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+Project Gutenberg's The Great White Tribe in Filipinia, by Paul T. Gilbert
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Great White Tribe in Filipinia
+
+Author: Paul T. Gilbert
+
+Release Date: March 22, 2008 [EBook #24897]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT WHITE TRIBE IN FILIPINIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by the
+Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University
+Libraries [text] and The Internet Archive [illustrations].)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+               The Great White Tribe in Filipinia
+
+                               By
+
+                        Paul T. Gilbert
+
+
+                  Cincinnati: Jennings and Pye
+                   New York: Eaton and Mains
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                        Copyright, 1903,
+                      by Jennings and Pye
+
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+
+The legendary white tribe that is said to wander in the mountains of
+Mindoro is but distantly related to the Great White Tribe now scattered
+through the greater part of Filipinia. Extending from the Babuyanes
+off Luzon, to Tawi-Tawi and Sibutu off the coast of Borneo, the Great
+White Tribe has made its presence felt throughout the archipelago.
+
+The following pages are the record of my own impressions and
+experiences in the Philippines. The few historical and geographical
+allusions made have been selected only as they were significant,
+explanatory, picturesque. A logical arrangement of the chapters will
+enable the reader to survey the islands as a great bird hovering above
+might do--will make the map of Filipinia "look like a postage-stamp."
+
+I promise that the reader shall be introduced to all the most important
+members of the Great White Tribe, as well as to the representatives
+of races brown and black. We will peep through the hedge together
+as the savages and pagans execute their grotesque dances or perform
+their sacrifices to the god of the volcano. Furthermore, the reader
+shall attend the Oroquieta Ball with Maraquita and Don Julian, or,
+if he likes, with "Foxy Grandpa" and "The Arizona Babe."
+
+I ought to dedicate this book to many people,--to that wonderful brown
+baby Primitivo, who has written that he "loves me the most best of
+all the world;" to "Fresno Bill," that charter member of the Great
+White Tribe, with whom I have knocked around from Zamboanga to Vigan;
+or to that coterie of college men in old Manila who extended me so
+many courtesies while I was there. I send them all my compliments
+from the homeland, and ask the reader, if he will, to do likewise.
+
+Cincinnati, Ohio,
+
+_December, 1903._
+
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+        Chapter                                        Page
+
+        I.      In Old Manila,                            9
+        II.     All About the Town,                      23
+        III.    The White Man's Life,                    36
+        IV.     Around the Provinces,                    50
+        V.      On Summer Seas,                          67
+        VI.     Among the Pagan Tribes,                  80
+        VII.    A Lost Tribe and the Servants of
+                Mohammed,                                97
+        VIII.   In a Visayan Village,                   121
+        IX.     The "Brownies" of the Philippines,      142
+        X.      Christmas in Filipinia,                 150
+        XI.     In a Visayan Home,                      163
+        XII.    Leaves from a Note-book,                181
+                1. Skim Organizes the Constabulary,     181
+                2. Last Days at Oroquieta,              195
+
+        XIII.   In Camp and Barracks with the Officers
+                and Soldiers of the Philippines,        223
+
+        XIV.    Padre Pedro, Recoleto Priest.--The
+                Routine of a Friar in the Philippines,  236
+        XV.     General Rufino in the Moro Country,     254
+        XVI.    On the Iligan-Marahui Road,             270
+        XVII.   The Filipino at Play,                   280
+        XVIII.  Visayan Ethics and Philosophy,          292
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+        Map of Filipinia,                      Frontispiece
+                                                Facing Page
+        In Old Manila,                                    8
+        All About the Town,                              26
+        On Summer Seas,                                  68
+        Negrito Pigmy Vagrants,                          98
+        Our Latest Citizens,                            120
+        In a Visayan Village,                           128
+        A Carabao,                                      144
+        The Oldest Cathedral of Manila,                 238
+        General Rufino in Moro Country,                 256
+        Captain Isidro Rillas with the Datto,           256
+        A Deserted Moro Shack,                          274
+        Moro Weapons (Spear and Dirk),                  274
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I.
+
+In Old Manila.
+
+
+As the big white transport comes to anchor three miles out in the
+green waters of Manila Bay, a fleet of launches races out to meet
+the messenger from the Far West. The customs officers in their blue
+uniforms, the medical inspectors, and the visitors in white duck suits
+and panama hats, taking their ease upon the launches without the
+slightest sign of curiosity, give one his first impressions of the
+Oriental life--the white man's easy-going life in the Far East. But
+the ideas of the newcomer are to undergo a change after his first few
+days on shore, when he takes up the grind, and realizes that his face
+is getting pasty--that the cool veranda and the drive on the Luneta
+do not constitute the entire program, even in Manila.
+
+Unwieldy lighters and strange-looking _cascos_ now surround the
+transport, and the new arrival sees the Filipino for the first
+time. Under the woven helmet of the nearest _casco_ squats a shriveled
+woman, one of the witches from Macbeth, stirring a blackened pot of
+rice. A gamecock struggles at his tether in the stern, while the deck
+amidships swarms with wiry brown men, with bristling pompadours and
+feet like rubber, with wide-spreading toes. With unintelligible cries
+they crowd the gunwale, spurning the iron hull of the transport with
+long billhooks, as the heavy swell sucks out the water, leaving the
+streaming sluices and the great red hull exposed, and threatening at
+the inrush of the sea to bump the _casco_ soundly against the solid
+iron plates of the larger ship. A most disreputable-looking crew it
+is, the ragged trousers rolled up to the knee, the network shirts,
+or cotton blouses full of holes drawn down outside. Highly excitable,
+and yet good-natured as they work, they take possession and disgorge
+the ship, while Chinamen descend the hatchways after dirty clothes.
+
+Off in the hazy distance lies Cavite, or "the port," with its white
+mist of war ships lying at anchor where the stout Dutch galleons rode,
+in 1647, to attack the Spanish caravels, retiring only after the
+Dutch admiral fell wounded mortally; where later, in the nineteenth
+century, the Spanish fleet put out to meet the white armada,
+the grim battleships of Admiral Dewey's line. Where now the lazy
+sailing vessels and the blackened tramps are anchored, lay, in 1593,
+the hostile Chinese junks, with the barbaric eye daubed on the bows,
+the gunwales bristling with iron cannon that had scorned the typhoons
+of the China Sea and gathered in Manila Bay.
+
+This bay has been the scene of history-making since the sixteenth
+century. Soon after the flotilla of Legaspi landed the first Spanish
+settlers on the crescent beach around Manila Bay, the little garrison
+was put to test by the invasion of the Chinese pirate, Li Ma Hong. The
+memory of that brave defense in which the Spaniards routed the
+Mongolian invader, even the disaster of that first of May can never
+drown. In 1582 the little fleet put out against the Japanese corsair,
+Taifusa, and returned victorious. In 1610 the fleet of the Dutch
+pirates was destroyed off Mariveles. Those were stirring days when,
+but a few years later, the armada of Don Juan de Silva left Manila
+Bay again to test the mettle of the Dutch. Another naval encounter
+with the Dutch resulted in a victory for Spanish arms in 1620 in
+San Bernardino Straits. And off Corregidor, whose blue peak marks
+the entrance to Manila Bay, the Dutchmen were again defeated by the
+galleons of Don Geronimo de Silva. Now, near the Cavite shore, is
+seen the twisted wreck of one of the ill-fated men of war that went
+down under the intolerable fire from Dewey's broad-sides. And in 1899
+the Spanish transports left Manila Bay forever under the command of
+Don Diego de los Rios, with the remnant of the Spanish troops aboard.
+
+The city of Manila lies in a broad crescent, with its white walls
+and the domes of churches glowing in the sun. On landing at the Anda
+monument, you find the gray walls and the moss-grown battlements
+of the old garrison--a winding driveway leading across the swampy
+moat and disappearing through the mediæval city gate. This portion
+of Manila, laid out in the sixteenth century by De Legaspi, occupies
+the territory on the south side of the Pasig River at the mouth. the
+frowning walls of the _Cuartel de Santiago_ loom above the bustling
+river opposite the customs-house.
+
+Here, where the young American army officers look out expectantly for
+the arrival of the transport that is to bring them their promotions,
+or to take them home, Geronimo de Silva was confined for not pursuing
+the Dutch vessels after the sea fight off Corregidor. The crumbling
+walls still whisper of intrigue and secrecy. The fort was built in
+1587, and became the base of operations, not only against the pirate
+fleets of the Chinese, the Moros, and the Dutch, but also in the riots
+of the Chinese and the Japanese that broke out frequently in the old
+days. At one time twenty thousand Chinamen were beaten back by an
+alliance of the Spaniards, Japanese, and natives. On this historic
+ground the treaty was made in 1570 between the Spaniards and the
+rajas of Manila, Soliman and Lacandola. The walls survived the fire of
+1603. The earthquake causing the evacuation of Manila could not shake
+them. Another prisoner of state, Corcuera, who had fought the Moros
+in the Jolo Archipelago, was locked up in the _Cuartel de Santiago_
+at the instance of his Machiavellian successor. In 1642 the fort was
+strengthened by additional artillery because of an expected visit
+from the Dutch. Today a soldier in a khaki uniform mounts guard at the
+street entrance. The courtyard is adorned by pyramids of cannon-balls
+and tidy rows of _bonga_-trees. The soldiers' quarters line the avenue
+on either side, and bugle-calls resound where formerly was heard the
+call of the night watchman.
+
+A number of elaborate but narrow passages--dim, gloomy archways, where
+the chain and windlass stand dust-covered from disuse--connect the
+walled town with the extra-muros sections. The _Puerto del Parian_,
+on the Ermita side, is one of the most imposing of these gates. Near
+the botanical gardens on the boulevard, at the small booth where
+Juliana sells cigars and bottled soda, following the turnpike over
+the moat, you come to the Parian gate, crowned by the Spanish arms,
+in crumbling bas-relief. Beyond the drawbridge--lowered never to be
+raised again--where rumbling pony-carts crowd the pedestrians to the
+wall, the passage opens into gloomy dungeons, with barred windows
+looking out upon the stagnant waters of the moat. With an involuntary
+shudder, you pass on. A native policeman, in an opera-bouffe uniform,
+stands at the further end in order to dispatch the vehicles that can
+not pass each other in the narrow gate. Windowless, yellow walls, upon
+the corners of the streets, make reckless driving very dangerous,
+and collisions frequently occur. A vacant sentry-box stands just
+within the city walls, and, turning here into the long street, you
+immediately find yourself in an old Spanish town.
+
+Here the grand churches and the public buildings are located;
+the cathedral, after the Romano-Byzantine style of architecture;
+the _Palacio_, built after Spanish notions of magnificence,
+around a courtyard shaded by rare trees; and many other edifices,
+used for official and ecclesiastic purposes. The streets are paved
+with cobblestone and laid out regularly in squares, in accordance
+with the plan of De Legaspi, so that one side or the other will be
+always in the shade. Beautiful plazas, with their palms and statues,
+frequently relieve the glare of the white walls. The sidewalks are
+narrow, and are sheltered by projecting balconies.
+
+The heavily-barred windows, ponderous doors, and quaint signboards
+give the streets an old-world aspect, while _Calle Real_ is spanned by
+an arched gallery, like the Venetian Bridge of Sighs. Tailor-shops,
+laundries, restaurants, and barber-shops, where swinging punkas
+waft the odor of bay rum through open doors, suggest a scene from
+some forgotten story-book or the stage-setting for an Elizabethan
+play. In the commercial streets the absence of show-windows will be
+noticed. Bookstores display their wares on stands outside, while of
+the contents of the other shops, one can obtain no adequate idea until
+he enters through the open doors. The interesting signboards, whether
+they can be interpreted or not, tend to excite the curiosity. "_Los
+Dos Hermanos_" (The Two Brothers) is a tailor-shop, a _Sastreria_;
+and the shoestore a _Zapateria_. The family grocery-store, _El Globo_,
+is advertised by a huge globe, battered from long years of service;
+and _La Lira_, or the music-store, may be known by the sign of the
+gold lyre.
+
+These streets have been the scene of many a drama in the
+past. Earthquakes in 1645, in 1863, and 1880, caused great loss of
+life and property. The plague broke out in 1628, when Spaniards,
+Filipinos, and Chinese were swept off indiscriminately. Later,
+epidemics of smallpox and cholera have made a prison and a pesthouse
+of Manila. Only in 1902 the city suffered from a run of cholera,
+and the Americans, in spite of all precautions, could not stop the
+spread of the disease. The streets were flushed at night; districts of
+native houses were put to the torch, and the detention-camp was full of
+suffering humanity. The natives, in their ignorance, went through the
+streets in long processions, carrying the images of saints, chanting,
+and burning candles, and at night would throw the bodies of the dead
+into the river or the canal. The ships lay wearily at quarantine
+out in the bay, and the chorus of bells striking the hour at night
+was heard over the quiet waters. Officers patrolled the streets,
+inspected drains and cesspools where the filth of ages had collected,
+giving the forgotten corners of Manila such a cleaning as they never
+had received before.
+
+But there were days of triumph and rejoicing--days such as had come to
+Greece and Rome; days when the level of life was raised to heights of
+inspiration. Not only have the streets re-echoed to the martial music
+of the victorious Americans when Governor Taft or the vice-governor
+were welcomed, but the town had rung with shouts of triumph when
+provincial troops had come back from the conquest of barbarians, or
+when the fleets returned from victories over the Dutch and English
+and the Moro pirates of the southern archipelago. And the streets
+reverberated to the sound of drum and trumpet when, in 1662, the
+special companies of guards were organized to put down the rebellion
+of the Chinese in the suburbs. But in 1762 the town capitulated to the
+English, and the occupation by Americans more than a century later,
+was a repetition of the scenes enacted then.
+
+Because of the volcanic condition of the island, the houses can not
+be built more than two stories high. The ground floor is of stone,
+and contains, besides the storehouse or a suite of living rooms,
+the stables, arranged around a tiled courtyard, where the carriages
+are washed. A broad stairway conducts to the main corridor above. The
+floor, of polished hardwood, is uncarpeted and scrupulously clean. Each
+morning the _muchachos_ (house-boys) mop the floor with kerosene,
+skating around the room on rags tied to their feet, or pushing a
+piece of burlap on all fours across the floor. The walls are frescoed
+pink and blue; the ceiling is often of painted canvas. The windows,
+fitted with translucent shell in tiny squares, slide back and forth,
+so that the balcony can be thrown open to the light. Double walls,
+making an alcove on one side, keep out the heat of the ascending or
+descending sun. The balcony at evening is a favorite resort, and
+visitors are entertained in open air. In the interior arrangement
+of the houses, little originality is shown, the Spaniards having
+insisted upon merely formal principles of art. The stiff arrangement
+of the chairs, facing each other in precise rows, as if a conclave
+were about to be held, does not invite conviviality. There are few
+pictures on the walls,--a faded chromo, possibly, in a gilt frame,
+representing some old-fashioned prospect of Madrid, or the tinted
+portrait of the royal family.
+
+The Spanish residents and the _mestizos_ entertain with great
+politeness and formality. Five o'clock is the fashionable hour for
+visiting, as earlier in the afternoon the family is liable to be in
+_négligée_. The Spanish women, in loose, morning gowns, or blouses,
+and in flapping slippers, present a rather slovenly appearance during
+morning hours; also the children, in their "union" suits, split tip
+the back, impress the stranger as untidy. During the noon _siesta_
+everybody goes to sleep, to come to life late in the afternoon. At
+eight o'clock the chandelier is lighted and the evening meal is
+served. This is a very formal dinner, consisting of innumerable courses
+of the same thing cooked in different styles. A glass of _tinto_ wine,
+a glass of water, and a toothpick whittled by the loving hands of the
+_muchacho_, finishes the meal. The kitchen is located in the rear,
+and generally overlooks the court, and near by are the bathroom and
+the laundry.
+
+In the walled city small hotels are numerous, their entryways well
+banked with potted palms. The usual stone courtyard, damp with water,
+is surrounded by the pony-stalls, where dirty stable-boys go through
+their work mechanically, smoking cigarettes. The dining-room and office
+occupy most of the second floor. This is the library, reception-room,
+and ladies' parlor, all in one; the guest-rooms open into this
+apartment. These are very small, containing a big Spanish tester-bed,
+with a cane bottom, and the other necessary furniture. The sliding
+windows open out into the street or the attractive courtyard, and the
+room reminds you somewhat of an opera-box. My own room looked out at
+the hospital of San José, where a big clock, rather weatherbeaten,
+tolled the hours.
+
+Manila to-day, however, is a contradiction. Striking anachronisms
+occur from the confusion of Malayan, Asiatic, European, and American
+traditions. Heavy escort-wagons, drawn by towering army mules, crowd
+to the wall the fragile _quilez_ and the _carromata_( two-wheeled
+gigs), with their tough native ponies. Tall East Indians, in their
+red turbans; Armenian merchants, soldiers in khaki uniforms, and
+Chinese coolies bending under heavy loads, jostle each other under
+the projecting balconies, while Filipinos shuffle peacefully along
+the curb.
+
+The new American saloons look rather out of place in such a curious
+environment, and telegraph wires concentrated at the city wall seem
+even more incongruous.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II.
+
+All About the Town.
+
+
+The wide streets radiating from the Bridge of Spain are lined with
+lemonade stands, where the cube of ice is sheltered from the sun by
+striped awnings. Leaving the walled town on the river side--the gate
+has been destroyed by earthquakes--you can take the ferry over to
+the Tondo side. The ferryboat is a round-bottomed, wobbly sampan,
+with a tiny cabin in the stern. You crouch down, waiting for the
+boat to roll completely over, which at first it seems inclined to do,
+or try to plan some method of escape in case the pilot gets in front
+of one of the swift-moving tugs. You have good reason to congratulate
+yourself on being landed at a stone-quay in a tangle of small launches,
+ferryboats, and _cascoes_. The Tondo Canal may be crossed on a covered
+barge, poled by an ancient boatman, who collects the fares--a copper
+cent of Borneo, Straits Settlements, or Hong Kong coinage--much in
+the same way as the pilot of the Styx collects the obolus.
+
+Under the long porch of the customs-house, a dummy engine noisily
+plies up and down among the long-horned carabaos and piles
+of merchandise. Types of all nations are encountered here. The
+immigration office swarms with Chinamen herded together, rounded
+up by some contractor. Every Chinaman must have his photograph, his
+number, and description in the immigration officer's possession. Indian
+merchants, agents of the German, Spanish, and English business firms
+are looking after new invoices. A party of American tourists, just
+arrived from China, are awaiting the inspection of their baggage.
+
+The Bridge of Spain, that famous artery of commerce, over which a
+stream of carabao-carts, crowded tram-cars, pleasure vehicles, and
+army wagons flows continuously, spans the Pasig River at the head of
+the Escolta in Binondo. Here the bazaars and European business houses
+are located, while the avenues that branch off lead to other populous
+and swarming districts. _La Extrameña_, a grocery and wine-store;
+_La Estrella del Norte_--"The North Star"--diamond and jewelry-store;
+the _Sombreria_, hatstore, advertised by a huge wooden hat hung out
+above the street; and a tobacco booth, are situated on the corners
+where the bridge and the Escolta meet. The Metropolitan policeman--one
+of the tall _Americanos_ uniformed in khaki riding-breeches and stiff
+leggings--who, in former days, controlled the traffic of the street,
+is now supplanted by a Filipino comic-opera policeman. Very few of
+the old "Mets" are left. It was a body of picked men, the finest
+soldiers in the volunteer troops, and the most efficient police
+force in the world. This officer on the Escolta used to be a genius
+in his line. When balky Filipino ponies blocked the traffic in the
+crowded thoroughfare, it was this officer that straightened out the
+tangle. If the tram-car happened to run off the track, it was the
+"Met" who showed the driver how to put it on again.
+
+The river above the bridge is lined with latticed balconies; but from
+the veranda of the Paris Restaurant, when that establishment was in
+its glory, one could sit for hours and watch the bustling river life
+below. The thatched tops of the huddled _cascos_ formed a compact roof
+that extended half across the stream. Upon these nondescript craft
+hundreds of Filipinos dwelt, doing their washing and their cooking
+on the decks. The scanty clothes are hanging out to dry on lines,
+while naked brats are splashing in the dirty water, clinging to the
+tightened hawser.
+
+Launches go scudding under the low bridge, rending the air with
+vicious toots. Unwieldly _cascos_ are poled down the river, laden
+heavily with cocoanuts and hemp. Small floating islands whirl along
+in the swift current, and are carried out to sea. At the _Muelle
+del Rey_--the "King's Dock"--lie the inter-island steamers, and the
+gangs of laborers are busy loading and unloading them. Carabao drays
+are hauling fragrant cargoes of tobacco and Manila hemp, while over
+the gangplank runs a chain of men, gutting the warehouse of its
+merchandise. The captain of the _Romulus_ stands on the bridge,
+daintily smoking a cigarette, and supervising the disposal of the
+demijohns of _tinto_ wine. The derrick keeps up an incessant racket
+as the hold is gradually filled. Although the _Romulus_ is advertised
+to sail to-day at noon, she is as liable to sail at ten o'clock, or
+possibly to-morrow afternoon; and although bound for Iloilo or Cebu,
+you can not be at all sure what her destination really is. She may
+return after a month from a long rambling cruise among the southern
+isles. The Spanish mariners, in rakish Tam o'Shanter caps, lounge
+at the entrance to the warehouse, or the office of the _Compania
+Maritima_, dreamily smoking cigarettes, sometimes imperiously ordering
+the laborers to _"sigue, hombre_!" (get along!) a warning that the
+Filipino has grown too familiar with to heed.
+
+Armenian and Indian bazaars, where ivory and the rich fabrics of the
+Orient are sold; cafés and drugstores, harness-shops, tobacco-shops,
+and drygoods-stores, emporiums of every kind,--are found on the
+Escolta, where the prices would astonish any one not yet accustomed to
+the manners of the Far East. During the morning hours the _quilez_ and
+the _carromata_ rattle along the bumpy cobblestones, the native driver,
+or _cochero_, in a white shirt, smoking a cigarette, and resting his
+bare feet upon the dashboard. Behind the curtain of a passing _quilez_
+you can catch a glimpse of brown eyes, raven hair, and olive-tinted
+cheeks, displayed with all the coquetry of a Manila belle. A Filipino
+family in a rickety cart, tilted at an impossible angle, are drawn
+by a moth-eaten pony, mostly bones. Public conveyances--if these
+are not indeed a myth--are most exasperating. You can never find
+one when you want it, even at the "Public Carriage Station." If by
+chance you come across one in the street, the driver will ignore your
+signal and drive on. Evidently he selects this walk in life merely
+to discharge the obligations of his conscience, for he never seems
+to want a passenger, nor will he take one till he finds his vehicle
+possessed by strategy. The gamins of the corner offer eagerly to find
+a _carromata_ for you, but they frequently forget the object of their
+mission in their search. Sometimes, when you have ceased to think about
+a _carromata_, one of these small ragamuffins will pursue you, with a
+sheepish-looking coachman and disreputable vehicle in tow. Then twenty
+boys crowd round and claim rewards for having found a rig for you;
+as they all look alike, you toss a ten-cent piece among the crowd
+and let them fight it out among themselves.
+
+The driver will begin by making some objection. He will ask to be
+discharged at noon, or he will make you promise not to turn him
+over to another _Americano_. When the preliminary arrangements are
+completed, lighting his cigarette, he cramps himself up in the box,
+and, maintaining a continual clucking, larrups his skinny pony as
+the crazy gig goes rocking down the street. The driver never seems
+to know the town; even the post-office and the Bridge of Spain are
+_terra incognita_ to him. And so you guide him, saying "_silla_,"
+left, or "_mano_," right, "_direcho_," straight ahead, and "_'spera_,"
+stop. You must be careful when you stop, however, as while you are
+busy with your purchases, your man is liable to run away. While,
+as a general rule, he shakes his head at the repeated inquires of
+"_ocupato?_" (taken?) even though the carriage may not be engaged, if
+some one more unscrupulous or desperate should step in, you would find
+yourself without a rig. And the result would be the same if dinner-time
+came round, and he had not had "_sow sow_." Even the fact that he
+had not collected any fare would not deter him from his resolution.
+
+Is it any wonder, then, that, after all these difficulties, no
+complaint is made against the rickety, slat-seated carts, with
+wheels that seem to bar the entrance of the passenger; against the
+sorry-looking _quilez_,--that attenuated two-wheeled 'bus, where
+the four passengers must sit with interwoven legs, getting the
+more implicated as the cart goes bounding on? No; the Americans
+are glad enough to ride in almost any kind of vehicle. But you
+must be good-natured, even though the cab is tilted at an angle of
+some thirty-odd degrees, and even though, in getting out, which is
+accomplished from the _quilez_ in the rear, you lift the tiny pony
+off his feet. It is enough to take the breath away to ride in one
+of these conveyances through the congested portions of Manila. Not
+only does the turning to the left seem strange, but taking the
+sharp corners--an accomplishment for which the two-wheeled gig is
+well adapted--frequently comes near precipitating a collision;
+and, in order to avoid this, the driver pulls the pony to his
+haunches. When the coast is clear, you will go rattling merrily away,
+the _quilez_ door, unfastened, swinging back and forth abandonedly,
+regardless of appearances. It is impossible to satisfy the driver on
+discharging him, unless by paying him three times the fee. The stranger
+in Manila, counting out the unfamiliar _media pesos_ and _pesetas_,
+never knows when he has paid enough. Whether to pay his fifteen cents,
+American or Mexican, for the first hour, and ten cents, or _centavos_,
+for the hour succeeding, and how many _media pesetas_ make a quarter
+of a dollar in our currency,--these are the questions that annoy and
+puzzle the newcomer, till he learns to disregard expense, and order
+his livery from the hotels or private stables.
+
+At noon the corrugated iron blinds of the shops are pulled down;
+all the carriages have disappeared; the only sign of life in the
+Escolta is the comical little tram-car, loaded down with little
+brown men dressed in white, the driver tooting a toy horn, and all
+the passengers dismounting to assist the car uphill.
+
+The banking center of Manila, built around a dusty plaza in the Tondo
+district, and consisting of low buildings occupied by offices of
+shipping and commercial companies, suggests a scene from "The Merchant
+of Venice" or "Othello." English firms--such as Warner, Barnes &
+Co.; Smith, Bell & Co.; the Hong Kong-Shanghai Banking Corporation,
+where the silver _pesos_ jingle as the deft clerks stack them up or
+handle them with their small spades--are situated hereabouts.
+
+Near by, and on an emerald plaza, stand the buildings of the Insular
+Tobacco Company and of the Oriente Hotel. These buildings are the
+finest modern structures in Manila. Carriages are waiting in the
+street in front of the hotel, and at the entrance may be seen a
+group of army officers in khaki uniform, in white and gold, or--very
+much more modern--olive drab. The dining-room is entered through the
+rustling bead-work curtain. Here the Chinese waiters, in long gowns
+glide noiselessly around.
+
+But the Rosario, where opium-saturated Chinamen sit tailor-fashion
+at the entrance to their little stalls--where narrow galleries and
+alleys swarm with Chinese life--is one of the most interesting and
+complex: of all Manila's thoroughfares. On one side of the street the
+drygoods-shops are shaded from the sun by curtains in broad stripes of
+blue and white. The dreamy merchant sits barelegged on the doorsill,
+and is not to be disturbed by the mere entrance of a purchaser. The
+opposite side is lined with _Chino_ hardware stores, and in each one
+of them the stock is just the same. These shops supply the stock of
+merchandise to the provincial agents; for an intricate feudal system
+is maintained among the Chinese of the archipelago. The rich Manila
+merchants who have seen their fellow-countrymen safe through from
+China, and have furnished goods on credit, reap the profits like so
+many Oriental Shylocks.
+
+At four o'clock the shopping begins again in the Escolta. Apparently
+the whole town has turned out for a ride. Since the Americans
+have come, odd sights have been seen in Manila,--cavalry horses
+harnessed to pony vehicles, phaetons drawn by Filipino ponies, and
+victorias, intended for a pair of native horses, hastily converted
+into surreys. Not only do the Spanish women come out in their black
+_mantillas_, but the Filipino belles and the _mestiza_, girls, in their
+stiff dresses of _josé_ and _piña_ cloth. A carriage-load of painted
+cheeks and burnished pompadours of Japanese frail sisterhood drives by
+upon its way to the Luneta. Army officers in white dress uniform, the
+wives and daughters of the officers, bareheaded and in dainty gowns,
+stop off at Clark's for lemonade, ice-cream, and candy. Soldiers
+and sailors strolling along the street, or driving rickety native
+carts, enjoy themselves after the manner of their kind. A brace of
+well-kept ponies, tugging like game fish, trot briskly away with
+jingling harness, with the coachman and the footman dressed in white,
+a foreign consul lounging in the cushions of the neat victoria. A
+private _carruaje_, drawn by a sleek pony, hastens along, the tiny
+footman clinging on for dear life to the extension seat behind.
+
+After the whirl on the Luneta, where the military band plays as
+the oddly-assorted carriages go circling round like fixtures on
+a steam carousal, the pleasure-seekers leave the driveway on the
+sea deserted; soldiers and citizens vacate the green benches, and
+adjourn for dinner. The Spanish life is best seen at the Metropole,
+where _señors_, _señoritas_, and _señoras_, exquisitely gowned,
+sip cognac and coffee at the little tables, carrying on an animated
+conversation, with expressive flashes of bright eyes or gestures with
+elaborately-jeweled hands.
+
+Below, in the Luzon café, the Rizal orchestra is playing the
+impassioned Spanish waltzes, "_Sobre las Olas," "La Paloma_," to the
+click of billiard balls and the guffaws of soldiers. When the evening
+program ends with "_Dixie_," every soldier in a khaki uniform--bronzed,
+grizzled fellows, many of them back from some campaign out in the
+provinces--will rise immediately to his feet, respectfully remove
+his hat, and as the music that reminds him of the home-land swells
+and gathers volume, fill the corridors with cheer upon cheer as the
+lights are put out; then the sleeping coachman rouses himself, and
+starts the reluctant pony on the journey home.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III.
+
+The White Man's Life.
+
+
+It happened that my first home in Manila was a temporary one, shared
+with a hundred others, at the _nipa_ barracks at the Exposition
+grounds. Who of all those that were similarly situated will forget
+the long row of mimosa-trees that made a leafy archway over the cool
+street; or the fruit merchants squatting beside the bunches of bananas
+and the tiny oranges spread out upon the ground? There was the pink
+pavilion where that enterprising Chinaman, Ah Gong, conducted his
+indifferent restaurant. After these many days I can still hear the
+clatter of the plates, the jingle of the knives and forks, placed
+on the tables by the Chinese waiters. There was the crowd on the
+veranda waiting for the second table, opening their correspondence
+as they waited. And what an indescribable sensation was imparted on
+receiving the first letter in a foreign land!
+
+The long, cool barrack-rooms were swept by the fresh breezes. Here,
+in the bungalow, the army cots had been arranged in rows and covered
+by mosquito-bars suspended from the wires stretched overhead. When
+tucked inside of the mosquito-bar, one felt as though he were a part
+of a menagerie. "_Muchacho_" was the first new word you learned. It
+was advisable to call for a _muchacho_ often, even though you did
+not need his services, in order to exploit your own experience and
+your superiority. And here you were first cheated by the wily Chinese
+peddlers--although you had cut them down to half their price--when
+they unrolled their packs of crêpe pajamas, net-work underwear,
+and other merchandise.
+
+And all one Sunday afternoon you listened to a lecture from the
+President of the Manila Board of Health, who told of the diseases
+that the flesh was heir to in the Philippines, and cheerfully assured
+you that within a month or two your weight would be reduced to the
+extent of twenty-five or fifty pounds. And after dinner--where you
+learned that _chiquos_ though they looked a good deal like potatoes,
+were a kind of fruit--while you were strolling down the avenue beyond
+the markethouse, you got a ducking from a sudden shower that ceased
+quite as unceremoniously as it had begun. There was excitement in the
+bungalow that night because of its invasion by a hostile monkey. An
+impromptu vigilance committee finally succeeded in ejecting the
+unwelcome visitor, persuading him of the superior advantages of
+"Barracks B."
+
+Together with a few dissenters, I moved out next morning, finding
+better quarters in the first floor of a Spanish house in Magallanes. We
+made the best of an old ruin opposite, which we considered picturesque,
+and which was occupied by Filipino squatters, who conducted a hand
+laundry there. Our first _muchacho_, Valentine, surprised us by
+existing on the ten-cent dinners of the Chinese chophouse on the
+corner. But he assured us that it was a good place; that the greasy
+Chinaman, who fried the sausages and boiled the rice back in the tiny
+den, was a great favorite. At our own restaurant, two Negro women
+made the best corn-fritters we had ever tasted; a green parrot and
+a monkey squawked and chattered on the balustrade; a Filipino boy
+played marches on a cracked piano-forte.
+
+And so we lived behind the heavily-barred windows, watching the
+shifting throng--the staggering coolies, girls with trays of oranges
+upon their heads, and men in curiously fashioned hats--driving around
+the city in the afternoon (for Valentine was at his best in getting
+_carromatas_ under false pretenses) till the little family broke
+up. The first to go returned after a day or two, almost in tears
+with the alarming information that the mayor of the town that he
+had been assigned to was a naked savage; that what he supposed was
+pepper on the fried eggs he had had for breakfast, had turned out
+to be black ants--and wouldn't we please pay his _carromata_ fare,
+because he was completely out of funds?
+
+The carabao carts gradually removed our baggage. Valentine was faithful
+to the last. Most of us met each other later, and exchanged notes. One
+had escaped the target practice of ladrones; one had been lost among
+the mountains of Benguet; another had been carried to Manila on a
+coasting steamer, reaching the Civil hospital in time to fight against
+the fevers that had wasted him; and poor Fitz died of cholera in one
+of the most lonely villages among the Negros hills.
+
+"Won't those infernal bells stop ringing for a while and let a
+fellow go to sleep?" said Howard as he got out of bed. "Look at those
+creatures, will you?" pointing to the fat mosquitoes at the top of the
+mosquito-bar. "The vampires! How do you suppose they got in, anyway?"
+
+"It beats me," said the Duke. "It isn't the mosquitoes or the bells:
+that ball of fire that's shining through the window makes a perfect
+oven of the room."
+
+The merciless sun had risen over the low roofs of the walled city,
+and the heat was radiating from the white walls and the scorching
+streets. The Duke was sitting on the edge of the low army cot in his
+pajamas and his bedroom slippers, smoking a native cigarette.
+
+"It must be about ten o'clock," said Howard. "I wonder if the Chinaman
+left any breakfast for us."
+
+"Probably. A couple of cold fried eggs, or a clammy dish of oatmeal
+and condensed milk. Shall we get up and go somewhere?"
+
+"I can't find any clothes," said Howard; "this place is turning into
+a regular chaos, anyway." It was indeed a chaos,--lines of clothes
+where the mosquitoes swarmed, papers and books scattered about the
+floor, pajamas, duck suits, towels on every chair, and muddy white
+shoes strewn around. "Doesn't the _muchacho_ ever clean things up?"
+
+"That's nothing," said the Duke; "wait till the Chinaman runs off
+with all your washing. I can lend you a white suit; and, say,--tell
+the _muchacho_ to come in and _blanco_ a few shoes."
