oo material somewhat like
that of which we make our hamper baskets and split-bottom chairs; the
roofing is of _nipal_, which looks much like very long corn shucks.

In short, imagine an enormous hamper basket, big enough to hold six or
eight hogsheads, put on stilts, and covered with shucks: such in
appearance is the Filipino's house. Around it are banana trees bent
well toward the ground by the weight of the one great bunch at the
top, and possibly a few bamboo and cocoanut trees. For human ornaments
there are rather small and spare black-haired, black-eyed,
brown-skinned men, women, and children in clothing rather gayly
colored--as far as it goes: in some cases it doesn't go very far. The
favorite color with the women-folk is a sort of peach-blossom mixture
of pink and white or a bandanna-handkerchief combination of red and
white. Bare feet are most common, {159} but many wear slippers, and
not a few are now slaves enough to fashion to wear American shoes. The
men, except the very poorest, wear white, nor is it a white worn dark
by dirt such as Koreans wear, but a spotless, newly washed white.
Nearly every Filipino seems to have on clothes that were laundered the
day before. A sort of colored gauze is frequently the only outer
garment worn by either men or women on the upper part of the body.

{157}

[Illustration: A FILIPINO'S HOME.]
Nearly all the native houses I saw in the rural Philippines were of
this type--about this size, set on stilts, and constructed of
similar material. The scene is not quite natural-looking, however,
without a banana grove and a fighting cock or two.

{158}

[Illustration: THE CARABAO, THE WORK-STOCK OF THE FILIPINOS.]

[Illustration: AN OLD SPANISH CATHEDRAL.]
Of all the native Oriental peoples, the Filipinos alone have become
thoroughly Christianized. The great majority are Catholics.

{159 continued}

The beast of burden in the Philippines, the ungainly, slow-moving
animal that pulls the one-handled plows and the two-wheeled carts, is
the _carabao_. The _carabao_, or water buffalo, is about the size of
an ordinary American ox, and much like the ox, but his hide is black,
thick, and looks almost as tough as an alligator's; his horns are
enormous, and he has very little hair. Perhaps his having lived in the
water so much accounts for the absence of the hair. Even now he must
every day submerge himself contentedly in deep water, must cover his
body like a pig