s, perfectly
roofed and finished.

No nails are ever used, the whole being bound with _bejuco_. The walls
of the cabin are made by splitting the bamboo, and, after removing
the webbed joints, each half is beaten out flat. Even in houses of
certain pretensions I have often seen split-bamboo flooring, which is
highly effective, as it is always clean and takes a beautiful polish
when rubbed over a few times with plantain-leaves. In the parish
church of Las Pinas, near Manila, there was an organ made of bamboo,
of excellent tone, extant up to the year of the Revolution.

When the poor village native wants to put up his house he calls
a _bayanin_, and his neighbours assemble to give him a hand. The
bowie-knife is the only indispensable tool. One cuts the bamboo to
lengths, another splits it, a third fits it for making the frame-work,
another threads the dried nipa-leaves for the roofing, and thus a
modest _bahay_ is erected in a week. The most practicable dwelling
is the bamboo and nipa house, the only serious drawback being the
risk of fire.

Rafts, furniture of all kinds, scaffolding, spoons, carts, baskets,
sledges, fishing-traps, fleams, water-pipes, hats, dry and liquid
measures, cups, fencing, canoe-fittings, bridges, carrying-poles for
any purpose, pitchforks, and a thousand other articles are made of
this unexcelled material. Here it serves all the purposes to which the
osier is applied in Europe. It floats in water, serves for fuel, and
ropes made of it are immensely strong. Bamboo salad is prepared from
the very young shoots, cut as soon as they sprout from the root. The
value of bamboo in Manila varies according to the season of the year
and length of the bamboo, the diameter of course being proportionate.

_Bojo_ (Tagalog, _Buho_) is a kind of cane, somewhat resembling the
bamboo in appearance only. It has very few knots; is brittle, perfectly
smooth on the outer and inner surfaces--hollow, and grows to about
25 feet high by 2 inches diameter, and is not nearly so useful as
the bamboo. It is used for making light fences, musical instruments,
fishing-rods, inner walls of huts, fishing-traps, torches, etc.

_Bejuco_, or Rattan-cane, belonging to the _Calamus_ family
(Tagalog, _Hiantoc_, also _Dit-an_), is a forest product commonly
found in lengths of, say, 100 feet, with a maximum diameter of
half-an-inch. It is of enormous strength and pliancy. Its uses are
innumerable. When split longitudinally it takes the