+
+
+
+As there are no apartment-houses in Manila, the young clerk on small
+salary will usually live in a furnished room in the walled city. For
+the first few months it is a rather dreary life. The cool veranda and
+the steamer chair, after the day's work, is a luxury denied the young
+Americans within the city walls. The list of amusements that Manila
+offers is an unattractive one. There is a baseball game between two
+companies of soldiers, or between the Government employees representing
+different departments. There is the cock-fight out at Santa Ana,
+Sunday mornings and _fiesta_ days; but this is mostly patronized by
+natives, and is not especially agreeable to Americans. The Country
+club--reached after a long drive out Malate way, past the Malate
+fort that bears the marks of Dewey's shells, past the old church
+once occupied by soldiers, through the rice-pads where the American
+troops first met the Insurrecto firing line--is little more than a
+mere gambling-house. It is now visited by those whose former resorts
+in the walled city have been broken up by the constabulary.
+
+The races of the Santa Mesa Jockey dub are held on Sunday
+afternoons. It is a rather dusty drive out to the track. A number
+of noisy "road-houses" along the way, where drinking is going on;
+the Paco cemetery, where the bleached bones have been piled around
+the cross,--these are the sole diversions that the road affords. The
+races are interesting only in the opportunity they offer to observe the
+native types. Here you will find the Filipino dandy in his polished
+boots, his low-crowned derby hat, and baggy trousers. He makes the
+boast that he has not walked fifty meters on Manila's streets in the
+past year. This dainty little fellow always travels in a carriage. He
+flicks the ashes off his cigarette with his long finger-nail as he
+stands by while the gay-colored jockeys are being weighed in. Up in the
+grandstand, in a private box, a party of _mestiza_ girls, elaborately
+gowned, are sipping lemonade, or eating sherbet and vanilla cakes,
+while one of the jockeys leans admiringly upon the rail. The silver
+_pesos_ stacked up on the table in the center of the box are given
+to a man in waiting to be wagered on the various events. The finishes
+are seldom very close, the Filipino ponies scampering around the turf
+like rats. A native band, however, adds to the excitement which the
+clamor at the booking office and the animated chatter of _dueñas_,
+_caballeros_, jockeys, and _señoritas_ in the galleries intensifies.
+
+Manila, the City of churches, celebrates its Sabbath in its own
+peculiar way. The Protestant churches suffer in comparison with the
+grand church of San Sebastian--set up from the iron plates made in
+Belgium--and the churches of the various religious orders. Magnificence
+and show appeal most strongly to the Filipino. He is taught to look
+down on the Protestant religion as plebeian; the priests regard
+the Protestant with condescending superciliousness. Until the
+transportation facilities can be extended there will be no general
+coming together of Americans even on Sunday morning, as the colony
+from the United States is scattered far and wide throughout the city.
+
+As his salary increases, the young Government employee looks around
+for better quarters. These he secures by organizing a small club
+and renting the upper floor of one of the large Spanish houses. As
+the young men in Manila are especially congenial, there is little
+difficulty in conducting such an enterprise. The members of a lodging
+club thus formed will generally reserve a table for their use at one
+of the adjacent boarding-houses or hotels.
+
+The fashionable world--the heads of departments, general army officers,
+and wealthy merchants--occupy grand residences in Ermita or in San
+Miguel. These houses, set back in extensive gardens, are approached by
+driveways banked luxuriously with palms. A massive iron fence, mounted
+on stone posts, gives to the residence a certain tone of dignity as
+well as a suggestion of exclusiveness. Those situated in _Calle Real_
+(Ermita) have verandas, balconies, and summer-houses looking out upon
+the sea.
+
+The prosperous bachelor has his stable, stable-boys, and Chinese
+cook. At eight o'clock A. M. the China ponies will be harnessed ready
+to drive him to the office, and at four o'clock the carriage calls
+for him to take him home. Most of the Americans thus situated seldom
+leave their homes. There is, of course, the Army and Navy club in
+the walled city, and the University club in Ermita; but aside from
+an occasional visit to these organizations, he is satisfied with a
+short turn on the Luneta and the privacy of his own house.
+
+The afternoon teas at the University club, where you can see the
+sunset lighting up Corregidor and glorifying the white battleships, the
+monthly entertainments at the Oriente, and the governor's reception,
+are the social features of Manila life. The ladies do considerable
+entertaining, wearing themselves out in the performance of their social
+duties. As a relaxation, an informal picnic party will sometimes
+charter a small launch, and spend the day along the picturesque
+banks of the Pasig. The customs of Manila make an obligation of a
+frequent visit to the Civil hospital, if it so happen that a friend
+is sick there. It is a long ride along _Calle Iris_, with its rows
+of bamboo-trees, past the merry-go-round, Bilibid prison, and the
+railway station; but the patients at the hospital appreciate these
+visits quite sufficiently to compensate for any inconveniences that
+may have been caused.
+
+During the holiday season, certain attractions are offered at
+the theaters. While these are mostly given by cheap vaudeville
+companies that have drifted over from Australia or the China coast,
+when any deserving entertainment is announced the "upper ten" turn
+out _en masse_. During the memorable engagement of the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry minstrels, the boxes at the Zorilla theater were filled by
+all the pride and beauty of Manila. Captains and lieutenants from Fort
+Santiago and Camp Wallace, naval officers from the Cavite colony,
+matrons and maidens from the civil and the military "sets," made a
+vivacious audience, while the Filipinos packed in the surrounding
+galleries, applauded with enthusiasm as the cake-walk and the Negro
+melody were introduced into the Orient.
+
+Where money circulates so freely and is spent so recklessly as in
+Manila, where the "East of Suez" moral standard is established,
+the young fellows who have come out to the Far East, inspired by
+Kipling's poems and the spirit of the Orient, are tempted constantly
+to live beyond their means. It is a country "where there ain't no Ten
+Commandments, and a man can raise a thirst." Then the Sampoluc and
+Quiapo districts, where the carriage-lamps are weaving back and forth
+among pavilions softly lighted, where the tinkle of the _samosen_ is
+heard, and where O Taki San, immodest but bewitching, stands behind
+the beadwork curtain, her kimono parted at the knee,--this is the
+world of the Far East, the cup of Circe.
+
+There was the pathetic case of the young man who "went to pieces"
+in Manila recently. He was a Harvard athlete, but was physically
+unsound. As a result of an unfortunate blow received upon the head
+a short time after his arrival in Manila, he became despondent and
+morose. After undue excitement he would fall into a dreamy trance. At
+such times he would fancy that his mother had died, and he would
+be convulsed with sorrow, breaking unexpectedly into a rousing
+college song. He meditated suicide, and was prevented several times
+from taking his own life. On coming to Manila from the provinces,
+he stoutly refused to be sent home, but lived at his friends'
+expense, trying to borrow money from everybody that he met. Other
+young fellows overwhelmed by debts have tried to break loose from
+the Islands, but have been brought back from Japanese ports to be
+placed in Bilibid. That is the saddest life of all--in Bilibid. Many
+a convict in that prison, far away, has been a gentleman, and there
+are mothers in America who wonder why their boys do not come home.
+
+Somebody once said that Manila life was a perpetual farewell. The days
+of the arrival and departure of the transports are the days that vary
+the monotony. As the procession of big mail-wagons rumbles down the
+Escolta to the post-office, as the letters from America are opened, as
+the last month's newspapers and magazines appear in the shop-windows,
+comes a moment of regret and lonesomeness. But as the transport, with
+its tawny load of soldiers and of joyful officers, pulls out, the
+dweller in Manila, long ago resigned to fate, takes up the grind again.
+
+Sometimes, on Sunday morning, he will take the customs-house launch
+out to one of the Manila-Hong Kong boats, to see a friend off for the
+homeland and "God's country." Leaning over the taffrail, while the
+crowd below is celebrating the departure by the opening of bottles,
+he will fancy that he, too, is going--till the warning whistle sounds,
+and it is time to go ashore. The best view of Manila, it is said,
+is that obtained from the stern deck of an outgoing steamer, as the
+red lighthouse and the pier fade gradually away. But even after he
+has reached the "white man's country" some time he may "hear the East
+a-calling," and come back again.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV.
+
+Around the Provinces.
+
+
+A half century before the founding of Manila, Magellan had set up the
+cross upon a small hill on the site of Butuan, on the north coast
+of Mindanao, celebrating the first mass in the new land, and taking
+possession of the island in the name of Spain. Three centuries have
+passed since then, and there are still tribes on that island who
+have never yielded to the influence of Christianity nor recognized
+the authority of Spain or the United States. Magellan's flotilla
+sailing north touched at Cebu, where the explorers made a treaty
+with King Hamabar. The king invited them to attend a banquet, where,
+on seeing that his visitors were off their guard, he slew a number
+of them mercilessly, while the rest escaped. On the same spot three
+hundred and fifty-odd years later, three American schoolteachers were
+as treacherously slain by the descendants of this Malay king.
+
+Not till the expedition of Legaspi and the Augustine monks visited
+the shores of the Visayan islands were the natives subjugated, and the
+finding of the _Santo Niño_ (Holy Child) brought this about. Since then
+the monks and friars, playing on the superstition of the islanders,
+have managed to control them and to mold them to their purposes. In
+1568 a permanent establishment was made at Cebu by the bestowal of
+munitions, troops, and arms, brought by the galleons of Don Juan de
+Salcedo. The conquest of the northern provinces began soon after the
+flotilla of Legaspi came to anchor in Manila Bay.
+
+The idea that Manila or the island of Luzon comprises most of our
+possessions in the East is one that I have found quite prevalent
+throughout America. The broken blue line of the coast of Luzon
+reaches away in a dim contour to the northward for two hundred miles,
+until the chain of the Zambales Mountains breaks into the flying,
+wave-lashed islands standing out against the trackless sea. Southern
+Luzon, the country of Batangas, and the Camarines, extends a hundred
+miles south of Manila Bay.
+
+In the far north are the rich provinces of Cagayan, Ilocos Norte and
+Ilocos Sur, Abra, Benguet, and Nueva Viscaya. The land at the sea level
+produces hemp, tobacco, rice, and cocoanuts; the heavily-timbered
+mountain slopes contain rich woods, cedar, mahogany, molave, ebony,
+and ipil. A wonderful river rushes through the mountain cañons, and
+the famous valley of the Cagayan is formed--the garden of Eden of the
+Philippines. The peaks of the Zambales are so high that frost will
+sometimes gather at the tops, while in the upper forests even the flora
+of the temperate zone is reproduced. Negritos, the primeval savages,
+run wild in the great wilderness, while cannibals, head-hunters,
+and other barbaric peoples live but a short distance from the shore.
+
+The islands to the south of Luzon reach in a long chain toward Borneo,
+a distance of six hundred miles. During a journey to the southern
+islands a continuous procession of majestic mountains moves by like
+a panorama--first the misty peaks of the Mindoro coast; and then
+the wooded group of islands in the Romblon Archipelago, that rises
+abruptly out of the blue sea. Hundreds of smaller islands, like
+bouquets, dot the waters off Panay, while the bare ridges of Cebu of
+the Plutonic peaks of Negros loom up far beyond. Passing the triple
+range of Mindanao, the scattered islands of the Jolo Archipelago,
+the Tapul and the Tawi-Tawi groups mark the extreme southern limits
+of the Philippines.
+
+In nearly all these islands the interior is taken up by various tribes
+of savages, sixty or seventy different tribes in all, speaking as many
+different dialects. There are the Igorrotes of the north, who make
+it their religion, when the fire-tree blooms, to go out on a still
+hunt after human heads. When one of their tribe dies, the number of
+fingers that he holds up as he breathes his last expresses the number
+of heads which his survivors must secure. An Igorrote suitor, too, must
+pay the price, if he would have his bride, in human heads. The head
+of his best friend or of his deadliest enemy is equally acceptable;
+and if his own pate fall in the attempt, he would not be alone among
+those who have "lost their heads" because of a fair woman.
+
+Although the island of Luzon was settled later than the southern
+islands, civilization has been more widely disseminated in the north. A
+railway line connects Manila with Dagupan and the other cities of
+the distant provinces. Aparri, on the Rio Grande, near its mouth,
+is the commercial port of Cagayan. The country around is rich in
+live stock, and is partly under cultivation. During the rainy season,
+however, the pontoon bridges over the Rio Grande are swept away; the
+roads become impassable. The raging torrent of the river threatens
+the inland navigation, while the monsoons on the China Sea make
+transportation very difficult.
+
+The provinces of North and South Ilocos bristle with dense forests,
+where not only savages, but deer, wild hogs, and jungle-fowl abound,
+and where the white man's foot has never been. The natives bring the
+forest products, pitch, rattan, and the wild honey, to the coast towns,
+where they can exchange their goods for rice. While in the mountainous
+regions of the northern part, barbarians too timid to approach the
+coast are found, most of the pagan natives are of a mixed type. The
+primitive Negritos, living in these parts, as those also living on
+the island of Negros and in Mindanao, are of unknown origin--unless
+they are allied with similar types of pigmies, such as the Sakais of
+the Malay Peninsula, or the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands in the
+Indian Ocean. Some anthropologists would even associate them with
+the black dwarfs in the interior of Africa. These savages live a
+nomadic life, and seldom come down near the villages. But the mixed
+tribes, the Negrito-Malay, or the Malay-Japanese, are bolder and
+more enterprising. The presence of the Japanese and Chinese pirates
+in this country in the early days has been the cause of many of the
+eccentric types whose origin, entirely independent from the origin of
+the Negritos, was Malayan. Here the Ilocanes, or the natives of the
+better class, the Christians of these provinces, although of Malay
+origin, belong to a more cultured class of Malay ancestry. They are
+amenable to Christian influences, and their manners are agreeable
+and pleasing. They cultivate abundant quantities of sugar, cotton,
+indigo, rice, and tobacco, and the women weave the famous _Ilocano_
+blankets that are sold at such a premium in Manila. Vigan, the capital
+of South Ilocos, has the finest public buildings and the best-kept
+streets of any of the provincial cities.
+
+Another tribe of people, the Zambales, are to be found toward the
+center of Luzon. Few Igorrotes, Ilocanes, and Negritos live in the
+province of Zambales or Pangasinan. Pampanga Province also has its
+own tribe and a different dialect. Tagalog is spoken around Manila,
+in Laguna Province, in Batangas, and the Camarines; Visayan is the
+language of the southern islands.
+
+
+
+A monotonous sameness is the characteristic of most of the small
+Filipino towns. In seeing one you have seen all; you wonder what
+good can come out of such a Nazareth, and there are very few of
+the provincial capitals, indeed, that merit a description. Rambling
+official buildings, made of white concrete and roofed with _nipa_
+or with corrugated iron; a ragged plaza, with the church and convent,
+and the long streets lined with native houses; pigs with heads like
+coal-scuttles; chickens and yellow dogs and naked brats, scabby
+and peanut-shaped,--such are the first and last impressions of the
+Filipino town.
+
+We reached Cebu during the rainy season, and it was a little city
+of muddy streets and tiled roofs. As the transport came to anchor
+in the harbor, Filipino boys came out in long canoes, and dived for
+pennies till the last you saw of them was the white soles of their
+bare feet. And in another boat two little girls were dancing, while
+the boys went through the manual of arms. A number of tramp steamers,
+barkentines, and the big Hong Kong boat were lying in the harbor,
+while the coasting steamers of the Chinese merchants and the smaller
+hemp-boats lined the docks. As this was our first port in the Visayan
+group, the difference between the natives here and those of the Far
+North was very noticeable. There, the volcanic, wiry Tagalog, or
+the athletic Igorrote savage; here, the easy-going, happy Visayan,
+carabao-like in his movements, with a large head, enormous mouth
+and feet.
+
+Along the water front a line of low white buildings ran,--the
+wholesale houses of the English, Chinese, Spanish, and American
+commercial firms. The street was full of carabao carts, yoked to their
+uncomfortable cattle. Agents and merchants, dressed in white, were
+hurrying to and fro with manifests. Around the corner was a long street
+blocked with merchandise, and shaded with the awnings of the Chinese
+stores. There was a little barber-shop in a _kiosko_, where an idle
+native, crossing his legs and tilting back his chair, abandoned himself
+to the spirit of a big guitar. The avenue that branched off here would
+be thronged with shoppers during the busy hours. Here were the retail
+stores of every description--"The Nineteenth-century Bazaar," the
+stock of which was every bit as modern as its name--clothing-stores,
+tailor-shops, restaurants, jewelry-stores, and curio bazaars.
+
+Numerous plazas were surrounded by old Spanish buildings and
+hotels. The public gardens--if the acre of dried palms and withered
+grass may so be called--were situated near the water front, and had a
+band stand for the use of the musicians on _fiesta_ days. The racetrack
+was adjacent to the gardens, and the public buildings faced these
+reservations. The magnificent old churches, with their picturesque
+bell towers; the white convent walls, with niches for the statuettes
+of saints; the colleges and convents,--give to the provincial capital
+an air of dignity.
+
+The boarding-house, kept by a crusty but good-hearted Englishman,
+stood opposite the row of porches roofed with heavy tiles, that made
+_Calle Colon_ a colonnade. Across the street was a window in the wall,
+where the brown-eyed Lucretia used to sell ginger-ale and sarsaparilla
+to the soldiers. With her waving pompadour, her olive cheeks, and
+sultry eyes, Lucretia was the belle of all the town. There wasn't a
+soldier in the whole command who wouldn't have laid down his life for
+her. And in this land where nothing seemed to be worth while, Lucretia,
+with her pretty manners and her gentle ways, had a good influence
+upon the tawny musketeers who dropped in to play a game of dominos
+or drink a glass of soda with her; and she treated all of them alike.
+
+A monkey chattered on the balcony, sliding up and down the bamboo-pole,
+or reaching for pieces of bananas which the boarders passed him
+from the dinner-table. "Have you chowed yet?" asked a grating voice,
+which, on a negative reply, ordered a place to be made ready for me
+at the table. Barefooted _muchachos_ placed the thumb-marked dishes
+on the dirty table-cloth. I might add that a napkin had been spread
+to cover the spot where the tomato catsup had been spilled, and that
+the chicken-soup, in which a slice of bread was soaked, slopped over
+the untidy thumb that carried it. But I omitted this course, as the
+red ants floating on the surface of the broth rendered the dish a
+questionable delicacy. The boarders had adjourned to the parlor,
+and were busy reading "Diamond Dick," "Nick Carter," and the other
+five and ten cent favorites. A heavy rain had set in, as I drew my
+chair up to the light and tried to lose myself in the adventures of
+the boy detective.
+
+But the mosquitoes of Cebu! The rainy season had produced them by
+the wholesale, and full-blooded ones at that. These were the strange
+bed-fellows that made misery that night, as they discovered openings
+in the mosquito-bar that, I believe, they actually made themselves! The
+parlor (where the bed was situated) was a very interesting room. There
+was a rickety walnut cabinet containing an assortment of cobwebby
+Venus's fingers, which remind you of the mantel that you fit over
+the gas jet; seashells that had been washed up, appropriately branded
+"Souvenir of Cebu;" tortoise-shell curios from Nagasaki, and an album
+of pictures from Japan. The floor was polished every morning by the
+house-boys, and the furniture arranged in the most formal manner,
+_vis-á-vis_.
+
+The _señorita_ Rosario, the sister-in-law of the proprietor, came in
+to entertain me presently, dressed in a bodice of blue _piña_, with the
+wide sleeves newly starched and ironed, and with her hair unbound. She
+sat down opposite me in a rocking-chair, shook off her slippers on the
+floor, and curling her toes around the rung, rocked violently back and
+forth. She punctuated her remarks by frequent clucks, which, I suppose,
+were meant to be coquettish. Her music-teacher was expected presently;
+so while I wrote a letter on her _escritorio_, the _señorita_ smoked
+a cigarette upon the balcony. The _maestro_ came at last; a little,
+pock-marked fellow, dapper, and neatly dressed, his fingers stained
+with nicotine from cigarettes. Together they took places at the
+small piano, and I could see by their exchange of glances that the
+music-lesson was an incidental feature of the game. They sang together
+from a Spanish opera the song of Pepin, the great braggadocio, of whom
+'t is said, when he goes walking in the streets, "the girls assemble
+just to see him pass."
+
+
+                "Cuando me lanzo a calle
+                Con el futsaque y el cla,
+                Todas las niñas se asoman
+                Solo por ver me pasar:
+                Unas a otras se dicen
+                Que chico mas resa lao!
+                De la sal que va tirando
+                Voy a coher un punao."
+
+
+When the music-teacher had departed, the _señorita_ leaned out of
+the balcony, watching the crowd of beggars in the street below. Of
+all the beggars of the Orient, those of Cebu are the most clinging
+and persistent and repulsive. Covered with filthy rags and scabs,
+with emaciated bodies and pinched faces, they are allowed to come
+into the city every week and beg for alms. Their whining, "_Da mi
+dinero, señor, mucho pobre me_" ("Give me some money, sir, for I am
+very poor"), sounds like a last wail from the lower world.
+
+It was at Iloilo that we took a local excursion steamer across to
+the _pueblo_ of Salai, in Negros. It was a holiday excursion, and the
+boat was packed with natives out for fun. There was a peddler with a
+stock of lemon soda-water, sarsaparilla, sticks of boiled rice, cakes,
+and cigarettes. A game of _monte_ was immediately started on the deck,
+the Filipinos squatting anxiously around the dealer, wagering their
+_suca ducos_ (pennies) or their silver pieces on the turn of certain
+cards. It was a perfectly good-natured game, rendered absurd by the
+concentric circles of bare feet surrounding it. There seemed to be
+a personality about those feet; there were the sleek extremities
+of some more prosperous councilman or _insurrecto_ general; there
+were the horny feet of the old women, slim and bony, or a pair of
+great toes quizzically turned in; and there were flat feet, speckled,
+brown, or yellow, like a starfish cast up on the sand. They seemed to
+watch the game with interest, and to note every move the dealer made,
+smiling or frowning as they won or lost. There was a tramway at Salay,
+drawn by a bull, and driven by a fellow whose chief object seemed to
+be to linger with the _señorita_ at the terminus. The town was hotter
+than the desert of Sahara, and as sandy; there was little prospect
+o£ relief save in the distant mountains rising to the clouds in the
+blue distance.
+
+Returning to our caravansary at Iloilo, we discovered that our beds
+had been assigned to others; there was nothing left to do but take
+possession of the first unoccupied beds that we saw. One of our party
+evidently got into the "Spaniard's" bed, the customary resting-place
+of the proprietor, for presently we were awakened by the anxious
+cries of the _muchachos, "Señor, señor, el Español viene_!" (Sir,
+the Spaniard comes!) But he was not to be put out by any Spaniard,
+and expressed his sentiments by rolling over and emitting a loud
+snore. The Spaniard, easily excited, on his entrance flew into an
+awful rage, while the usurper calmly snored, and the _muchachos_
+peeked in through the door at peril of their lives.
+
+Nothing especially of interest is to be found at Iloilo,--only a
+long avenue containing Spanish, native, and Chinese stores; a tiny
+_plaza_, where the city band played and the people promenaded hand
+in hand; a harbor flecked with white, triangular sails of native
+_velas_; and the river, where the coasting boats and tugs are lying
+at the docks. Neat cattle take the place of carabaos here to a great
+extent. There is the usual stone fort that seems to belong to some
+scene of a comic opera. America was represented here by a Young Men's
+Christian Association, a clubhouse, and a _presidente_. The troops
+then stationed in the town added a certain tone of liveliness.
+
+It was a week of carol-singing in the streets, of comedies performed
+by strolling bands of children, masses, and concerts in the _plaza_. On
+Christmas afternoon we went out to the track to see the bicycle races,
+which at that time were a fad among the Filipinos. The little band
+played in the grand-stand, and the people cheered the racers as
+they came laboriously around the turn. The meet was engineered by
+some American, but, from a standpoint of close finishes, left much
+to be desired. The market-place on Christmas eve was lighted by a
+thousand lanterns, and the little people wandered among the booths,
+smoking their cigarettes and eating peanuts. Until early morning
+the incessant shuffling in the streets kept up, for every one had
+gone to midnight mass. Throughout the town the strumming of guitars,
+the voices of children, and the blare of the brass band was heard,
+and the next morning Jack-pudding danced on the corner to the infinite
+amusement of the crowd. As for our own celebration, that was held in
+the back room of a local restaurant, the Christmas dinner consisting
+of canned turkey and canned cranberry-sauce, canned vegetables,
+and ice-cream made of condensed milk.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V.
+
+On Summer Seas.
+
+
+The foolish little steamer _Romulus_ never exactly knew when she was
+going, whither away, or where. The cargo being under hatches, all
+regardless of the advertised time of departure, whether the passengers
+were notified or not, she would stand clumsily down stream and out
+to sea. The captain, looking like a pirate in his Tam o'Shanter cap,
+or the pink little mate with the suggestion of a mustache on his
+upper lip, if they had been informed about sailing hour, were never
+willing to divulge the secret. If you tried to argue the matter with
+them or impress them with a sense of their responsibility; if you
+attempted to explain the obvious advantages of starting within, say,
+twenty-four hours of the stated time, they would turn wearily away,
+irreprehensible, with a protesting gesture.
+
+Not even excepting the Inland Sea, that dreamy waterway among the
+grottoes, pines, and _torii_ of picturesque Japan, there is no sea
+so beautiful as that around the Southern Philippines. The stately
+mountains, that go sweeping by in changing shades of green or blue,
+appeal directly to the imagination. Unpopulated islands--islands of
+which some curious myths are told of wild white races far in the
+interior; of spirits haunting mountain-side and vale; volcanoes,
+in a lowering cloud of sulphurous smoke; narrows, and wave-lashed
+promontories, where the ships can not cross in the night; great mounds
+of foliage that tower in silence hardly a stone's throw from the ship,
+like some wild feature of a dream,--such are the characteristics of
+the archipelago.
+
+The grandeur of the scenery, the tempered winds, the sense of being
+alone in an untraveled wilderness, made up in part for the discomforts
+of the _Romulus_. The tropical sunsets, staining the sky until the
+whole west was a riot of color, fiery red and gold; the false dawn,
+and the sunrise breaking the ramparts of dissolving cloud; the
+moonlight on the waters, where the weird beams make a shimmering
+path that leads away across the planet waste to _terra incognita_,
+or to some dank sea-cave where the sirens sing,--this is a day and
+a night upon the summer seas.
+
+At night, as the black prow goes pushing through the phosphorescent
+waters, porpoises of solid silver, puffing desperately, tumble about
+the bows, or dive down underneath the rushing hull. The surging
+waves are billows of white fire. In the electric moonlight the blue
+mountains, more mysterious than ever, stand out in bold relief. What
+restless tribes of savages are wandering now through the trackless
+forests, sleeping in lofty trees, or in some scanty shelter amid the
+tangled underbrush! The light that flickers in the distant gorge,
+perchance illumines some religious orgy--some impassioned dance of
+primitive and pagan men. What spirits are abroad to-night, invoked at
+savage altars by the incantations of the savage priests--spirits of
+trees and rivers emanating from the hidden shrines of an almighty
+one! Or it may be that the light comes from an isolated leper
+settlement, where the unhappy mortals spend in loneliness their
+dreary lives.
+
+On the first trip of the _Romulus_ I was assigned to a small, mildewed,
+stuffy cabin, where the unsubstantial, watery roaches played at
+hide-and-seek around the wash-stand and the floor. It was a splendid
+night to sleep on deck; and so, protected from the stiff breeze by the
+flapping canvas, on an army cot which the _muchacho_ had stretched out,
+I went to sleep, my thoughts instinctively running into verse:
+
+
+    "The wind was just as steady, and the vessel tumbled more,
+    But the waves were not as boist'rous as they were the day
+    before."
+
+
+It was the rhythm of the sea, the good ship rising on the waves,
+the cats'-paws flying into gusts of spray before the driving wind.
+
+I was awakened at four bells by the disturbance of the sailors swabbing
+down the deck--an exhibition performance, as the general condition
+of the ship led me to think. Breakfast was served down in the forward
+cabin, where, with deep-sea appetites, we eagerly attacked a tiny cup
+of chocolate, very sweet and thick, a glass of coffee thinned with
+condensed milk, crackers, and ladyfingers. That was all. Some of our
+fellow-passengers had been there early, as the dirty table-cloth and
+dishes testified. A Filipino woman at the further end was engaged in
+dressing a baby, while the provincial treasurer, in his pink pajamas,
+tried to shave before the dingy looking-glass. An Indian merchant,
+a Visayan belle with dirty finger-nails and ankles, and a Filipino
+justice of the peace still occupied the table. Reaching a vacant
+place over the piles of rolled-up sleeping mats and camphorwood
+boxes--the inevitable baggage of the Filipino--I swept off the crumbs
+upon the floor, and, after much persuasion, finally secured a glass
+of lukewarm coffee and some broken cakes. The heavy-eyed _muchacho_,
+who, with such reluctance waited on the table, had the grimiest feet
+that I had ever seen.
+
+A second meal was served at ten o'clock, for which the tables were
+spread on deck. The plates were stacked up like Chinese pagodas, and
+counting them, you could determine accurately the number of courses
+on the bill of fare. There were about a dozen courses of fresh meat
+and chicken--or the same thing cooked in different styles. Garlic
+and peppers were used liberally in the cooking. Heaps of boiled rice,
+olives, and sausage that defied the teeth, wrapped up in tinfoil, "took
+the taste out of your mouth." Bananas, mangoes, cheese, and guava-jelly
+constituted the dessert. After the last plate had been removed, the
+grizzled captain at the head of the table lighted a coarse cigarette,
+which, in accordance with the Spanish custom, he then passed to the
+mate, so that the mate could light his cigarette. This is a more polite
+way than to make an offer of a match. Coffee and cognac was brought
+on after a considerable interval. Although this process was repeated
+course for course at eight o'clock, during the interim you found it
+was best to bribe the steward and eat an extra meal of crackers.
+
+Our next voyage in the _Romulus_ was unpropitious from the start. We
+were detained five days in quarantine in Manila Bay. There was no
+breeze, and the hot sun beat down upon the boat all day. To add
+to our discomforts, there was nothing much to eat. The stock of
+lady-fingers soon became exhausted, and the stock of crackers, too,
+showed signs of running out. As an experiment I ordered eggs for
+breakfast once--but only once. The cook had evidently tried to serve
+them in disguise, believing that a large amount of cold grease would
+in some way modify their taste. He did not seem to have the least
+respect for old age. It was the time of cholera; the boat might have
+become a pesthouse any moment. But the steward assured us that the
+drinking water had been neither boiled nor filtered. There was no
+ice, and no more bottled soda, the remaining bottles being spoken
+for by the ship's officers. At the breakfast-table two calves and
+a pig, that had been taken on for fresh meat, insisted upon eating
+from the plates. The sleepy-eyed _muchacho_ was by this time grimier
+than ever. Even the passengers did not have any opportunity to take
+a bath. One glance at the ship's bathtub was sufficient.
+
+It was a happy moment when we finally set out for the long rambling
+voyage to the southern isles. The captain went barefooted as he paced
+the bridge. A stop at one place in the Camarines gave us a chance
+to go ashore and buy some bread and canned fruit from the military
+commissary. How the captain and the mate scowled as we supplemented
+our elaborate meals with these purchases! One of the passengers, a
+miner, finally exasperated at the cabin-boy, made an attack upon the
+luckless fellow, when the steward, who had been wanting an excuse to
+exploit his authority, came up the hatchway bristling. In his Spanish
+jargon he explained that he considered it as his prerogative to punish
+and abuse the luckless boy, which he did very capably at times; that
+he would tolerate no interference from the passengers. But the big
+miner only looked him over like a cock-of-the-walk regarding a game
+bantam. Being a Californian, the miner told the steward in English
+(which that officer unfortunately did not understand) that if the
+service did not presently improve, the steward and cabin-boy together
+would go overboard.
+
+Stopping at Dumaguete, Oriental Negros, where we landed several
+teachers, with their trunks and furniture, upon the hot sands,
+most of us went ashore in surf-boats, paddled by the kind of men
+that figure prominently in the school geographies. It was a chapter
+from "Swiss Family Robinson,"--the white surf lashing the long
+yellow beach; the rakish palm-trees bristling in the wind; a Stygian
+volcano rising above a slope of tropic foliage; the natives gathering
+around, all open-mouthed with curiosity. At Camaguin, where the boat
+stopped at the sultry little city of Mambajo, an accident befell our
+miner. When we found him, he was sleeping peacefully under a _nipa_
+shade, guarded by a municipal policeman, with the ring of Filipinos
+clustering around. He had been drinking native "_bino_" (wine), and it
+had been too much even for him, a discharged soldier and a Californian.
+
+It was almost a pleasant change, the transfer to the tiny launch
+_Victoria_, that smelled of engine oil and Filipinos, and was commanded
+by my old friend Dumalagon. The _Victoria_ at that time had a most
+unpleasant habit of lying to all night, and sailing with the early
+dawn. When I had found an area of deck unoccupied by feet or Filipino
+babies, Chinamen or ants, I spread an army blanket out and went to
+sleep in spite of the incessant drizzle which the rotten canopy seemed
+not to interrupt. I was awakened in the small hours by the rattle of
+the winch. These little boats make more ado in getting under way than
+any ocean steamer I have ever known. Becoming conscious of a cloud of
+opium-smoke escaping from the cockpit, which was occupied by several
+Chinamen, I shifted to windward, stepping over the sprawling forms
+of sleepers till I found another place, the only objection to which
+was the proximity of numerous brown feet and the hot engine-room. The
+squalling of an infant ushered in the rosy-fingered dawn.
+
+Most of the transportation of the southern islands is accomplished by
+such boats as the _Victoria_. I can remember well the nights spent
+on the launch _Da-ling-ding_, an impossible, absurd craft, that
+rolled from side to side in the most gentle sea. She would start out
+courageously to cross the bay along the strip of Moro coast in Northern
+Mindanao; but the throbbing of her engines growing weaker and weaker,
+she would presently turn back faint-hearted, unable to make headway, at
+the mercy of a sudden storm, and with the possibility of being swept up
+on a hostile shore among bloodthirsty and unreasonable Moros. Another
+time, and we were caught in a typhoon off the north coast. We thought,
+of course, our little ship was stanch, until we asked the captain his
+opinion. "If the engines hold out," he replied, "we may come through
+all right. The engineer says that the old machine will probably blow up
+now any time, and that the Filipinos have quit working and begun their
+prayers." Generally a Filipino is the first to give up in a crisis;
+but I have seen some that managed their canoes in a rough sea with
+as much skill and coolness as an expert yachtsman could have shown. I
+have to thank Madroño for the way in which he handled the small boat
+that put out in a sea like glass and ran into a squall fifteen miles
+out. All through the morning we had poled along over the crust of
+coral bottom, where, in the transparent water, indigo fishes swam,
+where purple starfish sprawled among the coral--coral of many colors
+and in many forms. But as the wind came up and lashed the choppy
+sea to whitecaps, as the huge waves swept along and seemed about to
+knock the little _banca_ "off her feet," Madroño, standing on the
+bamboo outrigger--a framework lashed together with the native cane,
+the breaking of which would have immediately upset the boat--kept
+her bow pointed for the shore, although a counter storm threatened
+to blow us out to the deep sea.
+
+So, after knocking around in _bancas_, picnicking with natives on the
+chicken-bone and boiled rice; after a wild cruise in the _Thomas_,
+where the captain and the crew, as drunk as lords, let the old rotten
+vessel drift, while threatening with a gun the man that dared to meddle
+with the steering gear; after a dreary six months in a provincial
+town,--it seemed like coming into a new world to step aboard the clean
+white transport, with electric-lights and an upholstered smoking-room.
