The Useful Buffalo, and Other Domestic Animals.
Among the domesticated animals of the Philippines the buffalo stands
first; the delight and pride of the low-class native being in his
carabao, as he designates this animal. It is easily domesticated,
and is regarded with affection by its owner, being a very different
animal from the wild buffalo of the Asiatic and African wilds,--one
of the most savage of beasts.
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.