. The Cuba review. THE CUBA REVIEW 13. r -^^ * lit-' Typical Landscape in Coffee District of Pinar del Rio Province. The Coffee Industry in Cuba By H. 0. Neville We have no doubt that many interesting and some highly amusing occurrences would be brought to hght could we know of the beginning of practices which, through con- tinued repetition, have become customs among the peoples of the world. Upon thinking of the use of coffee, considered as it is the national drink of Cuba, and of its widespread employment among practically all the people of the world, the writer could but express his wonder
. The Cuba review. THE CUBA REVIEW 13. r -^^ * lit-' Typical Landscape in Coffee District of Pinar del Rio Province. The Coffee Industry in Cuba By H. 0. Neville We have no doubt that many interesting and some highly amusing occurrences would be brought to hght could we know of the beginning of practices which, through con- tinued repetition, have become customs among the peoples of the world. Upon thinking of the use of coffee, considered as it is the national drink of Cuba, and of its widespread employment among practically all the people of the world, the writer could but express his wonder as to how the practice started and who was the first to drink it. The result was a rather amusing reply giving the story of a goat herder in a country where coffee was native, who noticed the difference in the disposition and activity of his goats in the after- noon upon returning to their corrals, where they were kept for the night, and the same characteristics in the morning after passing the night without nourishment. As this particular goat herder had been keeping goats for a long time in other localities and had not noticed any such remarkable change due to the day's feeding, his curiosity was excited, and following them one day he observed them eating bountifully of the leaves of a certain plant upon which there were at the time a goodly crop of berries. His curiosity prompted him to take some of the leaves and eat them himself, and the mild stimulant contained in them prompted further investigation, with the result that he found the seeds of the berries to contain the exhilarating substance found in the leaves, though to a very much greater extent. As my informant put it, the fact that the goats, usually rather serious and sober animals, returned in the afternoon from their feeding "full of pep and ^-igor," was the cause of the discovery of the qualities of coffee which have caused it to become an almost universal beverage. Be this as it may, in Cuba it is the
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