+
+A tourist party, mostly army officers, their wives and daughters,
+"doing" the archipelago, made up the passenger list of the
+transport. The officers, now they had settled satisfactorily the
+question of superiority and "rank," made an agreeable company. There
+was the Miss Bo Peep, in pink and white, who wore a dozen different
+military pins, and would not look at any one unless he happened to
+be "in the service." Like many of the army girls, she had no use
+for the civilians or volunteers. Her mamma told with pride how,
+at their last "at home," nobody under the rank of a major had been
+present. One of the young lieutenants down at Zamboanga, when he
+found she had not worn his pin, "retired to cry." But then, of course,
+Bo Peep was not responsible for young lieutenants' hearts. If he had
+been a captain--well, that is another thing. There was the English
+sugar-planter from the Tawi-Tawi group, who never lost sight of the
+ranking officer, who dressed in flannels, changed his clothes three
+times a day, and who expressed his only ideas to me by virtue of a
+confidential wink.
+
+For three whole days we were a part of the fresh winds, the tossing
+waves, the moon and stars. And as the ship plowed through the sea at
+night, the phosphorescent surge retreated like a line of silver fire.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI.
+
+Among the Pagan Tribes.
+
+
+With Padre Cipriano I had started out on horseback from the little
+trading station on Davao Bay. We were to strike along the east
+coast, in the territory of the fierce Mandayas, and to penetrate some
+distance into the interior in order to convert the pagans with the long
+eyelashes who inhabited this unknown region. It was a clear day when
+we set out on our missionary enterprise, and we could see the black
+peak of Mount Apo, which, according to the legends of the wild Bagobos,
+is the throne of the great King of Devils, and the gate to hell.
+
+We struck a faint trail leading to the foot-hills where the barren
+ridges overlooked the sparkling sea--a vast cerulian expanse without a
+single fleck of a white sail. The trail led through the great fields
+of buffalo-grass, out of which gigantic solitary trees shot up a
+hundred feet into the air. There were no signs of life, only the
+vultures in the topmost branches of the trees. Wild horses, taking
+flight at our approach, stampeded for the forest. Nothing could
+be seen in the tall grass. Even in our saddles it was higher than
+our heads. The trail became more rugged as we entered the big belt
+of forest on the foot-hills. A wild hog bolted for the jungle with
+distressed grunts. It was a world of white vines falling from the lofty
+branches of the trees. The animal life in some of the great trees was
+wonderful. The branches were divided into zones, wherein each class
+of bird or reptile had its habitat. Around the base were galleries of
+white ants. Flying lizards from the gnarled trunk skated through the
+air. Green reptiles crawled along the horizontal branches. Parrakeets,
+a colony of saucy green and red balls, screamed and protested from the
+lower zones. An agile monkey swung from one of the long sweeping vines,
+and scolded at us from another tree. Bats, owls, and crows inhabited
+the upper regions, while the buzzards perched like evil omens in the
+topmost boughs.
+
+Just when our throats were parched from lack of water, we discovered
+a small mountain torrent gushing over the rocks and bowlders of the
+rugged slope. Leaning across one of the large bowlders, from a dark
+pool where the sunlight never penetrated, we scooped up refreshing
+hatfuls of the ice-cold water. Here was the world as God first found
+it, when he said that it was good. It was impressive and mysterious. It
+seemed to wrap us in a mystic spell. What wonder that the pagan tribes
+that roamed through the interior had peopled it with gods and spirits
+of the chase, and that the trees and rivers seemed to them the spirits
+of the good or evil deities? The note of the wood-pigeon sounded on the
+right. The padre smiled as he looked up. "That is a favorable omen,"
+he declared. "In the religion of the river-dwellers, the Bagobos,
+when the wood-dove calls, it is the voice of God. Hark! It is coming
+from the right. It is a favorable sign, and we can go upon our journey
+undisturbed. But had we heard it on the left, it would have been to us
+a warning to turn back. Our journey then would have been unpropitious,
+and we would have been afraid to go on farther."
+
+"Does it not seem like a grand cathedral," said the padre, "this vast
+forest? In the days when Northern Europe was a wilderness and savage
+people hunted in the forests; in the days when the undaunted Norsemen
+braved the stormy ocean in their daring craft,--here, in these woods,
+the petty chiefs and head men held their courts of justice after the
+traditions of their tribes, just as they do to-day. Here they have
+set their traps--the arrows loosened from a bamboo spring--and while
+they waited, they have left the offering of eggs and rice for the good
+deity. Here they have hunted their blood enemies, lying in ambush,
+or digging pitfalls where the sharpened stakes were planted. Tama,
+the god of venery, has lured the deer into their traps; Tumanghob,
+god of harvest, whom they have invited to their feasts, has made the
+corn and the _camotes_ prosper; Mansilitan, the great spirit, has
+descended from the mountain-tops and aided them against their enemies."
+
+We knew that it was growing late by the deep shadows of the
+woods. So, taking our bearings with a pocket compass, we turned
+east in the direction of the coast. There was no trail to follow,
+and we blundered on as best we could. We had now been in the saddle
+for ten hours. The ponies stumbled frequently, for they were almost
+spent. The moon rose, and the hoary mountain loomed up just ahead of
+us. "We seem to be lost," said the padre; "that is a strange peak to
+me." But nevertheless we kept on toward the east. Soon we had passed
+beyond the forest, which appeared behind us a great dusky belt. The
+numerous rocks and crags made progress difficult, almost impossible.
+
+"Look!" said the padre, "do you see that light?" We tethered the
+ponies at a distance, crept up stealthily behind the rocks, and
+reconnoitered. And what we looked on was the strangest sight that ever
+mortal eyes beheld. It was like living again in the Dark Ages--in the
+days before the sages and the sun-myth. It was like turning back the
+leaves of history--back to the legendary, prehistoric times.
+
+A lofty grove encircled a chaotic mass of rock. The clearing
+was illuminated by the flaring torches carried by a dusky band of
+men. Weird shadows leaped and played in the dense foliage, where, high
+above the ground, rude shelters had been made in the thick branches
+of the trees. The form of a woman, flashing with silver trinkets when
+the rays of light fell on her, was descending from a tree by means of
+a long parasitic vine. Around the palm-leaf huts that occupied the
+center of the amphitheater, an altar of bamboo had been erected. We
+could see, in the dim light, rude images of idols standing in front
+of every hut and near the altar.
+
+As our eyes became accustomed to the gloom, we could make out the
+forms of men and women, dressed in brilliant colors and with silver
+bracelets on their arms. In silence we crept closer. The crowd
+was visibly excited. It was evident that something of a solemn
+and extraordinary nature was about to be performed. There were the
+chief assassins, so the padre whispered to me, who were decorated
+savagely, according to the number of victims each had slain. The
+ordinary men wore open vests or jackets and loose pantaloons. The
+women, evidently decked out with a complement of finery in honor of
+the celebration, wore short aprons reaching to the knee. Some wore
+gold collars around their necks and silver-embroidered slippers on
+their feet. Their bare arms sparkled with the coils of silver bands
+and bracelets that encircled them, while silver anklets jingled with
+the movement of their feet. They had red tassels in their hair, and
+earrings made of pieces of carved bone. A number of dancing-girls, as
+they appeared to be, had strings of red and yellow beads or animals'
+teeth fastened around their necks. Their breasts were covered with
+short bodices that fell so as to leave a portion of the waist exposed.
+
+The chief assassins were completely clad in scarlet, indicating
+that the wearer had disposed of more than twenty enemies. The lesser
+assassins wore yellow handkerchiefs around their heads, and some were
+dignified with scarlet vests. A miserable naked slave was pinioned
+where he had been thrown upon the ground near by. Although of the
+inferior race of the Bilanes from Lake Buluan, his eyes flashed as
+he regarded the assembled people scornfully. They were to offer up
+a human sacrifice to Mansilitan, the all-powerful god.
+
+The head men seemed to be engaged in a dispute. A wild hog, also lying
+near the altar, was the object of their serious attention. After they
+had chattered for a while, and having evidently decided on the pig, the
+drums and tambourines struck up a doleful melody, and those assembled
+joined in a solemn chant. The pig was carefully lifted to the altar,
+and the chant grew more intensified. A number of dancing-girls,
+describing mystic circles with their jeweled arms, were trembling
+violently, bending rhythmically, gracefully from side to side. The
+music seemed to hypnotize the people, who kept shuffling with their
+feet monotonously on the ground. The leader of the dance then stuck
+the living pig with a sharp dagger. As the red blood spurted out,
+she caught a mouthful of it, and applying her mouth quickly to the
+wound, she sucked the fluid till she reeled and fell away. Another
+followed her example, and another, till the pig was drained.
+
+It was not difficult to fancy a like orgy with the quivering slave
+upon the altar in the place of the wild hog. The spirit of Mansilitan
+then came down--the spirit was, of course, invisible--and talked with
+the head men about their enemies, the crops, and game. The chiefs were
+chewing cinnamon and betel till their mouths were red. The master of
+ceremonies then brought out enormous quantities of _tuba_, and his
+guests completed the religious ceremony with a wholesale drunk.
+
+Under the cover of the darkness, Padre Cipriano and I slipped away. We
+shuddered at what we had just seen, and were silent. Leading the ponies
+a short distance into the brush, we slept upon the blankets which the
+ponies had completely saturated with their perspiration. All night
+we dreamed of human sacrifices and the warm blood spurting from the
+victim's breast.... They had the padre now upon the altar, and the
+chief had bidden me to take the knife and draw his blood. But the
+great god--a creature with the horns of a bull carabao--descended,
+crying that the enemy was now upon us and the crops had failed. From
+our uneasy sleep the crowing of the jungle-fowl awakened us, and
+for the first time we expressed ourselves in words. "Padre," I said,
+"it's just like being in a book of Du Chaillu's or Rider Haggard's;"
+and the padre smiled.
+
+After the ponies, who were very stiff, were limbered up a bit, we
+traveled on in the direction of the sea. We stopped beside a mountain
+stream to bathe and eat a breakfast of canned sausages. That afternoon
+we rode into a small Mandaya settlement where the head man showed
+Padre Cipriano every courtesy at his command. They listened eagerly to
+Padre Cipriano, who could speak their language well, as he explained
+to them about another Mansilitan, greatest God of all. A number of
+them even consented to be baptized; but I am very much afraid that the
+conversion was at best a transient one. The head man ordered that his
+runners bring into the village of Davao for the padre gifts of game,
+wild hog, deer, and jungle-fowl, and, after the padre had presented
+him with several strings of green and yellow beads--for the Mandayas
+have no use for black beads as their neighbors, the Manobos have--we
+took our departure, guided to the trail by a distinguished warrior.
+
+During our sojourn in the settlement we picked up many curious
+and interesting facts. Like most of the wild tribes of Mindanao,
+that of the Mandayas is athletic and robust. The faces of the men
+are somewhat girlish and effeminate, while the expressions of the
+warriors are unique. Upon their countenances cunning, cruelty, and
+diabolical resource are stamped indelibly. In front of every house
+a wooden idol stands, while inside, on a little table, is a smaller
+image overwhelmed by gifts of fruit and rice, which members of the
+family continually leave upon the shrine. A tiny sack of rice hangs
+from the idol's neck, and betel-nuts for him to chew are placed where
+they are easily accessible. During the preparation of the evening meal,
+one of the family will play upon a native instrument, dancing meanwhile
+around the room, and lifting up his voice in supplication to the deity.
+
+The petty ruler or head man is chosen by a natural process of
+selection. He is invariably one who, by his prowess and intelligence,
+commands the respect and the obedience of all. Assisted by a local
+justice of the peace, a bailiff, and a secretary, he conducts affairs
+according to the old traditions handed down almost from the beginning
+of the world. The families live together, thus preserving clans,
+while blood feuds with the neighboring clans or tribes lead to a
+system of perpetual extermination, which will be continued till the
+tribe becomes extinct. And if the enemy himself can not be killed,
+the nearest relative or friend will satisfy the aggressor's hatred
+just as well. Cannibalism has been practiced in this tribe with fearful
+and disgusting rites. The human sacrifices that they make appease not
+only the great spirit, but the lesser ones, the man and wife, or evil
+spirits, and the father and son, good spirits. When they go to war,
+the lighting men use lances, swords, and bows and arrows. On their
+wooden shields, daubed over with red paint, arranged around the edges
+like a fringe, are tufts of hair--the souvenirs of men whom they have
+killed. Their coats of mail are made of carabao horn cut into small
+plates, or of pieces of rattan.
+
+The only use they have for money is to make it into decorations and
+embellishments for their most valued weapons, anklets and rings and
+collars, which they wear without discrimination. They are a very
+imaginative and a superstitious people. From their infancy they
+are familiar with the dwarfs, the giants, and the witches, which,
+according to the tales of the old women, haunt the woods. A crocodile
+that lives down in the center of the earth causes the earthquakes, and,
+to put a stop to these, the crocodiles must be persuaded by religious
+incantations to go back to bed. A solar eclipse threatens a great
+calamity to them, and they are sure that if they do not frighten away
+the serpent who is trying to devour the sun, their land will never
+see the morning light again. To this end they unite in beating drums
+and making a loud noise with sticks.
+
+They bury their dead in coffins made of hollowed logs. A pot of rice
+and the familiar weapons will be placed within the grave, so that the
+soul will have protection and a food supply for the long journey. And,
+like Jacob, the prospective bridegroom has to serve the parents of the
+bride for five or seven years before the marriage ceremony can take
+place. The marriage-ties are sacred even with this savage race. The
+groom-to-be, making from time to time, gifts of wild hogs, rice,
+and weapons to the parents of the bride-elect, is finally rewarded
+with the bride, and with a dowry as well; perhaps a slave, a bucket
+of _tuba_, or a silver-mounted bolo. The average value of a bride
+is five or six slaves, which the bridegroom pays if he is able. At
+the marriage ceremony the contracting parties generally present each
+other with small cups of rice, to signify that they must now endeavor
+mutually to support each other.
+
+Among other tribes of the interior of Mindanao, in the river basins
+of the Salug and the Agusan, along the east coast, and Davao Bay,
+and on the mountain slopes, are the Manobos, possibly of Indonesian
+origin, kings of the wilderness, inhabiting the river valleys; the
+intrepid Attas, from the slopes of the volcano Apo; the Bagobos,
+with their interesting faces and bright clothes, living to the east
+of Apo; the fierce Dulaganes of the forests, whom the Moros fear;
+Samales, from the island in Davao Bay, strong, bearded people, with
+big hands and feet; Bilanes, from Lake Buluan, a wandering, nomadic
+race; and the Monteses of the north, sun-worshipers and petty traders.
+
+All of these tribes are probably of Indonesian origin, an independent
+origin from that of the Visayans, the Tagalogs, the Negritos, or the
+Moros, but of the same social level with the Malay-Chinese pagans of
+the northern isles.
+
+I used to see the Montese traders in the market-place of Cagayan
+(Misamis), their mobile mouths swimming with betel-juice, with
+rings and bracelets on their toes and arms, the girls with hair
+banged saucily, adorned with bells and tassels, and with bodices
+inadequately covering the breasts; and as they squatted down on
+the woven mats, around the honey or the wax they had for sale, they
+looked like gypsies from Roumania or Hungary. The men wore bright,
+tight-fitting pantaloons and dirty turbans. They resemble the Moros
+somewhat in appearance, and have either intermingled with this tribe
+or else can trace their origin to Borneo. While they are not so wild
+or so exclusive as their fellow-tribes, they quickly resent intrusion
+into their towns or their society.
+
+They carry on a slave trade with their neighbors, stealing or kidnaping
+from the other tribes, and being stolen from in turn. The women of
+some tribes brand their children, filling in the wound with a blue
+dye, that serves as an identification if they happen to be snatched
+away. The various religious ideas of these pagans are intangible and
+indeterminate. The forest seems to be the abiding-place of gods. Some
+tribes will offer feasts to these divinities, either leaving the
+flesh and rice out in the woods to find that it has disappeared next
+morning, or, in many cases, eating it themselves, provided that the
+god, who has been earnestly invited, fails to come. The god of disease
+is also recognized, and natives living on the coast have been known,
+in the time of cholera, to fill canoes with rice and fruit in order
+to appease this deity, and leave the boats to drift out with the tide.
+
+Among the Bagobos, curious traditions and religious rites exist. Every
+Bagobo thinks he has two souls or spirits; one a good one, and the
+other altogether to the bad. To them the summit of Mount Apo is the
+throne of the great Devil King, who watches over the crater with
+his wife. The crater is the entry-way to hell, and no one can ascend
+the mountain if he has not previously offered up a human sacrifice,
+so that the Devil King may have a taste of human flesh and blood,
+and being satiated, will desire no more. Cannibalism has existed in
+these regions more as a religious orgy than a means of sustenance. A
+dish was made consisting of the quivering vitals of the victim,
+mixed with sweet potatoes, rice, or fruit.
+
+Upon the death of any member of the tribe the house in which he lived
+is burned. The body is placed within a hollow tree, and stands for
+several days, while a barbaric feast is held around it. The Samales
+bury their dead upon a coral island, placing them in grottoes, which
+they visit annually with harvest offerings.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII.
+
+A Lost Tribe and the Servants of Mohammed.
+
+
+Wandering, always wandering through the mountains and forests since
+the years began,--destined to wander till the forests fall.
+
+Throughout the archipelago, in the dense mountain woods, sleeping
+in trees or on the ground, straying away in search of game, without
+a fixed place of abode, live the Negritos, aborigines, the pigmy
+vagrants of the Philippines. These little men, molesting no one,
+yet considering the rest of mankind as their enemy, and wishing only
+to be left alone, have hidden in the unexplored interior. Where
+they have come from is a mystery. It might have been that, in the
+ages past, the chain of islands from Luzon to Borneo was a part of
+Asia, an extensive mountain system populated by the tiny men found
+there to-day. If so, then they were driven to the highlands by the
+cataclysm that in prehistoric ages might have broken up the mainland
+into islands, leaving only the summits of the mountains visible.
+
+Or otherwise, might not these wanderers, who have their prototypes
+among the pigmies of dark Africa, or in the dwarfs inhabiting New
+Guinea--might they not have set sail from Caffraria, New Guinea, or
+the country of the Papuans, long years before the Christian era, like
+the "Jumblies," in their frail canoes, perhaps escaping persecution,
+driven by the winds and currents, to land at last on the unpeopled
+shores of Filipinia?
+
+In time came the Malayans of low culture, now the pagan tribes of the
+interior, and a conflict--primitive men fighting with rude weapons,
+clubs, and stones--ensued for the possession of the coast. In that
+event the smaller men were driven back into the territory that they
+occupy to-day. The races intermingled, and a medley of strange,
+mongrel tribes resulted. They have wandered, scattering themselves
+abroad about the islands. Influenced by various environment, each
+tribe adopted different customs and built up from common roots the
+different dialects. These tribes have always been, and always will
+be, mere barbarians and savages. In the pure type of Negritos,
+spindle legs, large turned-in feet, weak bodies, and large heads
+are noticeable. Shifting eyes, flat noses, kinky hair, and teeth
+irregularly set,--these are Negrito characteristics, though they
+frequently occur in the _mestizo_ types. The Igorrotes of Luzon,
+whose ancestors were possibly the aborigines and the worst element of
+the invaders, are to-day the cannibals and the head-hunters of the
+north. In Abra, province of Luzon, the Burics and their neighbors,
+the Busaos, both of a Negrito-Malay origin, use poisoned darts, tattoo
+their bodies, and adorn themselves with copper rings and caps of rattan
+decorated with bright feathers. The Manguianes, of the mountains of
+Mindoro, dress in rattan coils, supplemented with a scanty apron.
+
+These Malayan races were, in their turn, driven back by later Malays,
+who became the nucleus of the Tagalog, Bicol, Ilocano, and Visayan
+races, taking possession of the coast and mouths of rivers, and
+governing themselves, or being governed by hereditary rajas, just
+as when, three centuries ago, Magellan and Legaspi found them. The
+Moros, or Mohammedan invaders, were first heard from when, in 1597,
+Spain first tried to organize them into a dependent government. These
+treacherous pirates, the descendants of the fierce Dyacs of Borneo,
+had begun still earlier to terrorize the southern coasts, raiding the
+villages and carrying off the children into slavery. In 1599 a Moro
+fleet descended on the coast of Negros and Panay, and would, no doubt,
+have occupied this territory permanently had not the arms of Spain
+been there to interfere. Hereafter Spanish galleons were to oppose
+the progress of these pirate fleets, while troops of infantry were to
+defeat the savages on land. The Spaniards early in the seventeenth
+century succeeded in establishing a foothold on the island of Jolo
+and at Zamboanga. It was Father Malchior de Vera who designed the
+fort at Zamboanga, which was destined to become the scene of many an
+attack by Moro warriors, and to be the base of military operations
+against the surrounding tribes. A Jesuit mission was established in the
+sultan's territory after the defeat of the Mohammedans by Corcuera. In
+the interior, around the shores of Lake Lanao, the fighting padre,
+Friar Pedro de San Augustin, backing the cross with Spanish infantry,
+carried the Christian war into the country of the infidels, continuing
+the conflict that for many years had made a battleground of Spain. It
+was in memory of their old enemies, the Moors, that when the Spaniards
+met the infidels in eastern lands, they named them Moros (Moors).
+
+The war between Spain and the Moros was relentless. Time and again the
+pirates had been punished by the Spanish admirals, until, in 1725,
+the sultan sent a Chinese envoy to Manila to negotiate a truce. A
+treaty was ratified, but broken, and again the Sulu Moros learned
+what Spanish hell was like. In spite of this continual warfare the
+Mohammedans grew stronger, and in 1754 the ocean was infested with
+the Moro _vintas_, till another friar, Father Ducos, in a sea-fight
+off the coast of Northern Mindanao, sunk one hundred and fifty of
+their boats and killed three thousand men. Bantilan, the usurper of
+the Sulu throne, was one of the foremost of the mischief-makers who,
+in 1767, sent a pirate fleet as far north as Manila Bay. Although the
+Spaniards had repeatedly won victories in Jolo, Zamboanga, and Davao,
+and by treaties had made all this country vassal to the crown of Spain,
+up to the time of the evacuation of the Philippines, when, as a last
+act, they had sent their own tiny gunboats to the bottom of Lanao,
+they never had become the undisputed masters of the territory.
+
+One of the pleasantest friends I had while I was in the Islands was
+Herr Altman, an orchid collector, who had risked his life a hundred
+times among the savages of the interior in the pursuance of the passion
+of his life. "One afternoon," he said, "when we were in the forests
+of Luzon, my native guides approached me with broad grins. I thought,
+perhaps, they had discovered some new orchid; so I followed them. But
+I was unprepared for what they were about to show me. Since then I have
+had much experience among the wild tribes, but at this time everything
+was new to me. They motioned silence as, with broadening grins, they
+now approached what seemed to be a clearing in the woods. I could not
+think why they should be amused; but they are very easily delighted,
+just like children, and I thought that it would do no harm to humor
+them. Then I was startled by the howling of a dog and a strange sound
+coming through the woods.
+
+Still following my guides, I brought up in a growth of underbrush on a
+small precipice that overlooked an open space among the trees. Looking
+in the direction in which they pointed, I beheld a group of tiny black
+men dancing in a circle around what seemed to be a section of a fallen
+tree. Off to the side, the women, slightly smaller than the men, were
+cooking a wild hog on a spit, over a smoking fire. Their hair was thick
+and woolly and uncombed. Their arms and ankles were adorned with copper
+bracelets. Some of the men wore leather thongs that dangled from their
+legs. There were a few rude shelters in the clearing, merely improvised
+affairs of branches. As the men danced they sent up a song in a high,
+piping voice, and several hungry dogs, who had been watching enviously
+the roasting meat, howled sympathetically and in unison. It finally
+occurred to me that we were the spectators of a funeral ceremony;
+that the section of a tree was nothing less than the rough coffin of
+the dead Negrito. We continued to watch them for a time, while, having
+finished dancing, they began their feast. The only dishes that they
+had were cocoanut-shells, out of which they drank immoderate amounts
+of _tuba_. The funeral ceremony, as I understand it, lasts for several
+days--as long as the supply of meat and _tuba_ lasts. The coffin,
+which appeared to me a hollowed log, is but a section of a certain bark
+sealed up at either end with wax. The burial is made under the house
+in the case of those tribes living near the coast; or in a stockade,
+which protects the body against desecration from the enemy."
+
+It was with feelings such as one might entertain when looking at a
+mermaid or an inhabitant of Mars, that I first saw a genuine Negrito
+in a prison at Manila. The wretched pigmy had been brought in to the
+city from his inaccessible retreat in the great forest; he was dazed
+and frightened at the white men and the things they did. He was a
+miserable little fellow, with distrustful eyes, and twisted legs,
+and pigeon toes. He died after a few days of captivity, during which
+time he had not spoken. A dumb obedience marked his relations with the
+guard. The white man's civilization was as disagreeable and unnatural
+to him as his nomadic life would be to us. A fish could just as well
+live out of water as this pigmy in the white man's land.
+
+A few of the Negritos near the coast, however, have been touched by
+civilizing influences. They inhabit towns of small huts built on poles,
+which they abandon on the death of any one within. The house wherein
+a death occurs is generally burned. They plant a little corn and rice,
+but often move away before the crop is harvested. They are too lazy to
+raise anything; too weak to capture slaves. During the heavy rains,
+when the great woods are saturated, they protect themselves against
+the cold by wrapping blankets around their bodies. At night they
+often share the tree with birds and monkeys, sheltered from rain and
+dampness by the canopy of foliage. They have a head man for their
+villages--sometimes a member of another tribe, who, on account of his
+superior attainments, holds the respect of all. They hunt with bows
+and arrows; weapons which, by means of constant use, they handle with
+dexterity. At night their villages are located through the incessant
+barking of the hungry dogs, which always follow them around. Sleeping
+in huts, in order to prevent mosquitoes from annoying them, they
+often build a fire beneath them, toasting themselves until their
+flesh becomes a crust of scales.
+
+In the south Camarines, and in Negros, they will often come down to
+the coast towns, trading the wax and sweet potatoes of the mountains
+for sufficient rice to last them several days. They sometimes work a
+day or two in the adjacent hemp or rice fields, receiving for their
+labor a small measure of the rice. When they have eaten this, they
+fast until their hunger drives them down to work again. Their marriage
+relations are peculiar. While the father of the family has but one true
+wife, a number of women are dependent on him, widows or relatives who
+have attached themselves to him. The children receive their names from
+rivers, animals, or trees. If they were taken out of their environment
+when very young they might be educated, as experiments have shown that
+the Negrito children have the same impulses of generosity, the same
+attachment to their friends, the same joys, sorrows, and sensations,
+that belong to children everywhere. Only their little souls are lost
+forever in the wilderness.
+
+Neither the pagan tribes nor the Negritos read or write. The Moros,
+too, are very ignorant, only the priests and students being able
+to read passages from the Koran and make the Arabic characters. The
+latest Malay immigrants, who had been influenced by Indian culture,
+introduced a style of writing that is very queer. Three vowels
+were used,--a, e, and u. The consonants were represented by as many
+signs that look a good deal like our shorthand. Although there were
+three characters to represent the vowels when used alone, whenever a
+consonant would be pronounced with "a," only the sign of the consonant
+was used. In order to express a final consonant, or one without the
+vowel, a tiny cross was made below the character. If "e" was wanted,
+a dot would be placed over the letter that expressed the consonant,
+or if the vowel was to be "u," the dot was placed below.
+
+Some rainy day, when you have nothing else to do, you can invent
+some characters to represent our consonants, and with the aid
+of dots and crosses, write a letter to yourself, and see how you
+would get along if you were forced to use that kind of alphabet at
+school. The natives use the Spanish alphabet to-day, which is much
+like our own. Their language, being full of particles, sounds very
+funny when they talk. All you would understand would be perhaps, pag,
+naga, naca, mag, tag, paga; and all this would probably convey but
+little meaning to you. It is a curious fact that while the dialects of
+all the tribes are different, many of the ordinary words are common,
+being slightly changed in the transition. The language is of a Malayan
+origin, but has a number of Sanskrit words as well as Arabic. From
+studying these dialects, comparing the construction of the sentence
+as expressed by different tribes, and by comparing the inflections
+of homogeneous verbs and nouns, one might arrive at the conclusion
+that these tribes and races, differing so strikingly among each other,
+mutually antagonistic, all belong to one great family and have a common
+origin. But that is a question for the anthropologists to settle; one
+that will give even the professors all the trouble that they want,
+and make them wrinkle up their learned foreheads, while among them
+they arrive at widely-varying decisions, which will be as mutually
+exclusive as the tribes themselves.
+
+
+
+It was a rainy day in the dense woods along the Iligan-Marahui
+road. The soft ground oozed beneath the feet, and a continual
+dripping was kept up from the low-hanging, saturated foliage. The Moro
+interpreter, in a red-striped suit and prominent gilt buttons, had come
+into camp with the report that one of the dattos at Malumbung wanted
+the military doctor to come up and treat his child, who was afflicted
+with a fever. The datto had offered protection for the "medico," and,
+as a fee, a bottle of pure gold. The guides and soldiers, who were
+waiting in the forest, would conduct the doctor to Malumbung if he
+cared to go.
+
+"This sounds like a pretty good adventure," said the commanding
+officer to me. "How would you like to go along?" The doctor had
+accepted the offer of the Moros, and he now reiterated the commanding
+officer's invitation. "It's going to be a rather long, stiff hike,"
+he said. "We'll have to sleep to-night out in the woods, and there's
+no telling whether the Moros mean good faith or not. Remember that,
+in case the child should die while I am there, the Moros will believe
+that I have killed it, and will probably make matters more or less
+unpleasant for us both. I operated once upon a fellow over in Tagaloan
+who died under the knife. As soon as the spectators saw that he was
+hardly due to come to life again, they crowded around me with their
+bolos drawn, and if a friend of mine among them had not interfered,
+I would have followed my subject very speedily."
+
+It was arranged that we take with us a small squad of regulars to
+carry the provisions and go armed, "in case there should be any
+game upon the way." As this arrangement seemed to satisfy the Moros,
+though it did not please them much, we started, covering the first
+half mile along the clayey road through driving rain, and turning
+off into the Moro trail around the summit of the hill. The Moros led
+the way with their peculiar lurching stride that covered a surprising
+distance in a very short time. Soon we were in the heart of the vast
+wilderness. We passed by colonies of monkeys, who severely reprimanded
+us from their secure retreat among the tree-tops. One of the soldiers
+killed a python with his Krag--a swollen creature, that could hardly
+be distinguished from the overhanging vines--that measured twenty
+feet from head to tail. The Moros silently unslipped their knives,
+and dextrously removed the skin. We camped that night in shelter tents,
+although the ground was soaked, and a cold breath penetrated the damp
+woods. All night the jungle-fowl and monkeys kept up an incessant
+obligato, and the forest seemed to re-echo with mysterious and far-off
+sounds. At daylight we pushed on, and late in the afternoon arrived
+at the small Moro settlement. The tiny _nipa_ houses, set up on bamboo
+poles, were rather a poor substitute for shelter; but on reaching them
+after our two days in the forest, it was like arriving in a civilized
+community. The doctor went immediately to the datto's house, a large
+one with a steep roof, where he dosed the infant with a little quinine.
+
+There were about five hundred Moros in the village under the datto,
+who ruled absolutely as by hereditary right. While he, of course,
+was feudal to the nearest sultan, in his own community he was a
+lord and prince. Most of the people were his slaves and fighting
+men. His private warriors, or his bodyguard, were armed with krisses,
+_campalans_, and spears, with shields of carabao hide, and coats of
+mail of buffalo-horn, as defensive armor. The favorite weapons of
+the datto were elaborately inlaid with the ivory cut from the tusks
+of the wild boar. His dress was also distinctive, and when new must
+have been very brilliant. It was fastened with pearl buttons, while
+along the outside seams of his tight pantaloons a row of smaller
+buttons ran. A dirty silk handkerchief wound around his head, the
+corner overlapping on the side, made an appropriate and fitting
+headgear. He had several wives, for whom he had paid in all a sum
+amounting to a hundred sacks of rice and twenty cattle. He had lost
+considerably on his speculations, having divorced three wives and
+being unable to secure a rebate on the price that he had paid for them.
+
+As soon as the doctor had completed his attentions to the patient, the
+_pandita_ (priest) appeared, and asked him to account for the strange
+happenings that had occurred in the community. The village was in a
+state of panic, and unless a stop were put to the proceedings soon,
+there was no telling what the end might be. It seemed that during
+the night a number of children had been murdered secretly. Their
+mutilated bodies had been left at morning at the gates of their
+respective dwellings. These murders had been going on for several
+days, and though the houses had been guarded by a man armed with a
+_campilan_ at night, the children would be mysteriously missing in the
+morning. It was evidently, said the priest, the work of devils. A big
+hand had been seen to snatch one of the children from its parent's
+arms; and under the houses of those afflicted could be seen a weird
+fire glowing in the dead of night.
+
+The people claimed the murderer was none else than the big man of the
+woods, whose footprints, like the impressions of a cocoanut-shell, had
+been discovered in the soft ground near the border of the forest. There
+was a crazy prophet living in a tree, and he had seen the wife of
+the big man, half black, half white, wandering near the territory of
+the lake. The prophet had also seen a star fall from the sky, and
+he had followed it to see where it had struck the earth. He found
+there a huge stone, which, as he looked upon it, changed to a wild
+hog. Then the wild hog had vanished, and a flock of birds had risen
+from the ground. In place of the rock, a stone hand now appeared, and
+breaking off a finger of it, the prophet had discovered that, when
+burnt, its fumes had power to put the whole community to sleep. In
+this way had the big man of the woods been able to defy the guards
+and to assassinate the children at his will.
+
+The doctor, thinking that these deeds had been performed by
+somebody impelled by lust--the lust of seeing blood and quivering
+flesh--determined to investigate. Suspicion pointed to the crazy
+prophet, and the guards directed us to his impossible abode. The
+prophet was accused directly of the crime, and, being convinced
+that he was found out by the white man's magic, he confessed. The
+datto sentenced him to be beheaded, and seemed disappointed when
+we would not stay to see this operation. He even offered to turn
+the victim loose among the crowd, and let them strike him down with
+krisses. Had we desired, we could have had the places of honor in
+the line, and used the datto's finest weapons. The people, he said,
+were puzzled at our lack of interest, for the occasion would have
+been a sort of festival for them. But seeing that we were obdurate,
+the datto served our farewell meal--baked jungle-fowl and rice--and,
+after offering to purchase our Krag-Jorgesens at an attractive price,
+he bade us all good-bye.
+
+On the way back, our guides surprised us by their climbing and
+swimming. There was one place where the Agus River had been spanned by
+jointed bamboo poles; while we crossed like funambulists, depending
+for our balance on a slender rail, the Moros leaped into the rushing
+torrent, near the rapids, swimming like rats against the stream,
+and reaching the other side ahead of us. One of the guides went up
+a tall macao-tree, pulling himself up by the long parasitic vines,
+and bracing himself against the tree-trunk with his feet, to get an
+orchid that was growing high among the foliage. Though we expressed
+our admiration at these feats, the guides preserved their customary
+proud demeanor, and refused to be moved by applause.
