Читать книгу The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Third - Thomas Wallace Knox - Страница 19

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From the fields where they saw the natives at work, our friends proceeded on their ride. Sometimes they were in the open country, and then in the forest; and as they rode along, their guide called their attention to many things of interest. The forest was rich and luxuriant, and sometimes the vines and creepers were so numerous that it was difficult to proceed. There were pitcher-plants hanging from the trees, and two or three times the excursionists drank from them to slake their thirst. A wild boar was roused from his lair, but, as the party was unprovided with hunting weapons, he was not pursued, and the same was the case with a deer that came bounding across their path. In one part of the forest several wild monkeys chattered from the tops of the trees, and made grimaces at the intruders; but they were not otherwise disturbed than by the presence of the strangers.

They came at length to the shore of the lake, and dismounted. The boys suggested that a bath in the tepid water would be agreeable; but their guide shook his head very impressively, and remarked that their lives would not be worth much after they took their first plunge.

"Why so?" inquired one of the boys.

"Because," was the reply, "the lake swarms with crocodiles, and you would be in the jaws of one of them before you could swim a dozen yards."

As he spoke, he pointed to a dark object on the surface of the water a hundred yards or so from shore. At first glance it appeared like a log of wood, and so the strangers would have considered it but for the special direction they had received.

The boys regarded it a few moments with great attention, and then Fred cried out,

"I believe it's the head of a crocodile!"

"And I, too," said Frank. "Perhaps he'd like to have us take a bath here; but we won't do anything of the kind."

"It is quite unsafe to bathe here," said Mr. Segovia, "and after what you have seen you are not likely to venture; but we will mount our horses, and ride a few miles back from the lake to where there is a pretty cascade with a fine pool below it; there you may have a bath without the least danger."

CASCADE NEAR JALA-JALA.

They suited the action to the word, and were off on the instant. A smart ride of half an hour brought them to the cascade, which is on the estate of Jala-jala, and the boys were soon having a gay time in the pure water that came rolling over the rocks. The Doctor sat down on the bank and made a sketch of the scene, and the native guides climbed to a niche half-way up the rocky side of the cascade by means of a long liana, or hanging plant, that abounds in the forests of the Eastern islands. After half an hour at the cascade the party returned to their horses, which were waiting a short distance away, and as the afternoon was well advanced, it was determined to make all haste to the house, where dinner would be awaiting them, in accordance with the promise of their host.

THE HOUSE AT JALA-JALA.

On the way back, Mr. Segovia had a short conference with Doctor Bronson while the boys were riding ahead. It was evidently concerning Frank and Fred, as the Doctor assured his friend that the youths were both of excellent disposition, and could be relied upon in an emergency. "If you take them along," said he, "you will find they will be perfectly cool and self-possessed, and will not make the least interference with any of your plans."

"In that case," the gentleman responded, "it is all right, and we will make the excursion to-morrow."

Frank and Fred overheard the latter part of the conversation, but they were too well bred to ask any questions. They were satisfied to let events develop themselves, and meantime they devoted their attention to the practical matters that surrounded them.

"What an interesting ride we've had!" said Fred, as they passed near a rice-field where the young plants were just pushing above the ground. "I might get tired of looking at these rice-fields after a while, but don't see any signs of it yet."

"What I would like to see," Frank responded, "is a string of fields with all the different kinds of rice growing side by side. How many do you suppose there are?"

"I can't tell, I'm sure."

STACKING RICE IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

"One of the books we bought says there are more than thirty kinds of rice grown in the Philippine Islands, all quite distinct in color, form, and weight of the grain. They are divided into two classes—mountain rice and aquatic rice; but the mountain variety can be treated just like the aquatic rice, and it will grow."

"Mountain rice," Fred continued, "grows on the higher ground, where it is not liable to inundations from the rivers, but the aquatic rice needs a great deal of water, and the fields must be very moist all the time it is growing, or till it gets near ripening. It is like the rice raised in the United States, and in Japan and China; and the rice-swamps of Luzon are probably just as unhealthy as those of the Southern States of America, that we used to hear so much about."

"Do all the kinds of rice yield the same?" Frank asked.

"Some of them are better than others," Fred answered; "at least the book says so. Some kinds return thirty, some forty, and some eighty fold—that is, from a bushel of seed they get thirty, forty, or eighty bushels. The best rice generally does not yield so well as the poorer varieties, so that what they make up in one way they lose in another by the end of the year."

"When the rice is harvested it is put up in high stacks, with a roof of pandanus-leaves on top to keep out the wet. That must be a rice stack over there," said Fred, as he pointed to a circular enclosure a little distance away. "Yes, and there are several stacks with a fence around them, and a clump of bamboo-trees in the centre. I suppose they put the rice there to dry, and when it is ready it will be thrashed out."

