atter if they did not have a shirt to their back,
if they had on a good stiff derby hat, they were dressed for any
occasion and to appear before anybody.

The priests wear, first, a long, plain white robe, over this a black
cassock, then a white cotta; and the more richly it is embroidered the
better they like it. There was with this white cotta a white petticoat
plain at the top and ruffled at the bottom. I did not know the names
of the outer vestments but they were all embroidered. I offered to buy
one of the heavily embroidered vestments from a priest but he refused,
saying that it was very hard to get that kind of cloth embroidered so
beautifully. He gave me one of the Filipino skirts; it was badly worn,
but I kept it as a curiosity. Not knowing very much about the Roman
church, there were a great many things done every day that I could not
understand; for instance, when a priest went out in a closed carriage
attended by two or three boys he would come from the church door with
one of the boys in front of him ringing a bell vigorously. He would
ring this bell just as hard as he could until the priest would get
inside with his attendants and then they would drive away. When they
returned they would go through this same performance of ringing this
bell until they got inside of the church. I saw this many times and
once asked a Roman Catholic soldier what it meant; he said he did
not know.

It may be that these people need to be terrorized by the priests;
certain it is that, when a priest walks through the village or when
any of the people see him, they kneel and kiss his hand, if he is so
gracious as to honor them with the privilege. The people bow down
before him and reverence him though he may at any moment lift his
cane and give them a good whack over the head or shoulders. I never
saw this done, but several of our men told me they had seen it; and
one captain told me that he saw the priest take a huge bamboo pole
and knock a man down because he failed to get into the procession in
double-quick time. They do literally rule these people with the rod.

OSTEOPATHY.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

In 1895, for the benefit of one dearer to me than life, I went to
Kirksville, Mo., and from Dr. A. T. Still learned something of the
principles and practice of his great art. The subject grew in interest;
I became a regular student of the American School of Osteopathy, and,
in time, completed the course and took the dec