+
+Their active life in the vast wilderness has given them athletic,
+supple bodies, which they handle to a nicety when fighting. Although
+the Moros build stone forts and mount them with old-fashioned cannon;
+although their arsenals are fairly well supplied with Remingtons and
+Mausers, their warriors generally prefer to fight with bolos. These
+weapons never leave their side. They sleep with them, and they are
+buried with them. Their heavy _campalans_ are fastened to their hands
+by thongs, so that, in case the hand should slip, the warrior would
+not fall without his knife. The Moros in a hand-to-hand fight are
+extremely agile. Holding the shield on the left arm, they flourish the
+bolo with their right, dodging, leaping, and jeering at the antagonist
+in order to disconcert or frighten him.
+
+While their religion and fanaticism render them almost foolhardy in a
+battle, if a Moro sees that he is beaten and that escape is possible,
+he will avail himself of opportunities to fight another day. If brought
+to bay, however, he is desperate, and in his more religious moments
+he will throw himself on a superior enemy, expecting a sure death,
+but confident of riding the white horse to paradise if he succeeds
+in spilling the blood of infidels.
+
+Although distrustful, lazy, and malignant, the Moro is consistent in
+his hatred for the unbeliever, and untiring on the war-path. Scorning
+all manner of work, he leads an active forest life, killing the
+wild pig, which religious scruples prevent his eating, and waging
+war against the neighboring tribes. He is a born slave-catcher and a
+pirate. He will drink sea-water when no other is available. He shows
+a diabolical cunning in the manufacture of his weapons. Nothing can
+be more terrible than the long, snaky blade of a Malay kriss. The
+harpoons, with which he spears the hogs, come apart at a slight
+pull. The point of the spear on catching in the flesh holds fast. The
+handle, however, becoming detached, though held to the barbed point
+by a thong, catches and holds the hog fast in the underbrush. The
+head-ax is a long blade turned at just the proper angle to decapitate
+the victim scientifically.
+
+Ignorant and perfectly indifferent to the observations that their
+creed prescribes, the Moros gather at the rude mosque to the beating
+of a monstrous drum. Seated around upon straw mats, they chatter and
+chew betel-nut while the _pandita_ reads a passage from a manuscript
+copy of the Koran. These copies are guarded sacredly, and only the
+young men who are studying for the priesthood are instructed from
+them. The priests of the first class are able to read and write,
+and it is better to have made the pilgrimage to Mecca. The birth of
+Mohammed is celebrated by a feast at harvest-time. Another occasion
+for a feast is given by the marriage ceremony. Bridegrooms are
+encouraged to provide these banquets by the administration of a
+beating if delinquent, or in case the food provided fails to meet
+the expectations of the guests. On the completion of this function,
+the bridegroom bathes his feet; then chewing _buya_, seated on a mat
+beside the bride, his hand and hers are covered by a napkin while the
+priest goes through the proper gestures and recites a verse from the
+Koran. The wedding celebration then degenerates into a drunken dance.
+
+The bodies of the dead are wrapped in a white shroud, and buried in a
+crescent trench, together with enough meat, fruit, and water to sustain
+the spirit on its trip to paradise. The priest, before departing,
+eats a meal of buffalo-meat or other game above the grave. The grave
+is then turned over to a guard of soldiers, who remain there for a
+few days, or as long as they are paid.
+
+Though the Americans have tried to deal in good faith with these
+fanatics, little has been accomplished either in the way of civilizing
+them or pacifying them. The Moro schools at Jolo and at Zamboanga
+have been failures. Teachers of manual training have been introduced
+to no avail. The Moro could be no more treacherous if his ancestors
+had sprung from tigers' wombs. A Moro boy, employed for years by one
+of my American acquaintances at Iligan, rewarded his master recently
+by cutting his throat at night. As superstitious as he is fanatic and
+uncivilized, the Moro is a failure as a member of the human race. Even
+the children are the incarnation of the fiend. There was that boy
+at Iligan who worked at the officer's club, and who hung over the
+roulette-wheel like a perfect devil, crowing with demoniac glee when
+he was lucky. These are our latest citizens--this batch of serpents'
+eggs hatched out in human form; and those who have seen the Moro in
+his native home will tell you that, whatever his latent possibilities
+may be, he can not yet be dealt with as a man.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII.
+
+In a Visayan Village.
+
+
+The fountain on the corner, where the brown, barefooted girls with
+bamboo water-tubes would gather at the noon hour and at supper-time,
+was shaded in the heat of the day by a mimosa-tree. The _Calle de la
+Paz y Buen Viaje_ (Street of Peace and a Good Journey), flanked by
+sentinel-like bonga-trees and hedged in by a bamboo fence, stretches
+away through the banana-groves toward the fantastic mountains. A
+puffing carabao comes down the long street, dragging the heavy stalks
+of newly-cut bamboo. The pig that has been rooting in the grass,
+looks up, and, seeing what is coming, bolts with staccato grunts
+unceremoniously through the bamboo fence.
+
+In the little drygoods-store across the street, Felicidad, the
+dusky-eyed proprietress, has gone to sleep while waiting for a
+customer. She has discarded her _chinelas_ and her _piña_ yoke. Her
+brown arms resting on the table pillow her unconscious head. Her
+listless fingers clasp a half-smoked cigarette.
+
+The stock of _La Aurora_ is a comprehensive one, including printed
+cotton goods from China, red and green belts with nickel fastenings,
+uncomfortable-looking Spanish shoes, a bottle of quinine sulphate
+tablets, an assortment of perfumery and jewelry, rosaries and
+crucifixes, towels and handkerchiefs, and dainty _piña_ fabrics. The
+arrival of the _Americano_ is the signal for the neighbors and the
+neighbors' children, having nothing in particular to do, to flock
+around. The Filipino curiosity again!
+
+On the next corner, where the wooden Atlas braces up the balcony,
+the _Chino_ store is sheltered from the sun by curtains of alternate
+blue and white. Here _Chino_ Santiago, in his cool pajamas, audits
+the accounts with the assistance of the wooden counting frame, while
+_Chino_ José, his partner, with his paintbrush stuck behind his ear, is
+following the ledger with his long, curved finger-nail. Both _Chinos_,
+being Catholics, have taken native wives, material considerations
+having influenced the choice; but _Maestro_ Pepin says that,
+nevertheless, they are unpopular because they work too hard and cause
+the fluctuations in the prices. By pursuing a consistent system of
+abstractions from the rice-bags, by an innocent adulteration of the
+_tinto_ wine, these two _comerciantes_ have acquired considerable
+wealth.
+
+The bland proprietor will greet you with a smile, and offer you the
+customary cigarette. And if the prices quoted are unsatisfactory,
+they are at least elastic and are easily adjusted for a personal
+friend. Along the shelf the opium-scented line of drygoods is
+available, while portraits of the saints and _Neustra Señorita del
+Rosario_, whose conical skirt conceals the little children of the
+Church, hang from the wall. Suspended from the ceiling are innumerable
+hanging lamps with green tin shades. A line of fancy handkerchiefs,
+with Dewey's portrait and the Stars and Stripes embroidered in
+the corners, is displayed on wires stretched overhead across the
+store. Bolo blades, chocolate-boilers, rice-pots, water-jars, and crazy
+looking-glasses are disposed around, while in the glass case almost
+anything from a bone collar-button to a musical clock is likely to be
+found. Santiago would be glad to have you open an account here and,
+unlike the Filipino, he will never trouble you about your bill.
+
+The market street is lined with _nipa_ booths, where _señoritas_ play
+at keeping shop, presiding over the army of unattractive articles
+exposed for sale. Upon a rack the cans of salmon are drawn up in a
+battalion, a detachment of ex-whisky bottles filled with kerosene
+or _tanduay_, bringing up the rear. Certain stock articles may be
+invariably found at these _tiendas_,--boxes of matches, balls of
+cotton thread, bananas, _buya_, eggs and cigarettes, and the inevitable
+brimming glass of _tuba_, stained a dark-red color from the frequent
+applications of the betel-chewing mouth.
+
+Although the stream of commerce flows in a small way where the
+almighty _'suca duco_ is the medium of exchange, gossip is circulated
+freely; for without the telegraph or telephone, news travels fast in
+Filipinia. The withered hag, her scanty raiment scarcely covering her
+bony limbs, squatting upon the counter in the midst of _guinimos_,
+bananas, and dried fish, and spitting a red pool of betel-juice,
+will chatter the day long with the _señora_ in the booth across the
+street. The purchaser should not feel delicate at seeing her bare
+feet in contact with the spiced bread that he means to buy, nor at
+the swarms of flies around the reeking mound of _guinimos_ scraped
+up in dirty wooden bowls, and left in the direct rays of the sun.
+
+Dogs, pigs, chickens, and children tumble in the dust. Dejected
+Filipino ponies, tethered to the shacks, are waiting for their masters
+to exhaust the _tuba_ market. Down the lane a panting carabao, with a
+whole family clinging to its back, is slowly coming into town. Another,
+covered with the dust of travel, laden with bananas, hemp, and _copra_
+from a distant _barrio_, is being driven by a fellow in a _nipa_ hat,
+straddling the heavy load. A mountain girl, bareheaded, carrying a
+parasol, comes loping in to the _mercado_ on a skinny pony saddled
+with a red, upholstered _silla_, with a rattan back and foot-rest,
+cinched with twisted hemp.
+
+At night the market-place is lighted up by tiny rush lights, burning
+cocoanut-oil or _petrolia_. Here, on a pleasant evening, to the
+lazy strumming of guitars, the village population promenades, young
+men in white holding each other's hands, and blowing out a cloud of
+cigarette smoke; _señoritas_, in their cheap red dresses, shuffling
+hopelessly along the road. One of the local characters is entertaining
+a street-corner audience with a droll song, while the town-crier,
+with his escort of municipal police, announces by the beating of a
+drum that a _bandilla_ from the _presidente_ is about to be pronounced.
+
+Here you will find the Filipino in his natural and most playful mood,
+as easily delighted as a child. A crowd was always gathered round
+the _tuba_ depot at the head of the _mercado_, where the agile
+climbers brought the beverage in wooden buckets from the tops of
+_copra_-trees. A comical old fellow, Pedro Pocpotoc (a name derived
+from chicken language), used to live here, and on moonlight nights,
+planting his fat feet on the window-sill, like a droll caricature
+of Nero, he would sing Visayan songs to the accompaniment of a cheap
+violin. A talkative old baker lived a short way down the street with
+his three daughters. They were always busy pounding rice in wooden
+mortars with long poles, thus making rice-flour, which they baked
+in clean banana-leaves and sweetened with brown sugar molded in the
+shells of cocoanuts.
+
+Sometimes a Moro boat would drop into the bay, and the strange-looking
+savages in their tight-fitting, gaudy clothes would file through town
+with spices, bark, and cloth for sale. From Bohol came the curious
+thatched _bancas_, with their grass sails and bamboo outriggers, with
+cargoes of pottery, woven hats, _bohoka_, and rattan. On the _fiesta_
+days, Subanos from the mountains brought in strips of dried tobacco,
+ready to be rolled up into long cigars, _camotes_, coffee-berries,
+chocolate, and eggs, and squatted at the entrance to the cockpit in
+an improvised _mercado_ with the people from the shore, who offered
+clams and _guinimos_ for sale.
+
+And once a month the town would be awakened by the siren whistle
+of the little hemp-boat from Cebu. This whistle was the signal
+for the small boys to extract the reluctant carabao from the cool,
+sticky wallow, and yoke him to the creaking bamboo cart. Then from
+the storehouses the fragrant _picos_ of hemp would be piled on,
+and the longsuffering beast of burden, aided and abetted by a rope
+run through his nose, would haul the load down to the beach. While
+naked laborers were toiling with the cargo, carrying it upon their
+shoulders through the surf, the Spanish captain and the mate, with
+rakishly-tilted Tam o'Shanter caps, would light their cigarettes,
+stroll over to Ramon's warehouse where the hemp was being weighed,
+and, seated on sour-smelling sacks of _copra_, chat with old Ramon,
+partaking later of a dinner of _balenciona_, chicken and red-peppers,
+cheese and guava.
+
+Much of the village life centers around the river. Here in the early
+morning come the girls and women wrapped in robes of red and yellow
+stripes, and with their hair unbound. In family parties the whole
+village takes a morning bath, the young men poising their athletic
+bodies on an overhanging bank and plunging down into the cool depths
+below, the children splashing in the shallow water, and the women
+breast-deep in the stream, washing their long hair.
+
+Here also, during the morning hours, the women take their
+washing. Tying the _chemise_ below the arms, they squat down near the
+shore and beat the wet mass with a wooden paddle on a rock. Meanwhile
+the children build extensive palaces of pebbles on the bank; the
+carabaos, up to their noses in the river, dream in the refreshing
+shade of overhanging trees. The air is vocal with the liquid notes
+of birds, and fragrant with the heavy scent of flowers. A leaf-green
+lizard creeps down on a horizontal trunk. The broad leaves of _abacá_
+rustle in the breeze; the graceful stalks of bamboo crackle like
+tin tubes. Around the bend the water ripples at the ford. At evening
+you will see the tired men from the mountains, bending under heavy
+loads of hemp, wade through the shallows to the cavern shelter of the
+banyan-tree. Through the dense mango-grove comes the faint sound of
+bells. The _puk-puk_ bird hoots from the jungle, and the black crows
+settle in the lofty trees.
+
+The covered bridge that spans the river near the mouth is a great
+thoroughfare. Neither the arch nor pier is used in its construction;
+it is anchored to the shore by cables. It is not a very rigid bridge,
+and sways considerably when one is crossing it. Even the surefooted
+ponies step a little gingerly over the loose beams that form the
+floor. A curious procession is continually passing,--families moving
+their worldly goods on carabaos, the dogs and children following;
+_hombres_ on ponies, grasping the stirrups with their toes; a
+padre with his gown caught up above his knees, riding away to some
+confession; mountain people traveling in single file, and girls with
+trays of merchandise upon their heads.
+
+Down where the _nipa_ jungle thickens, fishing _bancas_ are drawn
+up on the shore; and near by in a cocoanut-grove the old boatmaker
+lives. The hull of the outlandish boat that he is carving is a solid
+log. When finished, with its black paint, _nipa_ gunwale, bamboo
+outriggers, and rat-lines made of parasitic vines, it will put out
+from port with a big gamecock as a mascot, rowed with clumsy paddles
+to the rhythm of a drum, its helpless grass sails flopping while the
+sailors whistle for the wind. These boats, although they can not tack,
+have one advantage--they can never sink. They carry bamboo poles for
+poling over coral bottoms. In a fair breeze they attain considerable
+speed; but there is danger in a heavy sea of swamping. When drawn up
+on shore they look like big mosquitoes, as the body in proportion to
+the rigging seems quite insignificant.
+
+The little fishing village is composed of leaning shacks blown out
+of plumb by heavy winds. Along the beach on bamboo racks the nets are
+hanging out to dry. At night the little fleet puts out for Punta Gorda,
+where a ruined watch-tower--a protection against Moro pirates--stands
+half hidden among creeping vines. The nets are floated upon husks
+of cocoanut, and set in the wild light of burning rushes. While the
+men are working in the tossing sea, or venturing almost beyond sight
+of land, the women, lighting torches, wade out to the coral reef and
+seine for smaller fish among the rocks. Early the following morning,
+while the sea is gray, the fishermen will toss their catch upon the
+sand. The devil-fish are the most popular at the impromptu market,
+where the prices vary according to the run of luck.
+
+The town was laid out by the Spaniards in the days when Padre Pedro
+was the autocrat and representative of Spanish law. The ruins of
+the former mission and the public gardens are now overgrown with
+grass. Sea-breezes sweep the rambling convent with its double walls,
+tiled courtyard, and its Spanish well. The new church, never to be
+finished, but with pompous front, illustrates the relaxing power
+of Rome. Goats, carabaos, and ponies graze on the neglected plaza
+shaded with widespreading camphor-trees. The two school buildings
+bearing the forgotten Spanish arms are on the road to ruin and decay;
+no signs of life in the disreputable _municipio_; the _presidente_
+probably is deep in his _siesta_, and the solitary guard of the
+_carcel_ is busily engaged in conversation with the single prisoner.
+
+The only remains of Spanish grandeur in the village are the two
+ramshackle coaches that are used for hearses at state funerals. Most
+of the larger houses are, however, in repair, although the canvas
+ceilings and the board partitions seem to be in need of paint. These
+houses occupy the center of the town. They are of frame construction,
+painted blue and white. The floors are made of rosewood and mahogany;
+the windows fitted with translucent shell. Storehouses occupy the
+first floor, while the living rooms are reached by a broad flight
+of stairs. A bridge connects the dining-room with the kitchen,
+where the greasy cook, often a Moro slave, works at a smoky fire of
+cocoanut-husks on an earth bottom, situated in an annex to the rear.
+
+A walk through the main street leads past a row of native houses, built
+on poles and shaded by banana-trees. You are continually stepping over
+mats spread out and covered with pounded corn, while pigs and chickens
+are shooed off by the excitation of a piece of _nipa_, fastened to a
+string and operated from an upper window of the house. A small _tienda_
+opens from each house, with frequently no more than a few betel-nuts
+on sale. The front is decorated with the faded strips of cloth or
+paper lamps left over from the last _fiesta_, while the skeleton of
+a lamented monkey fixed above the door acts as a charm to keep away
+bad luck. A parrakeet swings in the window on a bamboo perch, and
+in another window hangs an orchid growing from the dried husk of a
+cocoanut. Under the house the loom is situated, where the women weave
+fine cloth from _piña_ and banana fibers--and the wooden mortar used
+for pounding rice. After the harvest season it is one of the Visayan
+customs to inaugurate rice-pounding bees. Relays of young men, stripped
+for work, surround the mortar, and, to the accompaniment of guitars,
+deliver blows in quick succession and with gradually increasing speed,
+according to the measure of the music.
+
+In the cool shade of the _ylang-ylang_ tree a native barber is
+intent upon his customer. The customer sits on his haunches while
+the operation is performed. When it is finished, all the hair above
+the ears and neck will be shaved close, while that in front will be
+as long as ever. The beard will not need shaving, as the Filipino
+chin at best is hardly more aculeated than a strawberry. The hair,
+however, even of the smallest boys grows for some distance down the
+cheeks. The Filipino, when he does shave, takes it very seriously,
+and attacks the bristles individually rather than collectively.
+
+You will not remain long in a Filipino town without the chance of
+witnessing a native funeral. A service of the first class costs
+about three hundred _pesos_; but for twenty _pesos_ Padre Pedro will
+conduct a funeral of less magnificence. The padre, going to the house
+of mourning where the band, the singers, and the candle-bearers are
+assembled, engineers the pageant to the church. The dim interior
+will be illuminated by flickering candles burned in memory of the
+departed soul. Before the altar solemn mass is held, intensified by
+the deep tolling of a bell. Led by three acolytes in red and white,
+with silver crosses, the procession moves on to the cemetery on
+the outskirts of the town. The padre sheltered by a white umbrella,
+reads the Latin prayers aloud. A small boy swings the smoking censer,
+and the singers undertake a melancholy dirge. The withered body, with
+the hands crossed on the breast, clothed all in black, is borne aloft
+upon a bamboo litter, mounted with a black box painted with the skull
+and bones, and decked with candles. Women in black veils with candles
+follow, mumbling prayers, the words of which they do not understand.
+
+The cemetery is surrounded by a coral wall, commanded by a gate that
+bears a Latin epigram. The graves, as indicated by the mounds of
+dirt, are never very deep, and while a few are guarded by a wooden
+cross, forlornly decorated by a withered bunch of flowers, most of
+the graves receive no care at all. There may be one or two vaults
+overgrown with grass and in a bad state of repair. Around the big
+cross in the center is a ghastly heap of human bones and grinning
+skulls--grinning because somebody else now occupies their former
+grisly beds, the rent on which has long ago expired.
+
+To the Visayan mind, death is a matter of bad luck. It is advisable
+to hinder it with _anting-antings_ and medallions; but when it comes,
+the Filipino fatalist will take it philosophically. To the boys and
+girls a family death is the sensation of the year. It means to them
+nine days of celebration, when old women gather at the house, and,
+beating on the floor with hands and feet, put up a hopeless wail,
+while dogs without howl dismally and sympathetically. And at the
+end of the nine days, the soul then being out of purgatory, they
+will have a feast. A pig and a goat will be killed, not to speak of
+chickens--and the meat will be served up with calabash and rice; and
+visitors will come and look on while the people eat at the first table;
+and the second table and the third are finished, and the viands still
+hold out. But these are placed upon the table down below, where _hoi
+polloi_ and the lame, blind, and halt sit down and eat. And back of
+all this superficiality lies the great superstitious dread by means
+of which the Church of Rome holds such authority.
+
+I got to know the little village very well--to join the people in their
+foolish celebrations and their wedding feasts. I was among them when
+the town was swept by cholera; when, in their ignorance, they built
+a dozen little shrines--just _nipa_ shelters for the Holy Virgin,
+decorated with red cloth and colored grass--and held processions
+carrying the wooden saints and burning candles.
+
+Then the locusts came, and settled on the rice-fields--a great cloud
+of them, with whirring wings. They rattled on the _nipa_ roofs like
+rain. The children took tin pans and drums and gave the enemy a noisy
+welcome. But the rains fell in the night, and the next morning all
+the ground was strewn with locusts trying heavily to fly. The ancient
+drum of the town-crier ushered in the day of work, and those who took
+this opportunity to pay their taxes gathered at the _municipio_--about
+a hundred ugly-looking men. They were equipped with working bolos,
+with their blades as sharp as scythes for cutting grass, and, looking
+at them, you were forcibly reminded of another day, another army
+with a similar accouterment. Even the _presidente_ went barefooted
+as he gave directions for the work. Some were dispatched for _nipa_
+and bamboo, while others mowed the grass around the church. Another
+squad hauled heavy timbers, singing as they pulled in unison.
+
+On Sunday mornings a young carabao was killed. The meat hacked off with
+little reference to anatomy was hung up in the public stall among the
+swarms of flies. Old women came and handled every piece, and haggled
+a good deal about the price. Each finally selected one, and swinging
+it from a short piece of cane, carried it home in triumph. Morning
+mass was held at the big _simbahan_, where the doleful music of the
+band suggested lost souls wailing on the borders of Cocytus or the
+Stygian creek. Young _caballeros_ dressed in white, the _concijales_
+with their silver-headed canes and baggy trousers, and the "_taos_"
+in diaphanous and flimsy shirts that they had not yet learned to tuck
+inside, stood by to watch the _señoritas_ on their way to church. The
+girls walked rather stiffly in their tight shoes; but as soon as mass
+was over, shoes and stockings came off, and the villagers relaxed
+into the bliss of informality.
+
+I learned, when I last went to _La Aurora_, that Felicidad was going
+to be married; that the banns had been announced last Sunday in
+the church. The groom to be, Benito,--or Bonito as we called him on
+account of his good looks,--had recently returned from college in Cebu,
+bringing a string of fighting cocks, a _fonografo_, and a piebald
+racing pony. "When he sent me the white ribbon," said Felicidad,
+"I was surprised, but mamma said that I was old enough to marry him--I
+was fourteen--and that the matter had been all arranged. And so I wore
+the ribbon in my hair, and also wrote my name _Felicidad_ beneath his
+on the card that he had sent. And after that, when we went walking,
+the _dueña_ was unnecessary."
+
+She confessed naïvely to a serenade under her balcony, of which I
+seem to have retained a hazy memory. And so the usual pig and goat
+were roasted, and the neighbors' boys came in to help. The bride, with
+orange-blossoms in her hair, the daintiest kid slippers on her feet,
+and dressed in a white mist of _piña_, rode away in the new pony cart,
+the only one in town. The groom was dressed in baggy trousers, with
+a pink shirt and an azure tie. Most of the presents came from _Chino_
+Santiago's store; but the best one was a beautiful piano from Cebu.
+
+After the service in the church, a feast was held upstairs in the
+bride's house. Ramon, the justice of the peace, the padre, _Maestro_
+Pepin, all the _concijales_, and the _presidente_ were invited, and
+the groom owned up that he had spent his last cent on the refreshments
+that were passed around. It is the custom in the poorer families for
+the prospective groom to bond himself out for a certain length of
+time to the bride's father, or even to purchase her with articles of
+merchandise. A combination of commercial interests was the result,
+however, of the marriage of Bonito and Felicidad.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX.
+
+The "Brownies" of the Philippines.
+
+
+How would you like it, not to have a Fourth of July celebration,
+or a Christmas stocking, or a turkey on Thanksgiving-day? The
+little children of the Philippines would be afraid of one of our
+firecrackers--they would think it was another kind of "boom-boom"
+that killed men. A life-sized turkey in the Philippines would
+be a curiosity, the chickens and the horses and the people are
+so small. The little boys and girls do not wear stockings, even
+around Christmas-time, and Santa Claus would look in vain for any
+chimneys over there. The candy, if the ants did not get at it first,
+would melt and run down to the toes and heels of Christmas stockings
+long before the little claimants were awake. Of course, they do not
+have plum-puddings, pumpkin-pies, and apples. All the season round,
+bananas take the place of apples, cherries, strawberries, and peaches;
+and boiled rice is the only kind of pumpkin-pie they have.
+
+The fathers and mothers of the little Brownie boys and girls are very
+ignorant. Most of them can not even write their names, and if you
+asked them when the family birthdays came they would have to go and
+ask the padre. Once, when I was living at the convent, a girl-mother,
+who had walked in from a town ten miles away, came up to register
+the birth of a new baby in the padre's book. She stood before the
+priest embarrassed, digging her brown toes into a big crack in the
+floor. "At what time was the baby born?" was asked. "I do not know,"
+she answered, "but it was about the time the chickens were awake."
+
+It is a lucky baby that can get goat's milk to drink. Their mothers,
+living for the most part on dried fish and rice, are never strong
+enough to give them a good start in life. It is a common sight to see
+the tiny litter decorated with bright bits of paper and a half-dozen
+lighted candles, with its little, waxen image of a child, waiting
+without the church door till the padre comes to say the funeral
+services.
+
+In that far-distant country but a small number of children ever
+have worn pretty clothes--only a tiny shirt; and they are perfectly
+contented, as the weather never gets uncomfortably cold. Their mothers
+or their older sisters carry them by placing them astride the hip,
+where they must cling tight with their little, fat, bare legs. They
+are soon old enough to run around and play; not on the grass among
+the trees, but in the dust out in the street. Their houses, built of
+_nipa_ and bamboo, do not set back on a green lawn, but stand as near
+to the hot, dusty street as possible. To get inside the houses, which
+are built on posts, the babies have to scramble up a bamboo ladder,
+where they might fall off and break their necks. At this age they have
+learned to stuff themselves with rice until their little bodies look
+as though they were about to burst. A stick of sugar-cane will taste
+as good to them as our best peppermint or lemon candy. All the boys
+learn to ride as soon as they learn how to walk. Saddles and bridles
+are unnecessary, as they ride bareback, and guide the wiry Filipino
+ponies with a halter made of rope. The carabao is a great friend
+of Filipino boys and girls. He lets them pull themselves up by his
+tail, and ride him into town--as many as can make room on his back,
+allowing them to guide him by a rope run through his nose.
+
+I do not think that many of the children can remember ever having
+learned to swim. The mothers, when they take their washing to the
+river, do not leave the little ones behind; and you can see their
+glistening brown bodies almost any morning at the riverside among the
+_nipa_, the young mothers beating clothes upon a rock, the carabaos
+up to their noses in the water, chewing their cuds and dreaming happy
+dreams. The boys can swim and dive like water-rats, and often remain
+in the river all day long.
+
+The girls, when about five years old look very bright. Their hair is
+trimmed only in front (a good deal like a pony's), and their laughing
+eyes are very brown and mischievous. Most of them only wear a single
+ornament for a dress--a "Mother Hubbard" of cheap cotton print which
+they can buy for two _pesetas_ at the _Chino_ store. The boys all
+wear long trousers, and, at church or school, white linen coats,
+with military collars, which they call "_Americanas_," The girls
+do not wear hats. They save their "Dutchy" little bonnets, with the
+red and yellow paper flowers, for the _fiesta_ days. They wear white
+veils on Sundays when they go to mass. The boys' hats often have long
+brims like those that we wear on the farm. They also have felt Tam
+o'Shanter caps, which they affect with quite a rakish tilt.
+
+Playthings are scarce in Filipinia. The boys and girls would be
+delighted with a cheap toy cart or drum. The dolls are made of cotton
+cloth, with painted cheeks, and beads for eyes, dressed up in scraps of
+colored _piña_ cloth in imitation of fine _señoritas_. Kite-time and
+the peg-top season come as in America. The Filipino kites are built
+like butterflies or birds, and sometimes carry a long beak which is
+of use in case of war. Kite-fighting is a favorite amusement in the
+islands, where the native boys are expert in the art of making and
+manipulating kites. Among the other games they play is one that an
+American would recognize as "tip-cat," and another which would be more
+difficult to recognize as football. This is played with a light ball
+or woven framework of rattan. The ball is batted from one player to
+another by the heel. The national pet is neither dog nor cat; it is
+a chicken and the grown-up people think almost as much of this unique
+pet as the children do.
+
+Music comes natural to the Filipinos. Their instruments are violins,
+guitars, and flutes. The boys make flutes of young bamboo-stalks
+which are very accurate, and give out a peculiar mellow tone.
+
+_Fiesta_-days and Sundays are the great events in Filipinia. On Sunday
+morning the young girls, in their white veils and clean dresses, go
+to mass, and, making the sign of the cross before the church, kneel
+down upon the bare tiles while the service is performed. The church
+to them is the magnificent abode of saints and angels. The wax images
+and altar paintings are the only things they have in art except the
+cheap prints of the saints and Virgin, which they hang conspicuously
+in their homes. _Pascua_, or Christmas week, is a great holiday, but
+it is very different from the Christmas that we know. The children
+going to the convent school are taught to sing the Spanish Christmas
+carols, and on Christmas eve they go outdoors and sing them on the
+streets in the bright starlight. Their voices, although untrained,
+are very delicate and sweet. The native music, which they often sing,
+like all the music of the southern isles, is very melancholy, often
+rising to a hopeless wail. On the last day of school the padre will
+distribute raisins, nuts, and figs, which are the only Christmas
+presents that the boys and girls receive. At the parochial schools
+they are taught to do their studying aloud, and always to commit the
+text to memory. If memory should fail them in a crisis, they would
+be extremely liable to have their ears pulled by the priest, or to be
+made to kneel upon the floor with outstretched arms, thus making the
+recitation somewhat of a tragedy; but there are also prizes for the
+meritorious. One book includes the whole curriculum--religion, table
+manners, grammar, "numbers," and geography--arranged in catechisms of
+convenient length. The boys are separated from the girls in school
+and church, and I have very seldom seen them play together in their
+homes. During the long vacation they must spend most of their time at
+work out in the rice-fields under the hot sun. So they would rather
+go to school than have vacation.
+
+With the new schools and the American schoolteachers a great
+opportunity has come to the young people of the Philippines. New
+books with beautiful illustrations have been introduced, new songs,
+and a new way of studying. It would amuse you if you were to hear
+them read. "I do not see the pretty bird" they would pronounce,
+"Ee doa noat say day freety brud." The roll-call also sounds a
+good deal different from that in our own schools, where we have our
+Williams, Johns, and Henrys; but the Filipino names are very pretty
+(mostly names of Spanish saints), Juan, Mariano, Maximo, Benito, and
+Torribio for boys; Carnation, Bernarda, and Adela for the girls. The
+boys especially are very bright, and they are learning rapidly,
+not only grammar and arithmetic, but how to play baseball and tag
+and other games that make the child-life of America so pleasant.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X.
+
+Christmas in Filipinia.
+
+
+While you are in a land of starlight, frost, and sleighbells, here the
+cool wind brushes through the palms and the blue sea sparkles in the
+sun. "In every Christian kind of place" it is the time of Christmas
+bells and Christmas masses. Even at the Aloran convent--about the
+last outpost of civilization (only a little way beyond live the wild
+mountain folk--sun-worshipers and the Mohammedans) the padre has
+prepared a treat of nuts and raisins for the boys and girls--somewhat
+of a Christmas cheer even so far across the sea. They have been
+practicing their Christmas songs, Ave Maria and the "Oratorio," which
+they will sing around the streets on Christmas eve. The schoolboys have
+received their presents--dictionaries, sugared crackers, and perfumed
+soap--and now that their vacation has begun, their little brown heads
+can be seen bobbing up and down in the blue sea. Their Christmas-tree
+will be the royal palm; and _nipa_ boughs their mistletoe.
+
+Last Christmas in the provinces I spent in Iloilo at a hostel kept
+by a barefooted Spanish landlady, slovenly in a loose morning-gown
+and with disheveled hair, who stored the eggs in her own bedroom and
+presided over the untidy staff of house-boys. As she usually slept
+late, we breakfasted without eggs, being limited to chocolate and
+cakes. The only option was a glass of lukewarm coffee thinned to
+rather sickening proportions with condensed milk. Dinner, however,
+was a more elaborate affair, consisting of a dozen courses, which
+began with soup and ended with bananas or the customary cheese and
+guava. The several meat and chicken courses, the "_balenciona_"--boiled
+rice mixed with chicken giblets and red peppers--and the bread, baked
+hard and eaten without butter, was washed down with a generous glass
+of _tinto_ wine. A pile of rather moist plates stood in front of you,
+and as you finished one course an untidy thumb removed the topmost
+plate, thus gradually diminishing the pile.
+
+The dining-room was very interesting. A pretentious mirror in a
+tarnished gilt frame was the _piece de resistance_. The faded chromos
+of the royal family, the Saints, and the Enfanta were relieved by the
+brilliant lithographs presenting brewers' advertisements. A majestic
+chandelier, considerably fly-specked, but elaborately ornamented
+with glass prisms, dropped from the frescoed ceiling, and a cabinet
+containing miscellaneous seashells, family photographs, and starfish
+occupied one corner of the room.
+
+There was a Christmas eve reception at the home of the "Dramatic
+Club," where the refreshments of cigars and anisette and bock beer
+were distributed with liberal hand. The Filipino always does things
+lavishly. The evening was devoted to band concerts--the municipal
+band in the pavilion rendering the Mexican waltzes, "Over the Waves,"
+"The Dove," and other favorites, while the "upper ten" paraded in
+the moonlight under the mimosa-trees--serenades under the Spanish
+balconies, and carol-singing to the strumming of guitars. The houses
+were illumined with square tissue paper lanterns of soft colors. The
+public market was a fairyland of light. The girls at the tobacco booths
+offered a special cigarette tied with blue ribbon as a souvenir of the
+December holidays. A mass at midnight was conducted in the venerable
+church. As the big bronze bells up in the belfry tolled the hour the
+auditorium was filled with worshipers--women in flapping slippers and
+black veils; girls smelling of cheap perfumery and cocoanut-oil, in
+their stiff gauze dresses with the butterfly sleeves; barefooted boys
+and young men redolent of cigarettes and musk. A burst of music from
+the organ in the loft commenced the services, which were concluded
+with the passing of the Host and a selection by the band. The priest
+on this occasion wore his gold-embroidered chasuble; the acolytes,
+red surplices and lace.
+
+The streets next morning--Christmas-day--were thronged with
+merry-makers. Strangers from the mountain tribes, wild, hungry-looking
+creatures, had strayed into town, not only for the excitement of the
+cockpit, but to do their trading and receive their share of alms,
+which are distributed by all good Catholics at this season of the year.
+
+Here on the corner was a great wag in an ass's head, accomplishing a
+clumsy dance for the amusement of the crowd. Around the cockpit chaos
+was the order of the day. The eager fighting-cocks, in expectation
+of the combat, straining at their tethers, published to the world
+their lusty challenges. The "talent," with delicious thrills, were
+hefting favorite champions, and hastening' to register their wagers
+with the bank.
