Part 15

At six years of age the tamed buffalo is put to work as a draught animal, and when twelve years old it remains strong enough for five years more of light labor. The buffalo is the plough-horse of the islands. The plough is a very primitive affair--a heavy stick of wood sharpened to a point at one end, with a beam attached by rattan thongs, about two feet above the point to which the buffaloes are hitched, and with a handle for the ploughman at the right end, consisting of a round bar of wood, inserted in an auger hole.

The buffalo is amphibious in habit, and if left to itself will spend a considerable part of the time in mud and water. It is capable of keeping its head under water for two minutes at a time, exploring the bottom of streams or pools for certain favorite plants. To it a daily mud-bath is one of the necessities of life. He will fling himself on his side in the mire, and shuffle round and round until he is covered to the eyes with a mortar-like substance. When he has dried himself in the sun he looks like a huge clay image. This strange habit is not without its useful purpose. Millions of stinging flies swarm among the rank vegetation of his habitat, and till his mud-coat peels off the animal is impregnable to their vicious attacks.

At work in the field he has certain feathered companions,--usually five or six white herons,--that follow him and feed on the worms and insects that his heavy tread brings to the surface. A more friendly attendant is a small black bird, that hops on the back of the great creature, and cleanses its ears of the vermin that harbor there.

By the native owner the buffalo is treated with the utmost kindness, a warm affection existing between the family and their patient, docile laborer. Easy to train, and slow in movement, it can be guided by a child three years old, and will move or halt with readiness at the call of any of the family. Yet, strong as it is, it cannot work for more than two hours without rest, and cannot exist at a distance from streams.

Epidemic diseases sometimes break out among these animals and destroy thousands of them. An old acquaintance of mine once lost in this way nearly the whole of his live-stock in one season. Buffaloes are not much needed in the hemp districts, where there is no ploughing done, but are very necessary on the sugar plantations. Their price varies accordingly. Wild ones, when caught young, are easily tamed and trained by kindness, which the low-class native bestows freely. Buffalo-hunting is very dangerous; for the animal in his native jungle fights to kill or be killed; therefore, only the calves are captured alive. Buffalo-meat makes excellent food, and its flesh, cut into strips, and sun-dried, is much relished by the natives.

Horses are not native to the islands. The ponies that are found there in large quantities are descended from the Andalusian horse and the Chinese mare. They are swift and strong when cared for, but are treated with horrible cruelty by the natives. These ponies, having an Arab strain, are sensitive and nervous, easily guided by kindness; whereas, on the other hand, they are infuriated by mismanagement. The native riders often first goad them to madness and then punish them viciously. This seems to arise more from a misunderstanding between the two animals than from definite cruelty on one hand and obstinacy on the other; and the contests witnessed daily in the streets of Manila are not more painful than ridiculous.

The oxen sold in Manila markets do not yield very palatable beef, being fattened on an herb that they are very fond of, but that gives to the flesh a taste the reverse of agreeable.

In fact, neither fish, flesh, nor fowl has the same taste as those of Europe and America, and newcomers to Manila have to acquire a taste for these viands. Of course they are all right with those "to the manner born."

Sheep are not indigenous to the soil, and do not thrive there, languishing and dying within a few months.

The other domestic animals include goats, dogs, cats, pigs, monkeys, and the ordinary fowls. The dogs and cats are of inferior breed, a peculiarity in the cats being twisted tails. Among the viands that foreigners seem to approve, is stewed monkey, but the natives will not touch it except as a medicine, they deeming it of value in cutaneous diseases.

Reptiles, Bats, and Insects.

Reptiles and insects abound both in the jungles and in the villages. In the latter they are, indeed, more numerous than is agreeable to strangers. Among them are lizards, frogs, snakes, centipedes, tarantulas, spiders of great size, hornets, beetles, ants, and myriad other inmates of the minor world. The snakes while usually harmless are not always so; one species,--the manapo,--found in the rice-fields, haunts the mud and the tall rice-blades; its bite is fatal if not immediately cauterized. Leeches are numerous in swamps and stagnant pools, and one tiny species, found in dense forests only, has the disagreeable habit of leaping from the trees upon passers-by, and at once beginning its blood-imbibing habit.

Boa-constrictors are the giant members of the serpent family. They are rare, and when caught are caged. Large as they are, little dread is felt of them, they being far less dangerous than the manapo, the small tenant of the rice-fields.

Bats are numerous, and some of them are of enormous size, measuring five feet from tip to tip of the wings, and with a body almost as large as a cat. One of these uncanny creatures, gone astray from its native haunts, flew into the dining-room of a Manila hotel once where I was dining. Its appearance was appalling: women shrieked and fainted, men rolled under the tables, and an earthquake could hardly have made more commotion. These huge bats are much hunted by Europeans, and their soft skins are eagerly purchased by those that are returning home.

