e of cuts are almost enough to make a fork, a pair of tongs
or a hook.

If one makes a hole as big as the end of one's finger in a large
bamboo close under a joint, one obtains by fastening a small piece of
cloth to the open end, a syphon or a filter. If a piece of bamboo is
split down to the joint in strips, and the strips be bound together
with others horizontally interlaced, it makes a conical basket. If
the strips are cut shorter, it makes a peddler's pack basket. If
a long handle is added, and it is filled with tar, it can be used
as a signal torch. If shallower baskets of the same dimensions,
but with their bottoms cut off or punched out, are placed inside
these conical ones, the two together make capital snare baskets for
crabs and fish. If a bamboo stem be cut off just below the joint,
and its lower edge be split up into a cogged rim, it makes, when the
partition of the joint is punched out, an earth-auger, a fountain-pipe,
and many things of the kind.

* * * * *

[Pleasures of travel.] Strangers travelling in the interior have
daily fresh opportunities of enjoying the hospitality of nature. The
atmosphere is so equitably warm that one would gladly dispense with
all clothing except a sun-hat and a pair of light shoes. Should one
be tempted to pass the night in the open air, the construction of a
hut from the leaves of the palm and the fern is the work of a few
minutes; [Village rest houses.] but in even the smallest village
the traveller finds a "common house" (casa real), in which he can
take up his quarters and be supplied with the necessaries of life
at the market price. There too he will always meet with semaneros
(those who perform menial duties) ready to serve him as messengers
or porters for the most trifling remuneration. But long practice
has taught me that their services principally consist in doing
nothing. On one occasion I wanted to send a man who was playing
cards and drinking tuba (fresh or weakly-fermented palm-sap) with his
companions, on an errand. [Pleasant prison life.] Without stopping his
game the fellow excused himself on the ground of being a prisoner,
and one of his guardians proceeded in the midst of the intense heat
to carry my troublesome message. Prisoners have certainly little
cause to grumble. [Frequent floggings little regarded.] The only
inconvenience to which they are exposed are the floggings which the
local authorities very liberally dispense by the dozens for the most
t