f their Pampanga dialect,
their exclamations of surprise and delight when a bird was finished
were quite complimentary. Poor Vic had to endure a running fire of
questions as to what I was going to do with my birds and butterflies,
but to judge by the way he lectured on me, he no doubt enjoyed it,
and possibly told them some wonderful yarns about "My English," as
he called me. One day a man at work in the maize had a bad attack of
"calenturas" (malarial fever). I gave him some quinine and Epsom salts
and this treatment evidently had a good effect, as the next day I was,
besieged by a regular crowd of Filipinos of both sexes, who wished to
consult me as to their various ills, and Vic was called in to act as
interpreter. A good many of them, both men and women, took off nearly
all their clothes to show me bruises and sores that they had, and I
was in despair as to what treatment to recommend. At last when one
old woman had parted with most of her little clothing to show me some
sores, I told Vic to tell her that she had better get a good wash in
the river (as she was the reverse of clean). This prescription raised
a laugh, but the old lady was furious, and my medical advice was not
again asked for. After the maize was cut, the owner started to sow
a fresh crop without even taking out the old stalks, which had been
cut off a few inches from the ground. This was the way he did it. He
made holes in the ground with a hoe in one hand, and in the other
hand he held a roasted cob of corn, which he kept chewing from time
to time. His wife followed him, dropping a grain into each hole and
filling in the soil with her feet. It would have made a good picture
under the heading of "Agriculture in the Tropics"! Vic told me that
they got four crops a year, so one can hardly wonder at their taking
things easily. A rough bamboo fence separated the maize from a copse
of bamboo jungle and forest, in which I was one day collecting with
Vic, when I attempted to jump over a very low part of the fence. Vic,
however, called out to me to stop, and it was lucky he did so, as
otherwise the consequences would have been terrible for me. Just
hidden by a few thin creepers, there had been arranged there a very
neat little pig-trap, consisting of a dozen or more sharp bamboo
spears firmly planted in the ground, and leaning at a slight angle
towards the fence. Except for Vic's timely warning I should have been
stuck through and through, as the bamboo point