+
+The cock-fights lasted the entire week; at the end of that time the
+erratic "wheel of fortune" had involved in ruin many an enthusiast
+who had unfortunately played too heavily the losing bird.
+
+A strolling troop of actors came to visit us that night. They carried
+their own scenery and wardrobe with them, and the children who were
+to present the comedy were dressed already for the first act. As they
+filed in, followed by a mob of ragamuffins who had seen the show a
+dozen times or more without apparent diminution of enjoyment, the
+stage manager arranged the scenery and green-room, which consisted
+of a folding screen. The orchestra, with bamboo flutes, guitars,
+and mandolins, took places on a bench, where they began the overture,
+beating the measure with bare feet and with as much delight as though
+they were about to witness the performance for the first time. The
+proprietor informed us that the entertainment was to be a comedy of
+old Toledo. It was somewhat of a Cyrano de Bergerac affair; one of
+the principals, concealed behind the "leading man," using his own
+arms for gestures, sang his representative love for the señorita
+in the Spanish dancer's costume. The castanet dance was repeatedly
+encored, especially by those familiar with the program, who desired
+that we appreciate it to its full extent. The actors in this dance
+were dressed as Spanish buccaneers are popularly supposed to dress,
+in purple breeches buttoned at the knee, red sashes, and gold lace....
+
+Last night at our own church three paper lanterns, shaped like stars
+and representing the "three wise men," at the climax of the mass were
+worked on wires so that they floated overhead along the auditorium,
+and finally came to rest above the altar, which had been transformed
+into a manger, the more realistic on account of the pigs, ducks,
+and chickens manufactured out of paper that had been disposed around.
+
+To-day three men in red are traveling from house to house with candles
+followed by an attendant with a bell, ringing away the evil spirits
+for a year. The councilmen in snowy blouses and blue pantaloons, with
+their official canes, are making their official calls, and Padre Pedro
+in his pony cart has been around to visit his parishioners. The band,
+equipped with brand new uniforms and instruments, is playing underneath
+the convent balcony. Their duties during the festivities are strenuous;
+for they must serenade the residence of every magnate in the town,
+receiving contributions of _pesetas_, cigarettes, and gin.
+
+This afternoon we made our round of calls, for every family keeps
+open house. A number of matinée balls were in session, where the
+natives danced "clack-clack" around the floor to the monotonous drone
+of home-made instruments. Our friends all wished us a "_Ma-ayon
+Pascua_" or "_Feliz Pascua_," for which "Merry Christmas" they
+expected some remembrance of the day. Our efforts were rewarded
+by innumerable gifts of cigarettes and many offers of _tanduay_
+and gin. At one place we experimented with a piece of "_bud-bud_,"
+which is (as its name implies) a sweet-meat made of rice paste mixed
+with sugar. The hams with sugar frosting, and the cakes flavored with
+native limes, and cut in the shape of the "Ensanguined Heart," were
+more acceptable. At one house we received a cake made in the image of
+a lamb, with sugar ringlets representing fleece. At our departure,
+"many thanks, sir, for the visit," and a final attempt to get rid
+of another cigarette. It is in bad taste to refuse. A Filipino host
+would feel offended at your not accepting what he offered. He would
+feel as though discrimination were implied.
+
+At night after the cock-fight one droll fellow brought around
+a miniature marionette theater, of which he was the proud
+proprietor. While his assistant blew a bamboo flute behind the scenes,
+the puppets danced fandangoes and played football in a very lifelike
+manner. Seated on an empty cracker-box in front, surrounded by the
+ragged picaninnies, sat Dolores, with her sparkling eyes, lips parted,
+and her black hair hanging loose,--oblivious to everything except
+the marionettes.
+
+The star attraction was preceded by applause. The number was
+announced by those familiar with the exhibition as a "Moro combat,"
+and as the assistant struck a harrowing obligato on an old oil-can,
+the Moros appeared with fighting _campalons_ and barbarous-looking
+shields. The crowd expressed its approbation in wild howls. The first
+two rounds were rather tame. "Afraid! Afraid!" exclaimed the crowd,
+but presently the combatants began to warm up to their work and to
+make frantic lunges at each other at the vital spot. This was the
+time of breathless and instinctive pressing forward from the back
+rows. Somebody cried out, "_Cebu!_" or "Down in front!" and then again,
+"_Patai!_" which means "dead." One of the warriors at this cue flopped
+supine on the stage, and the suppressed excitement broke. The victor,
+not content with mere manslaughter, plied his sword so energetically
+as quickly to reduce his victim to a state of hash. At this point
+his Satanic majesty, the curtain manager, saw fit to intervene, and
+with a long spear he successfully probed the limp remains, completing
+the assassination. I had not known until then what a young barbarian
+Dolores was.
+
+The last attraction of our Christmas week was a genuine Mystery play,
+the Virgin Mary being represented by a girl in soiled white stockings
+and a confirmation dress. The Christ Child was a Spanish doll in a
+glass case. There were the three wise men--one in a long beard and a
+pink mask, and the others in gold braid and knickerbockers--more like
+dandies than philosophers. "Joseph" was splendid, with a shepherd's
+crook and a sombrero. Adoration before the manger was the theme that
+was developed in a series of ballets danced by the children to a
+tambourine and castanet accompaniment. At the conclusion of the play,
+the little actors in their starry costumes, Joseph and the Virgin
+(carrying the Babe), the three philosophers, and the musicians and
+the army of admiring followers, filed out into the moonlight, and
+as the sweet music of the "Shepherds' Song" diminished gradually,
+they disappeared within a shadowy grove of palms.
+
+
+
+
+A Christmas Feast.
+
+
+When Señor Pedro gave his Christmas feast, he went about it in
+the orthodox way. That is, he began at midnight Christmas eve. The
+Christmas pig we were to have had, however, disappointed us--and
+thereby hangs a tale.
+
+Came Señor Pedro early in the morning of the twenty-fourth, and "In
+the mountains," Señor Pedro said, "runs a fat pig." _Usa ca babui
+uga dacu!_ A regular feast of a pig running at large near the macao
+woods on the slope beyond Mercario's hemp-fields!
+
+Nothing would do but that I buckle on my Colt's--a weapon that I
+had done much destruction with among the lesser anthropoids in the
+vicinity. Then we set out radiantly for the hills, with Señor Pedro
+leading and a municipal policeman with us to take home the pig. We soon
+arrived at the pig's stamping grounds. We had not long to wait. There
+was a snapping of the underbrush, and "Mr. Babui" appeared upon the
+scene. His great plank side and sagging belly was as fair a mark as
+any sportsman could have wished. His greedy little eyes were fixed
+upon the ground where he was rooting for his Christmas dinner.
+
+Bang! The bullet from the army Colt's sped true. Our pig, flat on
+his back, was squealing desperately, and his feet were pawing the air
+as last as though he had been run by clockwork and had been suddenly
+released from contact with the ground. Then the municipal policeman
+went to pick him up. But lo, a miracle! Our Christmas pig, inspired by
+supersusine terror on the approach of the dire representative of law,
+regained his legs, and before we could recover from our astonishment,
+had scudded away with an expiring squeak like that emitted from a
+musical balloon on its collapse. We never found the pig. He was just
+mean enough to die in privacy.
+
+But there was to be some compensation. What, though our Christmas
+dinner had escaped? I managed to bring down a monkey that for some
+time had been chattering and scolding at us from a tree, and with this
+substitute--a delicacy rare to native palates--marched triumphantly
+back to the town.
+
+Exactly at midnight the _señores_ took their seats around the
+board. The orchestra was stationed in an elevated alcove in the next
+room. On the benches sat the women, from the dainty Juliana in her
+pink cotton hosiery and white kid slippers to the old witch Paola,
+the town scold. We knives or forks. Heaping platefuls of rice were
+served with the stewed meat--cut in small pieces that "just fit the
+hand," and cooked with vegetables. At my request the monkey had been
+roasted whole. "All la same bata" (baby) cried my host, and sure,
+I never felt more like a cannibal in all my life. I shuddered later
+when, the ladies at the table, Juliana gnawed the thigh-bone of the
+little beast with relish.
+
+Señor Pedro kept the orchestra supplied with gin, with the result
+that what they lacked in accuracy they made up for in enthusiasm. In
+the dim room, lighted only by the smoky "kinkes," we could see the
+hungry eyes of those awaiting the third table--the retainers and the
+poor relations. On the boards below was spread a banquet of rice and
+_tuba_ for the multitude.
+
+The party broke up with a dance, and as the pointers of the Southern
+Cross faded from the pale sky, the happy merrymakers filed off to their
+beds. They had so little in this far-off corner of the world, and yet
+they were content. Had not the stars looked down upon them through the
+tropic night? Had not the blue sea broken in phosphorescent ridges
+at their feet? And didn't they have the Holy Virgin on the walls to
+smile a blessing on their little scene of revelry? O, it was Christmas
+over all the world! And on this day at least the white man and the
+"little brown brother" could shake hands over mutual interests.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI.
+
+In a Visayan Home.
+
+
+The shutters of the house across the street were closed. Under the
+balcony, near where the road was strewn with scarlet blossoms from
+the fire-tree, carpenters were hammering and sawing busily. Shaped
+by the antiquated bandsaw and the bolos, a rude coffin gradually
+assumed its grim proportions. A group of schoolboys, drawn by
+curiosity, looked on indifferently while keeping up a desultory game
+of tag. Upstairs, the women, dressed in the black veils of mourning,
+shuffling noiselessly around, were burning candles at the "Queen of
+Heaven's" shrine. They murmured prayers mechanically--not without a
+certain reverence and awe--to usher the departing soul into the land
+beyond. A smoky wall-lamp, glimmering near the door, illuminated the
+black crucifix above the bed. In the dim candle-light vague shadows
+danced on the white walls.
+
+The priest had heard the last confession of José Pilar. Not that
+José had been one of the padre's friends. In fact, he was suspected
+during the past year of having been a secret agent of Aglipay, the
+self-consecrated Bishop of Manila, and the target of the accusation
+and invective that the Church of Rome is so proficient in. The recent
+rulings of the order had abolished the confession fee; but the long
+road was uncertain and the dangers great. The padre rubbed his hands
+as he went out. He had received a "voluntary" contribution for his
+services, with the assurance that a series of masses would be ordered
+by the widow of José Pilar. Through the stiff palms, the cold sea,
+gray as steel, washed the far-distant shores of lonely islands,
+and the red glow of the setting sun had died away.
+
+The padre thought about the plump goats and the chickens in the new
+stockade. The simple people brought their chickens to the convent,
+denying themselves all but the fish and rice. The mothers weaned
+their puny brats on rice; they stuffed them with it till their swollen
+paunches made a grotesque contrast with their skinny legs. Childbirth
+is one of the minor incidents of Filipinia. Where is the house that
+doesn't swarm with babies, like the celebrated residence of the old
+woman in the shoe? When one of these sparrows falls, the little song
+that dies is never missed.
+
+How many times had Father Cipriano climbed the rickety ladder to the
+_nipa_ dwellings, entering the closed room where the patient lay
+upon the floor! A gaping crowd of yokels stood around, while the
+old woman faithfully kneaded the abdomen. The native medicaster,
+having placed the green leaves on the patient's temples, would be
+brewing a concoction of emollient simples. The open shirt disclosed
+upon the patient's breast the amulet which had been blessed by Padre
+Cipriano, and was stamped with a small figure of a saint. The holy
+father smiled as he reflected how they spent their last cent for the
+funeral ceremonies, while the doctor's fee would be about a dozen
+eggs. And even now that death had come to one not quite so ignorant
+and simple as the rest, the funeral celebrations would be but the more
+elaborate. Not every one who could afford a coffin in Malingasag! And
+as the padre crossed the _plaza_ he lighted a cigarette.
+
+It was with feelings of annoyance that he saw before the side door
+of the church a tiny litter cheaply decorated with bright paper and
+red cloth. The yellow candles threw a fitful light over the little
+image on the bier. It was the image of a child, a thing of wax,
+clothed in a white dress, with a tinsel crown upon its head. One
+of the sacristans was drumming a tattoo upon the bells. The padre
+motioned him to discontinue. He would have his gin-and-water first,
+and then devotions, lasting twenty minutes. After devotions he could
+easily dispose of the small child. So the two humble women waited in
+patience at the door, and the cheap candles sputtered and went out
+before the good priest could find time to hurry through the unimportant
+funeral services that meant to him only a dollar or two at best in
+the depreciated silver currency. Already night was overshadowing the
+palm-groves as the pathetic little group filed out and trudged across
+the rice-pads toward the cemetery.
+
+The Filipinos regard the American doctors with suspicion. When a
+snakebite can be cured by a burnt piece of carabao horn, or when the
+leaves or bits of paper stuck upon the temple will relieve the fever
+or the dysentery, what is the use of drugs and medicines and things
+that people do not understand? Once, out of the kindness of his heart,
+an army doctor that I knew, prescribed a valuable ointment for a child
+afflicted by a running sore. The child was in a terrible condition,
+as the sore had eaten away the flesh and bone, leaving a large hole
+under the lower lip through which the roots of the teeth were all
+exposed. The parents had not washed the child for weeks. They actually
+believed that bathing was injurious when one was sick. The doctor,
+giving them directions how to use the medicine, asked them, as an
+experiment, what fee he might expect. He knew well that if the priest
+had asked this question, they would eagerly have offered everything
+they had. So he was not surprised when they replied that they were very
+poor, and that they did not think the service was worth anything. The
+doctor turned them away good naturedly, but they returned the next
+day with the medicine, reporting that undoubtedly it was no good,
+because, forsooth, the child had cried when they applied it! As a
+peace-offering they brought a dozen miserable bananas.
+
+Slinging a tablet around his neck, a "valuable remedy against the
+pest," the Filipino thinks that he is reasonably secure against
+disease, and that if he becomes afflicted, it is the result of some
+transgression against heaven. I happened to receive a startling proof,
+however, of its efficacy when the padre's house-boy, rather a bright
+young fellow, made me a present of his "remedy" and died the next
+day of cholera. Still I have seen the "_anting-anting_," which is
+supposed to render the wearer bullet-proof, pierced with the balls of
+the Krag-Jorgensen and stained with blood. Although the Visayans show
+considerable sympathy toward one when he is sick, the native dentist
+cutting out the tooth with a dull knife, we would consider almost too
+barbarous to practice in America. The Igorrotes have a way of driving
+out the fever with a slow fire; but between this Spartan method and
+Visayan ignorance the choice is difficult. No wonder that the people
+drop off with surprising suddenness. Your laundryman or baker fails to
+come around some morning, and you ask one of your neighbors where he
+is. The neighbor, shifting his wad of _buya_ to the other cheek, will
+gradually wake up and answer something ending in "_ambut_." "_Ambut_"
+is a convenient word for the Visayan, as it means "don't know," and
+even if he is informed, the Filipino often is too lazy or indifferent
+to explain. You finally discover some one more accommodating who
+replies: "Why, haven't you heard? He died the other day."
+
+Sulkiness, one of the characteristics of the girls and boys, develops
+into surliness in men and billingsgate in women. And I have no doubt
+that little Diega, the sulkiest and prettiest of the Visayan beauties,
+in a few years will be gambling at the cock-fights, smoking cigars,
+and losing her money every Sunday afternoon at Mariana's _monte_
+game. Vulgarity with them goes down as wit, and the Visayan women make
+a fine art of profanity. It is always the woman in a family quarrel
+who is most in evidence. And even the delicate Adela when the infant
+Richard fell downstairs the other day, cried, "Mother of God!" which
+she considered to be more appropriate than "_Jesus_, _Marie_, _Josep_!"
+
+On entering one of the common houses, you would be astonished at the
+pitiable lack of furnishings. The floor is made of slats of split
+bamboo, tied down with strips of cane. The walls are simply the dried
+_nipa_ branches, fastened down with bamboo laths. The only pictures on
+the walls are the cheap prints of saints, the "Lady of the Rosary," or
+illustrations clipped together with the reading matter from some stray
+American magazine. The picture of a certain popular shoe manufacturer
+is sometimes given the place of honor near the crucifix. If any attempt
+at decoration has been made, the lack of taste of the Visayans is at
+once apparent. For the ancient fly-specked chromo of the "Prospect
+of Madrid" is as artistic in their eyes as though the advertisement
+of a certain cracker factory did not adorn the margin. The undressed
+pillars that support the house, run through the floor. The _nipa_
+shutters that protect the windows are propped open, making heavy
+awnings, and permitting a free circulation of the breeze. There are
+no ceilings in these houses, and the entire framework of the roof is
+visible. A cheap red curtain, trimmed with lace, is draped before the
+entrance to the sleeping-room. While in the better frame-constructed
+residences an old Spanish tester bed with a cane bottom may be seen in
+this apartment, here only the straw mats and the cotton bolsters are to
+be found. A basket hanging from a bamboo spring serves as a cradle for
+the baby, but it is a pretty lucky baby that indulges in this luxury,
+as most of the children, spreading the mats upon the floor at night,
+pillow their heads upon the bolsters, ten in a row, and go to sleep. A
+marble-topped table and a few chairs, formally arranged as though in
+preparation for a conclave, are the features of the larger homes; but
+generally the furniture consists of a long bench, a wooden table, and
+a camphorwood box, which contains the family treasures, and the key to
+which the woman of the house wears in her belt--a symbol of authority.
+
+On climbing the outside stairway to the living-rooms you find your
+passage blocked by a small fence. In trying to step over this you
+nearly crush a naked baby, and a yellow dog snaps venomously at
+your heels. You enter the main room, where the pony-saddle and the
+hemp-scales may be stored. The Filipinos are great visitors, and you
+will find a ring of old men squatting upon the benches like so many
+hens, chewing the betel-nut and nursing their enormous feet. Some
+fellow in the corner, with a chin like a sea-urchin, strums a tune
+monotonously on an old guitar. Your host arises, offers you a glass of
+gin and a cigar or cigarette, and asks you to "_lincoot dinhi_." So,
+at his invitation, you sit down, and are expected to begin the
+conversation. Such conversation is enlightening and runs somewhat
+like this:
+
+"Yes, thank you, I am very well; Yes, we are all well. Everything is
+well.... The beer of the Americans is very good.... Whisky is very
+strong.... The Filipino whisky is not good for anything.... It is very
+dull here. It is not our custom to have pretty girls.... What is your
+salary? All the Americans are very rich. We are all very poor.... The
+horses in America are very large. Why?... If the people want me,
+I will be elected mayor. But let them decide.... After a while will
+you not let me have some medicine? The wife has beri-beri very bad."
+
+The family arises with the chickens. For the Filipino boy no
+chores are waiting to be done. The ponies and the dogs are never
+fed. Nobody seems to care much for the animals. With the exception
+of the fighting-cock, chickens, dogs, pigs, and carabaos are left to
+forage for themselves. The pigs and dogs are public scavengers, and
+the poor curs that howl the night long, till you wish that they were
+only allowed to bay the moon in daytime, stalk the barren shores or
+rice-pads in the hope of preying upon carrion. A Filipino dog, though
+pinched and starved, has not the courage even to catch a young kid
+by the ear, and much less to say "boo" to a goose. It is surprising
+how the ponies, feeding upon the coarse grass, ever become as wiry
+as they do. Evidently, to the Filipino, animals do not have feelings;
+for they often ride their ponies furiously, though the creature's back
+may be a running sore. In using wooden saddles they forget to place a
+pad beneath them, and the saddle thus becomes an instrument of torture.
+
+After the morning bath in the cool river, a cup of chocolate or a
+little bowl of rice will serve for breakfast. Then the women attend
+morning mass and kneel for half an hour on the hard tiles. It is still
+early in the day, and the fantastic mountains, with their wonderful
+lights and shadows, are just throwing off the veil of mist. Now,
+in the clear light, the huge, swelling bosom of the hills, the
+densely-timbered slopes beyond, stand out distinctly, like a picture
+in a stereoscope. The heavy forests, crowded with gigantic trees,
+seem like a mound of bushes thickly bunched. Off to the left rises
+a barren ridge, that might have been the spine of some old reptile
+of the mezozoic age; and in the center a Plutonic ampitheater--the
+council-chamber of the gods--is swept by shadows from the passing
+clouds, or glorified for a brief moment by a flood of light.
+
+The boys are then sent out to catch one of the ponies for their father,
+who is going to inspect his hemp plantation on the foot-hills. His
+progress will at first be rather slow; for he is a great chatterbox,
+and if he finds some crony along the road, he will dismount and drink
+a glass of _tuba_ with him, or dicker with him over an exchange of
+fighting cocks. The birds are then brought out, and the two men squat
+down, with the birds in hand, and set them pecking at each other to
+display their fine points. But the string of _hombres_, with their
+bolos slung about their waists, making for the mountains, reminds the
+planter that he must be getting on. His fields are let out to these
+fellows, who will pay him a proportion of the hemp which they can
+strip. Although the process of preparing hemp is primitive and slow,
+the green stalk being stripped by an iron comb, the laboring man
+can prepare enough in one day to supply his family with "_sow sow_"
+for an entire week. If he would work with any regularity, especially
+in the wild hemp-fields, he would soon be "independent," and could
+buy the hemp from others, which could be sold at a profit to the
+occasional hemp-boats that come into port. The only capital required
+is one or two bull-carts and carabaos, a storehouse, and sufficient
+rice or money to secure his first invoice of hemp. The men who carry
+it in from the mountains, either on their own backs or on carabaos,
+sell it for cash or its equivalent in rice at the first store.
+
+On Saturdays, the boys go to the mountains to buy eggs. Their first
+stop is the _hacienda_ on the outskirts of the town--a large, cool
+_nipa_ house, with broad verandas, situated in a grove of palms. Around
+the veranda are the nests of woven baskets where the chickens are
+encouraged to lay eggs. Sucking a juicy mango, they proceed upon their
+journey through a field of sugar-cane. They stop perhaps at the rude
+mill where the brown sugar is prepared and molded in the shells of
+cocoanuts. They quench their thirst here with a stick of sugar-cane,
+and, peeling the sweet stalk with their teeth, they disappear beyond
+the hill. Now they have reached a wonderful country, where the monkeys
+and the parrots chatter in the trees. They can set traps for little
+parrots with a net of fine thread fastened to the branches. Only
+a little further on is a small mountain _barrio_, where naked,
+lazy men lie in the sun all day, and the women weave bright-colored
+blankets on their looms. Returning with their handkerchiefs tied
+full of eggs, the boys reach home about sundown. The thought of
+being late to supper never worries them; the Filipino is notoriously
+unpunctual at meals. The boys will cook their own rice, and spread
+out the sleeping-mat wherever the sunset finds them. One shelter is
+as good as another, and they just as often sleep away from home as
+in their own beds. Their parents never worry about the children, for
+they know that, like Bo-peep's sheep, they will come back some time,
+and it doesn't make much difference when.
+
+Early in April the rice-fields are flooded by the irrigation ditches
+that the river or the mountain streams have filled with water. A plow
+made of the notch of a tree is used to break the soil. A carabao
+is used for this work, as it is impossible to mire him even in the
+deepest mud. The boys and girls, together with the men and women,
+wearing enormous sun-hats--in the crown of which there is a place for
+cigarettes and matches--and with bared legs, work in the steaming
+fields throughout the planting season. As the rice grows taller,
+the crows are frightened away by strings of flags manipulated from
+a station in the center of the paddy. Scarecrows are built whenever
+there are any clothes to spare; but as the Filipino even utilizes
+rags, the scarecrow often has to go in shocking _négligée_. After the
+harvest season, when the entire village reaps the rice with bolos,
+the dry field is given over to the ponies, and the carabaos, and the
+white storks, who never desert their burly friend, the carabao, but
+often are seen perching on his back. The work of husking and pounding
+the crop then occupies the village.
+
+If you should be invited in to dinner by a Filipino family, you would
+expect to eat boiled rice and chicken. They would place a cuspidor on
+one side of your chair to catch the chicken bones, which you would
+spit out from your mouth. The food would be cooked in dishes placed
+on stones over an open fire. The cook and the _muchachos_ never wash
+their hands. They wash the dishes only by pouring some cold water on
+them and letting them dry gradually. The cook will rinse the glasses
+with his hand. How would you like to eat a chicken boiled with its
+pin-feathers on, or find a colony of red ants in your soup? The
+poorer families seldom go through the formality of serving meals. As
+soon as the rice and _guinimos_ are cooked, the children and their
+parents squat around the bowl and help themselves, holding a lump of
+salt in one hand, and using the other for a fork or spoon. The women
+do what little marketing needs to be done, and though the Filipino
+acts in most things lavishly, the women can drive close bargains,
+and will scold like ale-wives if they find the measure short even by
+so much as a single _guinimo_.
+
+The _guinimo_ is probably the smallest creature with a vertebra known
+to the world of science--a small fish--and it strikes one as amusing
+when the people count them out so jealously. But all their marketing
+is done on retail lines. Potatoes, eggs, and fruit sell for so much
+apiece. A single fish will be chopped up so as to go around among the
+customers, while the measures used in selling rice and salt are so
+small that you can not take them seriously. The transaction reminds
+you of your childhood days when you were playing "keep store" with
+a nickel's worth of candy on the ironing-board.
+
+At Easter-time, or during the celebration of the "Santa Cruz,"
+an enterprising family will get up a singing bee. Perhaps a wheezy
+organ will be brought to light, and the musician then officiates
+behind the instrument. His bare feet work the pedals vigorously,
+and his body sways in rhythm with the strains. As the performance
+is continuous, arriving or departing guests do not disturb the
+ceremony. There seems to be a special song for this occasion, the
+words of which must be repeated over and over as the music falls
+and rises in a dismal wail. Refreshments of Holland gin and _tuba_
+keep the party going until long after midnight.
+
+As you walk down the long dusty street at evening, you will be half
+suffocated by the smoke and the rank odor of the burning cocoanut-husks
+over which the supper is being cooked. Then you remember how the
+broiling beefsteak used to smell "back home," and even dream about
+grandmother's kitchen on a baking day. And as you pass by the poor
+_nipa_ shacks, you hear the murmur of the evening prayer pronounced
+by those within. It is a prayer from those who have but little and
+desire no more.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII.
+
+Leaves from a Note-book.
+
+
+
+I.
+
+Skim Organizes the Constabulary.
+
+
+The soldiers had gone, bag and baggage, dog, parrot, and monkey,
+blanket-roll and cook. I stood by the deserted convent under
+the lime-tree, watching the little transport disappear beyond
+the promontory. The house that formerly had been headquarters
+seemed abandoned. There was the list of calls still pasted on the
+door. Reveille, guard-mount, mess-call, taps,--the village would
+seem strange without these bugle-notes. The sturdy sentry who had
+paced his beat was gone. When would I ever see again my old friend
+the ex-circus clown, and hear him tinkle the "potato-bug" and sing
+"Ma Filipino Babe?" Walking along the lonely shore, now lashed by
+breakers, I looked out on the blue wilderness beyond. It was with
+feelings such as Robinson Crusoe must have had that I went back then
+to the empty house.
+
+Ramon, convinced that something would break loose, now that the troops
+were gone, had left for Cagayan. His wife, Maria, slept at night
+with a big bolo underneath her pillow. There was a "bad" town only a
+few miles away--a village settled by Tagalog convicts, who had been
+conspicuous in the revolt a few years previous. The people feared
+these neighbors, the assassins, and they double-barred their doors
+at night. I was awakened as the clock struck twelve by unfamiliar
+noises,--nothing but the lizard croaking in the bonga-tree. Again,
+at one, I started up. It was the rats, and from the rattling sound
+above I judged that the house-snake was pursuing them. At early
+morning came the chorus of the chanticleers. Through the transparent
+Japanese blinds I could see the huge green mountains shouldering the
+overhanging clouds. Ah! the mysterious, silent mountains, with their
+wonderful, deep shadows! The work of man seemed insignificant beside
+them, and Balingasag the lonesomest place in all the world.
+
+One morning the sharp whistle of the launch aroused the
+town. Proceeding to the shore, I saw a boat put out from the
+_Victoria_, sculled by a native deck-hand. As the sun had not
+yet risen, all the sea was gray, and sea and sky blended into one
+vast planetary sphere. Two natives carrying the ample form of the
+constabulary captain staggered through the surf. Behind them came the
+captain's life-long partner and lieutenant, a slight man, with cold,
+steely eyes, dressed in gray crash uniform, with riding leggings. They
+had been through one campaign together as rough riders; for the captain
+had once been "sheriff of Gallup County," in the great Southwest.
+
+The house no longer seemed deserted with this company, and as they
+had brought supplies for two months--which included bread!--we made
+an early attack upon these commissaries. Since the troops had left
+I had been existing on canned salmon and sardines. Now there were
+cheese, guava, artichokes, mushrooms, ham, bacon, blackberry-jam,
+and fruits. The captain, natural detective that he was, caught one of
+the _muchachos_ stealing a bottle of cherries, which he had thrown out
+the window during the unpacking, with the purpose of securing it next
+day. On being accused, he made a vigorous protest of his innocence,
+but after a few minutes he returned triumphantly with the intelligence
+that he had "found" that which was lost.
+
+A heavy rain and the tail-end of a monsoon kept my two guests
+prisoners for a week. The _presidente_ of the town had issued
+a _bandilla_ that all able-bodied men were wanted to enlist in
+the constabulary. Accordingly came awkward natives to the house,
+where the interpreter examined them; for all the Spanish that the
+genial captain knew--and he had lived already two years in the
+Philippines--was "bueno," "malo," "saca este," and "sabe that?" The
+candidates were measured, and, if not found wanting, were turned
+over to the native tailor to be fitted with new uniforms. Some of
+the applicants confessed that they had once been Insurrectos; but
+so much the better,--they knew how to fight. They said that they
+were not afraid of Moros--though I think that they would rather
+have encountered tigers--and when finally dressed, a few days later,
+they appeared upon the streets self-conscious, objects of adoration
+in the eyes of all the local belles.
+
+The time came when the mists dissolved upon the mountains, and
+the little clouds scudded along overhead as though to get in from
+the rain. The sun had struggled out for a few minutes, and the wind
+abated. But the sea had not forgotten recent injuries, and all night we
+could hear the booming of the surf. The launch, drowned in a nebula
+of spray, dashed by, and sought an anchorage in safer waters. So
+it was decided that we go to Cagayan in a big _banca_. But it was a
+most unwieldly craft to launch. We got the arms and ammunition safe
+aboard, and then, assisted by the sturdy corporals and miscellaneous
+natives, we pushed out. A rushing comber swept the boat and nearly
+swamped it. But we bore up till about a hundred yards from shore,
+when a gigantic breaker bearing down upon the _banca_--which had
+been deflected so as to present a broadside--filled her completely,
+and she went down in the swirling spume. Up to our necks in surf,
+we labored for an hour, together with the population of the fishing
+village, finally to save the wretched boat and most of the constabulary
+ordnance.
+
+But, alas for the lieutenant! He had lost one of his riding-leggings,
+and for half a day he paced the shore in search of it. He offered
+rewards to any native who should rescue it. Lacking a saving sense
+of humor, he bemoaned his fate, and when he did give up the search,
+he discontinued it reluctantly. And two years afterwards, when I
+next met him, he inquired if I had seen his legging washed up on the
+beach. "Some native must be sporting around in it," he said. "It set
+me back five dollars, Mex."
+
+
+
+It was a sleepy day at Cagayan. The tropical river flowed in silence
+through the jungle like a serpent. In _Capitan_ A-Bey's house opposite,
+a _señorita_ droned the _Stepanie Gavotte_ on the piano. _Capitan_
+A-Bey's pigs rooted industriously in the compound. The teacher who
+had hiked in from El Salvador, unconscious that his canvas leggings
+were transposed, was engaged in a deep game of solitaire.
+
+Upon the settee in the new constabulary residence, his long legs
+doubled up ridiculously, still in khaki breeches and blue flannel
+army shirt, lay "Skim," with a week's growth of beard upon his face,
+sleeping after a night-ride over country roads. After an hour or two
+of rest he would again be in the saddle for two days.
+
+Late in the afternoon we started on constabulary ponies for
+Balingasag--a ride of thirty miles through quagmires, over swollen
+streams and mountain trails. Our ponies were the unaccepted present
+from a quack who thus had tried to buy his way out of the calaboose,
+where he was "doing time" for trying to pass himself off as a prophet.
+
+The first few miles of the journey led through the cloistered archways
+of bamboo. We crossed the Kauffman River, swimming the horses down
+stream. Then the muddy roads began. The constant rains had long
+ago reduced them to a state of paste, and although some attempt had
+been made to stiffen them with a filling of dried cocoanut-husks,
+the sucking sound made by the ponies' hoofs was but a prelude to
+our final floundering in the mud. There was a narrow ridge on one
+side near a thorny hedge, and, balancing ourselves on this, we
+made slow progress, meanwhile tearing our clothes to shreds. Skim
+had considerable difficulty with his long legs, for he could have
+touched the ground on either side, but he could use them to advantage,
+when it came to wading through the slosh ourselves, and dragging the
+tired ponies after us. At night we "came to anchor" in a village,
+where we purchased a canned dinner in a Spanish store. The natives
+gathered around us as we sat, all splashed with mud, on wicker chairs
+in front of the provincial _almacen_. Skim talked with the Spaniard,
+alternating every word with "_estie_," while the Don kept swallowing
+his eyes and gesturing appropriately. Skim was convinced that his
+Castilian was fine art.
+
+We slept in a deserted schoolhouse, lizards and mosquitoes being our
+bed-fellows. Skim, the rough cowboy that he was, pillowed his head
+upon the horse's flank, and kept his boots on. At the break of day,
+restless as ever, he was off again. Crossing the Jimenez River in a
+native ferry while the horses swam, we passed through tiny villages
+that had not seen a white man for a year. Our journey now lay through
+the woods, and Skim, dismounting, stalked along the narrow trail
+as though he had been shod in seven-league boots. I heard a pistol
+shot ring out, and, coming up, found Skim in mortal combat with an
+ape. Then one more plunge into a river, and another stream spanned
+by a bamboo pole, which we negotiated like funambulists, dragging
+the steeds below us by their halters,--then Balingasag.
+
+In town the big _vaquero_ was a schoolboy on a holiday. He was a
+perfect panther for prowling around the streets at night, and in
+the market-place, where we now missed the scattering of khaki, he
+became acquainted with the natives, and drank _tuba_ with them. He
+came back with reports about the resources of the town. There was an
+Indian merchant stranded at Ramon's, who had a lot of watches for
+sale cheap. He purchased some lace curtains at the _Chino_ store,
+and yellow _piña_ cloth for a mosquito bar, and with this stuff he had
+transformed his bed into a perfect bower. It was almost a contradiction
+that this wild fellow, who was more accustomed to his boots and spurs
+at night than to pajamas, should have taken so much pains to make his
+sleeping-quarters dainty. Streamers of baby-ribbon fell in graceful
+lines about the curtains, while the gauze mosquito-bar was decorated
+with the medals he had won for bravery.
+
+A photograph of his divorced wife occupied the place of honor near
+the looking-glass. In reminiscent moods Skim used to tell how Chita,
+of old Mexico, had left him after stabbing him three times with the
+jeweled knife that he had given her. "I didn't interfere with her,"
+he said, "but told her, when she pricked me with the little knife,
+it was my heart that she was jabbing at." Skim also told me of
+his expedition into "Dead Man's Gulch," "Death Valley," and the
+suddenly-abandoned mining-camps among the hills of California. And
+he had met the daughter of a millionaire in Frisco, and had seen her
+home. "And when I saw the big shack looming up there in the woods,"
+he said, "I thought sure that I'd struck the wrong farmhouse."
