hich accompany a hurricane.

It is said that the food passes through the body of a locust as
fast as it eats, and that its natural death is due either to want of
nourishment, or to a small worm which forms in the body and consumes
it. It is also supposed that the female dies after laying a certain
number of eggs. Excepting the damage to vegetation, locusts are
perfectly harmless insects, and native children catch them to play
with; also, when fried, they serve as food for the poorest classes--in
fact, I was assured, on good authority, that in a certain village in
Tayabas Province, where the peasants considered locusts a dainty dish,
payment was offered to the parish priest for him to say Mass and pray
for the continuance of the luxury. In former times, before there were
so many agriculturists interested in their destruction, these insects
have been known to devastate the Colony during six consecutive years.

In the mud of stagnant waters, a kind of beetle, called in Visaya
dialect _Tanga_, is found, and much relished as an article of food. In
the dry season, as much as fifty cents a dozen is paid for them in Molo
(Yloilo) by well-to-do natives. Many other insects, highly repugnant
to the European, are a _bonne bouche_ for the natives.

CHAPTER XXI

Manila Under Spanish Rule

Manila, the capital of the Philippines, is situated on the Island of
Luzon at the mouth and on the left (south) bank of the Pasig River,
at N. lat. 14 deg. 36' by E. long. 120 deg. 52'. It is a fortified city,
being encircled by bastioned and battlemented walls, which were
built in the time of Governor Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, about the
year 1590. It is said that the labour employed was Chinese. These
walls measure about two miles and a quarter long, and bore mounted
old-fashioned cannon. The fortifications are of stone, and their solid
construction may rank as a _chef d'oeuvre_ of the 16th century. The
earthquake of 1880 caused an arch of one of the entrances to fall in,
and elsewhere cracks are perceptible. These defects were never made
good. The city is surrounded by water--to the north the Pasig River,
to the west the sea, and the moats all around. These moats are paved
at the bottom, and sluices--perhaps not in good working order at the
present day--are provided for filling them with water from the river.

The demolition of the walls and moats was frequently debated by
commissions specially appointed from Spain--the last in October