rats and mice, nor the ants. The ants! It is impossible to describe
how these miserable pests overran everything; they were on the beds,
they were on the tables. Our table legs were set in cups of coal
oil and our floors were washed with coal oil at least once every
week. This disagreeable condition of things will not be wondered at,
when I say that the horses, cattle, and carabao are kept in the lower
part of the house, and the pigs, cats, and dogs allowed up stairs with
the family. The servants are required to stay below with the cattle.

The animals are all diseased, especially the horses. Our men were
careful that their horses were kept far from the native beasts. The
cats are utterly inferior. The mongoose, a little animal between
a ferret and a rat, is very useful; no well-kept house is without
one. Rats swarm in such vast hordes that the mongoose is absolutely
necessary to keep them down. Still more necessary is the house
snake. These reptiles are brought to market on a bamboo pole and
usually sell for about one dollar apiece. Mine used to make great
havoc among the rats up in the attic. Never before had I known what
rats were. Every night, notwithstanding the mongoose, the house snake,
and the traps, I used to lay in a supply of bricks, anything to throw
at them when they would congregate in my room and have a pitched
battle. They seemed to stand in awe of United States officers. A
soldier said one night, glancing about, "Why, I thought the rats moved
out all of your furniture." They would often carry things up to the
zinc roof of our quarters, drop them, and then take after with rush
and clatter, the snake in full chase. Mice abound, and lizards are
everywhere, of every shape, every size, and every color.

I spent a large part of my time leaning out of my window; there
was so much to see. The expulsion of the insurrectos had just been
effected, and very few of the natives remained, but as soon as they
were thoroughly convinced that our troops had actually taken the town,
they flocked in by the hundreds, the men nearly naked, always barefoot,
the women in their characteristic bright red skirts.

The entire time spent there was full of surprises, the customs, dress,
food, and religious ceremonies continually furnishing matter of intense
and varied interest. I noticed, especially, how little the men and
women went about together, riding or walking, or to church. Neither
do they sit together, or rather should s