They passed the enclosure, and a little farther on there was a group of Indians engaged in pounding rice to separate the grain from the husk. The apparatus was exceedingly primitive, being simply a mortar with a heavy pestle, which was raised in the air and then brought down with all the power of the person who was wielding it. Just then the Doctor and Mr. Segovia rode up, and the latter explained that, while mills for cleaning rice were in use all over the islands wherever rice was grown, many of the natives preferred the old process, and were contented with the mortar and pestle. "In the back regions," said he, "where mills are scarce, they thrash the rice from the stalk by treading it out with buffaloes, and remove the hulls as you see them now."

Frank asked if there was any variation in the rice-crop from year to year, so as to make its cultivation a matter of uncertainty.

THE PHILIPPINE LOCUST.

"There is not much variation," said the gentleman, "but we can never be certain of a crop till it is gathered. A short supply of water may dry up the fields, and too much rain may inundate them and wash the plants out, but this is not often. The greatest uncertainty is with the locusts, as they come suddenly, and sometimes destroy an entire crop in a day or two."

"How often do you have the locusts?" one of the boys asked.

"About once in seven years," was the reply. "They come from the islands farther south, and you can hardly realize the desolation they make till you have seen it. A reddish-colored cloud is seen on the horizon; it comes nearer and nearer, and is frequently ten or twelve miles from one side to the other, and occupies five or six hours in passing over. This cloud is formed of millions and millions of locusts, and sometimes it is so dense that the sun is darkened the same as when a thunder-shower rises. If the locusts perceive a green field they fall upon it, and in an hour every vestige of verdure has disappeared; then they rise and move on to join their companions in the air, and the different parts of the column seem to take turns in feeding. When enough have come down to cover a field, the rest move on, and those who have satisfied their appetites take their places in the rear. In the evening they halt in a forest and rest on the limbs of the trees, and frequently so many of them cover a limb that it breaks off and falls to the ground. When they leave in the morning, the forest looks as though every tree had been struck and shattered by lightning; the leaves are all gone, the limbs are broken, and the ground is strewn with the scattered fragments. At certain periods they remain on broad plains, or the sides of fertile mountains, and lay their eggs. Three weeks later the eggs are hatched, and the young locusts appear; they live upon whatever green food they can find till their wings are formed, and then they fly away to do their work of devastation."

Dinner was ready on their arrival at the house, and the party sat down to it with excellent appetites—the result of their ride over the estate. All went to bed early, as the hint was given that the next day would be a fatiguing one. But the character of the sport to be provided was not given.

They breakfasted early, and immediately started in a boat that was ready at the little pier in front of the house. Two boats had already gone ahead of them, and while the boys were wondering what was to be done, the Doctor called their attention to something below the surface of the water. The boys looked, and speedily discovered that the strange object was a huge crocodile.

"There's no fear of him," said Mr. Segovia, "as he happens to be dead."

"How was he killed?" Frank asked.

"I can't say positively," their guide replied, "but he has probably been shot at by somebody, and died in consequence."

"The crocodile is very difficult to kill, as his scaly hide will turn a bullet, except in a few places. The most vulnerable point is behind the foreleg, where the skin is comparatively thin; and if you can creep up to within fifty yards of a sleeping crocodile, and lodge a ball in that spot, he is done for. If you make use of explosive balls, so much the better, as you then tear a great hole in him, and disturb his organs of digestion and respiration. Nineteen-twentieths of the crocodiles that are shot at escape apparently unharmed, but we have the satisfaction of knowing that many of them afterward die from the effect of their wounds."

"How is that?"

"If a crocodile has ever so small a scratch in his skin, it is his death-warrant. He lies down to sleep in the mud, the shrimps find the scratch and begin eating at it, and in a little while they enlarge it to a huge wound. They continue to eat away at it, are joined by other occupants of the water, and in the course of a week or two the crocodile is literally devoured. He has nothing to do but die, and so he climbs to a sand-bank or sinks to the bottom of the lake, and ceases to be a terror to the inhabitants of the shore.

A NATIVE WOMAN SEIZED BY A CROCODILE.

"I was one day down by the shore of the lake," the gentleman continued, "where a little stream flows in from the forest. One of the female servants of the house was sitting near the bank, when a huge crocodile rose suddenly from the water and seized her. A herdsman was on the opposite bank of the stream with his rifle; he fired, but apparently to no purpose, as the crocodile disappeared into the water, and carried the unfortunate woman with him. A month later his body was found on a sand-bank several miles away, and an examination showed that the shrimps had made an entrance through the scratch caused by the bullet, and as soon as this was done the death of the crocodile was only a question of time. The identity of the murderer was established by the earrings of the woman in his stomach.

A HUGE CAPTIVE.

"I once had a fight of three or four hours with a crocodile that had entered a narrow lagoon connecting with the lake, and seized a horseman who was crossing. We made a strong net of ropes, and stretched it across the entrance of the lagoon to prevent his escape into the lake; then we lashed two canoes side by side, and with long poles stirred the bottom till he rose to the surface. As he opened his mouth to attack us, we sent a couple of explosive balls down his throat with as many Remington rifles, and another was lodged in his skin under the foreleg, when he turned about to dive. He went down and tried to break through the net, but it was too strong for him, and then it took an hour or more to urge him to show himself again. We fired nearly a dozen balls into him, and at last he caught his head in the net when he was about expiring; we drew him to the shore, and found, on taking his measurement, that he was twenty-seven feet long, and had a girth of eleven feet around the body just behind the fore-legs.