+
+Skim rented a small place surrounded by a hedge of bonga palms, and
+here he entertained the village royally. He was a favorite among the
+girls, and lavished gifts upon them, mostly the latest illustrated
+magazines that belonged to me. He ruled his awkward soldiers with
+an iron hand, and they were more afraid of him that of the Evil
+One. Of course, they could not understand his Spanish, and would
+often answer, "_Si, señor_" when they had not the least idea of what
+the orders were. Then they would come to grief for disobedience,
+or receive Skim's favorite reprimand of "Blooming idiot! _No sabe_
+your own language?" When his cook displeased him, he (the cook) would
+generally come bumping down the stairs. The voice of Skim was as the
+roaring lion in a storm. Desertions were many in those strenuous days;
+for the constabulary guards were not the heroes of the hour.
+
+Always insisting on strict discipline, Skim, on the day we made our
+trial hike, marshaled his forces in a rigid line, and, after roll-call,
+marched them off in order to the hills. The soldiers took about three
+steps to his one, and, trying to keep up with him through the dense
+hemp-fields, they broke ranks and ran. We followed a mountain stream
+to its headwaters, scrambling over bowlders, wading waist-deep in the
+ice-cold stream, and by the time we broke the underbrush and pushed up
+hill, big Skim had literally hiked the soldiers off their feet. They
+were unspeakably relieved when we sat down at noon in the cool shade,
+upon the brink of a deep, crystal pool, and ate our luncheon. Skim,
+insisting that the canned quail--which retained its gamy flavor--was
+beyond redemption, turned it over to the soldiers to their great
+delight.
+
+In spite of his severity, Skim had a soft heart, and when all dressed
+in white and gold, he would go up to visit Señor Roa and his daughters;
+while the girls would play duets on the piano, Skim, with a little
+chocolate baby under either arm, would sing in an insinuating voice
+one of his good old cowboy songs, regardless of the fact that he was
+not in tune with his accompaniment. He always appeared on Sundays
+cleanly shaven and immaculate in white, and when the girls went
+by his house to church, their dusky arms glowing among the gauze,
+appealed to him and made him sad.
+
+No one could ever contradict Skim, though he couldn't even write
+his own name legibly. His monthly reports were actually works of
+art. "Seenyor Inspekter of constabulery," he would write, "i hav the
+honner to indite the following report. i hav bin having trubel with the
+moros. They was too boats of them and they had a canon in the bow. i
+faired three shots and too of them fell down but they al paddeled aeway
+so fast i coodnt catch them." And again: "On wensday the first instant
+i went on a hike of seven miles. i captured three ladrones four bolos,
+one old gun and too durks." Then after practicing his signature for
+half an hour on margins of books or any kind of paper he could find,
+he used to sign his document with a tremendous flourish.
+
+
+
+I rather miss the rock thrown at my blinds at 4 o'clock A. M. A little
+catlike sergeant, a _mestizo_, is in charge of the constabulary,
+and the men are glad. No longer does the huge six-footer, with his
+army Colt's, stalk through the village streets. The other day I got a
+note from Skim: "i dont think i ain't never going to come back there
+eny moar," he wrote above the most successful signature that I had
+ever seen. A few months later Skim was badly crippled in a fight with
+robbers. He was sent to Manila to the civil hospital. On his discharge
+he was promoted, and he now wears three bars on his shoulder-straps. He
+has been shot three times since then, and he has written, "If i dont
+get kilt no more, i dont think that i wont come back."
+
+To-day the constabulary is well organized. They have distinguished
+themselves time and again in battle-line. They have put down the
+lingering sparks of the rebellion. They look smart in their brand-new
+uniforms and russet boots. But it was only a year or two ago that
+Skim had crowded their uncivilized feet into the clumsy army shoe, and
+knocked them around like puppets in a Noah's ark. Skim, if you ever get
+hold of these few pages written in your honor, here's my compliments
+and my best wishes for another bar upon your shoulder-straps, and--yes,
+here's hoping that you "won't get killed no more."
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+Last Days at Oroquieta.
+
+
+I had been visiting the teachers at El Salvador, who occupied a Spanish
+convent, with a broad veranda looking out upon the blue sea and a grove
+of palms. It was a country of bare hills, which reminded one somewhat
+of Colorado. _Nipa_ jungles bristled at the mouths of rivers, and the
+valleys were verdant with dense mango copses. We made our first stop
+on the way from Cagayan on Sunday morning at a village situated in
+a prairie, where a drove of native ponies had been tethered near the
+_nipa_ church. The roads were alive with people who had been attending
+services or who were on the way to the next cock-fight. Falling in
+with a loquacious native, who supplied us with a store of mangoes,
+we rode on, and reached Tag-nipa or El Salvador late in the afternoon.
+
+One of the teachers, "Teddy," might have actually stepped from out the
+pages of Kate Greenaway. He had a large, broad forehead, and a long,
+straight nose. He conducted a school of miserable little girls, and in
+the evening, like a village preacher, he would make his pastoral calls
+with a "Hello, girlie!" for each child he met. When he was pleased at
+anything, he used to clap his hands, exclaiming, "Goodie!" "Teddy"
+envied me "my baccalaureate enthusiasm," and, encouraged evidently
+by this quality, he would read Chaucer in a sing-song voice, or,
+when this recreation failed, would make up limericks to a guitar
+accompaniment. His partner was the one who wore the transposed
+leggings, and who walked as though continually following a plow.
+
+Leaving for Oroquieta, in a Moro sailboat stocked with Chinese pigs and
+commissaries that belonged to one called "Jac-cook" by the natives,
+or "The Great White Father"--a New Zealander who could have posed as
+an Apollo or a Hercules--the sailors whistled for wind, and finally
+succeeded in obtaining it. The moon rose early over the dark waters,
+and the boat, behaving admirably, rode the huge waves like a cockle. We
+had nearly gone to pieces on a coral reef that night if "Jac-cook,"
+suddenly aroused by the unusual sound of breakers, had not lowered
+sail in time to save the ship from running on the sharp rock half a
+mile from land. The sailors, perfectly incompetent, and panic-stricken
+at the course the boat was taking, blundered frightfully as the New
+Zealander assumed command.
+
+No doubt the best mess in the town at that time was the one conducted
+by the members of the hospital detachment. "Shorty," who did the
+cooking, was a local druggist in his way; that is, he sold the natives
+talcum powder, which they bought at quinine rates. The acting steward,
+whom all the Filipinos called "Francisco," though his name was Louis,
+was a butcher, and a doctor too. Catching the Spaniard's goat out
+late at night, he knocked it in the head. The carcass was then taken
+into the dissecting-room, where it was skinned and dressed for the
+fresh-meat supply. He had acquired a local reputation as a _medico_,
+to the disgust of the real army doctor, who, for a long time, could
+not imagine why his medicines had disappeared so fast. Then there was
+"Red," who had the art of laziness down fine, and who could usually
+be found playing _monte_ with the natives. With the money he had won
+at _monte_ games and chicken-fights, he intended to set up a drugstore
+in America.
+
+In a downpour of rain I left one morning for Aloran, down the coast
+and up the winding river. Prisoners furnished by the _presidente_
+manned the _banca_. They were guarded by a barefooted municipal
+policeman, who, on falling presently to sleep, would probably have
+lost his Mauser overboard had not one of the convicts rescued it and
+courteously returned it to him. It was a wet and lonesome pull up the
+Aloran River, walled in on both sides by _nipa_ jungles, and forever
+winding in and out. After an hour or so, while I was wondering what
+we were coming to, we met a raft poled down the stream with "Red"
+and a young Austrian constabulary officer aboard.
+
+Finding a little teacup of a house, I moved in, and, before an
+interested throng of natives, started to unpack my trunks and boxes
+with a sense of genuine relief; for I had had four months of traveling
+and living out of steamer-trunks. But I returned to Oroquieta all in
+good time for the doctor's birthday and the annual Oroquieta ball. I
+found the doctor wandering about Aloran late one afternoon; for he had
+been attending a sick Chinaman. We started back together through the
+night, and, in the darkness, voices greeted us, or snarled a "_Buenas
+noches_" at us as we passed. Bridges that carabaos had fallen through
+were crossed successfully, and we arrived at Oroquieta during the
+band concert.
+
+The foreign colony at Oroquieta was more interesting than the
+_personæ dramatis_ of the "Canterbury Tales." Where to begin I do not
+know. But, anyway, there was my old friend the constabulary captain,
+"Foxy Grandpa," as we called him then, because when he was not engaged
+in telling how he had arrested somebody in Arizona, he was playing
+practical jokes or doing tricks with cards and handkerchiefs. And
+then there was the "Arizona Babe," a blonde of the Southwestern type,
+affianced to the commissary sergeant. The wife o£ the commanding
+officer, a veritable O'Dowd, and little Flora, daughter of O'Dowd,
+who rode around town in a pony cart, were leaders of society for
+the subpost.
+
+Then you could take a stool in front of Paradies's general store,
+and almost at any time engage the local teacher in an argument. You
+would expect, of course, that he would wander from his topic till you
+found yourself discussing something entirely foreign to the subject,
+but so long as he was talking, everything was satisfactory. There were
+the two Greek traders who had "poisoned the wells" out Lobuc way,--so
+people said. And I must not forget "Jac-cook," whose grandfather,
+according to his own report, had been a cannibal, a king of cannibals,
+and eaten a roast baby every morning for his breakfast. Jack was a
+soldier of fortune if there ever was one. He could give you a recipe
+for making _poi_ from ripe bananas and the milk of cocoanuts, or for
+distilling whisky from fermented oranges,--both of which formulas I
+have unfortunately lost. He recommended an exclusive diet of raw fish,
+and in his youth he had had many a hard battle with the shark and
+octopus. His one regret was that there were no sharks in the Oroquieta
+Bay, that, diving under, he could rip with a sharp knife. "To catch
+the devil-fish," he used to say, "you whirl them rapidly around
+your arm until they get all tangled up and supine-like." And once,
+like Ursus, in "Quo Vadis," he had taken a young bull by the horns
+and broken its neck.
+
+All members of good standing in the colony received their invitations
+to the birthday party. Old Vivan, the ex-horse-doctor of the
+_Insurrectos_, went out early in the morning to cut palms. The floor
+was waxed and the walls banked with green. The first to arrive was
+"Fresno Bill," the Cottobato trader, in a borrowed white suit and a
+pair of soiled shoes. Then came the bronzed Norwegian captain of the
+_Delapaon_, hearty and hale from twenty years of deep-sea sailing
+from the Java coast to Heligoland. Came Paradies, the little German
+trader, in his finest blacks, and chose a seat off in one corner
+of the room. Then "Foxy Grandpa" and the "Arizona Babe" arrived,
+and the old maid from Zamboanga, who, when expression failed her,
+would usurp the conversation with a "blab, blab, blab!" And as the
+serpent made for old Laocoön, so she now made for "Fresno Bill."
+
+Half an hour more and the party was in full swing. Native musicians,
+stationed on the landing, furnished the music, and Vivan, the
+Filipino Chesterfield, with sweeping bows to every one, was serving
+the refreshments. Padre Pastor, in his black gown, with his face all
+wreathed in smiles, was trying to explain to the schoolteacher's
+wife that "stars were the forget-me-nots of heaven." The young
+commissary sergeant had secured an alcove for the "Arizona babe,"
+and "Foxy grandpa," taking a nip of something when his good wife's
+back was turned, was telling his best anecdote of the southwest,
+"Ichabod Crane," the big-boned Kansan--who had got the better of
+us all that afternoon in argument--swinging his arms, and with his
+head thrown back, was trying to herd the people into an old-fashioned
+reel. Grabbing the little daughter of the regiment together with the
+French constabulary officer--they loved each other like two cats--he
+shouted, "Salamander, there! Why don't you salamander?" Entering
+into the fun more than the rest, the genial army doctor "kept the
+ball a-rolling."
+
+For the doctor was a southerner, as many of the army people are. In his
+dual function of physician-soldier, he could boast that he had killed
+more men, had more deaths to his credit, than his fellow officers. He
+was undoubtedly the best leech in the world. When off duty he assumed
+a Japanese kimono, which became him like the robes of Nero. Placing his
+sandaled feet upon the window-sill, he used to read the _Army and Navy
+Journal_ by the hour. Although he had a taste for other literature,
+his studies were considerably hampered by a tendency to fall asleep
+after the first few paragraphs. He spent about four weeks on "Majorie
+Daw." When he was happy--and he generally was happy--he would sing
+that favorite song of his, "O, Ca'line." It went:
+
+
+                "O, Ca'line! O, Ca'line!
+                Can't you dance da pea-vine?
+                O, my Jemima, O-hi-o."
+
+
+But he could never explain satisfactorily what the "pea-vine"
+was. His "Ring around and shake a leg, ma lady," was a triumph in
+the lyric line.
+
+We used to walk to Lobuc every afternoon to purchase eggs. The
+doctor's "_Duna ba icao itlong dinhi?_" always amused the natives,
+who, when they had any eggs, took pleasure in producing them. It was
+with difficulty that I taught him to say "_itlog_" (egg) instead of
+"eclogue," which he had been using heretofore. He made one error,
+though, which never could be rectified,--he always called a Chinaman
+a "hen chick," much to the disgust of the offended Oriental, whose
+denomination was expressed in the Visayan by the word "_inchic_."
+
+
+
+I pause before attempting a description of the Oroquieta ball, and,
+like the poets, pray to some kind muse to guide my pen. To-night
+I feel again the same thrill that I felt the night of the grand
+Oroquieta ball. The memories of Oroquieta music seem as though they
+might express themselves in words:
+
+
+                "The stars so brightly shine,
+                But ah, those stars of thine!
+                  Are none like yours, _Bonita_,
+                Beyond the ocean brine."
+
+
+And then I seem to see the big captain--"Foxy grandpa"--beating the
+bass drum like that extraordinary man that Mark Twain tells about,
+"who hadn't a tooth in his whole head." I can remember how Don Julian,
+the crusty Spaniard, animated with the spirit of old Capulet, stood on
+the chair and shouted, "_Viva los Americanos!_"--and the palm-grove,
+like a room of many pillars, lighted by Chinese lanterns.
+
+It was a time of magic moonlight, when the sea broke on the sands in
+phosphorescent lines in front of the _kiosko_. Far out on the horizon
+lights of fishing-boats would glimmer, and the dusky shores of Siquijor
+or the volcanic isle of Camaguin loomed in the distance. Here there
+were little cities as completely isolated though they were parts
+of another planet, where the "other" people worked and played, and
+promenaded to the strumming of guitars. And in the background rose
+the triple range of mountains, cold, mysterious, and blue in the
+transfiguring moonlight.
+
+The little army girl, like some fair goddess of the night, monopolized
+the masculine attention at the ball. When she appeared upon the floor,
+all others, as by mutual consent, retired, and left the field to her
+alone. The "Pearls of Lobuc," who refused to come until a carriage was
+sent after them, appeared in delicate gauze dresses, creamy stockings,
+and white slippers. And "The Princess of the Philippines," Diega, with
+her saucy pompadour, forgot that it was time to drop your hand at the
+conclusion of the dance. Our noble Ichabod was there in a tight-fitting
+suit of black and narrow trousers, fervently discussing with the
+French constabulary man whether a frock was a Prince Albert. Paradies
+capered mincingly to the quick music of the waltz, and the old maid,
+unable to restrain herself, kept begging the doctor--who did not
+know how to dance--only to try a two-step with her, please. And
+the poor doctor, in his agony, had sweated out another clean white
+uniform. I had almost forgotten Maraquita and the _zapatillas_
+with the pearl rosettes. She was a little queen in pink-and-white,
+and ere the night was over she had given me her "_sing sing_" (ring)
+and fan, and told me that I could "ask papa" if I wanted to. The next
+day she was just as pretty in light-blue and green, and with her hair
+unbound. She poked her toes into a pair of gold-embroidered sandals,
+and seemed very much embarrassed at my presence. This was explained
+when, later in the day, her uncle asked me for Miss Maraquita's ring.
+
+Although the cook and the _muchachos_ ate the greater part of the
+refreshments, and a heart or two was broken incidentally, the Oroquieta
+ball passed into history as being the most brilliant function of its
+kind that ever had been witnessed at the post.
+
+The winter passed with an occasional plunge in the cool river,
+and the surf-bath every morning before breakfast. In the evening we
+would ride to Lobuc, racing the ponies back to town in a white cloud
+of dust. Dinner was always served for any number, for we frequently
+had visitors,--field officers on hunting leave, commercial drummers
+from Cebu, the circuit judge, the captain of the _Delapaon_. The
+doctor had been threatening for some time, now, to give Vivan a
+necessary whipping, which he did one morning to that Chesterfield's
+astonishment. Calling the servant "_Usted_," or "Your honor," he
+applied the strap, and old Vivan was shaking so with laughter that
+he hardly felt the blows. But after that, he tumbled over himself
+with eagerness to fill our orders. We had found the coolest places in
+the town,--the beach at Lobuc, under a wide-spreading tree, and the
+thatched bridge where the wind swept up and down the river, where
+the women beat their washing on the rounded stones, and carabaos
+dreamed in the shade of the bamboo. The cable used to steady the
+bridge connected with the shore, the doctor explained to the old maid,
+was the Manila cable over which the messages were sent.
+
+The clamor of bells one morning reminded us that the _fiesta_ week was
+on, and old Vivan came running in excitedly with the intelligence that
+seven _bancas_ were already anchored at the river's mouth, and there
+were twenty more in sight. Then he went breathlessly around the town to
+circulate the news. We rode about in Flora's pony cart, and sometimes
+went to visit "Foxy Grandpa," wife, and "Arizona Babe." "Old Tom,"
+the convict on parole for murder, waited on the table, serving the
+pies that Mrs. G. had taught the cook to make, and the canned peaches
+with evaporated cream. Then, on adjourning to the parlor, with its
+pillars and white walls, the "Babe" would play "Old Kentucky Home"
+on the piano till the china shepherdesses danced with the vibrations,
+and the genial captain, growing reminiscent, would recall the story
+of the man he had arrested in old Mexico, or even condescend to do a
+new trick with a handkerchief. There was a curious picture from Japan
+in a gilt frame that had the place of honor over the piano. It was
+painted on a plaque of china, robin's-egg blue, inlaid with bits of
+pearl,--which represented boats or something on the Inland Sea, while
+figures of men and small boys, enthusiastically waving Japanese flags,
+all cut out of paper, had been pasted on. There was an arched bridge
+over the blue water, and a sampan sculled by a boatman in a brown
+_kimono_. There was a house with paper windows and a thatched roof.
+
+
+
+... _Chino_ José died, and was given a military funeral. The bier was
+covered with the Stars and Stripes. A company of native scouts was
+detailed as an escort, and the local band led the procession to the
+church. Old "Ichabod," with a long face, and in a dress suit, with a
+purple four-in-hand tie, followed among the candle-bearers with long
+strides. The tapers burning in the nave resembled a small bonfire,
+and exhaustive masses finally resulted, so I judge, in getting the
+old heathen's spirit out of purgatory. Good old _Chino_ José! He had
+left his widow fifty thousand "Mex," of which the priest received
+his share; also the doctor, for the hypodermic injections of the past
+three months.
+
+Then came the wedding of Bazon, whose bride, for her rebellious love,
+had recently been driven from her mother's home. Bazon, touched by
+this act of loyalty, cut his engagement with another girl and made
+the preparations for the wedding feast. I met the little Maraquita at
+Bazon's reception, and conversed with her through an interpreter. "The
+_señorita_ says," so the interpreter informed me, "she appreciates your
+conversation very much, and thinks you play the piano very well. She
+has a new piano in her house that came from Paris. In a little while
+the _señorita_ will depart for Spain, where she intends to study in
+a convent for a year." Ah, Maraquita! She had had an _Insurrecto_
+general for a suitor, and had turned him down. And she had jilted
+Joe, the French constabulary officer, and had rejected a neighboring
+merchant's offer for her hand of fifty carabaos. I have to-day a
+small reminder of her dainty needlework--a family of Visayan dolls
+which she had dressed according to the native mode.
+
+One day the undertaker's boat dropped in with a detachment of the
+burial corps aboard. The bodies of the soldiers that had slept for so
+long in the convent garden were removed, and taken in brass caskets
+back across the sea....
+
+We started out one morning on constabulary ponies, brilliantly
+caparisoned in scarlet blankets and new saddles. "Ichabod," the
+Kansas _maestro_, had proposed to guide us to Misamis over the
+mountain trail. It was not long, however, before one spoke of
+trails in the past tense. The last place that was on the map--a
+town of questionable loyalty, that we had gladly left late in the
+afternoon--now seemed, as we remembered it, in contrast with the
+wilderness, a small metropolis. The Kansan still insisted that he was
+not lost. "Do you know where we are?" I asked. "Wa-al," he replied,
+"those mountains ought to be 'way over on the other side of us,
+and the flat side of the moon ought to be turned the other way." We
+wandered for ten hours through prairies of tall buffalo-grass, at
+last discovering a trail that led down to the sea. The ponies were as
+stiff as though they had been made of wood instead of flesh and blood.
+
+We had Thanksgiving dinner at the doctor's. Old Tom did the cooking,
+and Vivan, all smiles, waited upon the guests. Stuffed chicken and
+roast sucking pig, and a young kid that the _muchachos_ had tortured
+to death that morning, sawing its throat with a dull knife, were
+the main courses. Padre Pastor, who had held a special mass that
+morning for Americans, "returned thanks," rolling his eyes, and
+saying something about the flowers not being plentiful or fragrant,
+but the stars, exceptional in brilliance, compensating for the floral
+scantiness. The doctor sang "O, Ca'line," and the captain did tricks
+with the napkins. Everybody voted this Thanksgiving a success.
+
+The weary days that followed at Aloran were relieved late in December
+by a visit from the doctor, and a new constabulary officer named
+Johnson, [1] who had ridden out on muddy roads, through swimming
+rice-pads, across swollen rivers. When the store of commissaries was
+exhausted, we rode back, and Johnson came to grief by falling through
+an open bridge into a rice-swamp, so that all that we could see of
+him was a square inch of his poor horse's nose. We pulled him out,
+and named the place "Johnson's Despair."
+
+Our Christmas Eve was an eventful one. The transport _Trenton_ went to
+pieces on our coral reef. We were expecting company, and when the boat
+pulled in, we went down to the beach to tell them where the landing
+was. "We thought that you were trying to tell us we were on a rock,"
+the little cavalry lieutenant, who had been at work all night upon the
+pumps, said, when we saw him in the morning. It was like a shipwreck
+in a comic opera, so easily the vessel grounded; and at noon the next
+day we were invited out on shipboard for a farewell luncheon. The
+boat was listed dangerously to port, and, as the waves rolled in,
+kept bumping heavily upon the coral floor. The hull under the engines
+was staved in, and, as the tide increased, the vessel twisted as
+though flexible. Broken amidships, finally, she twisted like some
+tortured creature of the deep. The masts and smokestacks branched
+off at divergent angles, giving the ship a rather drunken aspect. At
+high tide the masts and deck-house were swept off; the bow went, and
+the boat collapsed and bent. By evening nothing was left except the
+bowsprit rocking defiantly among the breakers, a broken skeleton, the
+keel and ribs, and the big boiler tumbling and squirting in the surf.
+
+There were three shipwrecked mariners to care for,--the bluff captain,
+one of nature's noblemen, who had spent his life before the mast and
+on the bridge, and who had been tossed upon many a strange and hostile
+coast. He had a deep scar on his head, received when he was shanghaied
+twenty years before. He told strange stories of barbaric women dressed
+in sea-shells; of the Pitcairn islanders, who formerly wore clothes
+of papyrus, but now dressed in the latest English fashion, trading
+the native fruits and melons for the merchandise of passing ships.
+
+Then there was Mac, the chief, a stunted, sandy little man, covered
+with freckles, and tattooed with various marine designs. He loved
+his engine better than himself, and in his sorrow at its break-up,
+he was driven to the bottle, and when last seen--after asking "ever'
+one" to take a drink--was wandering off, his arms around two Filipino
+sailors. Coming to life a few days later, "Mac ain't sayin' much,"
+he said, "but Mac, 'e knows." Yielding to our persuasion, he wrote
+down a song "what 'e 'ad learned once at a sailors' boardin' 'ouse
+in Frisco." It was called "The Lodger," and he rendered it thus,
+in a deep-sea voice:
+
+
+    "The other night I chanced to meet a charmer of a girl,
+      An', nothin' else to do, I saw 'er 'ome;
+    We 'ad a little bottle of the very finest brand,
+      An' drank each other's 'ealth in crystal foam.
+    I lent the dear a sover'ign; she thanked me for the same
+      An' laid 'er golden 'ead upon me breast;
+    But soon I finds myself thrown out the passage like shot,--
+      A six-foot man confronts me, an' 'e says:
+
+    Chorus--
+
+    I'm sorry to disturb you, but the lodger 'as come," etc.
+
+
+The feature of the song, however, was Mac's leer, which, in a public
+hall, would have brought down the house, and which I feel unable
+to describe.
+
+The mate, aroused by the example of the chief, rendered a "Tops'l
+halliard shanty," "Blow, Bullies, Blow." It was almost as though a
+character had stepped from _Pinafore_, when the athletic, gallant
+little mate, giving a hitch to his trousers, thus began: "Strike up
+a light there, Bullies; who's the last man sober?"
+
+        Song.
+
+        "O, a Yankee ship came down the river--
+            Blow, Bullies, blow!
+        Her sails were silk and her yards were silver--
+            Blow, my Bully boys, blow!
+        Now, who do you think was the cap'n of 'er?
+            Blow, Bullies, blow!
+        Old Black Ben, the down-east bucko--
+            Blow, my Bully boys, How!"
+
+
+"'Ere is a shanty what the packeteers sings when, with 'full an'
+plenty,' we are 'omeward bound. It is a 'windlass shanty,' an' we
+sings it to the music of the winch. The order comes 'hup anchors,'
+and the A one packeteer starts hup:
+
+
+        "'We're hom'ard bound; we're bound away;
+          Good-bye, fare y' well.
+        We're home'ard bound; we leave to-day;
+          Hooray, my boys! we're home'ard bound.
+        We're home'ard bound from Liverpool town;
+          Hooray, my boys, hooray!
+        A bully ship and a bully crew;
+          Good-bye, fare y' well.
+        A bucko mate an' a skipper too;
+          Hooray, my boys, we're home'ard bound!'"
+
+
+For the old maid this was the time the ages had been waiting for. What
+anxious nights she spent upon her pillow or before the looking-glass;
+what former triumphs she reviewed; and what plans for the conquest
+she had made, shall still remain unwritten history. When she was
+ready to appear, we used to hear her nervous call, "Doctor! Can
+I come over?" Poor old maid! She couldn't even wait till she was
+asked. How patiently she stirred the hot tomato soy the captain made;
+O yes! She could be useful and domestic. How tenderly she leaned upon
+the arm of the captain's chair, caressing the scar upon his head
+"where he was shanghaied!" Then, like Othello, he would entertain
+her with his story about the ladies in the sea-shell clothes, or of
+the time when he had "weathered the Horn" in a "sou'wester." She was
+flurried and excited all the week. The climax came after the captain
+left for Iligan. The old maid learned somehow that he was going to
+Manila on a transport which would pass by Oroquieta but a few miles
+out. Sending a telegram to the chief quartermaster whom she called a
+"dear," she said that if the ship would stop to let her on, she could
+go out to meet it in a _banca_. Though the schoolmaster and his wife
+had also requested transportation on the same boat, the old maid,
+evidently thinking that "three made a crowd," wired to her friend
+the quartermaster not to take them on.
+
+We met the old maid almost in hysterics on the road to Lobuc. "O, for
+the love of God!" she cried, "get me a boat, and get my trunk down
+to the shore. I have about ten minutes left to catch that ship." It
+was old Ichabod who rowed her out in the canoe--the old maid, with
+the sun now broken out behind the clouds, her striped parasol, and a
+small steamer trunk. It was a mad race for old Ichabod, and they were
+pretty well drenched when the old maid climbed aboard the transport,
+breathless but triumphant. I have since learned that Dido won her
+wandering Æneas in Manila, and that the captain finally has found his
+"bucko mate."
+
+It was old Ichabod's delight to teach a class of sorry-looking
+_señoritas_, with their dusty toes stuck into carpet slippers, and
+their hair combed back severely on their heads. The afternoons he
+spent in visiting his flock; we could descry him from afar, chin in
+the air, arms swinging, hiking along with five-foot strides. If he
+could "doctor up" the natives he was satisfied. He knew them all by
+name down to the smallest girl, and he applied his healing lotions
+with the greatest sense of duty, much to the amusement of the regular
+M.D. But Ichabod was qualified, for he had once confided to me that
+at one time he had learned the names of all the bones in the left hand!
+
+The colony showed signs of breaking up. The native scouts had gone,
+leaving their weeping "_hindais_" on the shore. "Major O'Dowd,"
+his wife, and Flora had also departed to a station _sin Americanos_
+up in the interior. At this, the doctor, for the first time in his
+life, broke into song, after the style and meter of immortal Omar:
+
+
+        "Hiram, indeed is gone; his little Rose
+        Vamosed to Lintogoup with all her clothes;
+          But still the Pearls are with us down the line,
+        And many a _hindai_ to the _tubig_ goes."
+
+
+"Tubig," he said, "did not mean 'water.' It was more poetical,
+expressing the idea of fountain, watering-place, or spa."
+
+It was my last day at Aloran. In the morning I ascended a near
+elevation, and looked down upon the sleepy valley spread below. There
+was the river winding in and out; there was the convent, like
+a doll-house in a field of green. Vivan had gone on with the
+trunks and boxes packed upon a carabao. The ponies were waiting
+in the compound. Valedictories were quickly said; but there was
+little Peter with his silken cheeks, the brightest little fellow
+I have ever known. It seemed a shame to leave him there in darkest
+Mindanao. Turning the horses into the Aloran River at the ford we
+struck the high road near the _barrio_ of Feliz. Galloping on, past
+"Columbine" bridge, "Skeleton" bridge, "Johnson's Despair," and Fenis,
+we arrived at Oroquieta in good time.
+
+But what a change from the old place as we had known it! Hiram,
+indeed was gone. The doctor had set out for pastures new. The "Arizona
+Babe" and "Foxy Grandpa" had departed for fresh fields. Like one who,
+falling asleep in a theater, awakes to find the curtain down and the
+spectators gone, so I now looked about the vacant town. The actors
+had departed, and "the play was played out."
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII.
+
+In Camp and Barracks with the Officers and Soldiers of the Philippines.
+
+
+Bugle-calls, loud, strident bugle-calls, leaping in unison from the
+brass throats of bugles; tawny soldiers lining up for guard-mount
+before the officer of the day, as spick and span as a toy soldier;
+troopers in blue shirts, with their mess-kits in their hands, running
+across the street for rations; men in khaki everywhere, raising a
+racket on pay-day, fraternizing with the Filipinos when off duty; poker
+games in the barracks, with the army cot and blanket for a table; taps,
+and the measured tread of sentries, and anon a startled challenge,
+"Halt! Who's there?"--such were the days in Cagayan in 1901.
+
+The blue sea, stretching out into the hazy distance, sparkled around
+the little _nipa_-covered dock where commissary stores and sacks
+of rice were piled. The native women, squatting on the ground, were
+selling mangoes and bananas to the boys. "Cagayan Mag," who vended
+the hot bottled beer for "jawbone," digging her toes into the dust,
+was entertaining the surrounding crowd with her coarse witticisms. The
+corporal of the guard, reclining in an easy steamer-chair, under
+his tent extension, was perusing the news columns from the States,
+by this time three months old. A sunburnt soldier, with his Krag upon
+his shoulder, paced the dock, wearily doing the last hour of his guard.
+
+"Do you-all like hawg-jowl and black-eyed peas?" drawled "Tennessee
+Bill," shifting his bony form to a more comfortable position on
+the rice-sack.
+
+"Reckon I ort ter; I wuz bo'n in Geo'gy," said his comrade, as he
+rolled a rice-straw paper cigarette.
+
+After an interval of several minutes the same conversation was
+repeated. Suddenly a sharp toot sent the echoes scudding back and
+forth among the hills. A moment later the small transport, with the
+usual blur of khaki in her bows, came swinging around the promontory.
+
+"Pshaw! I thought it wuz the pay boat comin'" grumbled Bill.
+
+Then, as the _Trenton_ pulled up to the dock, signs of activity began
+to animate that place. The guard, with leveled bayonet, began to shoo
+the "Gugus" off the landing. Down the hot road, invested in a cloud
+of dust, an ambulance was coming, drawn by a team of army mules and
+bringing the lieutenant quartermaster and his sergeants.
+
+"Why, hello!" said Bill; "if here ain't little Wantz a-comin'. Got
+his discharge an' gone married a _babay_."
+
+The soldiers crowded around the ex-hospital corps man, who, still in
+his khaki suit, was standing on the shore with a sad-looking Filipino
+girl in tow. Her feet were bare and dusty, and she wore a turkey-red
+skirt caught up on one side, and a gauze _camisa_ with a _piña_ yoke,
+and the stiff, flaring sleeves. Her head was bare, and her black hair
+was combed uncompromisingly back on her head. Her worldly goods were
+done up in a straw mat and a soiled bandana handkerchief, and were
+deposited before her on the ground.
+
+"This is the gal," said Wantz; "old Justice de Laguna's daughter,
+and the same what uster sell beer to the Twenty-eighth over at
+Tagaloan. She ain't no beauty, but she's a good steady trotter; ain't
+you, Dell?" The girl looked stupid and embarrassed, and did not reply.
+
+A "rooky," who had joined the company, stood on the dock
+disconsolately. His blanket roll and locker had been put off the
+boat. This was his first appearance in the provinces. He was a stranger
+in a strange land, a fish out of water, and a raw recruit.
+
+The men were set to work immediately landing the commissary
+stores. They stripped their shoes and socks off, rolled up their
+trousers to the knee, and waded through the shallow water, carrying
+the bales and boxes on their shoulders to the shore.
+
+The road up to the town was lined with _nipa_ houses, shaded with
+banana-trees and bonga palms. This was the road that was almost
+impassable during the rainy season. As the ambulance rolled heavily
+along, scores of half-naked babies, shaped like peanuts, shouted after
+you a "Hello, baby!" and the pigs, with snouts like coal-scuttles,
+scattered on either side the thoroughfare. This was the famous "Bolo
+alley," down which, only a few months before, the _Insurrecto_ army
+had come shouting, "_A la! á la!_" firing as they ran.
+
+You passed the market-place, an open hall filled with the native
+stalls, where soldiers loafed around, chatting with the Visayan
+girls--for a freemasonry exists between the Filipino and the
+soldier--dickering with one for a few dhobie cigarettes, sold
+"jawbone," to be paid for when the pay-boat comes.
+
+The troops were quartered in old Spanish buildings, where the
+sliding windows of the upper floors disclosed the lanes of white
+mosquito-bar. Back in the courtyard, where the cook was busily
+preparing mess, a mangy and round-shouldered monkey from the bamboo
+fence was looking on approvingly. The cook was not in a good humor. All
+that the mess had had for three weeks was the regulation beans and
+bacon, without a taste of fresh meat or fresh vegetables.