A Field for the Sportsman.

The Philippines abound in game; deer and wild boars being plentiful; while the game-birds include pheasants, snipe, pigeons, woodcock, ducks, and other water-fowl. There are also hawks, cranes, herons, parrots, parroquets, and many species peculiar to the islands. Among the latter, we are told of a small black bird of the swallow-kind that makes its nest in the tails of wild horses,--a story more easily told than believed. Other fables concerning birds are extant, one describing the "solitary" bird, which dies when captured; one, the calayo, which has a large, transparent bill, and crows like a cock; one, the bocuit, a bird of seven colors and the sweetest of notes. There is a curious pigeon with a crimson spot on the breast, which looks like a blood-stain from a wound.

Of aquatic creatures, tortoises are of considerable commercial importance. They march in from the sea in great numbers, and the natives turn them on their backs to prevent them from escaping, leaving them in this helpless state until they are ready to remove them.

Quantities of small fish are caught in the rice-paddy fields when they are flooded; and the rich Indians are fond of a curious kind of beetle found in stagnant waters, which will bring in the markets, in the season, as high as fifty cents a dozen. They eat many things that would be repulsive to a foreigner.

Among the lizards there is a little creature, known as the guiko, that frequents houses, and whose noise is very annoying. It is not a fair representative of the "cricket on the hearth." It has its value, however, being useful in destroying vermin. It clings with remarkable tenacity, even when dying, to the piece of timber on which it is placed, the soles of its feet seeming to be provided with suckers.

There are few scenes in nature more beautiful than a bush or tree when lighted with the brilliant fireflies that illuminate the forests at night. They seem almost to have a system of fire-telegraphy, answering, as they do, each other by a sudden glow of a delicate green hue, which gleams in quick succession from point to point of the bush.

The Locust Scourge.

The great scourge of the Philippines is the locust. It will not touch the hemp plantations, but menaces and devastates almost everything else green or growing. In 1851 the Government imported some martins from China, for the extermination of the pest. They were received by a procession of soldiers, with a band of music, and the cages containing them were carried in state to Santa Mesa, where the birds were turned loose. The severest penalties were then prescribed for any person that should kill a martin. According to latest accounts, however, the locusts still flourish.

The injury done by these pests to cultivated lands is always serious, often disastrous. Miles of ripened crops may be devoured in a single night. When the locust-army makes its descent by day, preparing to attack a planted field, the natives do their best to drive it away by dint of noise and glare, beating tin cans, rattling bamboo-choppers, waving scarlet flags. Others make a dense smoke, by setting fire to damp straw and other fuel. The insects are very sensitive to noise, and the firing of small mortars, which the natives use at feasts, is a very useful locust-dispeller.

In general appearance the locust looks like a large grasshopper; of a light reddish-brown hue in the males, and a darker brown in the females. The eggs are laid in the ground, which is pierced to the depth of an inch by the auger-like ovipositor of the female. She continues this process of egg-laying every few days, if allowed to settle. Two or three weeks are necessary for the hatching. The grubs cannot be driven to flight, as their wings do not sprout for about ten days, and they set themselves diligently to work to eat their fill, making havoc in the growing crops. Though they cannot fly, they can jump, and the plan adopted to dispose of them is to form a barrier of sheet-iron at one side of the field, dig a pit before it, and set a number of men to beat up the small game around the other three sides of the field. In this way the young locusts may be driven in heaps into the pit, and there destroyed. I have seen instances where tons of these destructive pests were thus slain.

Locusts have been known to travel as far as sixty miles out to sea. It is a curious fact, that, they avoid for several years a province where large quantities of their number have been swallowed up and destroyed by an earthquake.

Aside from their destroying growing-crops, these insects are perfectly harmless; little children play with them, and older people eat them, fried locust being esteemed a great delicacy by the poor-class natives. I can vouch for one instance in which the inhabitants of a certain village offered to pay the parish priest if he would say mass for the continuance of this luxury. The scourge is thus a terror to the planter, but a boon to his poor laborers.

The Chief Nuisances: Mosquitoes and Ants.

To repeat: Among the chief nuisances in the Philippines are mosquitoes and ants. The ordinary bed is a hemp mat, without sheets, but never without ample mosquito nets, in the absence of which sleep would be banished. The white ants are indeed formidable; not like the locusts, feeding on green things growing, but destroying dry wood and vegetable fibre, wherever found. They can literally devour a house; and I have been gravely told that even the surface of iron is not safe from their ravages.

