No nation can boast women more comely than the daughters of Cuba. Often their features are strikingly attractive and sometimes extremely beautiful, despite the disfiguring _cascarilla_, or powdered egg-shell, which is plastered on the face with ghastly effect. If the _Cubana_ had vivacity, or even expression, she would be irresistibly charming. But her countenance, though not lacking in intelligence, is apt to be placid to the point of dulness. This is the more remarkable because her Spanish grandmother was probably a woman of _verve_ and sparkle, with flashing, big black eyes, which in her descendant are just as big and black, but languid and unresponsive. Though blondes are not extremely rare among the Cuban women, the prevailing type is dark, with blue-black hair in abundant quantity. The cubana matures early and fades correspondingly soon. A fully developed woman at thirteen, she is often married at that age, or shortly after, and is probably the mother of several children before she has passed out of her teens. Her good looks wane and her figure becomes _embonpoint_, if not corpulent, at an age when the Anglo-Saxon woman still presents the appearance of youth. One who had only known _la senorita_ might be disposed to think that Cuban women have little character or individuality. It is as mothers that they display their best traits. From the day of her marriage, _La Cubana_ devotes her life to her home and family. She is a willing slave to her husband and children, often with bad effect upon him and them. A little more independence, a little less self-sacrifice, on her part, would be better for all parties concerned. But every Cuban girl is taught that her sole mission in life is to fulfill her duty as wife and mother to the best of her ability. She has been schooled to consider herself the absolute property of her husband and to render him unquestioned obedience. She is prone to jealousy but slow to resent neglect and unfaithfulness. Sad to say, this devoted creature too often loses the love of her husband with the decline of her beauty. She seldom has the strength of character or the intellectual attractions necessary to hold him when the physical charm has lost its force.