which follow in its trail
in perfect security and feed on the worms and insects brought to the
surface by its foot-prints. It seems also to enjoy the attentions of
a small black bird, which hops about on its back and head to cleanse
its skin and ears of vermin. It is curious to watch this bird flying
towards the buffalo, which raises its head to receive it.

The rustic and the buffalo are familiar companions, and seem to
understand each other perfectly well. There is a certain affinity
between them in many ways. When a peasant is owner of the animal he
works, he treats it almost like one of the family. It is very powerful,
docile, slow in its movements, and easy to train. Many times I have
seen a buffalo ridden and guided by a piece of split rattan attached
to a rattan-ring in its nostril by a child three years of age. It
knows the voices of the family to which it belongs, and will approach
or stand still when called by any one of them. It is not of great
endurance, and cannot support hard work in the sun for more than a
couple of hours without rest and bathing if water be near. Europeans
cannot manage this animal, and very few attempt it; it requires the
patience, the voice, and the peculiar movement of the native.

Altogether the buffalo may be considered the most useful animal in
the Philippines. It serves for carting, ploughing, carrying loads
on its back, and almost all labour of the kind where great strength
is required for a short time. A peasant possessed of a bowie-knife,
a buffalo, and good health, need not seek far to make an independent
living. I owe a certain gratitude to buffaloes, for more than once they
have pulled my carriage out of the mud in the provinces, where horses
could get along no farther. Finally, buffalo-meat is an acceptable
article of food when nothing better can be got; by natives it is
much relished. Its flesh, like that of deer and oxen, is sometimes
cut into thin slices and sun-dried, to make what is called in the
Philippines _Tapa_, in Cuba _Tasajo_, and in Spain _Cecina_.

In the Visayas Islands oxen are used as draught-animals as frequently
as buffaloes,--sometimes even for carriages.

Wild buffaloes are met with, and, when young, they are easily
tamed. Buffalo-hunting, as a sport, is a very dangerous diversion, and
rarely indulged in, as death or victory must come to the infuriated
beast or the chaser. A good hunting-ground is Nueva Ecija, near the
Caraballo de Baler Mountain.