was
in despair for there was no way of getting it repaired, My native
cook watched me as I looked at it sorrowfully. Without saying a word
he went to work and with only a bolo took my old tin coal oil can
and constructed a lining with the metal cleats to hold the shelves
up. The only thing he had in the way of a tool to work with was his
bolo, about two feet long. When I hired him I noticed that he had
great long finger nails; I told him that he would have to cut them
off. He said, "Why I don't too. I wouldn't have anything to scratch
myself with." But, upon my insisting, he took his huge bolo, placed his
fingers on a block of wood, and severed his useful finger nails. They
use these bolos for cutting grass, cutting meat,--they use them for
haggling our soldiers, as we learned to our grief and wrath.

There are vast quantities of coal, but the mines so far have been but
little developed. The coal is so full of sulphur that its quality
is spoiled. There are possibilities of finding it in good paying
quantities on several of the islands. It makes a quick blaze and
soon burns out. The natives sell it in tiny chunks, by the handful,
or in little woven baskets that hold just about a quart.

ANIMALS.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

The animal that is most essential in every way is the carabao or
water buffalo. They are expensive, a good one costing two or three
hundred dollars. Their number has been very much diminished by the
rinder-pest. The precious carabao is carefully guarded; at night it
is kept in the lower part of the house or in a little pond close by.

The picture shown opposite is a good representation of the better
class of fairly well-to-do Filipino people; they are rich if they
can afford as many carabao as stand here. The second picture shows
the way they are driven. Their skins are used for everything that
good strong leather can be used for. Their meat is good for food; but
heaven help anybody who is obliged to eat it, and when it is prepared,
as it often is, by drying the steaks in the sun, then the toughness
exceeds that of the tanned hide. A sausage mill could not chew dried
carabao. The milk is watery and poor, but the natives like it very
much. The horns are used for handles for bolos, the hoofs for glue,
and the bones are turned into carved articles of many kinds. The
little calves that go wandering about by the sides of their mothers
are so curious and so top heavy, and yet they are strong even wh