Many anecdotes are extant concerning the silent, hidden, and rapid ravages of these aggressive insects, working entirely out of sight, yet finding their way by a sure instinct to anything that will serve them for food. In one aggravating instance, happening in 1838, the priests of a certain town had packed away, in a trunk of narra-wood, the various articles used in the service of the mass, including the robes, priests' garments, and so forth. The following day, March 19th, they were taken out and used, and in the evening restored to the trunk. On the 20th some dirt was seen near this receptacle, and it was opened. To the horror of all the priests, their sacred vestments had vanished; nothing was left of them but a layer of dust and the gold and silver lace, this being tarnished by a filthy deposit. Yet not an ant was to be found in the trunk, nor in any part of the church; and five days elapsed before it was discovered how they had reached their prey. It was then found that they had eaten through a beam six inches thick, making a small hole, through which they obtained access to the trunk.

Blind though they are, their other senses seem to be remarkably developed. They work from underground, never appearing at the surface, and will excavate a piece of furniture until it is a mere shell, and falls at a touch, yet not show the least vestige of a tunnel outside.

One ignorant servant-girl had lent her earnings, in hard silver dollars, to a relative, and on asking to be repaid was gravely informed that the money no longer existed--the white ants had eaten it. This preposterous story was believed by the girl, who was ready to accept any marvel that the white ants were credited with.

STRUGGLE OF THE FILIPINOS FOR LIBERTY.

Early Insurrections Against the Spaniards.

Many and notable have been the struggles of the Filipinos to escape the yoke of the Spanish tyrant. But in all cases European intelligence and Spanish treachery proved too strong for the simple natives, and thus, after every revolt, the chains of servitude were riveted only more firmly.

As early as 1622 there was a revolt on Bojol island, which was speedily quelled. The same year saw a great insurrection in Leyte, which was put down only after great difficulty. The leaders were all executed: some were garroted, others shot with arrows, and many burnt at the stake.

Despite these extreme punishments, a rising took place in Surigao, in the eastern part of Mindanao, in 1629, which lasted for three years. At last, weary of the tyranny of the church, the natives rose en masse and killed the priests. Expedition after expedition was sent from Manila; and after much loss on the Spanish side, and a vigorous resistance on the part of the rebels themselves, the rebellion was brought to an end. But the peace that followed was destined to be of short duration. In 1649 the Governor-General put into effect the odious press-law, which caused a general protest and a formidable revolt. A native, Sumoroy by name, killed a priest that had grievously wronged him, and led the insurrection. The Spanish soldiers, unable to apprehend him, discovered his mother, and literally tore her to pieces. Sumoroy, goaded into a very frenzy of vengeance, pursued his enemies with merciless hate, and many fell a victim to his cruelty. He was finally betrayed by his own people and beheaded. His head was stuck on a pole and paraded through the province. Other chiefs then surrendered, on the condition of receiving a full pardon; but the Spaniards forgot their fair promises, and promptly hanged them as soon as they had them in hand. This rebellion also extended to other provinces, but was quelled by the proclamation of a general amnesty. All those that took part in it, however, were, finally, executed or imprisoned.

In 1660 there was another rising in Pampanga, where the natives were forced to cut down timber without payment. In Pangasinan province Andres Malong, a native, was declared King. He advanced toward the capital with a large army, gathering reinforcements on the way, till he had with him about 40,000 men. These were met by a small but well-armed Spanish force, and were routed. Most of the chiefs were captured and hanged.

In 1744 a Jesuit parish priest, Morales, by his despotic manner and arrogance, embittered the natives of his flock. One of these, whose brother's body was left uninterred because his family could not furnish enough money to satisfy the unjust demands of the avaricious priest, led a party of natives against him. Morales was captured and executed, and his own body left in the sun. Dagohoy then raised the standard of revolt, and was joined by many thousands of his countrymen. He and his people thus maintained their independence for thirty-five years, when they finally submitted and were pardoned. On account of the strength and the multitude of the offenders in this insurrection the Spaniards were afraid to visit upon them the customary punishment; they feared to provoke another rebellion.

In 1823 a creole, Andres Novales, conspired to seize the capital and to control the Government. He and his fellow-conspirators, however, were seized and executed.

In 1827 there was a small rebellion in Cebú, which was quelled by the friars. Another insurrection took place in Negros in 1844, when the Governor of the province was killed, because he made the natives work for his own private purpose.

The Burgos Revolt.

In 1872 the friars were again the cause of a great revolt. Dr Joseph Burgos, a prominent native, led a party that urged the exclusion of the friars from parochial incumbencies. This had been promised at the council of Trent. The night of a suburban feast was the time agreed upon by the natives for the attack. The native soldiers of the garrison were also in the plot; and thus the arsenal was taken almost without a struggle, while the Europeans were now made the object of the attack. The latter rallied, however, and drove out the invaders. The arsenal was re-taken and many rebels were killed and taken prisoners. Burgos himself, with three other native priests, was apprehended and executed on the old sea-wall by the Luneta, that spot so richly sanctified by the blood of patriot-heroes.