+
+Things were as bad, however, at the officers' mess, where the rule was
+that the first complaint should sentence its author to conduct the mess
+himself until relieved in a like manner. As might be imagined, such a
+system naturally discouraged an improvement of affairs. Exasperated,
+finally, beyond his limit, Lieutenant Breck came out with--"If this
+isn't the rottenest apology of an old mess"--saving himself by quickly
+adding, "But I like it; O, I like it; nobody can tell how much I like
+this mess!"
+
+There was an officer's club in a frame building near the
+headquarters. Here, in the afternoon, the clan would gather for a
+round of "whisky poker" for the drinks. There was a strapping young
+Kentuckian whose ancestors had all been army men. "The profession of
+arms," said he, "is the noblest profession in the world. And that is
+the profession that we follow." It was a rather sad sight, though,
+a few weeks later, after his wife, a little Southern girl, had gone
+back to the "States," to see this giant soldier playing cards and
+drinking whisky with the teamsters, bar-keeps, and camp-followers,
+threatening to shoot the man who tried to interfere, and finally
+being taken down in irons for a court-martial.
+
+The only one of all his friends who did not fall away from him was one,
+a little, catlike cavalry lieutenant, booted and spurred, and always
+dressed in khaki riding-breeches, never saying much, but generally
+considered the most popular young officer in all the service. And
+there was one other faithful one, but not an officer. The "striker,"
+who had followed him in many a hard hike, and had learned to admire
+his courage and to consider him infallible, tried for the sake of
+the young Southern girl, to keep his master from the wretched drink.
+
+The post of Cagayan that winter was a busy one. On Sunday mornings
+the stern-visaged officers would go the round of all the barracks on
+inspection duty. There was still a remnant of the _Insurrecto_ army
+operating in the hills, and an attack upon the town was threatened
+nightly. Once a month, when pay-day came around, a reign of terror,
+which began with early afternoon, lasted until almost a company
+of miscellaneous marauders could have been recruited from the
+guard-house. A dozen saloons and poker games were running the night
+long, and in those days little money was deposited in the paymaster's
+bank.
+
+A number of detachments had been left in different towns around
+the bay in charge of second lieutenants or first sergeants. Here,
+while the discipline was more relaxed, the pandemonium of pay-day was
+avoided. But the two best poker-players in the company corraling all
+the money, either would proceed to narrow the financial distribution
+further, or would shake hands and agree to make deposits on the
+next disbursing-day. Some of the men on their discharge would have
+a thousand dollars, or enough to set them up in business in the States.
+
+These "outfits" differ greatly in their character. Some are composed
+of sociable, kind-hearted fellows, while others may contain a large
+percentage of professional "bad men" and rowdies. Each company
+will have its own traditions and a reputation which is guarded
+jealously. There was the "fighting Twenty-eighth," the regiment
+invincible. The soldiers grow attached to their outfit. On their
+discharge, which they have eagerly looked forward to, after a day
+or two of Frisco, when the money has been spent to the last dollar
+of the "finals," more than one chop-fallen soldier, looking up the
+first recruiting sergeant, will "take on" again.
+
+The "company fund" is a great institution, and an "outfit" with a
+good fund is considered prosperous. This money goes for extras at
+the table, for baseball equipments, or for company mascots. The
+sergeant-major usually has charge of this disbursement, and the
+soldiers, though they grumble at his orders, can not help respecting
+him. The sergeant-major has been seasoned in the service. He is a ripe
+old fellow, and a warrior to the core. The company cook is also an
+important personage. It was the old cook at Balingasag--I think that
+he had served for twenty years--who fed me in the convent courtyard
+on _camotes_, egg-plant, and a chicken which he had stolen from a
+native. According to his theory, a soldier was a licensed robber,
+and the chicken should be classed as forage--not as plunder. He
+was a favorite among the officers, who used to get him started on
+his favorite grievance,--the condemnation by a board of survey of a
+certain army mule. "I liked that mule," he used to say. "He was the
+best mule that the service ever had."
+
+The nightly "argument," or "chewing the rag," is a favorite pastime
+in an isolated camp. Sitting around upon the army cots or chests,
+the soldiers will discuss some unimportant topic until "taps" sounds.
+
+I will admit that "Company M" was a disreputable lot. They never
+dressed up; frequently they went without their footgear; and they
+drank much _tuba_ with the natives. They took delight in teaching
+the small boys profanity, and they would shock the Filipinos by
+omitting bathing-suits when in the surf. They used to frighten the
+poor "niggers" half to death by trying to break through their houses
+on a dark night. Yet I believe that every Filipino was the soldier's
+friend, and I am sure I noticed not a few heart-broken _señoritas_
+gathered at the shore when they departed. For my own part, I have
+always found the soldier generous, respectful, and polite.
+
+There was a great wag in the company, who, in some former walk of
+life, had figured as a circus clown. He also claimed to have been
+upon the stage in vaudeville. He had enlisted in the regimental band,
+but, through some change, had come to be bugler of M Company. He
+owned a mandolin, called the "potato bug"--a name suggested by the
+inlaid bowl. He had brought back to life a cracked guitar, which
+he had strung with copper wire obtained by "jawbone" at the _Chino_
+store. It was an inspiration when he sang to the guitar accompaniment,
+"Ma Filipino Babe," or in a rich and melancholy voice, with the
+professional innuendo, "just to jolly the game along," a song entitled
+"Little Rosewood Casket."
+
+It is a sorry company that doesn't number in its roll a poet. Company
+M had a good poet. Local customs and the local atmosphere appealed
+to him, and he has thus recorded his impression of the Philippines:
+
+
+        "There once was a Philippine _hombre_;
+        Ate _guinimos_, rice, and _legombre_;
+          His pants they were wide,
+          And his shirt hung outside;
+        But this, you must know, is _costombre_.
+
+        He lived in a _nipa balay_
+        That served as a stable and sty.
+          He slept on a mat
+          With the dog and the cat,
+        And the rest of the family near by.
+
+        He once owned a _bueno manoc_,
+        With a haughty and valorous look,
+          Who lost him amain
+          And _mil pesos tambien_,
+        And now he plays _monté_ for luck.
+
+
+This poem was received so favorably that the following effort of the
+realistic school escaped:
+
+
+          "In this land of dhobie dreams,
+          Happy, smiling Philippines,
+        Where the bolo man is hiking all day long,
+          Where the natives steal and lie,
+          And _Americanos_ die,
+        The soldier sings his evening song.
+
+          Social wants are small and few;
+          All the ladies smoke and chew,
+        And do other things they ought to know are wrong.
+          _Presidentes_ cut no ice,
+          For they live on fish and rice,
+        And the soldier sings his evening song."
+
+
+There is another stanza, but the song about the "Brown Tagalog Girl"
+demands attention:
+
+
+        "I've a _babay_, in a _balay,_
+        Down in the province of Rizal.
+        She's nice and neat, dainty and sweet;
+        She's ma little brown Tagalog gal."
+
+
+The army officers and their families still form the aristocracy of the
+Philippines. While army life is not all like Camp Wallace and the gay
+Luneta, in the larger posts throughout the provinces, both the officers
+and soldiers are housed very comfortably. The clubhouse down at
+Zamboanga has a pavilion running out over the water, where the ladies
+sit at night, or where refreshments are served after the concert by the
+band. Although their ways are not the ways of the civilian; although
+to them the possibilities of Jones's promotion from the bottom of the
+list seems of a paramount importance, you will not find anywhere so
+loyal and hospitable a class of people as the army officers. Whatever
+little jealousies they entertain among themselves are overshadowed by
+the fact that "he" or "she" is of the "service." And the soldiers,
+rough as they are, and slovenly compared to the red-coated soldiers
+of Great Britain, or the gray-coated troopers of the German army,
+are beyond doubt the finest fighting men in all the world.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV.
+
+Padre Pedro, Recoleto Priest.--The Routine of a Friar in the
+Philippines.
+
+
+It might have been the dawn of the first day in Eden. I was awakened
+by the music of the birds and sunlight streaming through the
+convent window. Heavily the broad leaves of _abacá_ drooped with the
+morning dew. Only the roofs of a few _nipa_ houses could be seen. The
+_tolo_-trees, like Japanese pagodas, stretched their horizontal arms
+against the sky. The mountains were as fresh and green as though a
+storm had swept them and cleared off again. They now seemed magnified
+in the transparent air.
+
+All in the silence of the morning I went down to where the tropical
+river glided between primeval banks and under the thick-plated
+overhanging foliage. The water was as placid as a sheet of glass. A
+spirit of mystery seemed brooding near. As yet the sun's rays had not
+penetrated through the canopy of leaves. A lonely fisherman sat on
+the bank above, lost in his dreams. Down by the ford a native woman
+came to draw water in a bamboo tube. I half expected her to place a
+lighted taper on a tiny float, and send it spinning down the stream,
+as is the custom of the maidens on the sacred river Ganges. In the
+silence of the morning, in the heart of nature, thousands of miles
+away from telegraphs and railroads, where the brilliant-feathered
+birds dipped lightly into the unruffled stream, the place seemed like
+a sanctuary, a holy of holies, pure, immaculate, and undefiled.
+
+The padre had arisen at six. At his command the sacristans ascended
+the bell-tower and proceeded to arouse the town. The padre moved
+about his dark, bare room. Rare Latin books were scattered around
+the floor. His richly embroidered vestments hung on a long line. The
+room was cluttered with the lumber of old crucifixes, broken images of
+saints, and gilded floats, considerably battered, with the candlesticks
+awry. The floor and the walls were bare. There was a large box of
+provisions in the corner, filled with imported sausages done up
+in tinfoil, bottles of sugar, tightly sealed to keep the ants from
+getting in, small cakes of Spanish chocolate, bottles of of olives
+and of rich communion wine. Donning his white robe, he went out to
+the ante-room, where, on the table spread with a white napkin, stood
+a cup of chocolate and a package of _La Hebra_ cigarettes.
+
+There was a scamper of bare feet as the whole force of dirty
+house-boys, sacristans, and cooks rushed in to kneel and kiss the
+padre's hand and to receive his blessing. When he had finished
+the thick chocolate, one of the boys brought in a glass of water,
+fresh and sparkling from a near-by mountain stream. Then Padre Pedro
+lighted his cigarette, and read in private for a little while before
+the morning mass began. Along the narrow pathway (for there were no
+streets) a string of women in black veils was slowly coming to the
+church. Stopping before the door, they bowed and made the sign of the
+cross. Then they went in and knelt down on the hard tiles. The padre's
+full voice, rising and falling with the chant, flooded the gloomy
+interior, where pencils of sunlight slanted through the apertures of
+the unfinished wall, and fell upon the drowsy wilderness outside.
+
+Returning from the mass, the padre refreshed himself with a small glass
+of gin-and-water, as his custom was; nor could the appeal of any one
+persuade him to take more than a single glass or to take that at an
+earlier or later hour. The ancient _maestra_ had arrived--a wrinkled
+old body in a black dress and black carpet-slippers--and she knelt
+down to touch the padre's outstretched hand with her thin, withered
+lips. The little children, who were waiting for their classes to be
+called, all followed her example, and before long, the monotonous
+drone of the recitations left no doubt that school had actually
+begun. Benches had filled up, and the dusky feet were swinging under
+them as the small backs bent over knotty problems on the slates.
+
+The padre, passing among the pupils, made the necessary erasures and
+corrections, and occasionally gave unasked to some recalcitrant a
+smart snap on the head. The morning session ended by the pupils lining
+up in a half circle around the battered figure of a saint--the altar
+decorated with red paper flowers, or colored grasses in a number of
+empty beer-bottles--and, while the padre played the wheezy harmonium,
+singing their repertoire of sacred songs. Then, as the children
+departed with the "_Buenos dias, señor_," visitors, who had been
+waiting on the stairway with their presents of eggs, chickens, and
+bananas, were received.
+
+"Thees man," the padre explained to me, as a grotesque old fellow
+humbled himself before us, "leeves in one house near from ze shore. He
+has presented me with some goud rope to tie my horses with (_buen
+piece, hombre_), and he says that there are no more fishes in ze sea."
+
+"See, they have brought so many breads and fruits! They know well that
+eet ees my fast-day, and that my custom ees to eat no meat. I can eat
+fish or cheecken, but not fish _and_ cheecken; eet ees difficult here
+to find enough food to sustain ze life on days of fast."
+
+"Thees girl," he said, "loves me too much. She is my orphan, she and
+her two brothers. I have bought one house for them near from ze church,
+and, for the girl, one sewing-machine. Their mother had been stealed
+[robbed] of everything, and she had died a month ago. Ze cheeldren
+now have nobody but me."
+
+She was a bright young girl, well-dressed and plump, although, when
+Padre Pedro had received her, she was wasted by the fever, and near
+starved to death. But this was only one of his many charities. He used
+to loan out money to the people, knowing well that they would never be
+able to return it. He had cured the sick, and had distributed quinine
+among families that could not have secured it otherwise. He went to
+visit his parishioners, although they had no means of entertaining
+him. Most of them even had no chairs for him to sit on when he came,
+and they would stand around in such embarrassed silence that the
+padre could not have derived much pleasure from their company.
+
+At the padre's "_áver, bata!_" after the last visitor has gone, the
+house-boys run in with the noon meal. The padre had a good cook, who
+understood the art of fixing the provisions in the Spanish style. I was
+surprised at the resources of the parish; for a meal of ten or fifteen
+courses was the usual thing. A phalanx of barefooted waiters stood in
+line to take the plates when we had finished the respective courses,
+broth, mutton stew, and chicken, and bananas for dessert. The padre,
+I am sorry to say, ate with his knife, and was inclined to gobble. Two
+yellow dogs and a lean cat stood by to gulp the morsels that were
+thrown them from the table. When the dinner was completed, a large
+tumbler of water and a toothpick were brought on. After a smoke the
+padre took his customary nap, retiring to the low, cane-bottomed bed,
+where he intrenched himself behind mosquito-bars.
+
+The convent was a rambling building, with adobe walls. It was raised
+up on pillars as long as telegraph poles, and the ground floor was
+divided into various apartments. There was the "_calaboos_," where
+Padre Pedro's chickens were encouraged to "put" eggs. There were
+the stables for the padre's ponies, and a large bamboo stockade
+for pigs and chickens. The little friar took a lively interest in
+this corral, and he would feed his stock with his own hand from the
+convent window. "Ze leetle goat," he said, "eet ees my mind to send
+to Father Cipriano for a geeft." The sucking pig was being saved for
+Easter-time, when it should be well roasted on a spit, with a banana
+in its mouth. There were just sixty-seven chickens, and the padre
+used to count them every day and notice their peculiarities.
+
+During the afternoon the padre's time was taken up by various
+religious duties, and the school was left in charge of the old
+_maestra_. There would be a funeral service at the church, or a
+baptism, or confession. Some days he would be called away to other
+_barrios_ to hear a last confession; but the distance or the weather
+never daunted him, and he would tuck his gown well up, and, followed by
+a sacristan, ride merrily away. On his return a cup of pasty chocolate
+would await him. Padre Pedro used to make a certain egg-fizz which
+was a refreshing drink of a long afternoon. The eggs were lashed
+into a froth by means of a bamboo brush twisted or rolled between the
+palms. The beauty of this beverage was that you could drain the cup,
+and, like the miracle of loaves and fishes, stir the batter up again,
+and have another drink of the same quality. "When Padre Cipriano comes
+here," said the friar, "eet ees very gay. Ah! Cipriano, he can make
+the foam come up three times. He knows well how to make thees drink."
+
+When he would take his ebony cane and go out walking about sunset,
+followed by his yellow dog, the village people, young and old,
+would tumble over each other in their eagerness to kiss the father's
+hand. He would mischievously tweak the noses of the little ones,
+or pat the tiny girls upon the head. The friend of the lowly, he
+had somehow incensed the upper ten. But he had shown his nerve one
+Sunday morning when he had talked down one of these braggadocios who
+had leveled a revolver at him in the church.
+
+The little padre was as brave as he was "game." He was a fearless
+rider, and there were few afternoons when we were not astride the
+ponies, leaping the streams and ditches in the rice-pads, swimming the
+fords, and racing along the beach, and it was always the little priest
+that set the pace. One evening he received a message from the father
+superior of that vicinity, old Padre José, living ten or fifteen miles
+up the road in an unpacified community. The notice was imperative,
+and only said to "come immediately, and as soon as possible."
+
+Padre José was eighty years old, and he had been in Mindanao nearly all
+his life. He spoke Visayan better than the natives, and he understood
+the Filipinos just as though each one of them had been his child. He
+had been all around the island and among the pagan tribes who saw
+their spirits in the trees and streams. He had been back to Spain
+just once, and he had frozen his fingers over there. As I remember
+him, he was a dear, grandmotherly old fellow, in a long black gown,
+who bustled around so for us (we had stopped there on a certain
+expedition), cooking the eggs himself, and cutting the tough bologna,
+holding the glass of _moscatel_ so lovingly up to the light before
+he offered it, that I almost expected him to bring forth crullers,
+tea, and elderberry pie. His convent was at that time occupied by
+the municipal authorities; and so he lived in a small _nipa_ house
+with his two dogs, his Latin library, and the sacristans who at night
+slept scattered about the floor. The local conditions were unsettled at
+this time. The garrison at Surigao had been attacked by the so-called
+ladrones. Night messages were flying to and fro. Padre José's summons
+seemed a harbinger of trouble. But, in spite of the fact that Padre
+Pedro had been sick for several days, he obeyed the command of his
+superior like any soldier, and at midnight saddled the ponies, tucked
+a revolver under his gown, and started at a gallop down the road. When
+he arrived at Father José's house, nothing serious was found to be
+the matter. Only the dear old soul was lonesome and had wanted company.
+
+Often at evening we would sit on the veranda till the evening star
+appeared--"the star that the shepherds know well; the precurser of the
+moon"--and then the angelus would ring, and Padre Pedro would stand
+up and doff his cap, and, after a moment spent in silent prayer,
+"That is good-night,'" he used to say, and then we would go in
+for dinner. Dinner was served at eight o'clock, and was as formal
+an affair as the noon meal. The evening would be spent at study,
+for the padre was a scholar of no mean ability. He had translated
+some of Stockton's stories into the Visayan language. Speaking of
+Stockton, Padre Pedro said that he "knew well the spirit of your
+countrymen." His work was frequently disturbed by the _muchachos_
+running in with sums that they had finished on their slates; but the
+padre never showed the least impatience at these interruptions.
+
+Sometimes the "musickers" would come, and, crowding around the little
+organ, practice the chants for some _fiesta_ day. The principal
+"musicker" was a grotesque old fellow, with enormous feet, and glasses
+rimmed with tortoise-shell. He looked so wise when he was poring
+over the manuscript in the dim candle-light that he reminded one
+of an intelligent gorilla. One of his assistants, meanwhile, would
+be making artificial flowers, which were to decorate the battered
+floats to be used in the festival procession on the morrow, carried
+aloft upon the shoulders of the men, sparkling with lighted tapers,
+while the bells up in the tower would jangle furiously. Or there would
+be a conference with his secretary in regard to the town records,
+which that functionary kept in the big book.
+
+One night the padre was called out to attend one who, as was explained
+to me, was bitten by a "fool" dog. On entering the poorly-lighted
+shack, we found, surrounded by a gaping crowd, the victim foaming at
+the mouth. He had indeed been bitten by a "fool" dog, and he died a few
+hours afterwards, as we could do but little to relieve his suffering.
+
+We spent the remainder of the evening looking over the long mass for
+Easter Sunday. And the padre said naïvely, "Will it not be necessary
+that I take one beer when I have reached this place, and then I can
+continue with the mass?" He looked back fondly to the days when he had
+sung his part in the antiphony in the magnificent cathedral at Manila.
+
+The town was always at the friar's service. And no wonder! Had he
+not sent all the way to Manila for a Christmas box of goodies for the
+schoolboys,--figs, and raisins, and preserves? I caught him gloating
+over them one evening--when he gave his famous supper of roast kid
+and frosted cake for his American guests from the army post--and
+he had offered us a taste of these almost forgotten luxuries. How
+he anticipated the delight he had in store for all the boys! Then
+in the time of cholera, when the disease invaded even the convent,
+although a young man, Padre Pedro never left his post.
+
+The only time I ever knew him to complain was when the people came in
+hundreds to confession. The confession-box was too hot, and the breath
+of the penitents offensive. "Eet ees a work of charity," he said;
+"they pay me nothing--nothing." The priest was only human when he
+feigned the toothache in order to secure a transfer to Cebu. The little
+station in the wilderness was too monotonous. He packed his effects
+in secret, fearing that the people would discover his intention and
+detain him. The father superior had granted him a leave of absence. His
+suspicions had not been aroused. When he had reached Cebu the _freile_
+would be under different authority, and it was even possible that
+he be stationed in Manila or returned to Spain. He had not seen his
+parents for ten years, but his education had prepared him for a life
+of sacrifice. For the first time he felt neglected and forgotten. On
+arriving at the trading port, he learned that his parishioners had
+found him out. They sent a delegation to entreat him to remain. The
+little padre's heart was touched. "They love me too much," he said,
+"and they have nobody but me."
+
+My friend the padre might have been an exception to the general
+rule. He was a "Friar in the Philippines," a member of a much-maligned
+religious order. Still I have met a number of their priests and
+bishops, and have found them charming and delightful men. They are such
+hospitable entertainers that they have been frequently imposed upon
+by traveling Americans, who take the convents for hotels, regardless
+of the public sentiment. It was the friars of San Augustin who,
+in 1565, subdued and pacified the Cebuanos when the arms of Spain
+availed but little. It was the _Freile_ Pedro de San Augustin, the
+"fighting padre," who, in 1639, defeated the lake Moros. And, in
+1754, a Spanish freile, Father Ducos, commanding the fleet of Iligan,
+defeated the armada of the Moro pirates, killing about a thousand of
+these buccaneers.
+
+Of course there have been friars good and bad. But "Father Peter,"
+though he might have had good cause to dislike the Americans,
+had always expressed the greatest admiration for them. They were
+"political" (diplomatic) men. His mastering the English language was
+a compliment to us such as few Spaniards have seen fit to pay. He
+might have been narrow in religious matters, but, above all, he
+was conscientious. While he could bathe his hands or face in the
+Aloran River, he could not go in. His education was a Spartan one,
+and narrowing in its influences. All the society that he had ever had
+was that of a hundred students with the same ideals and inclinations
+as his own. The reputation of the friars in the Philippines has
+been depreciated by the conduct of the native priests. There was
+a padre named Pastor, an arrant coward, and wholly ignorant and
+superstitious. Sly old fox, he used to bet his last cent on the
+cock-fights, hiding up in the back window of Don Julian's. Once, on a
+drunken spree, he let a layman wear his gown and rosary. The natives,
+showing more respect for the sacred vestments than the priest had
+shown, went out to kiss the hand of him who wore the robe. The work
+of the friars can be more appreciated by comparing the civilization
+of the Christian natives with the state of the barbarians and
+pagans. Whatever its defects may be, instead of the head-hunters and
+the idol-worshipers, the Filipino who has come within the influence
+of Spanish priests, though often lavish and improvident, is neat,
+polite, and sociable. But the friars can do better still. If they
+would use their influence to abolish the cock-fights Sunday afternoon,
+and try to co-operate more with the civil government in the matter
+of public education, they would find that there is plenty of work
+to be done yet. But some of the accusations against the friars are
+unfair. Extortion is a favorite charge against them; but it must be
+kept in mind that there are no pew-rents or voluntary contributions,
+and that Spain has now withdrawn the financial support that she once
+gave. The Church must be maintained through fees derived from weddings,
+funerals, and christenings. And if the Filipino, in his passion for
+display and splendor, orders a too expensive funeral, he has only
+himself, and not the priest, to blame. Indeed, the friars can derive
+but little benefit from a rich treasury, because, when absent from
+their parishes, they are allowed to have no money of their own. All
+of the funds remaining after the expenses of the Church are paid
+must be sent to the general treasury. The padre in his convent has
+the use of the Church money for his personal needs and charities, but
+nevertheless he is expected to make large returns each year. Perhaps,
+then, after all, the friars--Padre Pedro, anyway--are not so black
+as they are painted.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XV.
+
+General Rufino in the Moro Country.
+
+
+
+Introduction.
+
+
+The story of Rufino's expedition to the Moro country in the summer
+of 1901 reads like a chapter from _Anabasis_. It has to do with
+_Capitan_ Isidro's curious experiences as a hostage in the home of
+Datto Amay Bancurong, at Lake Lanao. It deals with the last chapter
+in the history of two American deserters, Morgan and Miller, of the
+Fortieth United States volunteers, who, under General Rufino, served
+as officers--soldiers of fortune in a lost campaign--and who, as a
+last tribute of the treachery and faithlessness of those they served,
+received their death-blows at the hands of Filipinos who had caught
+them off their guard.
+
+The information published by Rufino shortly after his surrender has
+been valuable to the officers of our own army who are now exploring
+the mysterious interior of Mindanao. _Capitan_ Isidro's intimacy
+with the Moros during the long period of his captivity should render
+his interpretation of the character, the life, and customs of this
+savage tribe authoritative. General Rufino, being one of the last
+_Insurrectos_ to surrender, has not been as yet rewarded by the
+Government. This fact will be of consequence in case of any further
+outbreak on the northern coast of Mindanao. General Rufino lingers
+still about the scene of his exploit, and may be met with almost any
+time in Oroquieta, or, still better, in the sullen and revengeful
+village of Palilan, near the border of the Moro territory.
+
+
+
+Rufino's Narrative.
+
+
+We left Mount Liberdad on June 1, 1901, with eighteen officers, and
+privates to the number of four hundred and forty-two. Our destination
+was the town of Uato, on the shore of Lake Lanao, where, in obedience
+to our instructions from the Filipino _junta_ at Hong Kong, we
+were to arrange a conference with the leading dattos in regard to
+an alliance of the Filipino and the Moro forces to conduct a joint
+campaign against the American army of invasion.
+
+Among our officers were two deserters from I company of the Fortieth
+United States volunteers, Morgan and Miller, who were mere adventurers,
+and who desired to clear the country and embark for Africa. Morgan was
+supposed to have been wanted for some criminal offense in the United
+States. He claimed to have deserted as a consequence of punishments
+received by him which he considered to be undeserved. His comrade
+Miller followed him; but I have heard that Morgan took it hard because
+his friend had followed such a questionable lead. An understanding
+had been previously arranged between our officers and Morgan, so that
+when the latter left the lines at Oroquieta we received him and his
+comrade at Aloran, six miles north.
+
+Our first stop was to be at Lintogout, a station on the river by
+the same name, that flows into the long estuary that divides our
+country from the Moro territory. As you can see, our march was very
+rough. The mountain chain, of which Mount Liberdad, Mount Rico,
+and Mount Esperenza are the most important peaks, is very wild
+and hazardous. A few miles from the coast the country breaks into
+ravines and hills. There are no villages; no depots for supplies. The
+trails are almost imperceptible, and can be followed only by the
+most experienced _Montesco_ guides. Back in the mountains there are
+many natural strongholds, which are practically inaccessible. The
+mountain wall, with its Plutonic cañons and precipitous descents,
+wrapped in a chilly fog, continually towered above us on the west.
+
+To add to our embarrassments, we were harassed by a detachment of
+United States troops that had been pursuing us. Their plan was to close
+in upon us in two sections, from the front and rear. Near Lintogout
+we came to an engagement with Lieutenant Patterson's command. My army
+was by this time seriously crippled. We had lost one hundred and forty
+men the previous day by desertion. The deserting men, however, did not
+take their arms. Lieutenant Patterson's command must have been quite
+exhausted, for they camped at night on a plateau along the precipice,
+where an attack by us would have been inadvisable. The troops were
+new and untried; the experience for them was something they had not
+anticipated. Yet they kept at it stubbornly, slinging their carbines
+on their backs, and climbing up hand over hand in places where they
+had lost the trail. Their guides were evidently somewhat of a puzzle
+to them, as the Montese idea of distance is indefinite. "When I have
+finished this cigar we will be there," they say; and "_poco distancia_"
+with them means often many miles.
+
+We were not inconvenienced much by the engagement. Our American
+lieutenants superintended the construction of intrenchments, back
+of which we lay, and fired a volley at the enemy. At their advance
+our army scattered, and a number of our soldiers, taking inexcusable
+advantage of the opportunity, deserted. On the next day we set out,
+reduced in numbers to two hundred and fifty-two. None of our men were
+killed or wounded in the fight.
+
+We then proceeded overland to Lake Lanao, the journey occupying sixteen
+days, during which time the army had no rice, but had to exist entirely
+on the native fruits. Our tardiness in reaching Lake Lanao was caused
+by two attacks by Moros, June 15th. In order to avoid this enemy
+we made a detour, coming dangerously near the coast at Tucuran. At
+Tucuran three men deserted. Thence our march led inland to Bacáyan,
+following the south shore of the lake. Before we reached Bacáyan
+we were met (June 29th and 30th) by Dattos Casiang and Pindalonan,
+with their combined forces. Our side lost two killed, three wounded
+(who were taken captive); and the Moros, thirteen killed, three
+wounded. Arriving at Bacáyan July 1st, we waited there twelve days.
+
+Then we set out along the south shore to Uato on the lake, which
+place we reached without engagement on the nineteenth of July. We
+stopped at Uato ten days, there borrowing $500 "Mex" from Datto
+Bancurong. We were obliged to leave Captain Isidro Rillas with the
+datto for security. The very money that we now were borrowing the
+Moros had received from us for their protection during our campaign,
+and for their promising not to molest us all the time that we were
+in their territory. Having loaned us money, they now sold us rice,
+in which negotiation, just as in the former one, they took advantage
+of our helplessness. The deal, however, was a necessary one, because
+the army had been for a long time without funds or rations. Leaving
+Uato we proceeded to Liángan, on the north coast, opposite Tudela
+(on the Jolo Sea). We left the Moro country on the recommendation of
+the two American deserters, who had been dissatisfied for some time
+at the turn affairs were taking.
+
+We were attacked the first day out of Uato by the combined forces
+of three powerful dattos, who had previously borrowed rifles from us
+on the pretext of desiring to kill game. The engagement lasted until
+sunset. Of the Moros, ten were killed and many wounded. Night coming
+on, the enemy withdrew for re-enforcements. They returned the next
+day several thousand strong, and would have utterly annihilated us
+(for we were worn by fever and starvation) had it not been for Datto
+Bandia's advice, which finally discouraged the attack.
+
+We reached Liangan July 31st with two hundred and thirty-nine
+men. Here we purchased rifles from the Moros, crossed the bay at
+night, and reached Tudela August 5th. Procrastination on the part of
+the conferring dattos made a failure of the expedition. We had spent
+about $10,000 gold for rations, good will, and protection.
+
+Morgan and Miller, when the army was disbanded, lived around Langaran
+for a while. One day while they were bathing in the sea, they were
+cut-down by natives--I do not know why. Morgan was killed while arguing
+with his assailants. "We have done a lot for you," he said; but those
+were his last words. Miller, attempting to escape by running through
+the shallow water, was pursued by _bancas_ and dispatched. The bodies
+were found later in a marsh.
+
+
+
+Capitan Isidro Rillas's Narrative.
+
+
+I was to have been educated for the Church; but after studying for
+some time in Cebu preparatory to a course at Rome, I set aside the
+wishes of my parents, who desired that I become a Jesuit, and took
+unto myself a wife.
+
+You wonder, probably, why we Visayans, who are very peaceable,
+should have assumed a hostile attitude toward the Americans. Of
+course, we do not really like the game of war. But what positions
+would we hold among our own communities if we were to be easily
+imposed upon? You would have thought it a queer army that assembled
+at Mount Liberdad in 1901,--barefooted _hombres, ignorantes_ from the
+rice-pads and the hemp-fields, armed with cutlasses and bolos--for
+we had no more than fifty guns--undisciplined and without military
+knowledge. But the appearance of your army in the war of Independence
+caused amusement to the British soldiers--for awhile? The Government
+generously recognized a number of the leaders of the insurrection,
+and in doing so has not done wrong. Our leaders are to-day, among our
+people, what your patriots are in your own land. And even you have no
+respect for those who hid themselves among the women during the affair
+at Oroquieta. Left alone, we could soon organize our government, our
+schools, and army. But, of course, conditions render this impossible,
+and so we think American protection is the best.
+
+You ask for some account of my experiences with the Moros during
+our excursion to their territory. Our army was at first about five
+hundred strong, but nearly half the men deserted on the way. We had
+not counted on so much hostility among the Moros, although they are
+ancient enemies of ours, and until very recently have raided our coast
+villages and carried off our people into slavery. But when we wanted
+slaves, we purchased them--young Moros--from their parents at Misamis.
+
+Though our mission was an altogether friendly one, our hosts did not
+let any opportunity go by of taking an unfair advantage of us. General
+Rufino was obliged to leave me as a hostage at Uato at the home of
+Datto Bancurong.
+
+If we could have effected an alliance with the Moros, it would no
+doubt have been a formidable one. The Moros are well armed and expert
+fighting men. Most of our weapons have been purchased from them, as
+they had formerly acquired a stock of stolen Spanish guns. Those living
+in the Lake Lanao vicinity must have about two thousand Remington
+and Mauser guns, besides a number of old-fashioned cannon, which
+are mounted in their forts. They manufacture their own ammunition,
+which is necessarily of an indifferent quality.
+
+We told the Moros that they would all have to work if the Americans
+should come. We knew that they were all slaveholders and ladrones;
+we knew that while they kept their slaves they would not need to work;
+and so we thought our argument ought to appeal to them.
+
+When I was left with Datto Bancurong, security for the five hundred
+_pesos_ that Rufino had been forced to borrow, I was treated with
+considerable hospitality. At one time when I had the fever, he
+secured some chickens for me,--they were very scarce. The datto had
+three wives, but one of them was rather old. I did not notice any
+ornaments of gold upon them. They wore silver rings and bracelets,
+which the native jewelers had made. The women are industrious,
+and consequently do most of the work. They are quite skillful with
+the loom, and manufacture from the native fabric, _ampic_ (sashes)
+which their husbands wear. But for themselves they buy a cheaper
+fabric from the _Chinos_, which they dye in brilliant colors and make
+into blankets. You would probably mistake the men for women at first
+sight because of their peculiar cast of features. They are dressed
+much better and more picturesquely than the women, wearing bright
+silk turbans, sashes with gay fringe, and blouses often fancifully
+colored and secured by brass or mother-of-pearl buttons.
+
+The Moro tribes, because they recognize no ruler but the local datto,
+are unable to accomplish anything of national significance. Concerted
+action is with them impossible. Thirty or forty villages are built
+around the lake. They are so thickly grouped, however, that one
+might as well regard them all as one metropolis. The mountains form
+a background for the lake, which is located on a high plateau. The
+climate here is more suggestive of a temperate zone than of a place
+within four hundred miles of the equator, and the nights are often
+disagreeably cold. To become a datto it is only necessary to possess
+a few slaves, wives, and carabao. A minor datto averages about four
+slaves, a dozen head of cattle, and two wives. He wears silk clothes,
+and occupies the largest _nipa_ house.
+
+The Moro weapons are of several kinds,--the _puñal_ (a wedge-bladed
+knife), the _campalon_ (a long broadsword), and the _sundang_ (a Malay
+kriss). They also use head-axes, spears, and dirks. Being Mohammedans,
+they show a fatalistic bravery in battle. It is a disgrace to lose
+the weapon when in action; consequently it is tied to the hand. Many
+of their knives were made by splitting up the steel rails laid at
+Iligan. The brass work of the Spanish locomotives, also, was a great
+convenience in the manufacture of their cutlery.