"So much for the crocodile, but we are not going to hunt him to-day; we are in pursuit of game that lives on land, and is not amphibious. If fortune favors us we will capture a wild boar, and perhaps we may find something else before the day is over."

Then it became clear to the boys what was meant by the boats in advance. They contained the dogs, guns, ammunition, provisions, and other things for the day's sport, together with a dozen or more men to act as beaters, and stir up the game. The Doctor told them they were bound for a point half a dozen miles up the shore, where horses had been sent around by land to meet them.

In due time the hunting-party was at the appointed place, and the beaters set out for their share of the work, followed by the hunters. It was expected that a wild boar would be stirred up not more than a mile or two away, as this kind of game was plentiful, and had not been much hunted of late. In fact, one was stirred up, but in a manner quite different from what had been looked for.

A WILD BOAR ATTACKED BY A BOA-CONSTRICTOR.

While the party was on its way through the forest to the point where the hunt was to begin, the screams of a wild boar were heard, as though the animal was in great agony. Mr. Segovia was the first to hear the sound, and immediately he dashed off, and was followed by the rest. The sound appeared to come from a tall tree that could be seen rising above the rest; the brushwood near it was so dense that the horses could not get through, and so our friends dismounted and proceeded on foot. The sight that met their eyes was an astonishment to the boys!

A great snake had caught a wild boar in his coils, and was slowly lifting him from the ground, while the victim was manifesting his terror in his loudest tones. The Doctor was about to fire at the snake, but at a sign from Mr. Segovia he stopped, and the party stood in a place of concealment to see the end of the combat between, as Frank expressed it, "the boa and the boar."

When he had lifted the boar clear from the ground the snake swung him against the tree, crushing his bones and killing him. Then he let his prey fall, and proceeded to unwind himself and descend preparatory to eating his breakfast. As he loosened his coil the signal was given for the Doctor to fire; and, as he had an explosive bullet in his rifle, he shattered the head of the snake completely. The serpent fell to the ground at once; he lashed the trees and bushes in a frightful way, but as he was totally blinded by the smashing of his head, he could do no damage to anybody. The attendants came forward and secured some bamboo loops around the reptile's neck, and suspended him from the tree, where he continued to twist and turn till the party moved on. The natives said that these contortions would continue for hours, and that they rarely ceased till sundown, even though the head of the snake had been detached before noon.

As they moved on to their hunting-ground, our friends discussed the incident of the morning, and wondered if they would see anything more of the same sort. Mr. Segovia told the boys that the boa-constrictor was a very common snake in the Philippines, and sometimes grew to great size, though less so than in Sumatra and Borneo. "He is far less dangerous than you might suppose," said he, "as he rarely attacks man, and there is no poison in his bite; in fact, he has no bite at all, and his mode of killing his prey is by crushing it as you have just seen. Once in a while a native is killed by a boa, but the occurrence is rare, and generally owing to the carelessness of the victim rather than the superior cunning of the snake. He is not very active in his ordinary movements, but if roused he can display considerable agility, when the size of his body is considered.

FIGHT WITH A GREAT SNAKE.

"I once had a fight with a boa that had taken refuge in a crevice among the rocks, where my dogs found him. They barked furiously, and the snake tried to reach them with his jaws, but they were very agile in their movements, and managed to elude him. I came up with my men, and sheltering myself behind a rock close to the crevice, took careful aim, reserving my fire till his head was poised for a blow. I put a large ball through his head, and soon afterward another through his body, and then his writhings were furious; he twined himself round the rocks and bushes within his reach, and in so doing overturned a large rock, that fell on one of his folds and pinned him down. In this position he continued to dart his head from side to side with great rapidity, and with such force that a blow from it would have been no small matter. In an hour or so his strength gave way; I had sent one of my men for assistance in skinning the snake, and by the time the re-enforcements arrived the reptile was in a condition to be lashed up to the nearest tree. He measured nearly seventeen feet in length, and his skin was most beautifully marked.

"There are several venomous serpents in the Philippines, one of the most dangerous being the dajon-palay, or rice-leaf. The only antidote to its bite is to burn the wound with a red-hot iron or live coal, and this operation must be performed very quickly, to prevent the spread of the poison. There is another called the alin-morani, which is as bad as the other, and perhaps worse, as it makes a wound that is deeper, and therefore more difficult to cauterize. It grows to the length of eight or ten feet, and lives in the thickest part of the forest; its habitation may sometimes be known by observing the movements of the eagles, and the prudent hunter will keep as far away from it as possible. The eagles are its great enemy, and attack it fiercely; two of them generally fight together, and in such a case the snake has very little chance of escape."

A STAG-HUNT IN LUZON WITH HORSES AND DOGS.