence of this large and increasing consumption,
including the heavy export of the article, is to employ a vast number of
hands in the manufacture of cigars, and the little stores and stalls
where they are made are plentifully sprinkled all over the city, at
every corner and along the principal streets. It is true that the ladies
of the best classes in Havana have abandoned the practice of smoking, or
at least they have ostensibly done so, never indulging absolutely in
public; but the writer has seen a noted beauty whose teeth were much
discolored by the oil which is engendered in the use of the paper
cigars, thus showing that, although they no longer smoke in public, yet
the walls of their boudoirs are no strangers to the fumes of tobacco.
This is the only form in which the weed is commonly used here. You
rarely meet a snuff-taker, and few, if any, chew tobacco. It is
astonishing how passionately fond of smoking the negroes become; with
heavy pipes, well filled, they inhale the rich narcotic, driving it out
at the nostrils in a slow, heavy stream, and half dozing over the dreamy
and exhilarating process. They are fully indulged in this taste by
their masters, whether in town, or inland upon the plantations. The
postilions who wait for fare in the streets pass four-fifths of their
time in this way, and dream over their pipes of pure Havana.

We can have but a poor idea, at the north, of tropical fruits, for only
a portion of them are of a nature to admit of exportation, and those
must be gathered in an unripe condition in order to survive a short sea
voyage. The orange in Boston, and the orange in Havana, are vastly
different; the former has been picked green and ripened on ship-board,
the latter was on the tree a few hours before you purchased it, and
ripened upon its native stem. So of the bananas, one of the most
delightful of all West India fruits, and which grow everywhere in Cuba
with prodigal profuseness. The principal fruits of the island are the
banana, mango, pomegranate, orange, pine-apple,[48] zapota, tama