Many others of the native clergy were banished. And ever since this revolt the native priests have been under suspicion, and native youths are no longer allowed to study for the priesthood. In this instance the insurgents had planned a revolutionary government, which, if successfully carried out, would have reflected great honor upon the leaders.

The Present Rebellion.

In August, 1896, the present rebellion was begun. The causes of this uprising were similar to those that caused the preceding insurrections; the arrogance and the exactions of the friars, the oppressive taxes, the licenses and numerous fees, and other extortions practised by the Government officials were again the source of much discontent among the people. The natives, furthermore, were compelled to submit to usurious loans whenever they wished to raise money to carry on the various kinds of domestic enterprise. If a native was unable to satisfy the claims against him, his property was immediately confiscated by the Government. This power of confiscation was used most effectively against the well-to-do-natives, who thus were fleeced by the officials on the slightest pretext.

The Katipunan.

Smarting under these grievances, the natives formed a secret Revolutionary League, called the Katipunan, which soon numbered not less than 50,000 men. Cavité was the rebel stronghold, and from the day of its inception till the present time the rebellion has steadily grown; the barbarity and inhumanity of the Spaniards, now proverbial, have caused similar retaliations on the part of the rebels. And while this is not surprising, it is, nevertheless, surely to be deplored.

If the civilized and religious Spaniard tortured his prisoners,--by burning, smothering, disemboweling, and otherwise mutilating,--what was to be expected of the half-civilized ignorant native. He, however, displayed far more mercy and greater magnanimity than his European enemy. The Spaniards, indeed, revived all the horrors of the inquisition,--the thumbscrew, the stake, and the rack. Is it a wonder that the Filipinos, rankling with the memory of a recent outrage and an ancient wrong, sometimes inflicted the same punishments on the unfortunate Spaniards that fell into their hands?

The Black Hole of Manila.

For the rebels well knew that a policy of extermination had been declared against them. Was it not at a banquet in Manila that the Spanish officers made a compact to kill the savages like wild beasts in their lairs, and to show quarter to none! We yet shudder when we think of the black hole of Manila, in which one hundred prisoners were thrust one night, of whom sixty were found dead the next morning--because the one door that admitted air into the dungeon had been shut. We remember with horror, too, the executions of the rebels in Manila.

The day of an execution was made a day of jubilee, when the élite of the city came out to grace the general rejoicing. It was eagerly looked forward to, and, in honor of the great event, all the prominent houses were decked in flags and bunting--the whole city, in fact, assumed a holiday aspect.

The execution usually took place in the cool of the morning, when the Luneta would be thronged with thousands of people, who came to witness this grand vindication of the honor of Spain. Nor was the fair sex lacking in these demonstrations of loyalty. Here come the victims, stolid and indifferent; behind them march the soldiers, with measured tread.

The condemned are then made to stand upon the old sea-wall, and, facing the sea, await their doom. The suspense becomes intense; a hush falls over the expectant multitude, and a succession of sharp commands falls upon the morning air. An answering click and a scattered volley of shots, and the grim figures standing mutely on the sea-wall fall headlong to the ground, many stark and stiff, others writhing in agony. Hardly have the echoes of the shots died away, when a jubilant cheer bursts from the assembled multitude. Men toss their hats into the air; and ladies, beautiful and fashionably dressed, are waving their handkerchiefs and clapping their hands in an ecstasy of enthusiasm. The band bursts into triumphal music, and there is great rejoicing. But ten thousand natives go back to their homes with murder in their hearts.

The Forbearance of the Natives.

And yet, notwithstanding this severe provocation, the rebels rarely attacked non-combatants, and seldom injured private property--an example of their self-restraint and their remarkable forbearance. This, too, is seen in their refraining from molesting the only railroad in the colony, whose traffic was, of course, an advantage to the Spaniards. This railroad is owned by an English company, and this fact alone saved it from destruction.

It is also said that when the insurgents had made their plans to attack Manila, a list of all the foreigners and non-combatants was carefully prepared by their leaders. This, as may be supposed, was done so that these might be guarded from the pillage and slaughter that was sure to follow a successful assault of the thousands of infuriated natives, thirsting for the blood of their Spanish oppressors. It would also be no exaggeration to say, that the great majority of all the foreigners in the islands--Germans, English, Dutch, and Americans--were secretly in sympathy with the cause of the insurgents. And this is no cause for wonder, when one thinks of the many and various impositions that the Spanish Government and its unscrupulous officials have at every shadow of an opportunity practised upon them. The rebellion began in the province of Cavité, and was made formidable by the thousands of refugees driven away from their rude bamboo huts and tiny rice-fields by the Spaniards, come to pacify the province.

The Rebel Army.