+
+Although they have schools for the boys, the Moro people do not
+make a speciality of education. The young men are taught from the
+Koran by priests, who also teach the art of making characters in
+Arabic. Their music is for the most part religious, inharmonious,
+and unmelodious. The _coluctang_, their most important instrument,
+resembles our guitar. They seem to recognize three grades of
+priests--the _emam_, the _pandita_, and the _sarip_, named in order
+of superiority. Their churches are great, circular inclosures, made of
+_nipa_ and bamboo, with no attempt at decoration. Sacred instrumental
+music is supplied by bells and drums. The drum at Uato, where I was,
+being of extraordinary size, required two men to operate it. Each town
+contains a large percentage of ladrones, whose influence is offset by
+the _pandita_ (or elders), three or five for every _barrio_. These are
+the secondary priests, and it is necessary that they go into the church
+three times a day to pray. At sunrise, at midday, and at sunset they
+will cry repeatedly, "_Aláh! Aláh! Bocamad soro-la!_" (Allah is god;
+Mohammed, prophet.) All the priests wear bright robes like the dattos,
+but the clergy is distinguished by a special _bangcala_, or turban,
+which is ornamented by a string of silver rings.
+
+There are about five hundred Filipinos living with the Moros, mostly
+slaves. Deer, jungle-cock, wild hogs, and cattle are to be found
+in the plains and forests near the lake. The soil is fertile, and
+sufficient crops of corn, rice, coffee, and tobacco may be raised,
+_Camotes_ (wild potatoes), fruits, and cocoanuts are very scarce.
+
+Though many of the dattos are disposed to treat the Americans as
+friends, three in particular will entertain a different attitude. These
+are Bayang, Mario, and Taraia, who, among them, have control of many
+men. They realize, however, that the new invaders will be harder
+to oppose than were the Spaniards of the former _laissez faire_
+régime. The Filipinos will, of course, be glad to see the Moros beaten
+in the conflict that is now inevitable.
+
+To conclude my narrative, we finally got the better of our hosts, the
+enemy. The Moros wanted $1,500 in return for the $500 they had loaned
+Rufino. "Then you must let the hostage come to his own people," said
+Rufino, "so that he can use his influence among them and solicit funds;
+for otherwise we will not ransom him." The situation did not look so
+very bright for me; but at a conference of the interested dattos they
+reluctantly decided that I might depart. Eight Moros were appointed
+to accompany me as a body-guard. On reaching Iligan it was requested
+that the post commander furnish me an escort back to Oroquieta, which
+was done. The Moros profited so much by our excursion, selling us good
+will and rice, that I am sure they will forgive us for not paying them
+the ransom money, which is no more than the brokerage on a small loan.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI.
+
+Along the Iligan-Marahui Road.
+
+
+The recent victories achieved by Captain Pershing over the
+fanatic More tribes in the vicinity of Lake Lanao, have opened
+up for military occupation a new territory equal in fertility and
+richness to the famous Cagayan valley of Luzon. The Moros under the
+American administration will be recognized as independent tribes,
+and be restricted probably to reservations similar to those the
+Indians now occupy. This means that a great tract of land will some
+day be thrown open for American development. The soil will yield
+abundant crops of corn, tobacco, coffee, rice, and other products,
+while the forest wealth appeals to the imagination. Rubber, sugar,
+hemp, and _copra_ are the natural products of the country near
+the coast. The lake itself is situated on a high plateau, with a
+prevailing temperate climate. Where the mountains do not intervene,
+the land slopes gradually down to the sea.
+
+One of the most important military operations that was ever undertaken
+in the Philippines was the construction of the Iligan-Marahui road,
+which, having been for some time open to the pack-trains and the heavy
+traffic, is at present nearing its completion. Though the work was
+planned by members of the engineers' corps, all the clearing, grading,
+and the filling-in were done by soldiers who had never until then known
+what it meant to handle pick and shovel. The younger officers, who,
+for the first time in their lives, were superintending a construction
+job, went out and bossed the gangs as well as many an experienced
+and seasoned foreman could have done. The soldiers, who deserve no
+little credit for their work, are members of the Twenty-eighth and
+the Tenth infantries.
+
+It was about the last of January that I made a trip to Iligan,
+arriving in a Moro sailboat from another port on the north coast
+of Mindanao. Two or three army transports, with the quarantine
+flag flying (for the cholera was still in evidence), lay quietly
+at anchor in the bay. Along the shore a warm breeze ruffled the
+green branches of the _copra_ palms. Near the new dock a gang of
+Moros were at work, perspiring in the hot rays of the tropic sun. A
+tawny group of soldiers, dressed in khaki, rested in the shade of a
+construction-house, and listened dreamily to far-off bugle calls.
+
+The Moros were dressed picturesquely in a great variety of costume,
+ranging from bright-colored silk to dirty corduroy. Red _buya_-juice,
+was leaking from the corners of their mouths. Their turbans, though
+disgracefully unclean, were silk. Their coats were fastened by brass
+military buttons, and their sashes, green and red, with a long fringe,
+were tied around their waists; their trousers, like a pair of riding
+breeches, buttoned up the side.
+
+While spending the first evening at the club, I had seen mingling
+with the young lieutenants, immaculate in their new olive uniforms,
+bronzed, mud-bespattered officers in the blue army shirt and khaki,
+with the Colt's six-shooter hanging from an ammunition belt. These
+were the strangers from the town of white tents on the border of the
+woods. At midnight possibly, or even later, they would mount their
+horses and go riding through the night to the encampment on the
+hill. The very next day one of the immaculate lieutenants, laying
+off the olive uniform, might have to don the old campaign hat and
+the flannel shirt, and follow his unshaven comrades up the road.
+
+We stretched our army cots that night in the roulette room (this
+is not a country of hotels), and to the rattle of the balls and the
+monotonous drone of the croupier, "'teen and the red wins," dropped off
+to sleep. On the day following the _Dr. Hans_ dropped in with Generals
+Wade and Sumner, and the jingle of the cavalry was heard as they rode
+out with mounted escort to inspect the operations of the road. After
+a dance and a reception at the residence of the commanding officer in
+honor of the visitors, "guard mount," the social feature of the day,
+was viewed from the pavilion in the little plaza where the exercise
+takes place. Its dignity was sadly marred that evening when a Moro
+datto, self-important in an absurd, overwhelming hat, accompanied
+by an obedient old wife on a moth-eaten Filipino pony, and a dog,
+ignoring everybody, jogged along the street and through the lines.
+
+I walked out to the camp next morning with Lieutenant Harris. Even for
+this short stretch the road was not considered altogether safe. We
+forded the small river just beyond the cavalry corral, where an old
+Spanish blockhouse stands, and where a few old-fashioned Spanish
+cannon still lie rusting in the grass. A Moro fishing village--now a
+few deserted shacks around the more pretentious dwelling of the former
+datto--may be met near where the roadway joins the beach. Pack-trains
+of army mules, with their armed escorts, passed us; then an ambulance,
+an escort wagon, and a mounted officer.
+
+Two companies of the Tenth infantry were camped in a small
+clearing near the sea. Leaving the camp, we went along the almost
+indistinguishable Moro trail to where the mighty Agus River plunges in
+a greenish torrent over an abrupt wall into the deep, misty cavern far
+below. The rushing of the waters guided us in places where we found
+the trail inadequate. Arriving at the falls, we scrambled down by
+means of vines until we reached a narrow shelf near where the cataract
+began its plunge. Upon the opposite side an unyielding precipice was
+covered with a damp green coat of moss and fern. It took five seconds
+for a falling stone to reach the seething cloud of mist below.
+
+The trail back to the camp was very wild. It led through jungles
+of dense underbrush, where monkeys scolded at us, and where wild
+pigs, with startled grunts, bolted precipitously for the thicket. A
+deep ravine would be bridged by a fallen tree. The Iligan-Marahui
+road now penetrates the wildest country in the world, and the most
+wonderful. Turning abruptly from the coast about five miles from
+Iligan, it winds among the rocky hills through forests of mahogany and
+ebony, through jungles of rattan and young bamboo, and spanning the
+swift Agus River with a modern steel bridge, finally connects the lake
+and sea. It has been built to meet the military road from the south
+coast, thus making possible, for the first time, communication _via_
+the interior. The new roads practically follow the old Moro trails.
+
+The scene at early morning on the road was one of great activity. Soon
+after reveille the men are mustered, armed with picks and shovels in
+the place of the more customary "Krag," and long before the tropic
+sun has risen over the primeval woods, the chatter of monkeys and the
+crow of jungle-cock is mingled with the crash of trees, the click
+of shovels and the rumble of the dump-cart. The continued blasting
+on the upper road, near the "Point of Rocks," disturbs the colonies
+of squawking birds that dart into the forest depths like flashes of
+bright color. As the land is cleared for fifty yards on either side in
+order to admit the sunlight and to keep the Moras at a proper range,
+the great macao-trees, with their snaky, parasitic vines, on crashing
+to the ground, dislodge the pallid fungi and extraordinary orchids from
+their heavy foliage. Deep cuts into the clayey soil sometimes bisect
+whole galleries of wonderful white ants, causing untold consternation
+to the occupants.
+
+Each squad of soldiers was protected by a guard besides the officer,
+who, armed with a revolver, acted as the overseer. The work was very
+telling on the men, and often out of a whole company not more than
+twenty-eight reported. Some grew as strong as oxen under this unusual
+routine; others had to take advantage of the sick report. The soldiers
+were required to work five hours a day, and double time after a day
+of rain. Considerable Moro labor was employed on the last sections
+of the road.
+
+A unique feature of the work was the erection of small bridges made
+of solid logs from the material at hand, and bolted down by long steel
+bars. The "elbow" bridge which makes a bend along the hillside near the
+first camp is a triumph in the engineering line. The camps were moved
+on as the work progressed, and the advance guard ran considerable
+risk. The Moros had an unexpected way of visiting the scene of
+operation, and admiring it from certain hiding-places in the woods. As
+they could hike their thirty or forty miles a day along the trails,
+they often came much nearer to the troops than was suspected. Sentry
+duty was especially a risky one, as frequently at night the Moros used
+to fire into the camp. Only about one hundred yards along the trail
+a soldier, who had gone into the woods for a "short cut," received
+one from a Moro who was waiting for him in the shadow of a tree.
+
+The camp at night, illuminated by the blue light of the stars, the
+forest casting inky shadows on the ground, seemed like some strange,
+mysterious domain. The officers around the tent of the commanding
+officer were singing songs, accompanied by the guitar and mandolin. The
+soldiers also from a distant tent--it was their own song, and the tune
+"The Girl I Left Behind Me"--practicing close harmony, began:
+
+
+        "O, we're camped in the sand in a foreign land
+          Near the mighty Agus River,
+        With the brush at our toes, the skeeters at our nose,
+          The jimjams and the fever.
+
+        We're going up to Lake Lanao,
+          To the town they call Marahui;
+        When the road is built and the Moros killed,
+          We'll none of us be sorry.
+
+        We're blasting stumps and grading bumps;
+          Our arms and backs are sore, O!
+        We work all day just a dreamin' of our pay,
+          And d----n the husky Moro!
+
+
+When taps sounded, we turned in beneath two blankets in a wall-tent
+lighted by a feeble lantern. All night long the restless jungle sounds,
+the whispering of the mysterious forest, and the distant booming
+of the sea, together with the measured tread of the night sentry,
+made a lullaby which ought to have worked wonders with the "jim-jam"
+and the fever patients of the Twenty-eighth.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII.
+
+The Filipino at Play.
+
+
+As in the pre-Elizabethan days the public amusements consisted
+of performances by priests and monks on scaffolding set up before
+the church, mystery plays, "moralities," and "miracles," religious
+pageants through the village streets,--so in the Philippines, where
+they have not outlived the fourteenth century, the Church plays
+an important part in popular _fiestas_. The Christmas holidays are
+celebrated still by carol singing from house to house, and by the
+presentation of the old-time "mystery" by strolling bands of actors,
+with a wax-doll to represent the Sacred Child.
+
+Each town, besides the regular church holidays--as indicated by
+innumerable red marks in the calendar--has a _fiesta_ for its
+patron saint, which is of more importance even than the "Feast of
+Aguinaldo" ("Aguinaldo" is their word for "Christmas present"), which
+is held annually in December. One of these _fiestas_ is announced
+by the ringing of the church-bells--big bells and little bells all
+turning somersaults, and being banged as they go round. During the
+intermissions the municipal band discourses Spanish and Visayan music,
+coming to the end with a triumphant bang. Only on Holy Friday are the
+bells abandoned and tin pans and bamboo clappers, sticks and stones,
+resorted to for purposes of lamentation--functions for which these
+instruments are perfectly adapted.
+
+People come in from far and near, riding in _bancas_ or on ponies,
+often spending several nights upon the way. The great church at the
+morning mass is crowded; women faint; and, as the heat increases,
+it becomes a steaming oven. It is more spectacular at vespers, with
+the women kneeling among the goats and dogs; the men, uncovered,
+standing in the shadows of the gallery; the altar sparkling with a
+hundred candles; and the dying sunlight filtering through mediæval
+windows. As the resinous incense odor fills the house, through
+the wide-open doors the sun can be seen setting in its tropical
+magnificence behind a grove of palms.
+
+Then the procession, in a haze of dust--led by the band, the padre,
+and the acolytes; the sacred relics borne aloft on floats encircled by
+a blaze of candles; young men holding each other's hands; children and
+old women following, holding their tapers and reciting prayers--files
+through the streets to the eternal clamor of the bells.
+
+The afternoon is given up to tournaments--carabao races, pony races,
+_banca_ races, cock-fights. Bamboo arches, decorated with red banners,
+are erected in the larger thoroughfares, and under these the horsemen
+ride together at full tilt, attempting to secure upon their lances
+the suspended rings which are the favors of the local _señoritas_. On
+dropping in at that volcanic little town, Mambajo, one hot afternoon,
+I found a goose hung up upon the bamboo framework which became the
+property of the competitor who, riding under it _ventre á terre_,
+could seize the prize, regardless of the feelings of the goose. The
+village had turned out in holiday attire, as the dense atmosphere of
+cocoanut-oil and perfumery proclaimed. The band, in white pith helmets
+and new linen uniforms, was playing under the mimosa-tree. Down the
+main road a struggling crowd of wheelmen came, and from a cloud of dust
+the winner of the mile bicycle-race shot past the tape. The difficulty
+in the carabao event was to stick on to the broad, clumsy animal,
+during the gallop around the course. One of the beasts, excited by
+the shouts, began to run amuck, and cut a swathe in the distracted
+crowd as clean as an ungovernable automobile might have made.
+
+The ringing of a bell announced the cock-fight in the main beneath
+the cocoanut-trees. It was near the market-place, where venders of
+betel-nut, tobacco, cigarettes, and _tuba_ squatted on the ground,
+their wares exposed for sale on mats. As the spectators crowded
+in, the gatekeeper would mark their bare feet with a red stamp,
+indicating that admission had been paid. On booths arranged within
+the last inclosure, _señoritas_ sold hot chocolate and raisin-cakes
+and beer. Tethered to little stakes, and straining at their leashes,
+the excited game-cocks, the descendants of the jungle-fowl, screamed
+in exultant unison. The small boys, having climbed the cocoanut-palms,
+clung to the notches, and looked down upon the scene of conflict.
+
+Little brown men, squatting around the birds, were critically hefting
+them, or matching couples of them in preliminary bouts, keeping a good
+hold of their tails. There was the wicked little Moro Bangcorong,
+the trainer of birds that never lost a fight. There was Manolo, the
+Visayan dandy, who on recent winnings in the main, supported a small
+stable of racing ponies at Cebu. The person entering a bird deposits
+a certain amount of money with the bank. This wager is then covered by
+the smaller bets of _hoi poiloi_. When a "dark" bird is victorious, and
+the crowd wins, an enthusiastic yell goes up. But just as in a public
+lottery, fortune is seldom with the great majority. As the bell rings,
+the spectators press close around the bamboo pit, or climb to points
+of vantage in adjacent scaffolding. A line is drawn in the damp earth,
+and on one side all the money wagered on the favorite is arranged,
+which must be balanced by the coin placed by opposing betters on the
+other side. There is a frantic rushing around at the last moment to
+place bets. The Chinaman waves a ten-_peso_ bill excitedly, and clamors
+"_buenting! buenting!_"--meaning that he puts his money on the speckled
+bird. Somebody on the other side cries out "_guingan!_" or "green," and
+thus they both find takers for their "_sapi_." Then the _presidente_,
+who referees the fight, sends two policemen to clear out the ring;
+the sheaths are removed from the razor-sharp steel spurs; the two cocks
+are held opposite each other, and are simultaneously launched into the
+arena. Ruffling, and facing each other with their necks outstretched,
+"blood in their eyes," and realizing to the full extent the danger of
+the situation, they prepare to fight it out to death. A quick stab,
+and the victim, trembling violently, a stream of red blood trickling
+down its leg, drops at the first encounter, and the fight is over.
+
+While no record has been kept of how the bets were placed, every
+one seems to remember, and the money is handed over honestly. If
+Filipinos were as honorable in all their dealings as they are in
+this, they would be ideal people to do business with; for although
+they will beg and borrow, or even steal, to get the money which is
+wagered at these "combats," they will never evade a debt of honor
+thus incurred. Regarding gambling as a livelihood, or a profession
+in good standing, they devote their best hours to the study and the
+mastery of it. They, with their false philosophy, believe that wealth
+is thus produced, and that there is a gain for every one.
+
+The list of fights progresses, some of the cocks only giving up the
+struggle after a last dying kick has been directed at the breast of
+the antagonist, who, desperately wounded, summons strength for one
+triumphant, but a rather husky, crow. Sometimes both birds are taken
+from the cockpit dead. The bird that loses a fight through cowardice
+is rent limb from limb by the indignant owner, and is ignominiously
+hung upon the bamboo paling,--bird of ill omen, that has ruined the
+finances of a family, mortgaged the house and carabao, and plunged
+its owner into debt for the next year!
+
+Sometimes a "free for all" is substituted for the dual
+contest. Eighteen or twenty fighting-cocks will be arranged in a large
+circle, dropped at the same time in the ring, and set to work. Half
+of the birds, not realizing what is going on, will innocently start
+to scratch for worms, or set out on a search for seeds. It is amusing
+then to see the astonished look they give when suddenly confronted
+by a couple of antagonists. They settle their disputes in bunches of
+three and four, and soon the ring is full of chickens running to get
+out of danger, maimed and crippled, or still innocently scratching
+after worms. There was a little white cock at the recent main at
+Oroquieta, who avoided every fight without, however, leaving the
+arena. The game old buzzard that belonged to _Capitan_ A-Bey--a bird
+with legs like stilts and barren patches in his foliage--had put down
+every challenger in turn. Confronted by two birds at once, he seemed
+to say, "One side, old fellow, for a moment; will attend to your case
+later"--which he did. Dizzy and staggering from loss of blood, still
+"in the ring," he sidled up to the immaculate white bird that had so
+ingeniously evaded every fight. It was a case of out-and-out bluff. If
+the little bird had struck, he must have won. A single look, however,
+at his reprehensible antagonist sufficed. The little bird made a
+direct line for the gate, while _Capitan_ A-Bey's old rooster, with
+defiance in his look and voice, was carried away in triumph. In the
+parade next day, where the competing game-cocks were exhibited, the
+"buzzard," though he was exempt from taking part in the proceedings,
+led the procession and was loudly cheered.
+
+
+
+My introduction to polite society in Filipinia was certainly
+auspicious. "Betel-Nut Sal," the wife of the constabulary sergeant, had
+a birthday, and invited everybody to the dance and the reception which
+would take place in the jail. The _Señorita_ Tonio, most prominent of
+the receiving ladies, was engaged when I arrived, in meting out gin to
+the visitors. Her teeth were red from betel-chewing, and a cigarette
+hung from the corner of her mouth. The orchestra, armed with guitars
+and mandolins, had seated themselves upon a bench, barefooted with
+their legs crossed, ready to begin. The insufficiency of partners
+for the ladies had necessitated letting out most of the prisoners
+on parole. A certain young dandy who had been locked up on charge
+of murder, was the hero of the hour. While he was dancing, soldiers
+with their Remingtons guarded the door. I was induced to try a dance
+with Tonio. The hum of music could be heard above the "clack-clack" of
+the carpet-slippers tapping on the floor. Then suddenly the _señorita_
+swore a white man's oath, and stopped. Her carpet-slipper had come off,
+and as she wore no hosiery, the situation was indeed embarrassing. Our
+hostess asked us twenty times if everything was satisfactory, and
+finally confessed that she had spent almost a year's income for the
+refreshments. "Dancee now; _mañana_, washie, washie."
+
+I must tell you of Bernarda's party. "We expect you for the eating,"
+read the invitation, and when dinner was all ready I was sent for. Then
+we sat down to a feast of roast pork, rice, and goat-flesh, with
+a rather soggy cake for the dessert. At most balls it is customary
+for the ladies to be seated first at the refreshment-table, where the
+most substantial articles of diet are boiled ham with sugar frosting,
+cakes flavored with the native lime, and lemon soda. Like the coy nun
+in Chaucer's "Prologue," she who is most elegant will take care not
+to spill the food upon her lap, eat with the fingers, or spit out
+the bones. At wedding feasts the gentlemen are given preference at
+the table.
+
+When the orchestra arrived--a trifle late after a six-mile hike through
+muddy roads and over swollen streams--the company was more delighted
+than a nursery. The orchestra began the program with the piece entitled
+"Just One Girl," to which the people sang Visayan words. Vivan, the
+old clown, in clumsy commissary shoes, skated around the floor to
+the amusement of the whole assembly. The chair-dance was announced,
+and the most favored _señorita_ occupied a chair set in the middle of
+the room. A dozen suitors came in order, bowing low, entreating her
+not to reject their plea. One after another they were thrown down,
+and retired crestfallen. But at last the right one came, and waltzed
+off with the girl triumphantly. There was a salvo of applause, the
+more intense because in this case an engagement had been practically
+announced. No native ball would be complete without the symbolistic
+dance which so epitomizes Filipino character. This is performed by a
+young lady and her partner wielding fans and scented handkerchiefs,
+advancing and retreating with all kinds of coquetries.
+
+Long after midnight, when the party broke up with the customary
+horse-play, the accommodating orchestra, who had enjoyed the evening
+with the rest, still playing "Just One Girl," escorted the assembly
+home.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVIII.
+
+Visayan Ethics and Philosophy.
+
+
+He is the drollest little person in the world--the Filipino of the
+southern isles. He imitates the sound of chickens in his language and
+the nasal "nga" of the carabao. He talks about his chickens and makes
+jokes about them. As he goes along the street, he sings, "_Ma-ayon
+buntag_," or "_Ma-ayon hapon_," to the friends he meets. This is
+his greeting in the morning and the afternoon; at night, "_Ma-ayon
+gabiti_." And instead of saying, "Thank you," he will sing, "_Deus
+mag bayud_" (God will reward you), and the answer, also sung, will be
+"_gehapon_" (always)--just as though it were no use to look for a
+reward upon this world.
+
+You wonder how it is that he can spend his life rooted to one spot,
+like a tree, passing the days in idleness. He is absorbed in his
+own thoughts. If you should ask him anything he would not hear you;
+he is far away in his own dreamland. You must wake him up first,
+and then repeat your question several times. If you should have
+instructions for him, do not give them to him all at once. A single
+idea at a time is all that he can carry in his head. If he has not
+been broken in to a routine, he will chase butterflies upon the way,
+influenced ever by the passion of the moment. There is no yesterday
+or no to-morrow in his thoughts. What he shall find to eat to-morrow
+never concerns him. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
+
+Many mistakes have been made in the hasty judgment of the
+Filipino character. Such axioms as "Never trust a native under
+any circumstances;" "Never expect to find a sense of gratitude;"
+"Never believe a word a native says," are only too well known in
+Filipinia. The Spanish influence has been responsible for most of the
+defects as well as for the merits of the native character. Then, the
+peculiar fashion of the Oriental mind forbids his reasoning according
+to the Occidental standards. Cause and effect are hazy terms to him,
+and the justification of the means is not regarded seriously. His
+thefts are in a way consistent with his system of philosophy. You are
+so rich, and he so poor. The Filipino is at heart a socialist. But he
+does not steal indiscriminately. If it is your money that he takes,
+it is because he needs it to put up on the next cock-fight. If he
+selects your watch, it is because he needs a watch, and nothing
+more. The Filipino, when he transacts business, has two scales of
+prices,--one for the natives, and another for Americans. He reasons
+that because Americans are rich, they ought to pay a higher price for
+what they get than Filipinos do. He would expect if he bought anything
+from you that you would make a special rate for him regardless of
+the value of the article in question. You would have to come down to
+accommodate his pocketbook.
+
+The Filipino code of ethics justifies a falsehood, especially if
+the end in view should be immediate. He lies to save himself from
+punishment, and he will make a cumulative lie, building it up from
+his imagination until even the artistic element is wanting, and
+his lie becomes a thing of contradictions and absurdities. When
+questioned closely, or when cross-examined, his imagination gets
+beyond control, and it is possible that he believes, himself, the
+"fairy tales" he tells. Fear easily upsets his calculations, and he
+runs amuck. But he will not betray himself, although he will deny a
+friend three times. He may be in an agony of fear, but only by the
+subtlest changes could it be detected.
+
+The Spaniards, when they left out gratitude from his curriculum, made
+up for the deficiency by inculcating strict ideals of discipline. The
+Filipino never has had much to be grateful for, and he regards a
+friendly move suspiciously. But he admires a master, and will humbly
+yield to almost any kind of tyranny, especially from one of his own
+race. The poorer classes rather like to be imposed upon in the same
+way as the Americans appreciate a humbug.
+
+In their communities the _presidente_ is supreme in power; and, like
+the king, this officer can do no wrong. He uses his position for his
+private ends. Why not? What is the use of being _presidente_ if it
+does not profit you? I have known some who secured monopolies on the
+hemp-trade by fining all who did not sell their hemp to them. Others
+appropriate the public funds for entertainment purposes, and when
+an inquiry is made regarding the condition of the treasury, the
+magistrate expresses the greatest surprise on finding that there is
+no money left. This officer, however, whatever his prerogatives may
+be, is not ambitious that his term of office be of any benefit. If
+he presides well at the cock-fights, it is all that is expected of
+him. If he goes to building bridges over rivers that the horses easily
+can wade across, the people will object to the unnecessary labor and
+expense. The _presidente_ dominates the town. If he can bring about
+prosperity in an agreeable way, without recourse to sudden means,
+the people will appreciate him and support him, though they do not
+take much interest in the elections. If the civil government can
+only get good _presidentes_ in the larger villages, the problem of
+administration will be solved.
+
+Malay traditions make the Filipino proud, disdainful, and reserved--and
+also cruel. Not only are the ardent sun and his inherent laziness
+accountable for his antipathy to work. It is beneath his dignity to
+work, and that is why he takes delight in being a public servant or
+a clerk. The problem of living is reduced to simplest terms. One can
+not starve to death as long as the bananas and the cocoanuts hold
+out. The question as to whether last year's overcoat or straw hat can
+be made to do, does not concern the Filipino in the least. If he needs
+money irresistibly, he can spend one day at work up in the mountains,
+making enough to last him for some time. If he can spend his money
+so as to create a display, he takes delight in doing so. But paying
+debts is as uninteresting as it is unpopular. The outward signs of
+elegance are much respected by the Filipino. The American, to live up
+to his part, must always be attended by a servant. Sometimes, when we
+would forget this adjunct, we would stop at some _tienda_ and propose
+to carry home a dozen eggs wrapped in a handkerchief. "What! have
+you no house-boy?" the natives asked. Apparently extravagant, they
+practice many petty economies at home. A morsel of food or a bit of
+clothing never goes to waste in Filipinia. They imitate the Chinaman
+in letting one of their finger-nails grow long.
+
+The Filipino is fastidious and dainty--in his own way. He will
+shudder at the uncouth Tagalog who toasts locusts over a hot fire and
+eats them, and that evening will go home and eat a handful of damp
+_guinimos_, the littlest of fish. He takes an infinite amount of care
+of his white clothes, and swaggers about the streets immaculate; but
+just as soon as he gets home, the suit comes off and is reserved for
+future exhibition purposes. The women pay comparatively small attention
+to their personal adornment. Their hair is combed straight back
+upon their heads. The style of dresses never undergoes a change. The
+ordinary dress consists of three important pieces--the chemise, a long,
+white, sleeveless garment; the _camisa_, or the _piña_ bodice, with
+wide sleeves; and the skirt, caught up on one side, and preferably
+of red material. A yoke or scarf of _piña_ folds around the neck,
+and is considered indispensable by _señoritas_. The native ideas of
+modesty are more or less false, varying with the individual.
+
+It might be thought that, on account of his indifferent attitude toward
+life and death, the Filipino has no feelings or emotions. He is a stoic
+and a fatalist by nature, but an emotionalist as well. While easily
+affected, the impressions are not deep, and are forgotten as they slip
+into the past. Although controlled by passion, he will hold himself in,
+maintaining a proud reserve, especially in the presence of Americans. A
+subtle change of color, a sullen brooding, or persistent silence,
+are his only outward signs of wrath. He will endure in patience what
+another race had long ago protested at; but when at last aroused and
+dominated by his passions, he will throw reserve and caution to the
+winds, and give way to his feelings like a child; and like a child,
+he feels offended if partiality is exercised against him. His sense of
+justice then asserts itself, and he resents not getting his share of
+anything. He even will insist on being punished if he thinks punishment
+is due him. While revengeful if imposed upon, and bitter under the
+autocracy of cruelty, he has a great respect for firmness. And the
+Americans would do well to remember that in governing the Filipino,
+kindness should be mingled with strict discipline.
+
+The Filipino can not be depended upon for accurate, reliable
+information. His information is indefinite, as perhaps it should be
+in the land of By and By. In spite of his imaginative temperament,
+his cruelty to animals is flagrant. He starves his dog and rides his
+pony till the creature's back is sore. He shows no mercy for the bird
+that loses at the cock-fight; he will mercilessly tear it limb from
+limb. In order to explain--not to excuse--this cruelty, we must again
+regard the Filipino as a child--a child of the toad-stabbing age.
+
+A little learning he takes seriously, and is puffed up by pride when he
+can follow with his horny finger the religious column in _Ang Suga_,
+spelling the long words out laboriously. Even the boys and girls who
+study English, often do so only to be "smart." It is a clever thing
+to spice one's conversation with an English word or expression here
+and there.
+
+Yet the Filipino is not altogether lazy and unsympathetic. Often
+around his houses you will see a tiny patch of corn or a little garden
+of green vegetables. He makes a mistake by showing a dislike for the
+_camote_, or the native sweet-potato, which abounds there. Preferring
+the unsubstantial rice to this more wholesome product, he leaves the
+sweet-potato for his Chinese and his Moro neighbors. On every street
+the sour-smelling _copra_ (cocoanut meat) can be seen spread out upon
+a mat to dry. The cattle are fed on the long rice-grass (the _palay_),
+or on the unhusked rice (_sacate_). A primitive trades-unionism exists
+among the Filipinos; every trade, such as the carpenters' or the
+musicians', having its respective _maestro_, with whom arrangements
+for the labor and the pay are always made. The native jewelers are
+very clever, fashioning the silver _pesos_ into ornaments for bolos,
+hats, or walking-sticks. Ironmongeries, though primitive in their
+equipment, have produced, by dint of skill and patience, work that is
+very passable. The women weave their own cloth on the native looms,
+and practice various other industries. The children are well trained
+in hospitality and public manners, which they learn by rote.
+
+While not original, they are good imitators, and would make excellent
+clerks, mechanics, carpenters, or draughtsmen. Some of their devices
+rather remind one of a small boy's remedy for warts or "side-ache." In
+order to exterminate the rats they introduce young pythons into the
+garrets of their houses, where the snake remains until his appetite
+is satisfied for rodents and his finer tastes developed. Usually
+the Filipino does things "wrong side out." Instead of beckoning
+when he would summon any one, he motions away from himself. Instead
+of making nicknames, such as Bob or Bill, from the first syllable,
+he uses the last, abbreviating Balendoy to 'Doy, Diega to a simple
+'Ga. They are the happiest people in the world, free from all care
+and trouble. It is among the younger generation that the promise
+lies. The little ones are bright and gentle and respectful--quite
+unlike the boisterous denizens of Young America. The race is still
+back in the fourteenth century, but the progress to be made within
+the next few years will span the chasm at a single bound.
+
+When I return to Filipinia, I shall expect to see, instead of the brown
+_nipa_ shacks, bright-painted American cottages or bungalows among
+the groves of palm. I shall expect to see the mountain slopes, waving
+with green hemp-fields, worked by the rejuvenated native. Railroads
+will penetrate into the dark interior, connecting towns and villages
+now isolated. The country roads will be well graded and macadamized,
+and bridges will be built across the streams. The cock-fight will
+have given way to institutions more American, and superstition will
+have vanished with the mediævalism. The hum of saw-mills will be
+heard upon the borders of the timber-lands; sugar refineries will
+be established near the fields of cane; for Filipinia is still an
+undeveloped paradise. The Great White Tribe has many problems yet
+to solve; but with the industry that they have shown in other lands,
+they can improve, not only the material resources, but can stir the
+Filipino from his dream of the Dark Ages, and point out the way of
+modern progress and enlightenment.
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+
+[1] Johnson, the runaway constabulary officer, was killed October
+last by the crew of the native boat which he had captured after
+the Steamship "Victoria," which he had seized, had grounded off the
+coast of Negros. Four of the crew were killed during the fight. In
+true brigand style he had taken the boat at the revolver's point,
+and headed for the coast of Borneo. He had ten thousand dollars of
+government money, and his intention was to land at various ports and
+make the local merchants "stand and deliver." I gave the following
+interview to the reporter of the Princeton (Indiana) "Clarion-News,"
+October 16, 1903:
+
+"'Johnson, the pirate,' is dead, and buried in the lonely isle of
+Negros. Many a worse man occupies a better grave. The worst that you
+can say of Johnson is, that he was wrong and that he liked to drink
+too much.
+
+"I shall always remember him in his red shoulder straps, his khaki
+riding suit and leather leggings. Before I had ever seen him I had
+heard the old constabulary captain say: 'That feller looks like a born
+fighter. Bet he ain't afraid of anything.' ... The padre gave us a
+Christmas dinner, and Johnson at this function took too much of the
+communion wine. On the way back he reeled continually in his saddle,
+vomiting a stream of red wine....
+
+"We often used to race our ponies into Oroquieta neck and neck,
+scattering natives, chickens, and pigs to right and left. The last I
+saw of him was as he put out on a stormy sea in a frail Moro sailboat
+bound for Cagayan, which at that time was infested with ladrones.
+
+"Johnson was only a boy, but he had been a sailor and a soldier,
+and had seen adventures in the Canary Islands, in Cuba, and the
+Philippines. The boat that he held up and started off to Borneo was one
+employed in questionable trade. She was a smuggler, and had formerly
+been in the service of the 'Insurrecto' Government. She used to drop
+in at a port at night and pull out in the morning with neither a bill
+of lading nor a manifest.
+
+"Johnson should not be blamed too much for the wild escapade. The
+climate had undoubtedly affected him; moreover the constabulary has
+no business putting heavy responsibilities upon young boys."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great White Tribe in Filipinia, by 
+Paul T. Gilbert
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