MUTTON—PORK.
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killing these animals, practised in Antigua, appears than that customary in England. Here are no horrible slaughterhouses, still reeking with the blood of those slain before, to harass the poor animal's sense of smelling, and call for the assistance of those cruel ropes to pull it in ; neither is the dire mallet used, which often requires so many strokes before life is extinct. A little grass is scattered down beneath the shade of some spreading tree, to which the creature is tied, and as it bends its head, the butcher, with a sharp knife, separates the spinal marrow between the horns, and death is instant. The mutton introduced at the table of the gentry is superexcellent—small, tender, and not too fat ; something like the Welsh mutton so justly esteemed by the opulent in England. It is generally fed upon the Indian-corn, and gentlemen kill for their own use. That procured at the shambles is generally very indifferent, and not unfrequently goat mutton. Pork is another viand admitted at times to enlarge the table-store. It is considered by some to be the first meat in the West Indies ; this, however, I cannot accede to ; the warmth of the climate is against it, and makes it appear unseasonable. Goldsmith, in his “ Manners and Customs," mentions that pigs in the West Indies were always fed upon sugarcanes. I have made inquiries upon this important subject, and from the answers received, and my own observations, am inclined to think that the family of grunters are forced to be content with less luscious fare. Upon estates, when grinding, they may, perhaps, get a share of what is termed the mill-bed, but that is all the production of the cane they are allowed to participate in, unless they march into a cane-field of their own accord, and stand a chance of getting shot or stuck for their pains, for a watchman is ever looking out for such intruders, to whom he plays the executioner's part, and, after decollating, takes, by right of law, the head for his own share. Poultry is also a standing dish at a West Indian dinner. Before emancipation, all kinds of feathered stock were very